NEW JACK METAL

Rip It Up, Issue 167, 1 June 1991, Page 18

NEW JACK METAL

To the average hipster, a Wellington band who play thatamalgam of funk and metal may seem like another attempt by provincials to be up to date, but in the case of Emulsifier you couldn’t be more wrong.

My serious hipster attitudes (yeah, really) were well and truly jerked around by these boys. The funk/metal tag is no more than a tag, as these guys manage to soar above categorisation by making an exceptionally exceptional noise. The funk thing is less some obligatory slap bass, more an attitude, while the metal is no cast off Faith No More riffs, it's some full-on breaks escaping the restraints of good taste. After developing the usual hot reputation through live shows that really were shows, Emulsifier have released one of those EP deals that contains the instant white boy funk classic ‘Bootsay’ and the ‘Emulsifier Theme’, a nice guide to the band. They hurl deft samples, competent rapping and some sillyass rock poses into the mix and the result is pretty damn pleasing. Because of this, drummer/vocalist/sampler Juan V was forced to listen to some Mingus records and explain the meaning of Emulsifier. Here's what he had to say.

Where did you come fromin a musical sense?

“Well, we formed two years ago, initially there were five of us. We had Simon from Sperm Bank 5 with us for a while and we also had the keyboard player from a band called Bumpin’ Ugly but now we're sticking to the three of us because it seems to work so well.”

According to your bio, you guys have been in'some diverse outfits, Everything from Electric Church to the Brothers Gorgonzola. “Yeah, that was my first proper band, we were sort of thrashy, sort of funky with a bit of country thrown in as well.”

This classic NZ musical schizophrenia may go towards explaining Emulsifier's approach to funk which goes a lot deeper than the usual James Brown meets the Chili Peppers syndrome. You guys - seem to have a prefty well versed style of funk — interpreted rather than copied, =7 adis 2

“We listen to a lot of funk but Mal, because he’s a guitarist, listens to a lot of metal, speed and thrash. | also listen to lots of hip-hop so you get that as well. Because a lot of the

drumming I'm listening to is done on a drum machine or with looped samples it affects how | play.” Speaking of samples, Emulsifier definitely have the best approach to samplesl've heardinaNew Zealand band. They're used consciously and obviously but really well.

“Well, probably about a year or so ago Mal got his own keyboard sampler and we started trying to integrate it with our sound and get away from being a guitar based band and just have a larger repetoire of sound.” ’

There's a bit on ‘Juan Tasting’ on the demo where someone says ‘Here they are, Emulsifier!’ Who the hell is thate : :

“Its Steve Parr.” Noway!

“Yeah, really. We were actually on Telethon at 7am on a Sunday - morning. It was so funny, we mimed to ‘Emulsifier Theme' and Steve did - an intro. He'd been up all night and he read this blurb. ‘Here they are: a funky, rapping, rocking, heavy metal band, here they are, Emulsifier’ and we were videoing it so we were able to sample him.”

Back to the mundane everyday stuff, how does the songwriting

work¢ Seems there’s no shortage of creative input with the three of you. “We're always tryingtogeta more efficient way of writing songs so ifs-always changing. It started off Mal had a sampler so he'dget rough ideas together and we'd work them outas a band. Now Adam's working at Radio Active and has a sampler - and access o an eight frack and I'm working with their gear. Usually someone will come up with the basis of a song and then we all work on it so it's group writing really.” I really liked ‘Bootsay’. It sums up how | felt on discovering the joys of P-Funk and now some 30 albums later I'm still stoked on just about everything he does. Lines like You're black and cool, we're white and nerdy’ are just perfect. “Yeah. Adam came up withthe lyrics for that one and | just arranged them into verses that | liked because I'm singing them. | think we should - send a copy fo Bootsy, say ‘Hey

thanks Bootsy — you're the man!” ‘What about Crap Rock? There seems to be a definite influence

from the tackier end of the rock spectrum going on and | mean that in a nice way. I'm a huge fan of David Lee Roth and the like. “Definitely. We listen to a lot of crap rock and we like it. But we do recognise if’s crap, especially the visual element of it, all the posturing and that sort of thing. If's funny stuff, you really can't take it seriously, although a lot of people do.” What's the crappiest record you own? | mean, how down and dirty are Emulsifier really? The public -~~~ needstoknow. - “The crappiest record | own¢ God, that would have to be something like Litfle River Band. I also like a lot of stuff like Megadeth and Slayer — I've got a poster of Slayer on my wall in the armour and stuff.” (Ha! Foolish Juan V. 1 fessed up some of the truly afrocious LPs | own ~and made him think I'd put them in printtoo so as he wouldn't look totally crass and alone but | was lying. What a nasty thing to do — | loved itl). What about your pseudonyms? Personally, | like that sort of thing but what propelled you to do if¢

“They're pretty silly names but we thought it was boring just o see these normal Anglo-Saxon names. You look at rappers and Chuck D sounds a lot cooler than Charles Ritenour.”

Okay, enough Smash Hits questions. Tell me why Wellington keeps producing great bands? There's some real sharp sounds coming out of there.

“This could be a generalisation but it seems that a lot of Auckland bands have the image and stuff sussed out _ really well whereas in Wellington it's the bands are geared around the music.”

Well, | have to admif that's true in a lot of cases but doesn't having a smaller musical community help?

NEW RECORDINGS PRINCE Diamonds & Pearls

(Angaist). ¢ aee o DAVID BYRNE The Forest. NATALIE COLE Unforgettable. GYPSY KINGS Este Mundo. KRAFTWERK The Mix. RAMONES All the Stuff (& More) V 01.2.

Bands up here are notoriously harsh about each other. “Yeah, in Wellington everybody knows everybody. Ifs sort of incestuous, all these combinations of line-ups.” Tell me about the WellißassMachine tour you planned with Ruamoko —it sounded like a great concept. “That was going to be a sort of Orientation thing that never happened. It was planned as a totally self-contained show. Bands, rappers, DJs, lights, it still could happen.” Okay Juan, you've done well so I'll - let you off the hook. Give me a run down on your future and then you're a free man. “Umm, the stuff we're working on now is sort of like the EP. We're trying to keep it so we can play it live but there’s going to be more samples, sort of a rock basis but with a techno feel.” ; There's anLP in the works isn't there? “Yeah, we're still halfway working onit, we're never too sure how the stuff is going to turn out. We do want to keep the rock sound but at the same time become more familiar with technology.” So here they are, Emulsifier, Wellington punkers with a funky rapping rocking heavy metal leaning. | suppose the cooler-than-thou dickheads will till come down on any local act that tries something vaguely inferesting but Emulsifier shouldn't have too much trouble overcoming that. They seem like nice guys and they've got some damn fine tunes under their belts. | guess it's best summed up by the Theme From Emulsifier: “We may be honkies but we sfill got soul.”

KING KG

S’EXPRESS Intercourse

PRIMUS Sailing the Seas of Cheese. JAMES REYNE Electric Digger Dandy. O’JAYS Emotionally Yours. VANILLA ICE Live. TA] MAHAL Like Never Before