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Chicane on Sports Cars, Bryan Adams & Giving Up on Trance

Author: Angie Ng / Jonty Adderley
Friday, April 5, 2002
"I've got a little Golf GTi that I run around and a very limited, special edition Audi RS4; a 180mph estate car with about 400hp; completely mad but really cool. Then I've got a brand new Lotus Elise; the new shape, which is great fun and I've got a really dementedly quick Lotus Esprit as well."

That Nick Bracegirdle's career has already brought him better cars than his equally car crazy neighbour Jamiroquai is just one indication of how successful his band C hicane has been. Selling millions of copies of his three big tracks Offshore, Saltwater and Bryan Adams collaboration Don't Give Up, he's quietly become one of dance culture's richest and most successful stars, despite remaining largely anonymous within clubland, (unlike tabloid fodder Jay Kay). Down-to-Earth, grounded and resolutely sensible (he lived and worked from his parents' house until several years ago), he nowadays writes songs for Cher, as well as hanging with Bryan Adams on the worldwide VIP circuit.

Passing through Kuala Lumpur on the same week as the Grand Prix (he's mates with the McClaren team) he met up with Skrufff's Angie Ng, at her Wow FM studios.


Skrufff: You're playing live here on the same weekend as the Grand Prix, can we assume from your band name that you like motor racing-

Chicane (Nick Bracegirdle): Yes but that's not where the name comes from, it's a bit silly but the name came before I really started to like cars. Obviously Chicane is the word for two tight corners on a circuit but I originally chose it just as a good and unsual word. But since then, I've gone car mad. Everyone assumes that I'm called Chicane because I'm into cars, well yes I am, but…(shrugging)"

Skrufff: I understand you're friends with the McClaren Formula 1 team-

Chicane: (nodding) "I'm doing music for McLaren at the moment, who are obviously here in KL right now and their head designer is a guy called Adrian Newey (McClaren's Technical Director). He's got a Lotus Elise like mine, which he's tuned up so it's about as quick as a Formula 1 car up to about 100 mile an hour. So, I'm going to have a chat with him tomorrow during the practise day and see what he can do for me basically. I'm always tuning my cars."


Skrufff: I guess you can relate to characters like Jamiroquai with his whole stable of cars…

Chicane: "Well, oddly enough he lives just up the road from me. We both live just outside London, in the country. I actually haven't met him yet but no doubt we'll probably bump into each other on our way into town one day…and we'll have a little race sorted."

Skrufff: How much of your own material usually features in your DJ or live sets-

Chicane: "To set the record straight I don't actually DJ, which is a common misconception. I can DJ obviously but it's not what I do. We're here playing live, I've brought my whole band here. So, everything you're going to hear is me."

Skrufff: Do you not DJ at all-

Chicane: "Not really. I can do but on rare occasions do I DJ but if I do it's more of an eclectic set; more Cafe Del mar style rather than 4 on the floor mayhem."

Skrufff: how far along are you with your next album-

Chicane: "I've been spending a long time just trying to get the sound right. For me personally, the last 12 months of dance music has been a bit stale; there's been a lot of samey sounding (pauses), for want of a better word, trance type music around. It's not really been exciting me very much, so I've been spending a lot of time experimenting and I'm working with a couple of really good engineers. One of them is a great guy called Brian Higgins who wrote 'Believe' for Cher. I also just did 2 tracks for Cher's new album."

Skrufff: Your own sound up until now has been called trance…

Chicane: "Yeah, it's not my favourite term and I've gone on record saying that. For me and for anyone who has been involved in the birth of dance music and acid house, trance was a term used to describe a much slower, chuggier sort of mu
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