---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999 08:23:10 -0400
Message-Id: <H000027f0191b51a@MHS>
Subject: found an old sunscreem article
TO: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ok, it's Friday, it's early, so I was surfing and randomly did a
search on Excite.com for Sunscreem and found the below article. I
dunno if I'm violating some copyright law by sending this to the list,
but I thought it was interesting enough to take the chance. It's
obviously old because of the New Order and (grrr!!) Sony references.
Regardless, it's better than working, yeah?
In order to avoid getting sued, I'm gonna say that this was written by
Bob Gourley and the website is:
http://www.zenweb.com/pan/legends/56/sunscrem.htm
hope y'all enjoy it...
Sid
Sunscreem have become known as one of the strongest live dance acts
thanks to the heavy gigging they've done around their native England.
But this past summer they put their performance skills to the test by
doing four American dates with New Order. It's a big jump from clubs
to large seated venues, but Sunscreem managed to pull it off
impressively. After the band's performance at Great Woods, which is
the last date on the tour, members Lucia Holm and Paul Carnell took
the time to discuss what Sunscreem is all about. "It's been a really
pleasant surprise because we thought that maybe everyone would just
sit in their seats," explains Paul. "But every night we've gotten a
great reception, particularly last night [at the Meadowlands], which
was a big arena with everyone standing. That was like 'wow.'"
"We didn't think it was quite possible that we'd come over supporting
a band like New Order and getting up in an arena," says Lucia, adding
how it is strange seeing 40 year-olds in the audience.
Sunscreem's line-up is rounded out by Darren Woodford (guitar), Rob
Fricker (bass) and Sean Wright (drums). In concert they are very much
a "live" band with the instruments working with the sequencers to back
up Lucia's vocals. But even though they don't completely rely on it
the electronics can cause problems like tonight when Rob's keyboard
somehow got routed to the drum machine and a bunch of sound modules
were not coming through. "Tonight we had a little bit of a problem
with MIDI. It's the first time we've ever had to stop a show, it was
just so bad," says Lucia. But when the problems occurred the band's DJ
took over by spinning some rave music. Sunscreem come from a
background of playing events that featured a mix of both DJs and
live acts on the bill. Eventually the group would like to take this
kind of event on the road in America as the Shamen and a few other
acts have done.
Sunscreem formed in 1990 when the members started going out to clubs
and experiencing the changes that were going on in dance music. "It
was bizarre. We were just sort of messing around with the idea of
trying to mix DJs with guitar," says Paul. "It wasn't really planned
because Darren, the guitarist, is also a studio engineer who left
school at 14 and went to work in the studios and built a studio. So
the three of us were really just enthusiasts messing around.
When the whole acid house thing hit we were really intrigued because
we were into sequencers and stuff. We felt a bit like 'at last our
music is here' because we'd been doing that for years."
As the group started seeing how the acts did PAs to promote their
music they realized that they could do something different. "It is a
response," explains Lucia. "We're not good at miming; we find it
uncomfortable. It's so much more of a buzz when you know what you're
doing is actually making the sound."
Live the group mixes everything on stage, feeding only left and right
channels to the PA so they are able to keep total control of their
music and make it consistent from night to night. The group uses
sequencers mainly to control all the MIDI gear; changing the sounds
and keyboard splits for each song automatically. Of course they are
also responsible for taking over the mind-numbingly repetitive synth
parts no one would ever want to actually play, for as
Paul says, "That's what they're there for!"
Once they started playing out Sunscreem soon attracted label interest
as they were spotted by EMI after only five gigs. They ended up
signing with Sony in early 1991 after about a dozen shows. Sunscreem
quickly learned about what life was like on a major label though they
have been fairly lucky in terms of getting things their way. "We
really kind of like carried on with what we intended to do, play clubs
and raves, though the record company wasn't quite so impressed with
that because they wanted us to make records," says Paul. "We said no,
it's got to stick to what we're doing." But there have been some
record companies' actions that the band does not approve of. One was
the decision by Columbia Records in America to put a photo on the
cover of the debut album, "O3." "I don't particularly see why music
has to have a face attached to it," says Paul. "I mean we're lucky
Lucia is a nice face, great, but one of the interesting things about
club music is that it's taken away all the marketing, all the labels,
all the packaging. If you like it you're like 'oh, this is good,'
it's as simply as that. So I think the anonymity that people have
criticized about techno is actually a good thing."
"Oh yes, I'm dead against that," agrees Lucia about having the band's
photo on the cover, adding that it is good to get live photos of the
bands in magazines, but not put their faces on sleeves. Another
problem that came from getting signed was being forced to use
producers as the band says that it slowed down the recording process
considerably. Most of "O3" is comprised of material they had been
crafting in their live shows so they were capable of recording the
songs quickly in their own studio. The label, however, insisted that
they not produce themselves.
As a band that emerged out of the rave scene Sunscreem don't like the
way it has become blown out of proportion. They refer to "rave" as a
"four letter word" and are happy to see it going back underground.
"It's got much smaller," says Lucia. "The big raves are too
commercialized, no one really cares what happens. They're not as
exciting as they used to be. I tend to go to small clubs."
Paul adds that "it's not as if people are turning off the music,"
explaining that the idealistic feeling that was evident when acid
house first hit has died down and people are generally going out less
now. There is also an interesting new law in Britian that makes raving
even more difficult. "They had passed a law to stop gatherings of more
than 500 people without a license and then they got quite extreme, I
think passing something to stop the gathering of more than 5
people with intent to have a party." says Paul.
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