The Brag

Bonobo
The Great Escape
By Miki McLay

Effortless, laidback vibes seem instinctive to New York-based Ninja Tune stalwart Simon Green, better known through his production alias Bonobo. With ten years worth of expansive, breezy electronica to his name, it comes as no surprise that the London-born artist enjoyed such a musical upbringing. “My dad’s a folk musician and there were always a lot of people around our house – dudes with beards and banjos! I guess it wasn’t until I grew up a little bit that I started getting into the kind of stuff that I then started making. I went to Brighton when I was a teenager and that’s when I really started getting into it – I think it’s around that age that you begin to find your musical identity.”

Does Green feel as though his music is a reflection of his own identity? “I’d like to think so – it all comes out of me,” he answers. “I use music as a very escapist thing; if I haven’t made tunes for a couple of weeks I start getting a little twitchy, so I need to! It’s always this thing with trying to push forward and get a bit of myself out there, I guess. I think there’s always something nostalgic in music – you’re trying to create something that sounds like it’s from somewhere, but you can’t place it.”

Green’s most recent effort, 2010’s Black Sands defies the homogenous clichОs of ‘chillout music’, a term that’s associated with Bonobo’s output but does no justice to his organic-sounding, meticulously-wrought releases. While playing host to a string of gorgeous singles, Black Sands also exists as an interconnected, immersive whole – and reviewers and fans across the globe welcomed it universally. “I basically sat in a room for a year at four in the morning with some headphones on – and you have no perspective on it after a certain amount of time. It’s pretty much all me; I wrote and recorded everything… It’s not until it’s out and other people are listening to it and telling you what they think that it feels like it’s finished. Once you let it go is when it gets its own identity.”

A remixed version of Black Sands is set for release in mid-February, and the list of artists who’ve jumped on board is enough to make any discerning consumer of electronica a little hot under the collar. Floating Points, Cosmin TRG, Machinedrum – a sign of good taste, clearly. “Machinedrum and Lapalux were incredible, stuff from Brainfeeder – I’m really happy with the way it’s turned out. It definitely represents what I’m into at the minute,” Green enthuses. “When I DJ, it’s a lot more uptempo than the stuff that I [produce], so I’m playing a lot of that type of post-garage, bassline stuff. The new record has elements of that in it as well – some of the new stuff I’m working on now is moving into that slightly abstract house area. Ironically, the year I moved to New York from London was the year I started making really London-sounding music!”

The live Bonobo setup is a full band with six people, including vocalist Andreya. “It’s all live, we’re not playing over beats. We’re playing like a real band and dropping in the electronics as a part of that, another texture – so it is a genuinely live show,” he says. “Drums, horns, guitars, double bass, Ableton and keys. We go all over the place; strip stuff right down to guitars and keys, build it right up, go more into the DJ-esque field.” Green’s got family in Queensland, but hasn’t played in Australia before, save for a DJ tour. “It’s been a long time and a lot has changed, so I guess this is the first real Bonobo tour out there. I’m really looking forward to it.”

With: First Aid Kit, Jinja Safari, Gurrumul, Tinariwen, Chic, Baaba Maal, Dirty Three, Pajama Club, Blue King Brown and loads more
Where: WOMADelaide @ Botanic Park, Adelaide from March 9-12
More: Also playing at the Metro Theatre on Friday March 2, and at Playground Weekender, which is being held from March 2-4 at Wisemans Ferry.