The Nextmen have come along way. One of the most respected production duos to emerge from the UK in recent memory, Brad Ellis and Dominic Beatmead met at school in their home-town of Cambridge, apparently through a playground drug deal when Brad tried to sell Dom a tiny bag of magic mushrooms for thirty quid, so the story goes. After this dubious introduction, the pair found common ground with each other over their love for hip-hop. The duo have developed a huge following for their funk-laden production style and infamous skills behind the wheels of steel after taking the UK hip-hop scene by storm with albums Amongst The Madness (2000) and Get Over It (2003). In The Mix spoke to Brad as he and Dom prepare to journey down under for their forth-coming tour of Australia and New Zealand.
“Basically I was a nerd and he was like the golden boy at school” says Brad down the phone from his flat on a cold London morning, reminiscing on how he hooked up with Dom to form the Nextmen. “After school finished, Dom went away to university in Glasgow. I had started up the Nextmen with another guy, and we were messing around making beats. When Dom came back I had been offered a remix for a group called London Posse (Rodney P’s old group), but I didn’t have any gear. I was using other people’s gear to do bits and pieces, so I phoned up Dom to ask him if he wanted to do it with me. We did it and it was really well received, so Dom and I kind of moved on from there. It was a terrible remix really, but it got played on Radio 1. It was like the slowest record in the whole world, but people enjoyed it!”
The duo continued working on the odd remix here and there, while releasing a couple of singles of their own, but it was the release of their debut LP Amongst The Madness that well and truly put the Nextmen on the map. “We came out of nowhere really” laughs Brad. “We hardly had a profile before we came out with Amongst The Madness, so people were surprised that we came out with such a good record, particularly as our first few 12”s were crap”! As the accolades began to flow in, so did the offers of remix work. Dom and Brad had gone from relative unknowns to in-demand producers over night, with big names such as Public Enemy, The Pharcyde and Blackalicious queuing up for the Nextmen to apply the golden touch to their records.
While the Nextmen came out of nowhere with their first album, their second LP Get Over It was one of the most anticipated releases to come out of the UK in some time. But after recording half of the album, the duo scrapped what they had recorded in favour of going back to the drawing board in an effort to re-invent their sound. “The whole thing about our first record was that we had such a specific sound that people were coming to us two years after we made that record and asking us to recreate that sound for them” notes Brad. “Production for us isn’t interesting unless you give yourself new challenges, so we deliberately changed the way we made our beats”. This change in production style also brought with it the inclusion of a wider range of influences says Brad: “We wanted to make an album that sounded more English. Amongst The Madness was a good album, but it basically sounded like an American hip-hop album. The drum and bass scene in the UK is obviously massive, the whole bass line thing, the whole breaks and garage thing is massive, as is reggae, so it was a conscious thing to have elements of those styles in Get Over It. We wanted to make something that was more British and more unique. We consider ourselves part of the UK music scene, not just the hip-hop scene. We like rock, we like reggae, we like hip-hop, we like house, so it’s natural that these influences will show up in our tunes”.
After years working with each other, the Nextmen have refined their studio methods down to a fine art. “When we’re in the studio, Dom lies on the floor of the studio on a mat and sleeps and gets phone calls from girls, and I do all the work” jokes Brad. “But seriously, most producers that we know that work in partnerships, they have different roles. Like with Tom and Andy from Groove Armada, for example, they have different roles. Andy is the engineer who does all the programming, whereas Tom is more of an ideas guy. With me and Dom, we could both make a Nextmen track on our own. We can both program, we both use the computer and the sampler, we both mix the stuff, and we also both write, which makes working together really good. But at the same time it means that we are both really fussy, and we throw out most of what we do because one of us doesn’t like it”!
While the duo might cast off a lot of their material, they also release more than their fair share as well. The next few months will be busy ones in terms of Nextmen releases says Brad. “We recently put out the Personal Golf Instruction CD, which has been received amazingly well. We did it as a promotional tool for our agent to get us gigs. We decided to put out a sneaky few copies, but a few has turned into quite a lot”! On top of that, the boys have two more mix CDs in the works. “We’ve got another one ready to go called Not The Nextmen which we should be getting shipped out to sell while we’re on tour” continues Brad. “We’re also doing the new Blunted CD for Antidote. Madlib did the first one, Shortkut did one, and we’re doing the next one. We’re doing two original tracks for that too, one with Dynamite and one with Demolition Man”. Other projects scheduled for release include a collaboration with Dallas Tamaira, front-man of stellar New Zealand outfit Fat Freddies Drop which is scheduled for release on Tru Thoughts, and a more laid-back ‘head-nod’ mix CD entitled Supermen.
With all of the mix CDs and collaborations in the works as well as a busy touring schedule, it has been difficult for the Nextmen to get much work done on their next studio album, which is currently in the planning stages. “We’re doing bits and pieces on the new Nextmen album, we’re talking with who we want to do it with right now” says Brad. “I want to work with Peven Everett and Dwele on the next album. We’ve made a slight foray into seeing if it would work, and it looks possible”. Never content with resting on their laurels or pinning themselves down to one sound, however, the next Nextmen album will move in a different direction from their previous work. “It’s not going to be based around hip-hop this time round, it’s going to be more song-based” continues Brad. “When we get back from Australia we’ll be back in the lab and getting into it. It takes us a long time to make a record, it takes us three years at least, and the last one only came out last year! Look out for us in 2006”!
As the winter starts to close in on the Northern Hemisphere, the Nextmen are taking the smart option by jumping on a plane and embarking on a three week tour of Australia and New Zealand. While it’s often true that a quality producer behind the decks doesn’t always guarantee a good show, the Nextmen are exceptions to the rule – their DJ sets are truly something to behold. Covering a range of styles from hip-hop to dancehall, funk to breaks, and everything in between, the Nextmen have mastered the art of moving the crowd with their slick selections and sick skills. So, what tricks have the boys got up their sleeves this time around? “We’ll play lots of hip-hop of course” says Brad. “You’ll get it all, funk, dancehall, the lot. We’ve got loads of blends that we’ve done especially for Australia as well … just loads of good beats really. It’ll definitely be a dope party”.
The Nextmen have developed a soft spot for Australia and New Zealand, with this being their second trip down under in the last year. So, what is it that brings them back for more? According to Brad, it’s simple: “In London right now, the sky is grey every day, it’s cold, it’s raining, every one is beeping their car horns and generally trying to kill each other … and it’s time for me to go to Australia, where the sun is shining, there’s loads of nice Sauvignon Blancs and James Boags Premium, a packet of double chocolate Tim Tams and some Cheesels! Why wouldn’t I want to come back?! We can’t wait to get out there!”
The Nextmen tour Australia in November alongside Dynamite MC, DJ Signify and Steinski:
Thu Nov 18 – Melbourne
Fri Nov 19 – Melbourne
Sat Nov 20 – Sydney
Fri Nov 26 – Byron Bay
Sat Dec 4 – Adelaide
Sun Dec 5 – Brisbane
