Stepping up for his fourth release on Heist, sample wizard Nebraska comes in with some lovely chops and a giant curveball of an A-side that has summer anthem written all over it. Dive into this massive four track EP by the London native who just keeps on bringing the goods!
The ‘Chant des Oiseaux EP’ is built around a collaboration between Nebraska and BeBelle. Anyone who’s picked up Nebraska’s 2021 release on his Friends & Relations label, will have already had a glimpse of what happens when these two get in the studio. They have a mutual love for French vocals; everything BeBelle says, whispers and chants just sounds syrupy sweet. This might be most evident on the title track where modulated Rhodes, the distant chirping and fluttering of birds, and a minimal beat form the foundation for BeBelle’s mesmerizing vocal. The dreamy and contemplative vibe makes you long for those endless days of summer.
The Detroit inspired ‘Skelp Tune’ will take you back to the ground and straight into the club. Nebraska actually sent in a ‘note to self’ saying “you’re not Moodymann” along with the first demo of this to the label. But he doesn’t have to be, as this track has all the clever sampling and disco energy of a classic Nebraska tune, nicely tucked into one hell of a groove! The flip starts with ‘Cop Show’, a no-frills disco house cut with life affirming strings, guitar licks, and a bottom end to freak out your neighbour’s neighbours. The EP closer is another collaboration with BeBelle on ‘Henri Rousseau’, built on a groove that gallops along, with strings, outer-worldly vocals, and howling soundscapes that turn it into a covert disco burner on the more experimental side of house.
On the ‘Chant des Oiseaux EP’, Nebraska effortlessly shows off his impressive sampling skills, electronic fiddling, and powerful drum programming, reminding us that he’s not lost an inch of talent over the years, continually managing to surprise us with his music! Knowing him this is simply because he’s exploring new ways to keep on surprising himself…
WWD: Thanks for taking the time to talk. Where are you and how are you spending you day?
Hey, hi! I’m up on the north coast of Scotland, taking a little break from London.
WWD: What can you see out your window?
Sky, hills, trees, river. A horizon that is set much farther back than my usual one in London.
WWD: How’s is the mood in London these days.
London is never less than interesting. However, I think recent events in Ukraine have colored everything, sadly. We live in hope, but it’s clearly a changed world.
WWD: Are you born and bred in the city?
No, though I’ve lived in London since 1996, I’m originally from Leicester.
WWD: Were you into your beats when you were at school? What was your vibe?
Yes, most definitely. I was exactly the right age for the first wave of hip hop and rap music to hit British shores.
WWD: Were you a big hip hop head in your teens?
Yeah, definitely. The ‘Electro’ mix compilations on Morgan Kahn’s Street Sounds label were a huge deal. Hearing ‘Sucker MCs’ by Run DMC, tracks by Man Parrish and Hashim. Spine-tingling stuff, even now.
WWD: And then came the breaks?
All about the breaks. I’d read little snippets about how early hip hop DJs used old records and it really captured my imagination. I was knocking around Leicester’s second-hand record shops with a hand written list cribbed from sources that were very few and far between in those days. Pre-internet, this stuff was slow!
WWD: You’ve mentioned before that your folks were big record collectors. Who was it who bought the records in your family and what were they into?
My dad was a jazz guy – Dave Brubeck, Louis Armstrong and – importantly – Quincy Jones. My older brother brought a lot of music into the house: northern soul, jazz-funk, electro, and then later reggae. My sister was deep into Bowie, Alice Cooper and also had things like ‘In The Court of The Crimson King’. I had an uncle who had things like ‘Headhunters’ by Herbie Hancock and ‘Hot Rats’ by Zappa.
WWD: So, you started to buy records yourself early. What were you buying in those early days?
Aside from the ‘Electro’ LPs, I was spending my pocket money on second-hand James Brown 7”s. The scarcity of those kind of records in Leicester in the 80s meant it could take a really long time to get hold of say, ‘Funky Drummer’.
WWD: Where did you shop for your records?
Just local record shops. There were a few great second-hand shops in Leicester back then – Boogaloo, run by a northern soul guy called Rudzi, and Archer’s where I got a few gems for £3 or £4 like “Survival of the Fittest” by The Headhunters and the first Cymande LP. Still got ‘em.
WWD: Radio was a big part of our listening experience growing 80s/ 90s. What stations did you listen to? Who did you follow?
There wasn’t much happening until pirate radio hit Leicester in the early 90s. So, it was a case of tuning into people like Robbie Vincent (a big soul DJ in the early 80s) and late-night John Peel on Radio 1. You’d wait by the pause button to record that one tune that’d be played that night.
WWD: When was your house music awakening? What record sticks in your mind from that time?
Early tracks like ‘Set it Off’ our ‘Ma Foom Bey’ were great, but what really shifted my own focus towards making more house-themed music was hearing MoodyMann’s ‘Mahogany Brown’. I could hear how what I’d been making in instrumental hip hop could shift up a gear.
WWD: What happened first, making beats or Djing?
I ruined a lot of records attempting to scratch on my parents’ hifi without knowing what a slip-mat was. At the same time, I was making pause-button tape collages. Whether what I was doing was DJing or Producing… probably neither, but it was fun.
WWD: Your early productions were techno. What was your first release? What labels did you release on?
The first record I was involved in was a self-released white label that me and my mate did in 1993. It’s got four tracks that lurch between techno, jazz, and hip hop. I even play guitar on it.
WWD: Your DJ style back then was hip hop and breakbeats. Were you much of a scratcher?
Love it as I did, I was never any good as a turntablist!
WWD: You became Nebraska in 2000. Have you ever been to Nebraska? Or were you in love with Alex Payne’s film?
None of the above, the film wasn’t out then, and it was nothing to do with Bruce Springsteen either. I simply liked the sound of the word.
WWD: Was Nebraska symbolic of a new sound for you?
Nebraska was just the latest in a series of one-off names. It’s like that old thing parents used to say to kids – “careful what face you make, because if the wind changes, you’ll be stuck like that”.
WWD: You’ve released on some hyper-cool labels, Rush Hour being one. Antal is incredibly select. How many releases have you had on the label? Any plans to release more with them?
Yeah, Antal knows his music. Rush Hour reissued two EPs and released an album in 2011, which was fantastic. No immediate plans to do anything at present, but who knows.
WWD: Mister Saturday Night again another very credible label. We once went to a Saturday night in Brooklyn and a Mr Sunday after meeting Eamon and Justin in an airport. Have you ever been to one of their parties?
I went to one of Justin and Eamon’s outdoor Brooklyn parties before we knew each other and before they used the Mister Sunday name. It was only after we’d started working together that I twigged. Small world!
WWD: When did Friends and Relations start? What’s going on at the moment with the label.
I started F&R in 2016 to release my own material, with my own editorial control. Though I’ve released an EP with remixes of my tunes by Marcel Vogel, Mr Beatnick and Session Victim, there are no plans to release other artists on F&R.
WWD: Where is your studio? What would you say is the most important item in your studio?
The studio is wherever my laptop is! I don’t have tons of outboard gear – I sold much of my old kit around 2000 and stopped making music for a year. That stop-gap was helpful creatively.
WWD: This is your fourth release on Heist. How long have you known the guys? Why do you think the label has been so consistently strong?
We met in 2013 when we all did Boiler Room with Jimpster. The label is great because Maarten and Lars have good ears and give good advice.
WWD: What can you tell us about BeBelle?
BeBelle is originally from Belgium. We’ve been together as a couple for around 5 years. I love her voice and find it easier to use words in a language where the meanings aren’t always immediately apparent to me.
WWD: The tracks on your new EP ‘Chant Des Oiseaux’ on Heist are pretty diverse from the huge summer Balearic beat of the opener, to Skelp Tune and its Detroit flavour. Tell us a little about the tracks on the EP.
‘Chant Des Oiseaux’ is constructed mainly from samples of BeBelle – even the kick. As you suggest, ‘Skelp Tune’ definitely owes a bit to Detroit, stuff like MoodyMann. ‘Cop Show’ is an older track from the archive… more of a ‘French Touch’ vibe, perhaps? ‘Henri Rousseau’ is named for the French naive painter; I was thinking about the way he painted scenes that he’d probably never seen in real life.
WWD: Oiseaux – Do we detect some ‘Loons’ in the opening cut?
You mean the digital Loons like on ‘Pacific State’? Nope! It’s a recording of real birds but slowed down.
WWD: What else are you working on at the moment?
Music-wise, I’m taking a break. But I’m always working on creative stuff in some form or another…
WWD: How do you like to pass the time when you’re not in the studio?
Cooking and eating. The range of world food on offer within a few miles of my home is mind-blowing. I love that!
WWD: If you hadn’t devoted your life to making music, what do you think you might have done?
I work in the creative industry. Half the time what I do is visual stuff with words, the other half its words related to visual stuff. I’ve been fortunate to earn a living doing what I love.
WWD: If you had one wish to make the world a better place right now, what would it be?
Ah man, I think there’s only one thing on a lot of people’s minds right now. We all hope for the best in Ukraine.
WWD: Thanks for talking with us Nebraska 🙂
Thanks a lot!