Thai salad recipes and dancing octopuses aren't topics you’d expect to cover during the course of your average artist interview, but then The 2 Bears aren’t your average artists. Since the release of their debut album Be Strong earlier this year, Joe Goddard and Raf Daddy have amassed an ever-growing legion of fans attracted to their unashamedly positive musical offerings and energetic live shows.
Born out of a mutual love of house, soundsystem culture and jerk chicken, The 2 Bears has been a massive success – perhaps more so than either Joe or Raf expected – and has led on to their latest project. 2 Bears, 1 Love is the first time that either have tried their hand at crafting a mix compilation and the results are eclectic, engrossing and thoroughly entertaining.
Here, we discuss the overwhelmingly positive reaction to their album, their dancehall influences and Joe’s tips for the tastiest salad you’ll ever eat.
The reaction to your debut album ‘Be Strong’ was really positive, why do you think it struck a chord with such a wide audience?
Raf: Cuz it’s a mind blowingly good record... (Ha!). Well, it’s not like we have a particularly difficult taste in music, so we tried to make a record that represented all the sounds that we love. In amongst that are quite a few sounds that hopefully people can get their heads around quite easily; it’s not a big challenge to listen to that record. I guess that’s partly one reason.
Joe: It had a real feel – good vibe to it, and at that time it was perhaps a reaction to some of the seriousness that came into the scene. It wasn’t like a particular conscious reaction to anything; we didn’t sit down with a plan to make something joyful because we were particularly angry about anything. I think it comes from the kind of things we enjoy hearing in a club, we’re both suckers for that joyfulness in House tracks and in music.
Raf: Also for me it was the first time I’d made music really and so I was enjoying that. It was the first time I’d written songs as well, I mean you have to write about what you know and I don’t really know much else that I could write about and get away with.
Raf - You’ve said that you never intended to be a singer, so at what point did you think that was going to work?
Raf: Just at the point where we’d done a few things and people seemed to like it really. The title track of the album we did with my vocal as a guide vocal and it was kind of accepted. Joe’s made a lot of records before this one, and the fact that he’d done that and thought it was alright gave me the confidence to carry on and push it a little bit. I wouldn’t say I consider myself a singer still, probably Joe didn’t either even though he’s sung over loads of records. We love big House tracks with a big screaming diva, but I think if we’d have got someone like that to sing the songs that we’d written the record might not have connected in the same way.
Joe: There’s something kind of honest about doing it yourself. Even not being the most polished singer like the two of us, and just having a go does make it human, makes it something that people can connect to.
Joe - you’ve previously said that you like music that has flaws in it so I guess this was an expression of that.
Joe: That is quite important to me. Not something that intentionally has a flaw, but for example, there might be a live recording of a band so they naturally have slight flaws. Keeping a little bit of humanity is really essential in music I think.
Raf: That’s kind of the opposite to what’s happening on the US dance scene, it’s very machine driven and loud. Not that we set out to make a record that was a reaction to that, we just made the music that we like.
Do you think the fact that you hadn’t made music before added a sort of freshness to it, maybe a different approach...
Raf: Probably, I don’t know, it’s hard to tell! Naivety as a record buyer and in music is something that’s really charming and you just get on with it and do it as a feeling. For example, I like crummy sounding punk records where someone’s banged out 20 songs in 25 minutes because they’ve got something to say. It doesn’t matter that it’s scrappy around the edges because as a piece, it works.
So Joe, you’re touring with Hot Chip at the moment. How does that affect each project, how do you manage the two?
Joe: Well, we haven’t had tonnes of time to do Bears stuff lately because of that, but it just means that we’re kind of building up ideas for the next time we get to record.
Raf: It’s quite good in a way. I mean, we did a remix quite recently, and because we hadn’t been in the studio for quite a while we were fresh to it and excited to be working with each other, it felt quite easy. I’m sure making the next Bears record won’t be as easy but it is good to have a break from things. Same I’m sure as when we’ll be making the next Bears records Joe will be happy to have a break from Hot Chip.
Joe: Yeah, it’s an obvious thing that variety is the spice of life!
So you’ve both been in dance music quite a while, how have you seen the changes in terms of people’s attitudes to dance?
Joe: I suppose the thing right now is that America is finally into rave, and that’s a weird one. It does feel quite strange when you see these videos of people going nuts in Las Vegas. It’s funny that it takes so long to translate, and I find it strange that for years and years the real architects of Dance music coming from Chicago and Detroit haven’t been able to get gigs in most parts of America
Raf: It’s all ebbs and flows with the perception of dance music, I mean I remember when everybody said it was all over in 1999 when Ministry was about to shut down. I mean it got completely inflated and it wasn’t sustainable so there was a big slump. People talk about the polarity of there being an EDM thing, but in amongst everybody else, they’re playing a bit of everything. Young DJs will play an old House record and a new Dancehall record and a Jungle record, and they’ve got the technical chops to put it together and the audience are up for it. I mean it’s a different thing going to see Kerri Chandler for five hours of deep House, but it all exists quite happily together on line ups and the rest of it.
Joe: One good thing is that if people are interested in exciting new records. Whereas a lot of the innovation is coming from Dance producers nowadays, there isn’t a lot of excitement coming from the more traditional bands who are not producing really well. I don’t want to overstate this, I mean there are good people doing good stuff but innovation is mostly coming from Dance music.
Raf: Or Pop, Hip-Hop, Jamaican music, but yeah, electronic music mostly.
Joe: Dance music is where the more interesting thinkers in music are coming from at the moment.
We’ve been told you both really love your food. Assuming touring allows you to sample amazing cuisines, what’s your favourite food?
Raf: Soho’s good for food actually, get good Sushi there. You get good exploding dumplings at the top of China town. London is really good for food now, there’s loads of interesting, small restaurants.
Joe: That’s hard to answer. I love all Asian stuff, Vietnamese, Thai.
Raf: Whatever’s fresh and tasty really.
Do you cook?
Joe: Yeah, I do a lot of cooking!
Raf: My missus is a cook. She has a Delhi Cafe in Brixton and she writes cook books, one of Joe’s recipes is actually in her new cook book.
Oh okay. What’s your recipe?
Joe: It’s called Fahimus Red, my brother named it. It’s just a salad that I started making to go with BBQs a few years ago. It’s got a lot of red stuff in it like beetroot, peppers, different kinds of tomatoes, bacon, chilli, lots of herbs, lots of onion. It’s like spicy and sweet. Like a Thai salad but with a few things you don’t normally get in Thai salads.
Can you talk about some of your influences musically and the scenes that have influenced you early on.
Joe: The big thing for me is if I go back like 10 years when I was at university, we would go to a lot of Soul Jazz parties, like 100% Dynamite. They used to run it at a pub across the road from Electro Works at Angel. That was some of the first times where I was getting into drugs and listening to music, like amazing reggae records and at the same time going down to Basement Jaxx nights in Brixton that Raf was involved in from the start. Then at the same time going down to Fabric to see Zinc or Zed Bias, then a bit earlier than that I used to go to Jungle things when I was at school in Putney, so those were my big clubbing experiences. I used to go to Forward when it first started at the Velvet Rooms, that was really at the beginning, before Dubstep existed really.
Raf: Was sort of Garage and breaks wasn’t it, a collision of that really. London really is the sort of big influence on us and our records and the way we DJ. You know the big tunes off quite a few different scenes I think, you know all the big Dance tunes, or the big Reggae tunes, or Rare Grooves tunes. It’s like a continual school of what’s going around. It wasn’t like people were playing that one record, because there weren’t many House or Garage records at that stage so it was like a weird Electro record from America, that was played with a Fun Boy Three record from the UK. That sort of thing has always been interesting to me, joining the dots between a lot of different stuff. That’s the skill of a really good DJ, taking stuff from all over the place and putting your own stamp on it and making it work.
What would you say you’ve learnt off each other working together?
Joe: Well I’ve talked about it before, learning about how House music works, and the structures. That’s an important thing because that puts it into a language that means it’s going to be playable for a lot of different people. It’s a case of learning some rules and occasionally breaking them. Raf’s good at finding samples which I don’t use much in Hot Chip.
Raf: I’ve learnt stacks, it’s a sharp learning curve for me as I’ve never made a record before. I’ve learnt a hell of a lot really. I’ve not really many technical skills in terms of actually putting something together, but in terms of the kit we have in the studio, drum machines and synthesizers, I could tell you better than I used to be able to what an LFO does now and that sort of thing. The dark arts of making electronic music are slightly less murky than they used to be.
So tell us a bit about 2 Bears, 1 Love mix and how you approached it…
Raf: We were asked to do two CDs, so we wanted to try and make them a bit different. CD 1 starts at a slower BPM and it’s a bit more mixed up. You hear more of the London influence I suppose. We’ve tried to represent a bit of what we’re about and a bit of the sort of place we come from as DJs. I was just listening to it on the train, and I’m happy with the way it flows, it was bearable at 10:30 in the morning on the train. I think we were conscious of that; we didn’t want it to be two hours of banging club tracks.
Joe: And it’s nice with these mixed CDs when people get to know them, and there are little moments in it. You want it to be something that people listen to for quite a period of time, that was something we were talking about; trying to make a mix that becomes part of someone’s life and stays with them.
Raf: I played one of these discs to my friend the other day and he was like “argh you’ve got Paperclip People – Throw on there” and I felt quite pleased that he had that reaction ‘cuz it’s still a really big tune to a lot of people. Equally there will be a lot of people that don’t know that tune, ‘cuz it’s not the easiest tune to play if you’re playing out, so it’s nice to put a few of those things on. Then there’s a few of our own productions, a mix of Wiley, a Todd Terje mix of one of our things as well, so we’ve tried to represent a bit of everything really.
Tell us a little bit about the concept for the artwork or just the overall concept for the campaign...
Raf: It’s that sound system culture I think, more specifically than Dancehall.
Joe: Yeah so that’s our sort of vibe for the mix, kind of throwing a bunch of things together, anything that will rock a party. Then obviously both of us have a real interest in Jamaican music and Raf has represented that a lot on the mix.
Raf: Scientists sleeves from the 80s were a starting point, that and a record called Live At Soul All Dayer Of The Century which is a recording of some sound system clashes that happened in ‘84 I think. It’s got a very similar vibe, like cartoon drawn things, people turning up to a dance, and it’s that sort of mix – up with all sorts of funny characters, a bit like a Where’s Wally photo. We just loved the playfulness of those sleeves.
And it was hand drawn, which is kind of rare these days…
Raf: It’s all done by our friend Ed Grace who designed this logo and has done all the artwork for everything we’ve done from the start. He’s a brilliant designer but also a great illustrator.
Joe: If I’m right there’s a dude called Ro-Jaws, a character from ABC Warriors from 2000AD, which is a comic I used to read when I was like 12.
Raf: And there’s some sort of Egyptian pharaoh vibe, a rude boy in a string vest, lady with a bear, I’ve not noticed that before, stood next to Dracula! I love sleeves like that where there’s always something to discover.
Just to finish off, what’s the future for 2 Bears, what are you working on for 2013?
Joe: Well we’re just starting to think about making more music. We’ve got a few things on the go, new tracks. We‘re slowly getting ideas together and our heads together for making another record.
Raf: Yeah, the talking goes on a lot really before the music. And family is what is going on for the foreseeable future. I’m having my first baby, Joe’s just had his second a couple of months ago, so there’s a lot of small babies around that will need feeding, wiping, and hosing down! That’s what you do with them isn’t it..?
Joe: Waterboarding?
Raf: Waterboarding that’s it! Tell me your secrets! The secrets of your innocence! Haha! But yeah, Bear families are going to grow and that’s a really nice thing. Then Hot Chip are obviously touring through the Autumn and I’m going to get along to as many of those dates as I can and we’ll do some after parties and so on. We’ve also got our launch night for this compilation at XOYO with Todd Terry which is brilliant. I’ve been so pleased with how accepted we’ve been by all of these old boys who we’ve loved for so long. Our Rinse show is rolling on, we do that one Thursday a month, 9-11, and obviously we’re thrilled as lovers of London Sound System culture and pirate radio. Pirate radio is also a big part of our influences too, like you’ll be driving across town in the middle of the night listening to the maddest music. I sometimes feel like I’ve dreamt those things and I’ll wake up the next morning and there’s been a drunken cab ride home and this guy is playing something that’s probably like Senegal or from Uzbekistan. That‘s an exciting feeling, thinking “Wow what is this?”.
2 Bears, 1 love is released 1st October - pre-order from iTunes
The 2 Bears play XOYO Saturday 6th October - for more info and tickets, head to http://xoyo.co.uk/
For more info head to www.the2bears.co.uk
