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I think we've got a lot to do.
It's funny though, being here in London.
In a couple of weeks we'll be back
in this glorious, cold city, having done all this stuff.
- Yeah. - It's gonna be kind of weird.
Yeah.
Looking back, it'll be a very dense chapter of our lives.
Exactly. It's gonna be chaotic.
And probably there'll be too much people.
At least, the one thing I take confidence in
is everybody is so chilled out that is coming on this trip,
it's like there's no wild card person that is going to...
Except Winston.
Fine.
We're gonna crack on.
How are you doing, are you all right?
We've always been a collaborative band.
We were four guys in other bands, when we started out.
It feels like a third date now.
It's a deeply collaborative world
and the sort of experiments like this one
are realty what it's all about.
ls everyone here from Cape Town?
I love playing with people.
It's fucking awesome. It makes you better, you know?
We should, in theory, be able
to lay down our egos and try and make something good.
Having two days to record some songs
is a massive challenge.
There's something about travelling and being in places
that you aren't from
that keeps you kind of humbled, in some way.
We love getting people up on stage,
sharing those moments... And we've done it.
Every step along the way.
That's just the nature of a tour.
It's kind of the fun of it.
Travelling together and doing shows together.
That always serves to deepen friendships and connections.
We take a lot of pride in our shows
and also in the way they're set up, the places that they're in.
This first song is about what we were back in 1998.
Yea-eah!
The road, it never realty gets boring for us.
For this band is, like, it is our home, really.
It's where we make sense of everything that we do.
A little police escort, eh?
Is that the police or just one of the traffic wardens?
I spoke to a radio DJ in Cape Town.
He was like, "You've got to come and do a show."
Winston went out there, came back
and he wrote the longest email I've ever seen him write.
And said, "Let's definitely do it."
I think we get terrified at the idea
of doing the same thing again and again,
and trying new things has always been...
You know, it's how we started as a band.
We booked the tour,
and felt like we wanted to do something special around it,
rather than just go there and play
as big a show as we could.
I think to come away with a good couple of songs,
written and performed to some extent,
would be amazing.
I've never been to South Africa,
so I don't quite know what to expect, really.
It all sort of came together quite naturally,
in that we had friends in The Very Best, Johan and those guys
who we'd done shows with before.
They introduced us to Baaba Maal and Mamadou.
We got along really well,
so from that, as a sort of first meeting,
I think we realised we were on a similar page straightaway.
We met the Beatenberg guys cos we asked them to come out
and play at the stop-over we did in Aviemore, in Scotland.
We were fans of theirs from afar.
They're proper musicians.
It's a weird mixture of people going to South Africa cos...
Johan's Swedish,
Beatenberg's South African, you know.
Baaba is Senegalese.
It's kind of a weird group.
Everyone really just wants to play music
and see other people play music well.
No one came in as a star.
No one came in with any kind of real "primadonna"stuff
We just wanted to play music together.
So even if he's right, just ignore him.
Even if he's like, "Yeah..."
It's all about learning, it's about a journey.
We're driving into the mind of every one of us.
And we drive into their environment,
into their musical experiences.
We come from different parts of the world.
We know different things and we have to bring it together.
Even though in effect
we are ail strangers just coming together,
to make music and go on tour,
we'd still have a shared experience
in that we all still have a job to play live for a crowd.
And in that way we have something in common,
immediately.
So, we show up to the Cape Town gig, first day
and everyone's aware that they have to play a gig that night.
That gives everything a purpose and that sense of purpose helps
to galvanise a group of people, I think.
Their music is full of harmonies,
it is full of joy, it is full of lessons of life, you know?
This is what you know from music in Africa.
It's not just the rhythm.
It's not just the show, the entertainment.
It's also the melodies, it's also the harmonies.
And, on the top of that, all the messages of love
and respect, and coming together.
I can't ask more than that.
So, we've been doing this song "Lampenda"
off Baaba's album.
We're trying desperately just to do it justice,
and to do a good version of the song, and Johan produced it.
Obviously, it's Baaba's track, so, the pressure is really on us
to deliver in that environment.
Actually, it was probably a good way to start the collaboration
because it put everybody on their toes.
Because it was such a hard song to play live.
Those guys are such great musicians
and so musically bright.
They've, like, so studied music so much.
You're coming in earlier than it is on the record.
On the record you leave a bigger gap.
We very rarely talk about
how many bars and what chord goes where.
Whenever we're making music, that's not...
It's funny. It's almost making us be more like that.
I think when we come to actually writing music together,
it'll all feel a lot more natural,
cos we’ll be starting at the same point, essentially.
Let's hear it from the top.
See if we can all lock in,
cos I think everybody's still a little bit confused, I think.
No shit!
One, two, three, four.
OK.
Whenever you come in.
I remember just looking at Baaba
whilst we were massacring his song.
We were kind of.. kept on screwing up.
I think that was a really good song
introducing ail of us
into the way that we were trying to cross over
different hybrid forms of music.
We all thought we were telling each other how it went.
And I was like, "No, this is how it goes, "
and then it'd be wrong
and Marcus would be like, "No, this is it. "
And it would be a different sort of wrong.
Try it again, try it again.
I think we got it once, and everyone got really excited.
But we didn't know what we had done.
I think it was an accident.
Yes.
That's it.
There's a rhythm in the song.
Just the way that we were all communicating
and getting comfortable with each other, it was cool.
It was important to establish a work of art together.
I'm looking forward to trying
to write some other songs,
because I'm sure this is the land for it, to create music.
You know, it's travelling, and when you travel,
that opens your mind and your inspiration.
It's always really nice just to go to a new place
we've never been.
Often as a band going through towns
and just not stopping, really.
It gets kind of exhausting.
So, to actually work out ways in which you can really engage
with a country and its people...
And we will embrace this opportunity.
This collaboration is a prime example of that.
I'm just looking forward to not just visiting the place,
but actually making some friendships, connections, music.
That's really why we do this, you know?
We should have gone to South Africa
much earlier than we have.
It's one of those things, like, when you haven't got back
to someone who has written to you and you feel so bad
and then you feel so bad that you just leave it,
cos you're scared of it. It's a bit like that.
Thanks to you for being patient. You're great.
And I'm so proud we got to come. I'm really, fucking proud.
One, two... One, two, three, four.
Yeah!
Music is the best way that I can communicate.
I've always struggled
saying what I want to say any other way.
You know, sometimes the best way to get to know each other
is to do it with an instrument in your hand
and start telling stories and singing stories.
It's a nice way to go a couple of layers deeper with people.
There's something about a collaboration
that requires certain dynamics,
and we've found there was quite a natural balance
of people bringing different qualities to the table.
We're gonna invite some friends up on the stage
to sing this next one with us.
Please, welcome back Beatenberg The Very Best and Mr Baaba Maal!
It's made this kind of weird super group,
this, like, 1718-person supergroup,
which I'm really enjoying the sound of
Johan is great when he's sober.
He's very productive when he's sober.
Baaba is the king.
Esau is a raw genius.
Jutty is a soulful... loving dude.
He's the sort of guy you'd like as an older brother, I think.
Seye. Seye is a big-match player.
Robin. He's just like a good vibes man.
He's always cracking gags, keeping everyone cheerful.
Ross is very, like, present, concentrating,
and just working, quietly aware of everything.
Matthew is very jazzy, but also a musical genius.
Mamadou is officially the nicest person in music.
The sweetest man maybe I've ever met.
I hope we don't fuck up.
And if we do fuck up, we'll just hide behind Seye.
Actually, this is a great combination of..
very different personalities.
But all of them work very well together.
Thank you!
We love them very much.
We're getting to spend another whole week
in this wonderful country, touring around with them.
As with any recording process and creative process,
whether you’re on tour or not,
it's like anything that's around you will influence you a lot.
It might be the hotel room that you are stuck in.
You know, it's the thing that influences you.
But if you venture out,
and can get influences from whatever it is you come across
and see and experience,
I think that can have a much bigger impact, actually.
I love going to a place I've never been before.
It gives me such a sense of achievement,
even without doing anything, just going there.
My grandparents lived in Kloof, here.
I guess Dad and his sister
would have come here on their holidays.
The story I heard from Aunty Penny
was that there was some P. W Botha election rally
and he was talking about how you mustn't have interracial...
I think interracial marriage was illegal, and having sex,
interracially, would form mongrels,
which Dad was very loudly heckling.
And then, when P. W Botha said,
"What other country boasts
the roads and infrastructure that we have,"
he shouted, "Nazi Germany." And got ushered out.
So, I think my dad's cool for a lot of reasons,
but that is pretty fucking sick.
We went for lunch. We stopped at a hotel,
called the George Hotel, in Eshowe.
We met the guy who runs it,
who apparently I met three years ago
in a pub in Ipswich and he remembered my name.
He's taking us into the heart of Zululand,
to meet a witch doctor, who I think is going to...
Do witch doctors heal us or say prayers for us?
- I think we're gonna find out. - We're going to find out.
He's going to throw some bones.
Hey!
These are the herbs
that Michael uses.
Michael has also brought the love potion.
You know, let's say there's this girl that you like.
Then you'll come to Michael and he'll give you something,
so you will put it here on your eyebrows,
then that girl will find you irresistible.
Yeah.
This song's called "There Will Be Time".
When you're on tour you end up in this tittle bubble.
So, the fact that we did the Cape Town show,
the Durban show, at that point, for me, I felt like
all the bands were all in this bubble together.
It kind of bonds you as a family,
for the period that you are all together.
We were all offstage and away from the shows,
engaging pretty deeply
in any element of the cities as we could.
Talking to people, coming back with stories,
having that exchange, going out in the evenings.
And that stuff ends up being a subtext or a kind of basis
for actually recording and making music together.
We felt like we were all there physically.
We were in South Africa, exchanging stories already.
I think there's a real bond, everyone's on really good form.
It felt like we were ready to kind of start writing songs,
and getting on with it.
Thank you!
Colin, the manager.
- Hey, boys. - Hi.
There's nary a body in here.
Lads!
Johan!
I lost you.
We are at the South Africa Broadcast Centre.
It's a bit weird, it was built in the '70s.
'60s, '70s. I don't know.
No windows anywhere.
No one ever knows what time it is,
which I think is intentional.
The rooms definitely sound good,
cos they're ail wood and dead,
which is kind of important.
This is the exciting bit.
I don't know why everybody's so nervous about this.
This'll be fine. It'll be fine.
There's a lot of really confusing corridors.
I think it's good because it means there's no distractions.
You literally have to go through airport security
to get in and out of the building, so...
It's easier just to sit and play another musical idea
than it is to go outside and get some fresh air
which, when you've only got two days to record
some sort of record,
is a healthy thing.
I don't think it's gonna mess with anyone's creativity.
It puts you in a situation where you're out of your comfort zone
and everybody is equally out of their comfort zone,
so everybody is kind of equally shocked, in a way.
And I think shocking can be really good to creativity.
For us, music is as much a social project
as it is a technical one, you know?
We've got a bunch of engineers.
We've got Dan and Joel, Johan and Ben,
who can all engineer recording sessions.
And then we've got amazing musicians
who can lead, like, jams, and rehearsals,
and come up with ideas.
Then we've got writers as well.
So, we know we've got the potential to do something cool.
Then it's about logistically whether it can happen.
I'm pretty apprehensive.
It could just be like loads of little drum patterns.
Some random...
...jokes, melodies that don't make any sense on top.
Could be awful. Could be awful.
For some musicians, everything has to be planned
but here, we don't have a plan B, D...
We have ideas. Everyone came with different ideas,
and we just put it in the same place
and make it happen, I think.
That's the thing. Everyone wants to give something,
everyone can bring some ideas.
Maybe it's too many ideas, also, to put together.
But this is how it should be.
I don't think that "dah dah dah dah"... or like...
Do you think that should run through the chords as well?
- What, that? - No, no.
It's rare. We're supposed to go in the studio
and our plan is to make two songs.
Maybe two instrumentals.
Cos there's four bands in there and it's complicated.
It's like two studios... It's like everything is against us.
What the fuck was that?
What was that?
Is that breaking up with you loads?
That's nasty.
Nothing seemed to work, even though they had these
really elaborate set-ups and desks and everything.
Every time we plugged something in, it crackled and popped.
So, I think Dan's probably lost a few years of his life,
unfortunately.
Yeah, it kind of comes with the territory, I guess.
- So, it's not the amp. - No.
I think there's a lot of worrying from people
who's been here for days trying to set it up.
You know, Dan, Beth, Joel...
You know, there's always ways around it.
Cool, we've figured out how to do it.
Great.
We 're cutting out the control room.
That is coming down and going straight into me.
Wicked.
And we're setting up the same scenario thing in there,
on my other laptop that Dan will run.
Luckily, Johan had the idea ages ago
when we were sorting this out.
He's going to bring his own mobile recording set-up,
so, if all else fails, we can record through him.
So, we're using all their really posh gear,
going into a laptop.
Thank goodness for, like, modern recording!
That was a very natural rehearsal room
and that was a very natural set-up recording room.
The rehearsal room still worked
as a place where people jammed out ideas.
There will be multi-track recording.
Dan Grech will be in there, Joel will be in there,
capturing everything.
It's like writing, tracking basic ideas.
The room that I was working in,
where me and Marcus would be most of the time,
receiving some of the songs,
getting players in from their session
and adding things to that and building tracks more properly
as you were doing a production.
A lot of the time there were two different atmospheres.
There was like a quite serious, professional,
rootsy thing going on in the live room.
Then in the other room, we were, like,
trying out weird hip-hop beats, screaming, jumping around
and drinking loads of beer.
There was a really interesting flow of energy
and people's productivity.
We had time limitations.
There wasn't necessarily enough flexibility
for us to kind of take long breaks.
I noticed people would start getting on cycles of pairings
and groups of threes or fours.
Then someone would take the lead and someone would sit back.
And that was happening just entirely naturally.
None of that was discussed beforehand.
It's three, right?
Yeah.
That'd be cool to have a fill into that.
Come on, then.
Baaba... On the "aaah", the first one,
can you start it with full voice?
I'll edit together like the dream take,
and tomorrow he'll listen to it
and he learns it and he'll do it.
In a couple of takes it'll sound fucking amazing.
Bro. See you tomorrow.
Oh, yes.
- This is damn... - I'm a Masai.
- And you’re a size 13? - Exactly.
- Exercise. - Yeah.
Bah!
He nicked it. Johan has to be cold all night.
He's 76 years old.
- Can you believe that? - He looks good, though.
- Septuagenarian. - A septuagenarian.
Unbelievable. Unbelievable.
- Wow! - You look great.
The first days have been really fun.
Win was bummed out.
He was pissed off at the end of the day.
But he gets stressed out about everything, so...
Firstly, that building is the most depressing building ever.
I didn't see daylight for 60... or fucking all day.
And nothing worked.
I was standing back just thinking,
Joel and Dan, Johan, Ben would all sort it out.
I just believed in them.
So, it wasn't realty stressful for me cos I wasn't the one
actually having to sort it out.
I was a bit wiped out.
We'd all committed pretty heavily to the whole project,
but especially to Johannesburg and the recording.
And just before we went back to our hotel rooms,
at the end of the night we did say
that we've got to try and find a different way tomorrow.
We have to come away with something.
I think we were there till, like, 5am,
working out which things worked, which things didn't.
Today we can actually go,
"Right, this stuff works, let's use this."
So later on this afternoon, we'll be able to record.
It will be great. We're just behind, that's all.
Cool.
And the fun thing will be the rehearsal room.
Time is a bit of the essence cos we've got Baaba Maal here,
we've got Esau from our band here.
And I don't know the next time
when we're gonna be able to record with them.
So, the priority right now
is getting the structures of the songs down,
just so that they can do their vocals on them.
Sorry to interrupt. Do you know what's gonna happen today?
- What? - We're gonna die happy.
We're gonna hear Baaba's scream in an anechoic chamber.
Oh, my God, that'd be amazing.
- But dead. - Yeah.
That'll be saucy.
We have to... I'll talk to you about it.
Where is he?
I think assembling the right group of people
is half the work.
And having the right attitude in that group.
But then you know that Baaba is going to sing something
that'll blow your socks off at some point.
You know that Mamadou is going to be able to play
rhythms that you want to hear.
And you know that Matt, Seye, Winston,
all can play really sick guitars.
And everyone can write out of that whole group.
So, that's where we get...
And then just straight to...
Oh, cool, OK.
So, no atmosphere.
- No, no, no. No sixth. - OK.
Can you just play that again?
It's always so fascinating
doing a collaboration with anyone.
Even more so when there's a sort
of cross-cultural thing happening.
Because the last thing we wanted to feel like
is some sort of cultural exchange, or something.
Like that. It sounds really dry.
It's actually just a really genuinely interesting
and useful thing, I think, for musicians to share ideas.
You learn a lot when you're sort of like
not in your usual sort of rabbit runs of making music.
And then the next time, after the chorus, we'll do your bit.
Yeah, yeah.
- The short one. - Yeah, the shorty.
And then after the next chorus we just do the long one.
Yeah.
The shorty is still twice over there, isn't it?
I think so, yeah.
In that kind of insecure environment,
where people are throwing out stuff,
not knowing if it's good or not
but just sort of saying maybe it's all about that.
There needs to be a real level of trust.
If the guy makes a break on the counter,
and he's making a run up the fields,
you should probably go with him.
That's why he's the best. He just proved it. Again.
This is more of a...
This is a bit more of a..."prrrp".
Oh, yeah, this machine.
It's not really for everybody. It's more adventurous.
But it's got such sounds as Matt just produced.
Also a little bit...
The beans are from Brazil, they're good.
Not as good as the beans my brother roasts.
The last one I had was from...
Things have shaped up pretty quickly today.
And the song feels like a song now, which is cool.
There's still work to do, still some lyrics to finish,
and stuff like that but I think it's good.
Because there was no phone signal, there was no way
of communicating that something was actually happening now.
So you end up forming mini-teams or micro-alliances,
where you're like, "Let's go and get the core
of something moving."
So, if anyone were to walk into the room,
we would be on a path that was inevitable with something.
This is now like a competition
between who's the most organised room.
So, do you think the longer melody,
the first melody is better?
The first melody kind of sold it a little bit more for me.
They're both really good, though.
None that are made, like, exaggerated,
or took away from the rhythm.
OK, so we need Seye, we need Mamadou.
Let's get all this down.
Then take five minutes together to build something extra.
Let's do that.
- Something in that? - Yeah, man.
Yeah, man?
- Don't let it go to waste, man. - Not go to waste, man.
We're not gonna waste it.
I get a sense of awe, I get a sense of, wow,
really watching someone create something beautiful.
It's not something you get to get a window into very much.
Watching other people’s processes is interesting.
The way Baaba and Esau write is so just right there.
They don’t plan anything, really, in advance
and that's quite inspiring for people like us,
who like to write everything in advance of going into a studio.
I think hanging out with them made us realise
it's cool to write just right there, on the microphone.
Just quickly scribbling, like, lyrics down.
And I think it's about creating an atmosphere,
from which that creativity can rise.
Cos if we were all in, like, Dalston, right now,
we wouldn't have made the kind of music that we just made.
How does it start again?
One second.
What if it just started with like a...
Either like the first...
What's the first chord of the song?
Yeah. With just like that, a chord held,
and you just do some kind of "deserty"...
You know how we start Baaba often. He just...
He's talking about the E-bow, or something like that.
And Baaba just does his big massive vocal intro thing.
And then it's like when the cue comes,
that's when the drum starts, like an intro, basically.
What's particularly great about everyone on this tour
is that, like, I'm certainly in awe of everyone.
Someone like Baaba, you're kind of there just as a fan,
as much as anything else.
It's raw talent. It just feels like the ultimate privilege.
I was asking you, "How do you feel to be in Africa?"
And you ended up saying you did travel a lot,
but when you come to Africa, there are so many things
that come to your face.
So many people, so many flavours,
so many colours, so many smells, the food, and everything.
- In one day, you get a lot. - Yeah.
This is a good experience, you know?
Travelling, I think, that's the biggest lesson of life.
It's my favourite thing about it.
In fact, that's why I have... My first tattoo was "Tour".
- "Tour"? OK. - Same thing, just travel.
- Travel, yeah. - Seeing everything.
What are you going to take back from here to Senegal?
You know, I have been coming to South Africa a lot
but this time is really exceptional.
It's all that's happening behind the stage.
This kind of friendship,
or projecting ourselves to the future.
- Everyone is... - Are we friends?
Yeah, yeah. Of course we're friends.
Baaba's my mate.
I think we've always considered
all of our albums as snapshots.
They're just a really nice way
to take a picture of that moment in time.
I feel like we could easily be in London right now.
We could be in New York, we could be in LA.
I think there is a massive misinterpretation of...
Not misinterpretation, but I think there's a...
an unfair brushstroke across the whole of Johannesburg,
as kind of a, "You can't walk on the streets."
It's the first thing everyone... Yeah.
There is a lot of fear-mongering around, isn't there?
It's what everyone says to you.♪ "Oh, be careful. "
The younger people in Johannesburg right now
are really trying to take a huge amount of pride
in redefining that perception of their city.
And that's pretty exhilarating.
Those conversations are pretty amazing to be around, really.
People want to do something about it.
That hunger and that desire that we can see in their eyes,
and their passion for what
Johannesburg, and South Africa, more broadly, can become.
We can have a part in that.
I think song-writing lyrics is probably the hardest part.
It's the most common place
where I see people struggle under pressure.
That mounting pressure of time,
people are waiting and all this stuff,
for most peopie, it doesn't do anything good
for the writing process.
Especially if you're just missing
this last little bit or something.
Having two days to make a record
is a massive challenge.
I think we feit like the vibe was going to be fine,
that the playing would be fine.
It was more the writing.
That "da-da-da", that's for the Esau-Baaba thing.
It's high at the end.
I think Baaba and Esau have
a lot more up their sleeves than they lead us to beiieve.
I asked Baaba what one iine was
and he said, "That's a nursery rhyme."
I was like, "Fuck you, man. "
I just started singing about Humpty Dumpty.
But he gets away with it, it's briiliant.
And also, I think Senegalese nursery rhymes
are way more civilised and sophisticated
than old English ones.
There's a mad rush, and we only got so much time,
and we have to get all this stuff done.
At the same time,
ifone person is sensitive to thatpressure,
you have to be reaily sensitive with thatperson,
allow thatperson to go away
and have a bit of time to do their thing.
So, if I get this right,
we're not leaving here until we have it done.
- No. - Is that... Is that...
We can do other shit, like,
if you want to go away and write something.
- Maybe we should do like that. - Yeah.
There's a lot of other shit we can do with Baaba.
Yeah. That'll take a bit of pressure off.
We don't want to put you under pressure.
- But it makes it easy. - It makes it easy.
- Pressure makes it easy, or... - OK, let's do half an hour.
We'll see you at 10.30.
- 10.30? - Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
I'm going out now.
- I feel like a walk, too. - OK, let's go for a walk.
I think having a time pressure on iyrics is really helpful.
Sometimes the first idea is the best idea.
The longeryou have to dwell on the lyric,
the more calculated it can become,
and the iess powerful.
And so, having a time pressure on it,
the writing of it can be reaily helpfui,
because it forces you to go with ideas that come out first.
When we are in one room
and we know something eise is happening in another room,
we completely trust that what's going on in the other room
isn't a waste of time.
Keep going, keep going.
There was a moment when Winston,
who realty spearheaded this "Fool You've Landed"song idea
was trying to kind of navigate,
or really react to all these other ideas
that ended up kind of infusing into the song.
Is the guitar part over the chorus?
- No. - Guessed so.
When someone finds himself taking on a role,
in a moment of captaining a ship,
they need that sort of first mate or they need that iike...
They need a soundboard, someone's got to back them up.
We need some strong counter-melodies.
And a very short guitar solo at the end.
- I only do long ones. - Oh, OK.
- Do it really fast. - OK.
Shit...
The "doesn't matter" part, I need to get.
Yeah. That's gonna be be fucking sick.
Fucking sick.
Yeah!
- Sexy. - Yeah.
And we're all sexy people.
I should be recording your demo takes
because that's amazing.
Johan, this way!
- Huh? - You're this way.
Knackered.
We're getting there.
Getting there.
I think everyone was being slightly...
What's the word? I think they were...
Hedging their bets a little bit,
and saying, "As long as we've got stuff to take home,
and work on when we get back to London, that would be great."
But we're kind of arriving at a point now
where we've been doing live takes,
getting bass and drums down
and making sure we've got all of, iike,
Baaba Maal, Esau and those guys who aren't in London so much.
And we're gonna try and focus on getting their stuff recorded,
but being the bass player
there's really very little left for me to do
apart from sort of crack on with it.
You know what I mean, just get the old vino flowing.
Just feel great and enjoy Johannesburg.
Ooh, yeah!
We got so much shit done. It was awesome.
It was actualiy the first day that was hard,
because everyone was trying to work out theirplace
and their role.
Everyone was just iike, OK, am lgoing to bring a song,
or am lgoing to piayguitar?
And some guys like Seye can fucking piay
everything in the studio.
He just sees a space andgoes for it.
Where we are now is further than I had feit we would be,
or even really wanted to be.
I think we've ended up with something cooi.
So cool.
With that, "There Will Be Time" and "Ngamila" and this one.
And Beatenberg.
That's more than I would have fucking expected
to get out of these two days.
It's been great. We've got so much done.
Like, unexpected stuff.
Even things that we thought was really good yesterday,
and then today it's developed into something so much better
than we thought it could do.
And yes, it's been amazing.
Is this the right bag?
There's nowhere eise in the world I'drather be.
Like, absolutely. Utteriy.
- You're such a cheeseball. - Shut up, mate.
It's kind of bittersweet, obviously,
last show's in Pretoria.
It's like a relief that we've made it
to Joburg and Pretoria live.
During this trip,
we've gotten to know each other a iot better.
And I think the more we get to know each other,
the more we know how to push each other
and how far we can push each other.
Yesterday I was stuck in the room for 15 hours,
like, barely eating anything.
Just like working on all these tracks
and today I came offstage,
thinking I was going to have a second to relax,
and first thing, Marcus is over, and he's like,
"I want to play one of the songs from yesterday."
So we pulled everybody together
and put the track up, as demo as it is,
and tried to put it together.
Ah, shit.
I forgot something I need on stage.
What's that?
Do you know where Mumford's backstage is?
You know? I'll meet you there.
It's sort of like skin of our teeth kind of stuff,
which we really love, it's like brinkmanship.
I just want to practise the end.
With all of you guys, the a cappella bit.
It gives it that edginess.
I mean, we are not a polished band, you know?
And none of those artists are, I don't think.
- I just stop. - Yeah, just stop.
- Verse, chorus. - OK, cool.
And then into a big chant.
Keep it short, and then we go into "Lampenda".
It does feel iike it, yeah.
We always make things difficult for ourselves.
And there's no reai need to it, cos I had hours off.
I was reading. I could easily have been
with everyone trying to do it.
But, you know, that's just the nature of tour.
You get ideas at the last minute
andyou've got to be a "yes man"about it
and make this shit happen.
It's kind of the fun of it.
We get to create something privately,
in this really weird bunker, just us.
And then go andplay it
to the biggest crowd we can possibiyplay it to.
Which is, in some ways, irresponsible,
because thesepeople have all bought tickets
to see quality music
and I'm not guaranteeing that it's going to be quality.
I think with the gig tonight,
hopefully we'll sort of present them
with this mad idea that we had,
that we still haven't really fully formed,
even until tonight, probably.
Baaba is the leader of that part.
- Yeah. - And he will not move it.
- Right, OK. - So we just have to follow him.
OK.
It's only got one chorus.
...on that "breathless". On the brim.
One, two, three, four.
We're running with them.
- We'll explain everything. - Cool.
I'll rehearse with Matt.
We'll make sure they're up to scratch with what we're doing.
I think by this point in the tour, two weeks in,
we've kind of done everything we're supposed to do.
The apprehension's gone.
And it's like, "Oh, we could do this song.
lfit doesn'tgo well, it doesn'tgo well."
I don't like being filmed when I'm posing.
It was exciting and it's exciting taking an attitude
thatyou had in a pub with three people in London
when you first startedplaying
and taking that attitude in front of25,000peopie
a very long way from home.
We're notpretentious
about it being mountain-moving music.
But it's realty fun and it comes out of a place of joy
and sharing and community and expression.
And we want to share it with people.
So, I've got this one dream.
It's the only dream I've ever had that's recurred.
I've had it now like six, seven times.
It basically involves us being on stage.
And just doing the worst gig.
Oh, I have that dream. I have it all the time.
Last night, I had it and I woke up this morning,
with like, the most loathing...
I admit I have that recurring dream ali the time, seriously.
Oh, man.
We wrote this song yesterday.
So, listen, here's the deal, right?
If we fuck it up royally,
we're just gonna stop and start again.
Here we go.
Mr Baaba Maal!
It's funny, the relationship
thatyou build up on a tour together is so special.
And you get so close topeople.
It was like that feeiingyou get
afterhaving a really big weekend,
and then waking up on Sunday morning and being like,
"Oh, it's over. That's a shame. That was realty fun."
And you kind ofgot lost for a couple of days.
Something that I've always thought about,
in picking musicalprojects
and deciding to venture out on adventures in music
and it's like,
"What are we actuailygoing to be looking back at
when we iie on our death bed?"
Is it the success oris it thatpeople liked this or that,
or is it the experience that we had?
It might be the experience we have making a song
or recording somewhere, or being on a tour,
that nobody eise experienced but us.
lt's just about trying to have
a fulfilling experience of life, making music.
If you feel like you can get close enough
to some sort of form of success
but constantly change what that means to you,
it can evolve.
I think that our collective version of success has evolved,
and we've kind of understood
what each other are realty working towards
and it means that we choose to do things,
like this South Africa trip, and the record.
Because doing so is a step closer
to our collective sense of that success,
and whatever we come up with next,
whatever weird and wonderful idea we come up with,
it's something that we've created
that we've united behind,
as a way of somehow pursuing that success.
All these people have their own stories.
Yet it's my privilege
to get to be in their world just for a minute.
Give it up for Beatenberg!
That perspective, I think, helps you
with understanding your place in the world a bit better.
You're aware that you are not the centre of the universe.
Thank you so much.
Ssh, ssh, ssh.
Thank you so much.