After the success of their Summer 2012 EP release on Liquid V, 360 Degrees, the Savage Rehab collective is back! And their funked out fusion of D&B, jungle, jazz and soul is sounding more finer than ever!
Their latest release, 4Ward, is a four-track EP showcasing why these country dwellers from Suffolk caught the ears of Roni Size, leading them to V Records and well and truly stamping their mark on the drum & bass scene. Saxxon took time out of his busy schedule to talk to us about their aspirations of bringing back the funk!
We hope you don’t mind, but Savage Rehab sounds like you could be a gabba band! Care to elaborate for those who don’t know?
Haha, yeah we first put on a party called Savage Intellect in the beer garden of my sisters’ pub back in 1999 (also where we first met Balistik) when anything that was excellent was ‘savage’. It was a key word for us back then. We dropped the intellect part, for obvious reasons and starting writing under Savage Rehab in 2007. We’ve been rehabilitating people with our 360 degree sound ever since!
Has the dynamic changed much since then?
It was just Rus & I when we kicked things off, but we’ve grown into a five piece since then and included vocalists. Savage Rehab is made up of Symptom, Gigante, Lady Ella, EMR and myself. Making his recording debut on our 4Ward EP is Gigante, he brings it on the mic everywhere we play.
He does some excellent, excellent verses you can hear clearly. Hosting like a host should, he lifts it when he needs to, but takes a step back when we’re double/triple dropping tracks to let the beats do the talking. Also on this EP we had a studio session with good friend and slick-selector Balistik which gave birth to Neck Funk, & many others currently on the go.
And all of this started with a certain Roni Size, right?
We got really lucky actually. EZ Rollers played one of our tracks, Roni happened to be there and he really liked it. A week later we got a call from him and at the time he wasn’t doing much himself as far as labels go, so he got Bryan Gee from V Records to have a listen and it went from there really. In fact can we give a big up to Roni because he did it purely for the love of music and has always been really enthusiastic about our what we do.
The whole of the 4Ward EP has a really funky vibe to it, where do you think that comes from?
Love the funk. I personally immerse myself into a lot of different styles. I came from a Dad who was a jazz musician and I’ve got four older sisters and a Mum who all have very strong music tastes and they’ve been drip-feeding me vibes my whole life. I like what I like. To be good music for me, it must have some soul to it somewhere, ideally some big fat warm bass. And of course the funk is where the groove comes in! Although I’m not speaking for Rus, he’s an absolute obsessive compulsive 24/7 drum & bass head! He lives and breathes it which is probably why we work so well as a combo.
And talking about you guys as a combo, do you have set roles or is it quite organic?
We both make tunes, both under our aliases and co-lab under the Savage Rehab name so it all falls into place where it feels right. We may be friends but our different personalities certainly come out through our music, and being 360 styles it allows total freedom in that respect.
As far as being DJs, which we’ve always counted ourselves as first and foremost, it comes down to trust with us basically. We play out, when requested, on five decks and so if we’re both mixing into the track that’s coming out the PA we gotta trust the other one’s beat match is on the money.
It first started because we had really similar ideas about music. We were listening to Ed Rush and Optical’s Wormhole album when we were driving home from Warning and we both knew that drum & bass was what we wanted to do. That album kick-started all-sorts for us, you just don’t imagine a guy in a studio surrounded by machines, it just takes you to another place altogether.
Are there any other stand out releases you look back on like that?
Absolutely. Without a doubt I look back at the sound on things like the Mothership Connection album by Parliament. It came out in 1975 and the funk on that album is absolutely unsurpassed and so full of fun. If you compare the recording quality then to modern mixdowns, it’s so warm & lush… As it is with people like Curtis Mayfield, Isaac Hayes & even The Average White Band.
From the past to the future, what’s coming up next for you guys?
Firstly watch out for the Rare Groove video from the 4Ward Ep… Big up to all involved worldwide on that. Savage Rehab have a remix of PFM’s The Western on Good Looking, there are some Dread releases, we’ve also got some stuff coming up for the Stevie Hyper D Project, I’ve been working with Bladerunner, Kenny Ken, Cabin Fever, Jinx, Lion Dub, Darrison & Dave Owen on some different bits. One to really watch out for is a wicked tune from Rus Symptom’s got coming up on Chronic. We’re both really excited about that, I cant get it out of my head!
As an extra treat, we sign off with a fresh from the decks, brand new and exclusive Saxxon & Gigante mix for you. Enjoy!
DOWNLOAD YOUR EXCLUSIVE SAVAGE REHAB MIX RIGHT HERE!
4Ward is out now. Listen and download
www.facebook.com/