Lightspeed Champion took charge of
Topman CTRL Live at The Great Escape 2009, programming an exciting line
up of musical talent which included the return of the legendary Evan
Dando and a special covers set from Dev himself.
Visit myspace now and check out the video of all the action here
EXCLUSIVE TM_CONTRIBUTE INTERVIEW WITH LIGHTSPEED CHAMPION:
Q. What's your new album like?
Its kinda really over the top, I mean for the CTRL show I’m planning to make it weird, the original idea I was gonna do was a function band like a wedding function band and sing like Marvin Gaye over the top. And then I’m gonna get these guys to come and just play weird versions of songs from the album, like weird hits so to speak. Try and make it fun, like a party performance with lots of guitar solos and stuff like that.
Some songs are piano and synthesizers and its very British, high society and classical orientated with strings arrangements and baroque influences but I haven’t worked out how to play it yet.
Q. When’s the album going to be released?
I think autumn, I mean its still gonna be mixed and stuff but I think autumn
Q. Have you got a studio at home?
No no theres a studio in Brooklyn we kinda went into and were there for 9 days and did like 17 songs, we just went there and hammered it out, it was insane. And then I went to the guy who produced it, he has a studio in Atlanta, went there for 5 days to do vocals, its been recorded very crazily. Then 2 days later went to new york and spent a day in the studio in the city doing strings and then at the same time there was a guy in LA who was working on some songs that I wanted him to work on. There was really no time or money either so it was whatever could happen. It was really hectic
Q. Who produced it?
A guy called Ben Allen who did the new Animal Collective record, he did Gnarls Barkley, he plays bass for them, he did the Lil’ Kim album the one with the Lollipop Song. The studio I went to in Atlanta he owns it with Cee-lo
I met so many hip hoppers it was really funny, just around the studio and constantly like so many huge hip hop dogs just lying around.
Q. He’s doing a lot of Hip Hop now?
Not really, I think he’s stepping away from it now. He’s done some stuff that not many people expect him to do. He does a lot of bands that no one’s really heard of but then he also worked on the latest Christina Aguilera album, its weird cause he’s not one of those well known producers.
He was P Diddy’s personal engineer for 2 years. Like during the Mase era after Biggie, he’s like an indie kid, its really funny. All the things I found about him were weird – one time we were in a studio and i said “you guys heard the new asher roth track” and he said oh yea I did that. He’s got some insane stories just because of his life and the stuff that he’s done.
THE LONDON MUSIC SCENE:
Q. How do feel about the London music scene right now?
Its really mind blowing, its really crazy seeing how things are looked at in the US. Its been really interesting because I’ve left the UK, I kind of know what’s happening through friends and stuff.
Q. Whats the American perspective?
Its just weird, I feel like (and this could be a positive or a negative) with England (and I dont think we notice it) a lot of popular stuff is quite alternative, its quite weird – I’ve only realized that now I’m in new york
Q. Because America is quite mainstream?
Yes the mainstream is very mainstream
Q. Like we get some out of the blue hits
Like the White Lies, I’m friends with those dudes and I know their album went to number one – which doesn’t seem weird in the UK its like “of course its number one” but like that’s really weird when you compare it to the US. It also puts a weird shadow in the American campaign because people like them and they’ve got a lot of fans in America who are really into them – but I feel these fans get a bit of skepticism because they know it went to number one in uk … its really odd, I always see it.
