Layo & Buskwacka - Interview - 2002

Following the 12”, ‘Love Story’, 1 July saw Layo & Bushwacka! release their second album, ‘Night Works’ on XL Recordings. The album is another cracker: filled with thacking 4/4 and breakbeat-soul.

CMU caught up with Layo and shot the breeze:

What were you doing before you met Matthew?

“I was already involved with the End [club] with Mr. C [Shamen], and I met Matt [Bushwacka!] in the studio. He was engineering at the time, and I was working with some one else. I came into the studio to work on a few bits by myself and Matt and I just hit it off: it was very organic, we vibed well. We’d only done a couple of tracks before we decided to do an album.”

The album, ‘Low Life’, became a critical success in dance floor exploration at a time when dance music was a fertile pasture.

“At the time of ‘Low Life’, there was a lot of great dance music being made: Kruder & Dorfmeister was doing the downbeat thing, and Roni Size was taking drum & bass to a place it had never been before. Now I think there’s a sparsity of quality dance music; so we’ve had to go further inside ourselves for inspiration.”

It’s not only the media that’s getting frisky for L&B, the scene’s key players invariably site them as scene-leaders. Their signature string, synth, bass and beats has struck more than a chord with anyone with ears.

“We have such a good dialogue in the studio: anything goes. Whether we want to use electric guitars, gongs or blues sample – we just work with it.”

As well as spending time in the studio, the pair DJ around the world, presenting punters with their famous 5-hour sets.

“We to look into more than one style when we DJ: I don’t find that there’s ever enough for what we want in one genre. We play good breakbeat, good techno and good house; and we combine all three. Because we play longer sets we like to take the music all over the place – whether it’s downbeat, 4/4 or breaks.”

As for the scene at large, Layo reflects one of the scenes major flaws and a worry shared by many:

“Dance music has become over commercialised. For it to continue it’s got to go underground again. The fact is that it puts people off. People around the world love UK dance, but over here it’s got quite a large naff-factor. But that’s not where we’re from. I’ve always liked the edgy music: from when I was younger when I listened to 60’s/70’s psychedelia – more off the wall stuff.” 

With their almost svengali-like status within the scene, who do they feel are their inspirations?

“I guess there are only a few people but from a lot of different musical places. When it comes to techno I will always check what Laurent  Garnier and Richie Hawtin are up to, I check the homegrown stuff as well; Derek Carter, Kajmir. I also like Kruder & Dorfmeister and Jazzanova and so on. I’ll always check out LTJ Bukem and Mark E for the drum & bass stuff. There are a lot of other interesting things going on: people like Erol from Trash doing the kind of indie-dance hybrid stuff, and the whole electroclash thing.”

Be sure to check the album as well as one of their gigs. Whether you're in , LA, NY, Berlin, Scotland, Portugal, Spain or Brazil you’ll find them playing.