Rob Smoughton’s Black Peaches produce a masterclass in southern boogie; melding funk, country, Latin and psychedelic sounds with a world of influences from his obsessive love for collecting records. Starting out in 80s new wave act Scritti Politti and going on to being one of the early members in indie dance act Hot Chip, then leaving to pursue his solo electro soul venture as Grosvenor, there is no doubt that Rob’s talents spread far. After Black Peaches’ groove-inducing debut, Get Down You Dirty Rascals (Feb 2016), and their psychotropic live show to match, we cannot wait to get down to the sound of Black Peaches when they come back to Brighton early in December. We spoke to Rob to find out more about him and his music.

Where did you grow up?
In southeast London.

When was your intrest first sparked by music?
I studied music but I wasn’t classically trained or anything, I never took any grades. When I was studying at school I concentrated more on composition rather than focusing on a particular instrument. I am more of a record collector / music fan than a musician. So growing up in London I spent my Saturdays record shopping and then in the evening going to gigs – London is great for that.

You must have a mighty record collection at home by now?
Yeah, it’s really hard to get rid of stuff. Even the ones where I think, “why the hell did I get that!” Then when I’m on tour, I tend to spend the few hours to kill between sound check and playing looking in record shops. Especially in America where vinyl is everywhere, I tend to bring an extra case back to England just full of vinyl. When we went to Brazil, I went out with an empty suitcase purely for that reason.

What started your love for music?
Going through my parent’s record collection was the start for me but they weren’t huge record collectors or anything. Having a look through it just out of curiosity and finding something like a Nina Simon 7” called Save Me, and think this is absolutely wonderful. Finding a Sly Stone record that my dad had, and thinking, this man is a history teacher on the borders of London and Kent so what is he doing listening to Sly Stone? It’s nice as it gives you these little insights into your parent’s history of what they might have been like before they had children. It made me spend all my money when I was growing up finding out about records, buying records and then swapping them with my friends or my brother.

Can you remember the first album you bought?
I think it was Rubber Soul by The Beatles. Around the same time I would have been buying Love, although that almost sounds too cool to be true, but my thinking was an album that came out on the same year as Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band could sound quite similar. Greateful Dead’s Anthem of the Sun would have definitely been one of my first albums.

What was the first instrument you played?
When I was nine or ten I started playing drums and guitar. I could never decide between being a drummer or a guitarist, and still haven’t really. When I was in bands at school, I used to play in a band where all three of us played guitar, one of us had to go on drum so I kind of stuck to drums at that point and did so for about ten years.

How did Black Peaches form?
I came to the realisation one day that what I wanted to do was play more guitar and make a funkier band without going down all the trappings of a funk or rock band. I wanted to bring in Latin rhythms, country music and funk psychedelia, and had an idea that could all come together in one particular way. So I went about finding musicians to do this with.

What were your initial influences when you started the band?
It was getting the scope of what we wanted. People in the 70s, when there was a lot more money to have a bigger band, like how Little Feet had five or six people in a band and would have a devoted percussion section or a steal guitar player. The core is a rock band with a country side and then a Latin side. There is a lot of Latin tinged country music as the further south you go in America you start to get influences from the Caribbean or Cuba, then when I went to Brazilian music was sounding very psychedelic and had influences from north America. As I am so obsessed with rhythm, bringing in these sounds into the core of the band was something that was really appealing to me.

Can you remember your first jam?
It was great and went really well. I was slightly worried as I hadn’t played with some of the musicians before and some of them had never met each other, but it was pretty slick. Everyone jelled quite early on. Great musicians can turn their hand to things quite quickly, I think I’m lucky to have found some people that I really get on with and can do just that.

Is there a story behind the name?
I was thinking of something that could conjure an image of southern states in America – the image of the Georgia peach. Also something that gave the image that something might be wrong – a black peach may have something sinister about it in being the wrong colour, a darkness that suggests it could be rotten. Black Peaches is also a name that is quite punchy, it has a percussive aspect to it.

Have you been thinking about your next release?
We are looking to have another record out next year, with a single coming in the early part of spring – we are writing and recording it at this moment. It’s being done in a different way to the last which we pretty much recorded live with a few overdubs, as that was the kind of energy we wanted it to have. This new record we are going for a much more controlled recording sound so we can get more out of each element, making the drums sound as best as they can and have a clean percussion track. Perhaps with more of an idea of my history in playing dance music – I cannot lose that love of a good remix or re-edit, something that sounds great on a club sound system.

What has been a musical eye-opener?
I studied a lot of world music when I was doing my degree, partially afro-Cuban percussion and samba. Also Indian Raga’s, I know it’s a bit clique that if you are into psychedelia then you get into Indian music, but it is like a completely new language in music. The definition of what makes up a tune can be stretched, compressed and expanded, whereas a western idea of a song is less so as well as it is a bit more predetermined. Getting into Indian music, its scales and the way the melodies are formed was quite an eye-opener in thinking “can I apply this to western music?” But there are many things – the more you know music, the more you think you know music, but the less you actually do.

Who would be in your ultimate supergroup?
Steve Gadd (George Benson, Paul Simon, Bob James) on drums. Dion DiMucci on vocals. There is a Brazilian band called Novos Baianos who had two lead guitarists called Pepeu Gomes and Moraes Moreira, the two of them playing together is really beautiful, fun and funky. Tina Weymouth (Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club) on bass. Then maybe the brass section from Earth, Wind & Fire.

What would be your perfect line-up of any three acts for a concert you are putting on and where would it be?
It would be at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, USA as I have always wanted to go there. Alice Coltrane would start it off with harp and organ music. Bruce Springsteen, pre Born To Run (1975) era, and his E Street Band would be the big name to get everyone going. Then as the pinnacle performance, Steely Dan as I have never seen them and I would have liked to have seen them when they were hot.

If you could work with any artist, who would it be and what would they bring to Black Peaches?
It would be to do a soundtrack with the Cohen Brothers. To have John McEntire (Stereolab, Tom Ze, Teenage Fanclub) produce it would be great.

If you could give a musical award of the year, what would it be for and for whom?
I would give Joe Goddard (Hot Chip, The 2 Bears) the work-horse award. The same would go to Rhodri Marsden who I played with in Scritti Politti. They are constant and their enthusiasm never lets up. Also an award should go to Harry Sheerer (radio host for Le Show, Spinal Tap, Mr Burns) for everything he is doing for New Orleans.

What music are you listening to at the moment?
I got an album by Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith called EARS which is a mixture of modular, synthesiser, brass and vocal music that is like nothing I have ever heard before, I definitely recommend her. I’ve been listening to a real great album by a band called Malo, who was Carlos Santana’s brother’s band. I buy a lot of compilation albums as supposed to albums. There is a compilation by Light In The Attic Records called I Am The Center which features privately pressed new age music – trust me, it is so much more than what might come to mind. The Numero Group also do a fantastic compilation series called Wayfaring Strangers which features lost singer-songwriters.

Do you get to go to many gigs?
I saw Stevie Wonder this summer in Hyde Park, I’ve now seen him three times but hearing him play all of the songs on The Key Of Life was incredible. I went and saw a French prog band called Magma a couple of months ago who’s songs are all about 40 minutes long. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like them but they were amazing. I saw Songhoy Blues at Glastonbury and Green Man Festival, I think they are great. Sinkane always put on a brilliant show. I always love seeing Connan Mockasin live too.

What are your future plans till the end of the year and after?
We have our UK tour which starts in Brighton in December and goes up to Glasgow then back into London over the course of a week or so. We will be recording our new album in the first part of next year also and then be doing another tour in the spring, going to the places we didn’t go to this time round.

Website: http://Black-Peaches.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/BlackPeachesBand
Twitter: http://twitter.com/_black_peaches_