Freedom Fighters

Paul Godfrey and Skye Edwards are happy campers. And why wouldn't they be? Their band, Morcheeba, are about to release their third album, Fragments Of Freedom, which looks set to propel them into music's major league. It hasn't all been sweetness and light, however, especially since the tour that followed their last album, Big Calm.

"We nearly split up, as you do when you come off the road and all hate each other," Paul deadpans. "There was a lot of personal shit going down. Things weren't looking too good. Ross and I didn't really want to work with Skye anymore and I don't think she wanted to work with us. But I think we realised that once we were all big enough to get over the personal shit, we made some good music together. We had a certain group destiny that we had to pursue."

"I dunno if you're going out with anybody," muses Skye, getting my hopes up, "but as much as you love someone, imagine being with them 24-seven, stuck on a small bus. It can get hard doing that month after month, so it was very important for the survival of Morcheeba for us to take a break, to get back to basics. It's nice to do things at your own pace and not have to put on make-up, not having to talk to people when you don't want to."

To this end, Paul bought a house, got married and became a father. Skye and her two kids moved from a one-bedroom flat in East London to a house in Brighton. They're also going to be more sensible about their touring this time, hitting the road in short 1–2 week bursts. I wondered if Paul's oft-spoken-of drink and drugs binges can continue on tour now that he's a family man?

"Not really," he sighs. "What tends to happen is that after about six months I'll crave that kind of evening and we'll get some drugs in. I might do the first line of coke and then go, 'Oh fuck! I don't wanna be here.' It's a bit like when you grow out of acid and you do it that one time and you start coming up — you realise that you don't want to be there and you've another five or six hours to go through. That's what puts me off for the next six months 'til I'm stupid enough to try it again."

I wondered if Morcheeba's noted antipathy towards touring could have anything to do with their participation on the Lilith Fair tour a couple of years back?

"Oh God, that was an absolute fucking nightmare," sighs Paul. "We couldn't even get a strong drink on site. We were out there in 120 degrees — as soon as you walk out of your hotel, you're drenched with sweat. We couldn't get pissed, we couldn't score any drugs and we were just sitting in a mobile home for a week and then driving in vans between the shows. Then we'd play for 25 minutes to a load of mulletted dykes who didn't know who the fuck we were."

Ahem! Mulletted dykes aside, Morcheeba's road trip has so far seen them release two wonderful albums, 1996's Who Can You Trust? and 1998's Big Calm. Paul writes lyrics, and supplies the beats, arrangements and loops; Ross chips in with some sonic guitar and Skye's languid, luscious tones fuel many an adolescent fantasy. Their seamless blend of funk, hip-hop, soul and gospel created a love affair with Planet Pop that has really reached fruition on the new album, Fragments Of Freedom.

"In the past, we didn't really push Skye as hard as we pushed her on this record," notes Paul. "Because her voice is so sweet and sugary, we didn't want it to sound too sweet, so we put all these rumbling, scary noises underneath it. It was kind of cool in the nineties to be all dark and moody, but now happy is the new miserable."

While always being popular "in a quiet sort of way", as Skye describes it, Fragments Of Freedom could be the album to propel Morcheeba into the big time. Is that something they'd welcome?

"The more people that listen to music that I had something to do with the better, as far as I'm concerned," notes Paul. "I don't want to be in any kind of elitist club."

"It would be great to be successful because it would help to achieve sustained longevity in our careers," notes Skye. "It would also help to have money rolling in to pay my mortgage and feed my kids. I could definitely handle the rich part, but the idea of fame scares me in a way. Pressure-wise, with the fame side of things, I think it's important to keep your feet on the ground and thankfully I've got my friends and family around me to do that."

Fragments Of Freedom is out now on China/eastwest Records.