CHICANE

Here's an interview with Chicane about Don't Give Up with Bryan Adams, February, 2000.

It's five years since Nick Bracegirdle, AKA Chicane, went into the studio and recorded 'Offshore', a beatless Balearic instrumental track. It got him a record deal, sold all over the world and kick started his incredible career. But with the dance world at his feet Nick decided to work with Bryan Adams. We found out why.

The single is excellent. Is it reflective of the rest of the stuff on your next album?
It's reflective of where I've been going in terms of not making 'Offshore mark 2' and 'Saltwater mark 2'. I've been going off in different directions so it is quite typical of what is on the album. Everyone seems to have jumped on the single instantly where as with other singles it took a bit longer. I'm very happy with the album; it's a lot better than the last album.

Your last single was a massive hit, does that have an effect on your thought process when making your next single?
It doesn't affect me that much really. Five years ago I had a hit under the name 'Disco Citizens' and I did feel it then, but I have since learnt how to look at each project individually and just say to myself "That was that, this is something different". Commercially, people will always judge you on how big your last record was, you just have to deal with it though.

How did the Bryan Adams collaboration come about, because it's not a sample is it?
No, not at all, I've been working with Bryan for quite a bit. He called me about a year ago, he had my old album and wanted to hook up. Originally it was just some remix stuff; he had a record 'Cloud Nine' that I worked on…

Did you remix it or produce it?
Well it was a remix but there was considerable production on it. If you listen to the two tracks there was a lot of production on it. I changed a lot of the keys and the melodies on it and the record company actually went for my mix as the radio edit. It went on to be a top five hit.

So you became friends from that point on?
Yeah, we worked on various things together, and then I wrote 'Don't Give Up'. I tried a few different singers then gave him a call and said, "Do you fancy having a crack at this?"

It's a bit off a strange collaboration. It could have gone terribly wrong.
It was a challenge to take a stereotypical rock voice and make it work. When we sent out the original promos to Tongy and everyone else we didn't tell them it was him. You'd never tell if you didn't know. We messed around with the vocal and got a totally different feel out of his voice.

What's he like?
He's a really great guy, everyone thinks he lives in Canada but he lives in Chelsea. He wants to keep on pushing what he is doing, he is very experimental. We are going to write a few things together. It's not going to be like dance remixes though, it's more a case of taking a bit of flavour from the dance scene and applying it to what he does.

You have plans to go out on the road with a band. What is your set up going to be?
We've been working hard on the live show, in fact Bryan is going to be coming down to do a live performance with us as part of a showcase for the album. The live set up will be me and a character called Tomski on keyboards, a percussionist, bass guitarist, acoustic guitarist, flautist, and three separate vocalists. I've been weaning myself off backing tracks for the last few years.

Not a lot of dance bands manage to crack the live circuit, what are you going to do to make yourself more interesting as a live act?
We're going to be getting Vegetable Vision in to do some images to make the show visually interesting. We're going to be a bit like the Chemicals, who are visual but hide behind a lot of gear, crossed with Faithless, who are very live. We've just done a trial gig in Germany in front of five thousand people and that went well, no hitches.

When you have the sort of live set up you've been using in the past you have to expect problems. What has been the worst live disaster you've had?
We've had all sorts of problems in the past. I did the MTV festival in Ibiza and we all had nightmares on that one. We had Enya's sister fly over to do vocals for 'Saltwater' and her microphone went down, the percussion fell over, an MTV camera man kicked off Faithless' power supply, Orbital over ran. It was just one of those gigs, but you do get them sometimes. You've just got to get on with it.

You're signed to Xtravaganza, which sees itself as being a Balearic dance label, but your music has a wide commercial appeal. Are you making the music you want to make or does the label dictate?
I'm very lucky in that I love what I'm doing as does the label. I'm given total freedom and it's fortunate that what I am doing musically fits in with the label and is also commercially viable. We have a love of what we are doing and we are not simply going out to write pop records, it's not what we are about. It's a great position to be in when you look out there and see so many artists who are doing what they love, but it's just not hitting home.

Unlike most dance producers, you don't use samples. How difficult was it doing 'Saltwater'?
I really wanted to work with Clannad, we got them in and the whole thing was re-sang. It was very hard to do because the vocal has about eight or nine harmonies and was about half the speed of my version. I spend a lot of time trying to get across to people that I didn't use a sample. I don't want to be branded as a Puff Daddy.

So you've worked with Clannad and Bryan Adams, given the free choice which artist would you choose to work with?
Fortunately I'm going to be working with Vangelis this year. He's a huge fan. Also, one of my biggest idols, Jean Michelle Jarre has been on the phone and he wants me to remix some stuff.

He's suddenly become cool hasn't he?
Yeah, but I don't quite know how that has happened.

So will you get to work with him?
It looks like I'm going to be busy, so it's going to be difficult, but if I get the chance then yes.

With all these superstars calling up to ask to work with you your manager must be kept busy. Who is it?
It's my mum, my mum is my manager.

How cool is that, is she a tough cookie?
Oh yes, you don't wanna mess with ma.

Take me back where we started!