Baobinga & ID, the guys behind the Fat! Records hit album Big Monster are wrecking it up throughout Australia this month for a national tour. Bringing their breakbeat sound down under for the Destination? crew, the duo first teamed up in 2004 and since then have put out a string of cult releases, including The Feeling, Rite of Passage and The Machine. Far from being purists of the breakbeat sound, their DJ sets are said to run the gamut of styles, also playing everything from techno, through to house, garage and even drum n’ bass. ITM chats to Baobinga & ID.
How do you describe to your Grandmothers what you do?
Baobinga: Granny, we have failed you. While you spent your youth working on a farm in deepest darkest Africa, raising children and vegetables, we have spent our twenties traveling the world, getting paid to drink in public.
ID: If I still had a grandmother, I would be trying to avoid the whole “playing other people’s records” issue. It gets a bit difficult. Actually I would probably pretend I was still working at the nice computer company.
Your album Big Monster hit the shelves recently, what can we expect?
Baobinga: Winning lottery tickets with every copy. Well worth picking up!
ID: It’s like computer music Gran – you know, synthesisers and drum machines? We use those, but they’re inside the computer. It doesn’t really have any words. No we don’t play any of the instruments, but we probably would if we had a studio.
Where does the name Big Monster come from? Was it looking in the mirror after a long night out?
Baobinga: From looking in the mirror in the morning. Woody.
ID: Baobinga’s back.
What’s the process of writing an album like? Did it come naturally? What were the ups and downs?
Baobinga: It’s like having a 2 year pregnancy, with a 3 month labour period. And your best mate is the mother.
ID: It’s not really like you expect! You write tunes generally, in your lounge or bedroom or wherever, and you think that when you do an album, somehow things will all be different, like you’ll magically start working in a proper studio or something. But really, you still write stuff in the same way as ever, just with different goals – ie. that you want to write music that will work well for a ‘listening experience’ (cringe) rather than the dancefloor.
How do you find working in the studio with each other?
Baobinga: Great. ID makes the tea and I write the tunes. We play to our strengths.
ID: Yeah we’ve got the married couple thing pretty sorted now. I sit Baobinga down in front of the computer and executive produce from the direction of the sofa, while leafing through a 3 week old newspaper.
You’ve had a number of hits including Jewelz off your album which is a personal favourite. Is the song about the ‘family jewelz’ or something else?
Baobinga: If Juelz Santana is reading, then yes, it is…
ID: It’s about being run over by a bus full of techno and suffering concussion as a result.
If we were to play your music backwards, what messages would we hear?
Baobinga: We tried it, and it was pretty much indistinguishable from the usual playing method.
ID: Actually there’s a hidden message in Into The Air. You should look for it. It’s about ducks.
You’ve been touring with each other for a while now and often have to stay in hotels. Is there any bad habits that each of you has? Who likes to be big spoon and who is little spoon?
Baobinga: Hotels? The gigs we normally do, the accommodation is usually based around a cattle shed and a tarpaulin.
ID: Your face is a big spoon.
What’s the worst DJing experience you’ve had?
Baobinga: Getting asked to leave the decks early by a promoter who suddenly realised I wasn’t a minimal DJ.
ID: Unplugging an MC (who was shite) only for him to plug himself back in and then start dissing me down the mic, it got pretty tedious after a while. Especially because he had a Brummie accent.
What do you do when you’re not DJing/producing?
Baobinga: Sleep, and apologise to my girlfriend.
ID: I don’t know! Been getting quite into cooking lately. And drinking. I like drinking.
Do you have any secret skills that might help you in life one day, for example nunchuck skills?
Baobinga: I wish I was good at Karate. It would so great to be some kind of brutal enforcer of manners. “Sir I believe you dropped some litter. OK so you refused to pick it up and called me a bad word. NOW FEEL THE PAIN RRRRRRAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH,” that kind of thing.
ID: я говорю плохо по русский.
Breakspoll… Good or bad?
Baobinga: Good. Playing at Fabric is always good!
ID: It’s great! Best party of the year. Except that it takes ages to do anything because you keep bumping into people you know…
We’ve all got a dodgy story or three about a breakbeat celebrity. Care to share one with us?
Baobinga: I have held 30Hz while he cried and vomited in a capital city.
ID: Baobinga holds the North West record for most chocolate biscuits in mouth at one time.
You’ve got a promotion where people can get some free tracks off your album by turning up to your gigs here in Aus. Can you tell us about that?
Baobinga: Due to ‘the kids’ being all down with ‘the blogosphere’ and having the opinion that us producers are all ‘raking it in’.
ID: Yes! Download a free track from Baobinga & ID’s critically acclaimed new album Big Monster! Grab one of the business cards from any of our gigs, and it’ll tell you how to get the free track. We’ll also be selling copies of the album at the gigs for the bargainsome price of $20. Don’t miss it! Etc….
Have a listen to their promo mix in ITM-FM, and there’s still a chance to catch Baobinga and ID on tour at…
9th May – Ambar, Perth
16th May – TAG @ Code, Auckland
17th May – Destination? @ The Cross, Sydney
