Jason swinscoe
In 1999, Ninja Tune released Motion, a debut from a band calling themselves The Cinematic Orchestra. The album was a surprise critical hit, mixing live jazz with sampled beats and vocals. The man behind the project was one Jason Swinscoe- a Ninja PR employee, accompanied by a group of talented, and classically trained jazz musicians. Their mind blowing live performances became well know, and The Cinematic Orchestra started making a serious name for themselves. So, by the time their second, Remixes album came out, everyone was singing their praises.
Today, The Cinematic Orchestra release a new LP, Everyday, and Jason Swinscoe has taken the time out to tell The Edge all about it.
How does Everyday compare with your previous musical offerings?
Well, the first album was kind of vocal samples and that’s the same with the remix album. But on this album, we’ve actually got vocalists. The 2 featured vocalists are Fontella Bass and Roots Manuva. So, that was a new step, sort of writing more structured pieces of music. Another difference is that the bass player, Phil France, has co-written some of the tracks as well, and his background is more traditional. He studied jazz theory and stuff so he brought a lot more on board on that side of things. We were able to develop melodic structure a lot more, to have key changes and to elaborate on harmonies and things like this. His background and study of music was much more theoretical, whereas mine wasn’t. I just kind of learned by ear. So his imput really changed the shape of the record as well. It was a conscious decision to step it up and develop the music a lot more, rather than just repeat what we did on the first album.
You said there were live vocals on this album. Did you write the lyrics?
No, the vocalists wrote the lyrics. It’s kind of not my forte really. I had a go at it but I was absolutely appalling, so I thought I’d give it a rest.
What’s in your hi-fi right now?
I picked up some records from Ninja recently- the new Herbaliser album. I’ve also been listening to Chris Bowden’s new album, which is really good. It’s very jazz.
Also, Gorecki, Symphony number 3. Completely diverse kinds of things really. It’s always nice being sent records.
Do you still buy records?
Yeah, I buy a lot of records. Actually, when I was writing the album every day, I was buying more older kind of records. Anything from classical, to African, or any kind of world music, to soundtracks to 60s experimental electronic music. For inspiration, or sampling. So, I was buying a lot of records then but now I’m just getting more stuff sent than buying it.
Whilst at college, you were in a post-punk band called Crabladder. What kind of music were you listening to then? How has your taste changed?
I was listening to a lot of Jazz Rhythm section, especially the bass player, ‘cos I played bass. People like Charles Mingus. And also, a lot of American post-punk music. People like Fugazi, Rage Against The Machine...
Any chance of a Crabladder reunion?
I know the drummer still, he’s living in London. The guitarist, who used to write most of the songs, is still in Cardiff and I haven’t seen him for about 8 years. But he’s a good mate actually, and I would like to hook up with him. But I really doubt a reunion is going to happen, anyway.
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