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Posted on on 20 November 2007 by Andrew Thompson

This week The Upbeats second album, "Nobody's Out There", dropped around New Zealand stores, and at the end of the week the boys are doing two live shows in Wellington and Christchurch to promote it. I had a quick chat with Jeremy Glenn (one half of the duo, the other being Dylan Jones), about the album, the live act and whats to come....

How and when did The Upbeats form?

Well we first met back at Wellington High School in 1998. Started surfing together, and hanging out, and then slowly I managed to hook Dylan into Drum & Bass. It was not long after that, that we were introduced to music production software through a friend of ours 'DJ Sift'. And from that initial contact we were hooked and the upbeats was formed.

What inspired the your name?

As usual, antics in the studio. We've never taken ourselves very seriously, and generally the way we name anything is based on what we find funny at the time. One day we were in hysterics coming up with parody names for an old Lee Perry album 'Super Ape & the Upsetters'.
We thought it would be fitting to be 'Super Chimp & the Upbeats'... and it just stuck (minus the super chimp of course).

So you released your first album back on loop, was there immediatly a plan to do a second?

Yeah indeed, we knew that the first album was really just to get the name out there. It wasn't our ideal image of what an album should be.
So as soon as we finished that last one we started formulating the concept which has led to this album. It's been a very long road, and it feels so good now to be at the point where we can unleash it on the public.


Why base an album on a fairytale?

Hmm, well i suppose because a lot of the music we were writing at the time had a kind've spooky feel to it, and we thought it would lend itself to a fairytale, and the imagery you can imagine in a fairytale gave us great inspiration to come up with some wierd ass music.

what was your favourite fairytale as a kid?

All about brothers grimm, and also the new school fairy tale Where the wild things are.

The artwork seems integral to the album, was this always the idea?

That's something that developed along the way. Initially it was all about the music and story, but as that evolved we began to think more and more about the prospect of making this into a proper illustrated story/book. Through meeting and working with a few people in Wellington, namely the fine people at Resn design we started to get some good contacts for local illustrators.

What artists have you collaborated with on the album and how hard has that been?

On the CD version the only collaborations are between the vocalists Georgie & Ryme Tyme, and local man heat producer Trei. They're all been heaps of fun, it's always great getting to work with other people, you always get the chance to look at things from a different perspective and pick up new approaches and techniques.
On the vinyl version of the album there's also a collaboration with 2 of the bad company boys (vegas and maldini) and dj sylo. This was our 4th attempt at a collab. Each time we had visited the UK we had started tune, and they always ended up half done, but this last trip resulted in 'Deadbeat' which has turned into a favourite of ours on the album.

So you are doing selected shows of your album release tour as 'live' - what does that entail?

Glam hair, painted nails, pelvic contortion.. the usual upbeats performance style, but with a bigger sound and more engaging stage performance.  We've got our new female vocalist from Sydney, Georgie, who leads the way on the mic and we are so over the moon with finding her, what a talent. Then dylan rocks out his electric guitar with midi pickup, and also graces the microphone at select points. Then myself, i act like i can play an instrument, playing keyboard, and then both dylan and i have a whole lot of loops which we have to trigger from ableton off the two laptops on stage. And to tie it all together the mega-man optibreak bringing the ultimate visual vibe.

You've played one Live show already, did that go well?

It went really well. Couldn't have asked for a more receptive crowd.
Dunedin always puts it on, and it was a great place to debut the new live thing.

So as well as the new album you have started your own label, whats it called and what can we expect from it?

Non Vogue!!
It's the new outlet for our future creations. Primarily it gives us the freedom to make whatever music we want, and release it however we want, no matter how wierd or kooky it gets.
The first release is about to go to master and is two collaborations.
On one side is a new collaboration between us and State of Mind called Planet Earth, and on the flip is a collaboration between us and american misfits Evol Intent and Ewun. Can't wait for it to be out, they're my two favourite tunes of our at the moment.

You've seen NZ Drum and Bass change a lot over the last few years, whats your take on the scene at the moment?

It's healthy as can be. Particularly in the south island. All the promoters we talk to are saying this is one of the best years they've had in a while, i know Wellington has been going off this year, with a new influx of rowdy students, and i think thats wicked! That's the thing that will keep this scene alive, and healthy, is the introduction of the yout'.

And what now from The Upbeats for the next six months/year..?

Nov is the NZ tour, then following that we have a month to get in the studio and get some new ammo together, then Jan is US tour, Feb and Mar we're back to europe and the uk again. So it's pretty full on. But that's how we like it. So release wise, beyond the album, it's going to be all about the launch of Non Vogue, and potentially new singles on Virus and Ganja.. muhahaahaha.

Cheers mate, good luck with the tour.

Cheers!