Musiq for Pleasure Interview

After playing a number of rockin' live shows at the Moonbar, Monastery, Rics and throughout the legendary Zen Reactor parties in addition to releasing their debut album "Soul Time", Musiq for Pleasure, the brainchild of Charles Henden and Matthew Redlich, has taken the Brisvegas breaks scene by storm. Fusing together sounds from jazz and soul through to breaks and electro, with ambient thrown in for good measure, Musiq for Pleasure has been invited to play live in Melbourne as Broken Home's very first interstate guests.

TranZfusion caught up with the boys for a chat before they made the trek down south to teach the cheeky Broken Home boys a thing or two...

How did "Musiq for Pleasure" come about- How did you two meet and decide to start making music together-

We went to school together from yr 5-9 and always had common musical interests, starting with the Stones and Hendrix, and progressing to
electronic music (Aphex Twin, DJ Shadow etc) around yr 11-12. We used to jam all the time, but never formalised into a 'band' until 2000.

Listening to your album "Soul Time" it's a boiling pot of a genres from Jazz, Soul, R&B, Breaks, House, Drum and Bass, Ambient and Electro. Who and what are your major inspirations and influences when producing your original material-

We get into just about every style of music (really mean that) as long as the song is good, we can dig it. Some of our biggest influences are Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Regurgitator, Leftfield, DJ Shadow, Qbert, The Orb, Hendrix, Zeppelin, The Stones, Kraftwerk, Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, etc etc etc ad infinitum.

Can you let TranZfusion readers get an insight in to how you work in the studio- What is your current studio set up and how does the creative process typically work for you-

We have a pretty extensive studio setup between us. We like to do a lot of live recording and make our own samples, and love having lots of interesting gear around to be inspired by. The recording and editing is still computer based, but we mostly use old analog synths and 'instruments' when we're writing, and track everything through vintage preamps/eqs/compressors that we've collected over the years. We still try to mix analog to tape if the song suits it.

Of course our 'duties' cross over a lot, but I (Matt) do more of the melodic parts and arrangments, and Charles does more of the rhythmic parts.

How would you explain your live sets to those punters that have not yet had a chance to see you perform- What should we expect from your upcoming show in Melbourne @ Broken Home-

It's a cliche, but we definitely mix it up. We play a pretty wide range of stuff, from our own tracks, to remixes and bootlegs and other artist's tracks. Most of the time we have control over the arrangments live and can change them at will, so we try to make it a little different every time. Basically, if you come to our show, expect to dance.

If there was anyone you could collaborate with past or present (dead or alive) who would they be and why-

Matt: Gustav Holst - I'd like to try and write "Pluto" with him, to update and finish off his suite "The Planets".
Charles: Prince - I'd love to hear how Prince's ultimate funk works in electronic music.

What's on the cards in the near future- What upcoming projects and gigs can you let us know about-

We're doing a few remixes for some OS artists at the moment (drum 'n' bass and IDM), and we're planning to play live a lot more often. We're also most of the way though a new album, some of which we will be playing in our set.

With the concept behind Broken Home being 'showcasing Australian Home Grown talent over international' how do you boys feel about the current climate of Australian dance music-

Even though dance music here has a relatively small following (compared to UK/Europe) we still seem to come up with some amazing world class acts, which is alw Tags

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