INTERVIEW: Chris Bangs interview - Firebird album

Veteran Acid Jazz pioneer and DJ releases new solo album Firebird exploring his love of all things jazz and Latin, and much more. Following the success of his 2022 mod-club, soul-jazz adventure with Mick Talbot, on 27 January Acid Jazz Records will release Chris Bangs compendium of dance-floor fillers and Latin dynamite.

Here we have Chris answering a batch of questions for Gigslutz:

Can you please let me know a bit about your upbringing?

Born and grew up in Kingston upon Thames, usual boring suburban stuff really.

What was the first music you can remember hearing?

My dad bought me a funny red vinyl 78 of Popeye The Sailorman when I was but a wee ‘un.

What was the first serious music you can remember hearing?

My family house was a bit weird musically. My dad liked Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, etc. My mum liked The Beatles, but my older brother was an oddball – Ravi Shankar, Charles Lloyd Quintet, Stockhausen and Soft Machine, a weird mix. I think I took in a bit of all of that. My first big loves were rock bands like Pink Fairies, Man, Hawkwind, etc

When did you first get involved in creating your own music?

I got a guitar at 14, had a band at 15 playing terrible hippy drippy rock. I wrote and sang my own songs, pretty bad really. When I was 17 my mate took me to a soul night in Putney and within three months, the guitar was in its case, and I started buying loads of soul and funk vinyl.

How did you first get involved in the whole Acid Jazz/Talkin’ Loud scene?

Well, it kind of grew around me to be fair. Allegedly I came up with the ‘Acid Jazz’ name at a DJ gig with Gilles Peterson – we ran a lot of club nights together. Acid Jazz gave us a name to give to our bizarre mix of Jazz, Hip Hop, Rare Groove and poetry. I started making my own tunes – frustrated musician turned DJ. Turned musician again as the technology let me.

My personal favourite bands from that time were Galliano, Corduroy and Mother Earth. Do you have any particular favourite bands?

Galliano was the first act I ever wrote for and produced, so they’d have to be way up there. I also loved the [Brand New] Heavies and the Young Disciples.

You have worked with a range of artists including Paul Weller. How did you come to work with the Modfather?

I was producing Galliano and we had managed to blag Roy Ayers to come and play on some tracks for the album. Everyone and his dog tried to bust into that session. Weller knew Gilles who was our A&R man. Paul came and hung out and must have seen something he liked. He’d pretty much finished his debut solo album but asked to me to produce the last track which turned into ‘Above The Clouds’.

Your new album Firebird, what was the influence behind you creating the album?

I had just finished an album with Mick Talbot for Acid Jazz Records and had just completed setting up my new studio. I was listening to a lot of Jazz and Fusion again and I just was messing some melody ideas on guitar, with a few guide piano parts, and before long I had the start of what was to become the album.

How did the ideas for the songs on the album come to fruition?

I started getting a lot of jazz drum sounds together and programming up some beats with loads of percussion, playing in some guide basslines and piano chords to have a template to start developing into the finished songs.

Are you always thinking of new songs and new ideas for new compositions?

I have this terrible habit of humming tunes to myself when I’m trying to sleep. If I can remember them the next day, I figure I might be on to something. Occasionally I get up and sing into my phone so I don’t forget.

In terms of the guest musicians that appear was it a matter of calling on old friends to help out or did you have a vision of the sounds each individual musician could give to the tracks?

I made a conscious decision to go back to some jazz musicians I’d worked with years back when I was dong my first Acid Jazz records. The whole thing was recorded remotely and because I knew the players so well, I could sing or play some rough guide parts and knew they could develop what I’d sent into something special.

Is the album your own homage to the likes of Bobby Hutcherson’s San Francisco and the like?

The whole concept of the album was to make a set of tunes I would have carried in my record boxes back when I was first DJing with Gilles. I was influenced by a load of musicians rather than any particular tunes. People like Chick Corea, Tito Puente, Grant Green, Charles Earland, the list is endless.

Do you have any other plans for any future releases?

I’m living in Spain right now, in the nascent stages of a new album with Mick Talbot, working remotely while we are sketching out ideas and writing the tunes. We will be meeting up in the UK in May to start recording some tracks together.

I am also producing an album of covers, reworked into my production style and with a lot of Brazilian vibes in the mix, mostly vocal tracks and working with talent from all across the globe. It’s the very early stages but sounding really good so far.

Finally, what’s on your turntable at present?

That’s an easy one, new 45 from Stefano The Santis, ‘Barra Nova’, on Ten Lovers. Awesome !!

Firebird can be pre-ordered via the following link