Groovescooter struts its newest, splendidly unlaced offering, Re-fashioned Vol. 2: British Airwaves, into music stores this month to critical acclaim. The cream isn’t only in the pants of critics and listeners either—the Australian producers chosen to remake UK classic tracks from the ‘70s and ‘80s are amongst our best and have come up with innovative and respectful updates of songs we recognise and love.

Conceptually, the tracks all interact beautifully, many styles are represented and they also vary across the spectrum of approachability. On the runway: DJ Soup decks Eurythmic’s ‘This is the House’ in dynamic denim; The Cure’s ‘Lullaby’ gets exquisitely sheathed in asymmetrically-cut, sheer flows by ENS;  Deepchild gives Special AKA’s ‘Racist  Friend’ a modern vernacular treatment amidst a flurry of saffron; and Goyte pares Depeche Mode’s ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’ back to a provocative, irresistible, barely-clad number. These covers are super warm and the overall summery feel makes this album the perfect soundtrack in this our winter of discontent, or to accompany the adventures of the come-down-kids!

Since 1999, the independent label Groovescooter, (owned and operated by Georgie Zuzak and Paris Pompor), has provided the electronic music market with something a little different but oh! so special. This album is set to continue Groovescooter’s track record of integrity laden, eclectic and quality releases. Volume 1 of the Re-fashioned series was an Australian Dance Music Awards finalist and already Volume 2 has been feature album on Triple J, album of the week on both 2SER 107.3 and FBI 94.5, and DJ Soup’s ‘This is the House’ has been hit-listed on Triple J.

It’s an exciting time for Australian electronica and especially Groovescooter. Amidst the bustle of running the label, the diabolical duo also manage to produce their own music under the names Groovescooter, Society, Mothloop and Moskitoitm’s. Highly proficient, their work is consistently funky, sexy cool!  ITM’s Bec Paton caught up with Paris from Groovescooter to talk about musical couture, running an independent record label and having a bit of a daydream about where Australian dance music may be headed…

BP: The concept for this compilation is fantastic! Can you tell me a bit about where the idea came from and the significance of the collection?

PP: This is volume 2 in this series and the original idea was cooked up in a Thai restaurant way back in 2000, when we heard a song over the radio station being played in the restaurant that took us back to our teens and the conversation turned to musical memories. Our teenage years in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s however, were mostly spent listening to music from the UK bands like Shriekback, Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Au Pairs, The Clash etc, and so we wanted to continue the series to not only pay homage to the artists and songs that kept us from suburban suicide, but also music that shaped our politics, music tastes and even our hairdos! Hence volume 2, with all British artists being covered, has emerged.

BP: I have a Groovescooter Records sticker at home that has the line: “Friends are just people with the same taste in music.” In a sense, it comes across as musical snobbery and the reality is I’d probably be an absolute loner if this were true! What is the sentiment you wished to communicate with these stickers and how much do you subscribe to the idea?

PP: Musical snobbery is the last thing we’d want to communicate but thanks for that insight! Neither of us had thought of it in that way. It was something that came out of a joke and also lyrics for one of our own tracks. The idea is twofold basically; firstly music is an incredible social conduit—at school you gravitate towards people who like the same way-out band that previously you thought only you had discovered. Passionate music collectors, (which we’d confess to being), are basically ‘freaks’ like collectors of anything and the internet, (and previously mail fan clubs), are full of people whose friendships are based on their passion for the same kind of music. So it’s about saying, ‘if you like the music on Groovescooter Records and dance to it, buy it, play it, support it – then we consider you a friend’. There’s also a flipside, a kind of musical isolation, which reflects the rather strange (and sometimes funny) fact that many music enthusiasts have nothing else in common and even though there’s much talk about ‘music communities’, we know loads of people where the relationship never gets further than the latest record they’ve/we’ve bought or track they’ve produced. You see these people at clubs, parties wherever, and even though you get on and have talks, it’s always about music and often you know nothing else about their lives or whether for example, they may be going through tough times. So really the sticker is about acknowledging that often, friends are simply people that share your taste in music.

BP: Let’s have a bit of a daydream… This album is clearly not a whimsical, retro wank! Instead, it almost seeks to allow for a new creative space for electronica. What impact do you hope this album will have on the Australian music environment and beyond?

PP: One of the impacts we originally wanted to have, was for respect to be given to local electronic artists. When we first started the series, electronic music was still suffering the ‘it’s just some bleeps with a loop beneath it’ syndrome from people not into electronic/dance music. Even now, volume 2 is reviewed as if the tracks were ‘remixes’. In fact they are covers, completely made from the ground up by the artists. No sampling of the original tracks allowed. So it really is testament to the talents of the Australian artists performing the covers—especially when the remakes are so innovative. Listen to Ollo’s remake of Fun Boy Three, DJ Soup’s remake of Eurythmics, Biikkee Boy and Cookkee Girrl’s remake of Lena Lovich or Duffo’s take on David Bowie and you really see what talented musicians these people are.

BP: How did you manage to collect all of the tracks—was a call put out to artists to play with the concept or was it more that you managed to find enough people exploring this type of remix approach?

PP: Yes, it was a call out. We sat down with a huge wishlist of tracks and artists and then tried to match them up with local producers who we thought either had something in common with the artist/song, or vibe of the track. One or two didn’t like what we’d chosen, so they asked to do something else, and two tracks happened to be being made simultaneously to our comp, so when we found out we asked if we could license them for the compile as we really like them. Because it was a huge list, a number of the tracks we wanted on there didn’t make it, either because of space, or for various other reasons. We are huge Clash fans, especially their more dub oriented tracks, so we asked three different Aussie dub producers to cover The Clash. All three didn’t get finish versions in time because of computer problems or whatever. Same with bands like the Au Pairs, reggae outfit Steel Pulse and our plans for Fox’s ‘Single Bed’ to be remade – they didn’t happen – but we’re still hopeful these will eventuate someday and maybe make it on to another project, or another volume of Re-fashioned.

BP: There are so many formidably brilliant Australian artists in the nooks and crannies, but Groovescooter seems to manage to find them and present their work in a unique and beautiful way. How do you find them and what approach enables you guys to stay so true to them?

PP: We just try to listen out for local stuff as much as we can. Community radio is great for this. Also, sometimes it’s from being sent demos. First up it was for our radio show, which is how/why the label was started. Often once you have a relationship with artists and they know you’re not going to rip them off, you end up working with them over and over, especially when they continually create fantastic sounds. We’re constantly amazed that people are happy to put in the effort when we put out calls for new releases. There’s a great deal of work involved for most of them and we’re really thankful that artists do put the effort in. We realise that without them, it’s just a concept—it’s the artist’s efforts that make it possible and I guess vice versa as well.

BP: In a sense, running an independent record label suggests that you wish to be involved with cultural discourse. Where do you think the Australian electronic music scene is headed—what can we look forward to and are there things on the horizon that you think are cringe-worthy?

PP: I think the basic discourse we’re involved in by being an independent label, is about respecting the fact that music is art and entertainment, not widgets or commercial units. Of course you want to make things run profitably so that you can keep the releases coming, but it’s about making decisions based on the artistic merit first. In a world like ours, the future for much music is about the opposite I think, so that’s an unfortunate. As for the future of Australian electronic music, I think the exciting stuff is seeing it integrated into other forms of music; hearing more acoustic instrumentation and vocals creep into ‘electronic’ producers records; and the musical dialogue happening between historically disparate groups. For example, there are loads of jazz and rock musos collaborating with DJs and electronic artists now. That can only be good for electronic music because it enhances the ‘musicality’ and the art of writing and how we understand and relate to music. It means people strictly into electronic sounds have their ears broadened, which in turn means talented jazz artists or innovative rock bands also find new fans who may not have given them the time of day before. I think musical exclusivity based on a genre is silly. Music is either ‘good’ or ‘bad’, you either enjoy it or don’t. It’s either life changing and challenging, or banal and wallpaperish—either new and innovative, or old and tired but only the listener can decide. Who cares what the genre is and this is the healthy change that’s happening in electronic music.

BP: Can you give us a peep into what Groovescooter will be getting amongst next, or the sorts of juicy treats on the horizon?

We are thinking about the next couple of volumes of Re-fashioned but it’s very early days yet, (there were almost 4 years between volume 1 and 2), so too early to talk about those. We are doing an antipodean dub-ska-reggae compile and also two artists on the label, Don Meers and Ens, are working on new releases. Don’s is shaping up to be something quite amazing and also a little unexpected in the sense that while he still has that haunting cinematic quality of his first two releases, the jazz of his first EP is making a return whilst he’s also singing on a lot of the new stuff – and low and behold he has a great voice!

‘Re-Fashioned 2: British Airwaves’ is out now through Groovescooter/Creative Vibes.