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Feature: Blacq Gold Of The Sun - the music of Xantoné Blacq
Interviewer/Photographer: Marcos Moret
Twenty-nine year old Xan Blacq has but one solo release to his name, Search For The Sun, out on Vinyl Junkies and also
available on the Be Arisionable compilation. It's a lush piece
of downtempo soul-jazz that soars and lifts you, ecstatically, above the clouds towards the life-giving rays of that great
burning ball of gas far above our heads. Then there's the other notable recent work of Blacq's, the release of which
preceded Search For The Sun. Called
The Dance, it's a track he put out with Ray Wright, under the monicker 'Blacq and Wright'.
A sensual piece of soulful house, it again resounds with warmth, and is imbued with a hefty jazz-funk and disco
countenance that harks back to vintage days. It was on the strength of these two tracks that we felt we had to talk to Blacq,
sensing that what we were hearing were but the first of many such odysseys we would be privileged to embark upon courtesy of
his music.
How did the song Search For The Sun come about.
It came about through frustration, if I’m honest with you. I’d been doing demos for some time - I was following the path
that most people follow. And [A&R] people would get the demos and say “yeah, sounds really good, but can you add this, can you do
another one…” I got really pissed off with it, so I decided that I was going to save some money, build a home studio, and
release something myself. I did some gigs, saved some money, and I recorded the song at home. I wanted to do
something that stretched out a bit, because prior to that I’d been doing mainly RnB songs or soul songs which were 3 minutes
long, and I wanted to do something which was a bit longer, and to include more of a jazz feeling into it.
And you did everything on it - produced it, sang on it?
Yeah, everything bar the sax. The sax came about because I’d heard about the jam session that happens on Sundays at
the Jazz Café [Tomorrow’s Warriors]. So I went down at around the same time that I was recording Search For The Sun.
Everyone was getting up on stage doing their bit, and one guy really stuck out for me - Gilly Roth. So afterwards I went up
to him and kinda ambushed him and said, “hey, really love what you’re doing. I’m recording a track at the moment and I’d
like you to come down and play on it”. So he came down to the studio…and he played a bunch of different solos. We picked
one we liked and bingo, that’s how it came out.
You began studying in London in 1983, although it wasn't until 1992 that you moved here permanently from Nigeria.
Tell us more about your musical development since those days in London in the early eighties.
It’s funny to say, but I was completely a pop-head when I moved over here. I can clearly remember being ten
or eleven years old, studying and listening to people from Cyndi Lauper to Culture Club to Michael Jackson. My musical development was
very unplanned, very sporadic. Up until '92 I had not at all seriously thought of pursuing music. Around ’92 I left school
and I was going to try the university thing and I was going to do Business Information Technology. I tell people now and
they can’t believe it! I did it for year, and it just didn’t quite work out. During that period of time I joined some vocal
groups, including a group called Smoov Society. At that time I was completely into RnB and New Jack
Swing. It was all the rage, and I was listening to people like Teddy Riley, Guy, Aaron Hall, and Jodeci. And I was into some
soul guys like Keith Washington and Shante Moore. Jazz? Not really. Around
’97 or ’98 was when I started paying attention to jazz and jazz-funk. But in ’92, as I said, I decided I wanted to
sing. My father had always encouraged me as a child to sing - not necessarily professionally, but he felt that I had a voice
and he though it would be a waste if I didn’t do something with it (thanks Dad!). So I decided to start taking singing
seriously. We supported people who were at that time quite big names like Cheryl Pepsii Riley, Intro, and The Good Girls. But
alas, the group wasn’t to be, and we went separate ways.
By this time I was singing regularly, practicing very hard, and I wanted to add the colours around my singing. Once again I
did a little saving, and bought a keyboard and started to play it. That was about ’97. I’d had enough of groups, so I
decided I was going to go solo from that point. I started teaching myself to play, and met friends, including Ben, who was
very instrumental in bringing me into jazz-funk. I remember him bringing me a Herbie Hancock album and I was thinking “well,
this stuff is kind of alright, but it’s a bit weird, I’m not sure.” And then gradually I was weaned onto the jazz-funk stuff
and started getting into Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Roy Ayers, and all these other people.
I learnt guitar - I wanted to learn something which was mobile, and carrying a keyboard around isn’t the most practical
thing. It’s gone pretty well. During the period of time I was with the second group, that didn’t amount to much and disbanded
around ’97 - that was my first bit of dabbling into production. One of my friends had a home studio and I
was staying with him at the time. He had a program which no-one uses now - Notator or Creator. That was my first time of
using a sequencing package and using samplers. Everything was very much sampler-based in the productions I was doing then,
because I couldn’t play. So that was all part of the musical development, up 'til now.
You’re working on an album now?
Yes I’m working on my solo album. It’s coming on nicely. It’s had some hiccups in the sense that I’ve been DJing, I’ve been
doing this and that. As a result, that’s chewed up the time I’ve had to concentrate on the album. But the album is
flowing very nicely now. I’ve got some special guests who I’m planning to have on there – to do some singing, some rapping,
and stuff like that. But yeah I’m very happy with how that’s going.
Who would you say your musical influences are?
People ranging from Herbie Hancock, who’s a major influence, to people like George Duke, Natalie Cole, George
Benson, Miles Davis, Joe Henderson, Horace Silver.
Do you go back to Lagos?
I haven't been back for a while but I’m planning a trip in the next year. I need to get back in touch with the roots! There are
a lot of musical things going on, and really, I’d like to go back and study a lot of my musical heritage from Nigeria.
How was your recent time in Brazil, and what were you doing out there?
Brazil was a holiday. But it turned out to be a working holiday, which was a beautiful thing! Went out there just to hang
out. My dad promised to take me, but he never did, so I thought “now’s the time!”. Went to Rio at first - beautiful. Stayed
there for five days and then went to Salvador. While I was out in Salvador, I hooked up with Wagon Cookin’ who were out there
recording their second album. They’re really lovely guys. Went into the studio, recorded three tracks with them. Very ad
hoc, you know, turn up in the studio, “we’re not sure which tracks we want you to record but there’s this kinda idea floating
around - what do you think, can you chuck something on it?” Spent some time there. Then Trama were kind enough to fly us
over to Sao Paulo and they put us up there. And again, people were just beautiful, and I went into the studio with one of
the Trama artists, Bruno E, who is working on an album at the moment, and he had a particular song that he was interested
in me recording as a result of hearing Search For The Sun. He couriered me a CD, I sat down in Salvador, wrote some
lyrics, wrote a melody, landed there on Friday, rested for a bit, then went into the studio on Friday night. It was pretty
heavy! And recorded this tune, which turned out well and he was very happy with it and likewise. I’m now feeling very keen
to go back to Brazil to go and do some work, because I’ve met some really really lovely people. And generally people in
Brazil are very friendly, very helpful people.
What else are you into apart from music?
[Laughter] I suppose I’m more arty than anything else. I love photography. If I hadn’t become a musician I’d like to think
that I would have become a photographer. That’s what I did when I was at school and I won prizes for it. I love film. I
like travel...
What are you listening to at the moment?
I’m always listening back - '60s, '70s, '80s. But I’m trying to get some balance in my diet otherwise I’m gonn completely be
listening to the old stuff. So the newer stuff I’ve been listening to includes Bruno E’s album, which is very cool. Who
else? Fat Freddy’s Drop. In fact there’s a New Zealand label called LOOP
that are putting out some good stuff. Then Ed Motta. Then I'm checking
out my old stuff - Patty Austin, Quincy Jones, etc.
What are your plans for the future?
I’m doing a remix for Compost at the moment for a group called Intuit. So for me also the future is about finishing the
album, signing the album. So any prospective labels who are interested please contact us! I want to go back to Brazil and do
a project along the lines of Xan Blacq meets x. I want to do more collaborations, remixes. And very importantly, I’m very
keen to do some synchronization, in the sense that I want to do some film music, I want to do some music film. That’s an
area which I’ve always been interested in. I want to do some stuff which is not just song-based - soundscapes and things...it
doesn’t have to be a feature film. So that’s a direction… I’m interested in making music and doing music in as many ways
as possible.
NOTE: Labels potentially interested in signing Xantoné Blacq should contact Charles at Kartel Creative -
charles@kartelcreative.co.uk.
RELATED LINKS:
Buy Be Arisionable (contains Search For The Sun) at Amazon
UK (
CD /
Vinyl)
PUBLISHED: Thursday 18 December 2003
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::: RELATED LINKS
Buy Be Arisionable (contains Search For The Sun) at Amazon UK (
CD /
Vinyl)
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