:: BB INTERVIEWS ::

:: BAOBINGA ::

Baobinga - Dirty Bass, Riddim and Ting by Karen Sprey Gigs around the world, two BBC Radio 1 guest mixes, a live broadcast from his 2007 Breakspoll set, releases on a raft of top labels and a double nomination in the 2005 Breakspoll awards – the bio is already impressive. But Baobinga (aka Sam Simpson) has also taught English in Shanghai and is a classically trained pianist. Oh, and he once jumped into a frozen lake in Finland. Known for pushing musical boundaries, his inimitable style pulls together everything from techno, garage, house and dubstep to breaks, hip-hop and D’n’B, opening people’s ears to sounds they might not otherwise have heard, and proving that different genres can work together. With sets and productions rinsing out dance floors all over the world, it’s no wonder some of dance music’s biggest names are beating a path to his door wanting him to work his magic on their tunes. From remixes for Krafty Kuts, Vandal, Aquasky and Ferry Corsten to collaborations with ID, 30Hz and Tayo, along with his own tunes, the resulting productions are being caned by the likes of General Midi, Rennie Pilgrim, Stanton Warriors and The Rogue Element, putting Baobinga right up there on the industry’s Most Wanted list. So, how are you Sam and where are you today? I'm in Manchester, in bed on the laptop doing emails and myspace shizzle. How did the name Baobinga come about: is there a story behind it? Put it this way, I never thought I would get signed! I did my first demo, needed a name and Baobinga was the only one that seemed to have any life to it. I used to teach English in China, and Baobinga means something like 'Pineapple Smoothie' in Shanghai dialect – I THINK!!! Although it would be quite funny if after all this time it turns out it doesn't mean that at all... You’ve been all over the world – from China to Israel to Australia. Do you notice much difference from country to country in how people react to the music? Yeah, the obvious ones are places like Spain, where they are very particular about what kind of music they like (to the point that I had someone make a throat-slitting gesture to me when I played a techno track), and America, where there tends to be a lot more poppin' and lockin' than actual dancing. Also, London crowds are generally the least friendly in the UK, which is a bit shit considering what an amazing city it is. You’re back Down Under in May. As an expat Aussie I have to ask: what do you think of Australia? I HATED IT AND I'M ONLY GOING BACK TO SHOOT SKIPPY! Nah, had a wicked time in Oz and met some great people; definitely looking forward to getting over there again. You’re also off to South Africa in May. Do you usually get time to look around and get down with the locals when you travel abroad? The thing with South Africa is, my Mum is from Cape Town and my Uncle still lives in Johannesburg, and while I was growing up we'd go over to see family once every couple of years – it’s a country that's been quite a big part of my life and my identity. So I'm totally stoked to be able to go there and DJ – haven't been back for a few years now, and it will be good to meet up with family and friends. To answer your question, though, I do think it’s important to try and hang with the people you meet and get a vibe for the various countries I'm lucky enough to visit. I've played gigs where it’s been 'fly in on the night of the gig; play gig; back to hotel; fly out next morning' and there's no fun in that – I might as well have been playing in the UK. Ideally I like to spend maybe 1 or 2 extra days somewhere so I can get a feeling for the place, eat some of the local food and meet people I wouldn't get to meet otherwise. I'm very lucky to be able to go to all these places and I feel it would be a shame not to take advantage of that. On a related note, my youtube username is Biddleybonga – if you have a look at my videos you can see one from the recent trip to Finland, where me and Rico Tubbs from Menu Music went for a swim in a frozen lake... stuff like that is what makes it worthwhile sticking around after a gig! Where else are you headed this year? As mentioned above, I'm really looking forward to playing in Oz and SA; also I think that in June I'm off to Georgia, the ex-soviet state and birthplace of Stalin... Very excited about that, as it’s not a country I'd really get the chance to visit outside of this job, and it’s got a reputation for being utterly spectacular scenery wise – I've heard a lot of people say that the Caucasus Mountains are the most beautiful in Europe, and then there's all the old churches on hill tops... Ideally, I'd like to take a mate out there and spend a week having a look around. Probably avoid the border with Chechnya though. You have ongoing collaborations with I.D as ‘Big Monster’, and 30Hz as ‘The Body Snatchers’, as well as working under the name Pablo Beatz. What tasty treats do you have coming up? Hopefully some albums! The Body Snatchers project is going really well, the next single 'Big Ass, Mini Skirt' is due out in May and you can check the video out at www.thebodysnatchers.co.uk. We're planning a run of three videos, which will lead nicely into an album, or so the plan goes. With Ed ID, we are working on our Big Monster project for Fat! - the next single 'Recognise' is due out at the End of April and as far as I'm aware has been licensed to Krafty's Fabric Live CD, which is a bonus. We've been also been working on a l'il multimedia ting for that single; all will be revealed soon enough! Finally, with Pablo Beatz I'm looking to work on a cross between an artist album and a mix CD with my label Guerrilla Tactics – get some new tunes done, do re-edits and remixes of my favourite bits from the GT back catalogue and also include tunes from people like Dubchild, Search & Destroy and 2nd II None. There's a lot of amazing music on that tip from labels like Storming Productions, Destructive, ARMY etc. that gets overlooked by most breakbeat heads as its too fast and too heavy for the 'regular' crew to play, and at the same time its not ravey or obvious enough for the 'tear out' crew. Which is a real shame, as it’s some of the freshest shit out there at the moment. What is the working relationship like with you and ID: do you have a particular process you follow or is it all a bit mad and chaotic? (laughing) Yeah it probably goes something like this: Ed will be having a nice relaxing meal with his girlfriend when I phone up and start yammering down the phone saying 'mate mate mate we need to do a tune that's got like a ghettotech-meets-Switch vibe, but its breaks, and I've made this mad noise we can do the breakdown with, and blah blah blah'. Ed will humour me for about 5 minutes before politely telling me to do one. Then we'll meet up round his house the next day and try and get some drums that would work with the idea. We take the drums round mine and get them sounding polished and working properly and then build the track from there. Somewhere round this point, the track will mutate completely from the idea i was so excited about the night before and often ends up as pretty much the opposite of what we were originally aiming for, if not completely unusable. But that's what's fun about making music, I guess. Are there any other collaborations or projects that you can share with us? Me and Tayo did a tune called 'Choppa Riddim' that came out on his Fabric CD, and we're working on getting a vocal on it. We've got some pretty exciting labels interested in the whole thing, including some outside of the breaks scene – so fingers crossed it could do quite well and get some cross-pollination going. Would definitely be up for working with Tayo some more as I think we both like to look outside the standard issue ting – with that tune, he heard the remix I did for Aquasky & The Ragga Twins and was into it, so he suggested we got together and worked on something. And it was wicked, because I knew that I could suggest taking the vibe from a really rough digital-ragga type riddim and see if we could adapt it to breakbeat / house speed, and that he would be receptive and want to run with it. Whereas I think for a lot of breakbeat heads, it’s a big enough conceptual leap to take an off-beat guitar stab and say you've written a 'dubwise reggae-inspired roller'. Hmmm... Who would you like to work with, given the chance? Some really good, professional MCs that turn up to the studio when they say they're going to, and when they do turn up they're ready to work and have lyrics and ideas prepared. Other than that, I'd love to have a decent portable recording set up and head off to crazy places in Africa and record random drummers and singers. How did you start out in the DJing business? I bought vinyl before i could DJ, just because I loved the music, and as my collection grew, it became obvious that I should really get into mixing the stuff together. What was the inspiration to branch out into production? Production was my first love – ever since I was a child I was fascinated with keyboards and synths, I used to drag my mum into the music shops in town when she was trying to do the weekly food shop just so I could stare at the gear – this is when I was like 8 or 9. I played piano and drums from a young age, and after a period of wanting to become a mechanical engineer, I decided to pursue the idea of 'making music with mad electronics' properly and went to university to study Music, Acoustics and Recording. Worked full time in a call centre for a while when I got out, then got it down to part time, then went full time on the music. You have the gift of being able to successfully fuse and mash genres, but do you secretly have a favourite style? Probably techno. There's so much you can do with it, and every other style borrows from it. For sheer enjoyable raving though, some tuff jump-up DnB is ideal. And for crusing in the whip on a sunny day, some durrrty south hip hop. I gotta stay fly! What has coming from Manchester thrown into the mix (excuse the pun) in terms of your productions? I think its been good to be a bit separated from London, as it means I can find out about music on my own terms and follow ideas that I think are important, rather than being totally immersed in 'the scene'. Which of your remixes are you happiest with? The Baobinga & ID remix of Ben & Lex 'Soundgal' is one I'm really happy with – its totally different to the original, but we actually used quite a few sounds from their track, just in a totally different context and heavily edited. Plus it sounds great on a system, and it’s always nice to get a mixdown right. I was pleased that the remix I did ages ago for Transformer Man ('88mph') got so much love from the garage scene – J Da Flex caned it on his 1Xtra show and its how I got to know people like DJ Quiet Storm. The Body Snatchers mix of Ferry Corsten is an obvious one: it works really well and made a lot more people aware of what me and 30Hz are trying to do with the project. Plus it also led to us remixing Krafty Kuts, which is wicked. The Aquasky remix was a lot of fun to do and led to the collaboration with Tayo. Finally, me and ID have done a remix for Rico Tubbs on Menu Music that really came together well – went on a bit of a Booka Shade kinda tip, so its quite melancholic, but uplifting at the same time. Looking forward to hearing it on wax. Can you see yourself starting your own label one day? Not in breaks. I spend so much time writing breaks, I couldn't face running a breakbeat label on top of that. I'm currently getting together a load of twisted acid house, and I'd love to start a label for that side of things. Wish me luck! Tell us about the upcoming video for your new release on Fat! ‘Recognise’. Is this your first foray into the AV side of things? No, as mentioned earlier, the 'Big Ass, Mini Skirt' video for the next Body Snatchers single is the main video-related project I'm involved with. The video for 'Recognise' came about through a friend of ours who is always taking animated GIFs off the net and putting our heads on them. They're all piss funny, so when Fat! mentioned that they were after something different to help promote the single, we got him to put his 'talents' to work for us. The result is utterly lo-fi but totally genius – my favourite part is the bit where David Hasselhof removes his shades, to reveal my face underneath – wearing glasses. The peak of video editing skill. You’ve done some music for the FIFA Streets soundtrack; what projects do you enjoy working on other than breaks? FIFA Street was ideal, as Ollywood from Hardcore Beats sent them a load of tunes, ours was one that they liked, and bam they gave us money for music we'd already written! Perfect! So more of that please! I really enjoy writing housey stuff, and I've been doing some mixdowns for ID's solo stuff, which I've been enjoying – it’s a different vibe to writing music, or mixing your own stuff down, so I wouldn't mind doing some more of that. Anyone wants a mixdown, hit me up on MySpace. What would you be doing if you weren’t making and playing music? I'd like to think it would be something of much greater benefit to humankind. Maybe something in engineering, or possibly something related to languages and geopolitics? What do you do to relax? Sell crack. What’s the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to you at a gig? Apart from the throat slitting gesture mentioned earlier, I nearly got in a fight with a load of aggro dudes in Spain once over a hat (!), and I had a bust-up with a DJ in Brisbane. Me and 30Hz nearly came to blows on a stage in Guernsey last year, and apparently at a gig in Canada, some girl flashed her boobies at me, but I was too busy mixing and missed it. Doh! Finally, in reference to your Breakspoll profile - ass or titties? I love me a nice booty. :: May 2007 :: Baobing will be touring South Africa throughout May 2007. Additional info on Baobinga can be found at myspace.com/baobinga and the production duo Body Snatchers at www.thebodysnatchers.co.uk.

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