pre-Guilfest Interview

Ross Godfrey together with his brother Paul founded Morcheeba. The multi instrumentalist took time out to have a quick chat with us about Philosophers Stones, Guilfest their only UK date this year, and the new album they finished the day before.

As this interview is for a festival site, first question if you ran a stall at a festival what would you sell?
Would I be able to sell things that are illegal? Well I’d hopefully sell those funny little magic truffles, Philosopher’s Stones or whatever they are called. I think unfortunately the day the Pope died they made them illegal. They were wonderful, I used to love doing those at festivals, and they just made me giggle all day.

Talking of festivals, Guilfest is your only festival date this summer, is that right?
In England I believe it is yes, although we are doing a few in Russia, the Ukraine, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, all over really.

Have you done Eastern European festivals before?
Yes, they’re wonderful. People have a much, much better time. Yeah, because they didn’t really have Woodstock in the sixties as they had the iron curtain up. It wasn’t until the iron curtain came down that they actually had rock and roll and things like that. So, for them it’s like it’s still the early seventies. Everyone goes crazy and they don’t really care who’s playing or anything like that. They just get very drunk and enjoy it very much where as over in England they are a bit blasé about everything now.

Have you been to Guilfest before?
No I haven’t, I’m very much looking forward to it, I’m very much looking forward to seeing Richard Thompson, I’m a huge fan of his and Fairport Convention.

What’s the current line up we can expect to see at Guilfest?
Well we have pretty much an all new band. We just finished a new album and so we have a drummer, a bass player and a keyboard player. Then we have two singers, a girl from Scotland called Amber and a girl called Manda from Paris. So, we have sort of quite a far flung band, people from all over. We also will have me on guitar and Paul on decks and DJ.

You just finished a new album with ‘The Antidote’ you changed your sound are you still going that way?
Yes, we finished it yesterday. It’s not like Antidote this is completely different again, we’ve been doing a lot of work with Thomas Dybdhal, he’s from Norway and he sings very much like Nick Drake or something like that, so we’ve been doing very psychedelic kind of folk stuff.

Will we be hearing any new songs in your Guilfest set?
I think we might play one or two songs We also have a very great feature on the record by a lady called Judy Tzuke. The song’s called ‘Enjoy The Ride’ it’s going to be the first single and we’ll probably play that at Guilfest.

Have you ever been to a festival as a punter? And if so what's you first festival memory?
Yes I’ve been to a lot of festivals as a punter. Starting at the Reading Festival I went when I was 12 years old and it was amazing. I saw Dinosaur Jnr and Sonic Youth and bands like that. I went on my own and I was starving hungry the whole time because I had no money. My mum leant me ten pounds to buy some food when I got to the festival. The day that I got there I saw a live Jimi Hendrix album and I bought that for a tenner and so I just didn’t eat for the next few days.

I just went to Coachella festival in the Mojave desert in California, that was very pretty good but it was very hot though. Glastonbury is also a good festival to go to if you like that sort of thing and there’s also some Portugal festivals down on the beach which are nice. Where I grow up in Folkestone they’d have a Greenpeace festival and that was very good too.

Do you like doing the camping thing?
When you’re playing you usually have another gig the next night so you have to drive off. But I hopefully will be staying. We’ll be staying in a Teepee which we’ve done before.

Guilfest is very family friendly do any of the band take kids?
I believe a few family and friends will be coming to along to this gig. I think my brother will take his kids, yes.

Who else on the bill would you like to see?
I’d like to see Supergrass.

If you were offered an acoustic slot at another stage while you were at Guilfest would you do it?
Yes, we would, we’ve done that sort of thing before. We are very keen on maybe trying to get to play the Moseley folk festival, that looks very good indeed. We could do a song or two I’m sure.

What’s your favourite instrument to play?
I like playing the sitar. It is a bit complex and it takes a bit of time to tune, but once you get it going it’s wonderfully entrancing.

How did you end up learning to play one of them?
I had to buy one to play on a record we were producing for David Burn and I kind of had a go on one before. But I bought it to play on a song called ‘Daddy Go Down’ on the album ‘Feelings’ and then we played with Jools Holland on the BBC it was a wonderful experience.

What was David Burn like to work with?
He was very spacey, very weird guy and incredibly talented

Who would you like to collaborate with?
Bob Dylan, because he’s the best songwriter that’s ever lived. I’d like to have a few beers and talk to him.

What do they think of the music scene at the moment?
There’s some amazing stuff. I really like Joanna Newsom and a band called Bright Black Morning Light that are incredible. There’s a lot of good stuff at the moment but it’s all kind of underground and obscure. And the live scene is very good at the moment lots of bands getting back together which is really beautiful because lots of people never got to see them first time around. So that’s very good and encouraging.

If you could choose any band from any era to reform who would it be?
The Jimi Hendrix Experience, I never saw them, I was born in 1976 and he died in 1970, six years too late - I’ve always cursed my mother for that.

Do you ever read efestivals?
I believe I have, I think I was in my manager’s office the other day and they mentioned I was doing this interview so I had a look at it. I use the internet a lot, I’m not a technophobe not at all, no.

Do you DJ too (like brother Paul) and what’s your fave tune to get people up and dancing?
My brother DJ’s a lot, I do when I get the chance and I’m always DJing at home. I don’t really make people dance, unfortunately but I’d say I’d play ‘Jumping Jack Flash’ by the Rolling Stones.

Cheers have a great gig at Guilfest and enjoy your summer. Take care.
Take care, thank you very much. Bye.

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