Having released their debut album, Brothers & Sisters, to widespread critical acclaim, the dust is beginning to settle after a big step up for the local group. The album’s a special one and it was a long time in the making. We were dying to know about its recording and reception, so we caught up with songwriter/conga player Cicely, and lead vocalist Siggi, to pick their brains about its recording and reception, and to find out what’s next.

What’ve you been up to recently?
Cicely: Chatting to a lot of journalists, actually. We were interviewed by Mark from Slipstreem yesterday. We also curated a two-and-a-half-hour Unfold Radio show for Rob Luis, which was really fun, although quite scary, just because he’s so cool.

Siggi: Yeah, what songs do you pick with Rob Luis in the room?

Cicely: It was really hard, but he liked it and said he’d be up for us doing it again. We’ve also been writing the second album. I wrote another song last night, it’s about sex.

Siggi: Good, so we’ve got songs about famine, war, and peace and now sex.

Cicely: The album’s got a lot of anger in it, so now we’ve written a song about love, a song about sex, and one about being a teenager. What else? ‘Bigger Man’, that’s about politics.

I’m surprised you’re already writing a second album. How can you find the time with everything that’s going on?
Siggi: Cicely’s a machine.

Cicely: I’m a fembot, a musical fembot. I wrote ‘So Sue Us’, for example, in a day. I woke up, the guy threatened to sue us, it was written by 9am, and recorded by the evening.

I’d like to know the story behind that song, actually.
Cicely: Yeah, it was a guy who ran a label in America. We were running a regular night with the same name at The Brunswick and this guy wrote us an email. It wasn’t “Excuse me, you’re using the same name as me”, it was “If you don’t take down every single use of the name online, you’ll be receiving a letter from my lawyer by the end of today” – just like that, no build-up: “I’m suing you”. The event was part of Brighton Fringe, so the name was everywhere. I had to run around like a lunatic, and the build-up of the stress created this song. The surprising thing was that this guy was the manager of his own little independent label, he was a DJ, very passionate about world music and African music, a real crate-digger. And yet, instead of approaching us, a little DIY musician-run outfit, in a human way, he went straight for the legal attitude.

How did you get onto Tru Thoughts? Did you approach them first?
Cicely: We’d been winking at them for a few years, but I think what it was is that Nick Faber, who produced the album, is really good friends with Wrongtom, who put in a good word for us. With labels, it’s all very well if you’re a great live band with great songs but if it’s not produced well, then they won’t be able to sell the product. So he just liked Nick’s production, he liked Matt Foster’s sound, who mixed it, and he liked the songs. I think Tru Thoughts sign different bands, every year they decide to go for a hip-hop style act, or a grime act, or a tropical style act, and we just happened to fit into their plans. I love them, I still keep pinching myself. It’s like that Talking Heads song, beautiful life/beautiful wife, except I don’t have the beautiful wife. I’ve got a beautiful cat.

How do you feel about the album as a whole? How was the transition from live act to recording?
Siggi: There were quite a few changes. Nick changed a lot of things. Being a live band, we had a way of performing those songs. At first the recording was a carbon copy of what we were doing onstage, and then Nick worked his magic. In the beginning it was like someone taking your baby away and piercing their ears. Now we play the songs live as they’re arranged on the album, that’s how much we got behind the changes. But for me it was a bit of a transition.

Cicely: With the songs I wrote, I was happy for him to work his magic, and at the time I thought we’d have a live version and a recorded version of the songs. But actually I really like the Rhodes organ he put on it. I worked quite closely with him, as closely as I could given that he lived in London and I in Brighton. I’d go up there and spend days with him. It wasn’t like we had tons of takes, often for the solos we’d use the first or second, but there were a lot of layers, because we’d recorded all the percussion parts when we did the whole band take. Tom and I also spent a day recording a load of different sounds, overdubbing kora, marimba, egg shakers, coins for ‘So Sue Us’, loads of different shakers, caxixis, chekere, etc. There were so many different sounds that from a post-production or comping point of view, it was difficult to say “that one’s the sound we need, and that one isn’t.” When we do it again, I’m going to work more closely with the producer.

How did you find Nick Faber’s style? Was he a perfectionist, or did he just knock it out?
Siggi: We were the perfectionists, actually. We all knew our roles, so when we were recording, playing our instruments, he’d just let us get on with it.

Cicely: He was the vibes man, he just wanted to dance, he was the daddy. He was so great to be in the studio with, and his team were awesome. Ben Thackeray, the engineer, was just amazing.

Siggi: Yeah, Ben would press record and say “Just fill your boots, do what you need to do”, and then when it was his turn to work his magic he delivered. I went in a few times to watch him work while other people were recording, I had such a brilliant week. Amazing team, and Nick was such an encouraging producer, I’d definitely work with him again.

Cicely: Originally we thought he’d be working on the mixing, doing all the sound manipulation etc, but actually he was mostly compiling the parts of the composition together, choosing which solo to use and which take, and then sending all that off to Matt Foster, who mixed it. I really love the work he did with Siggi’s vocals. I think they took a raw live sound and made it radio friendly. There were things we found difficult, though. I know everyone wants more of themselves, but there were times where I was soloing and it would be quieter than the drums, which I found quite frustrating. When you give the job of mixing to someone who doesn’t know the band or songs, you can lose aspects – but that distance from the mixing process can also really help. One thing I will say is that I love the album as a piece of music, but I don’t necessarily feel like it’s true to how we perform.

How’s the reception of the album been?
Cicely: It’s doing really well in Japan, it went to number three, and it looks like it might hit number one on the Japanese international charts. It’s been getting a lot of play on Double J in Australia, who are an influential radio station, or so we hear. We’ve had a guy from Universal in the States plugging it, who managed to get it onto a Spotify featured playlist. Bandcamp did a big feature and commissioned some artwork. We got five stars from Blues and Soul magazine, and were nominated for their album of the month. We got three out of five from the Independent and the Guardian, which having got a five we thought was low at first. Different publications seem to have different styles as far as ratings go. For example in the Independent, Michael Kiwanuka got three out of five – and his most recent album went to number one! Actually the reviewer, I think she’d given one five star rating in the past two years, so we’re very happy with the three; everything she wrote about it was so lovely, glowing even. There were some beautiful parts of her review, and she quoted some of my lyrics, which was very exciting. And Siggi got two photos, double page, in the Guardian. Lauren Laverne’s played it and said really nice things, Huey Morgan’s said some really nice things, Alex Lester as well.

How long do you think this ball’s going to roll for? It seems like the dust hasn’t really settled yet.
Siggi: As long as we keep kicking it!

Cicely: Yeah, we’ve just released a video for a second tune, and it’s going in Songlines in October. We’ve got the official launch in Brighton on the 23rd September in Patterns, where we haven’t played before, then in London on the 7^th October, so any new fans will get to hear us play out our album.

Siggi: It will be nice to play our own gig, the past couple we’ve been supporting people, like Fatback and Incognito, but it will be good to have our own night.

Cicely: I think Tru Thoughts are keen for us to do a bi-monthly thing at Patterns, our own regular night. We’ve just got to get some dates sorted.

How has everything that’s happened in the past months impacted on the band?
Cicely: More than anything I feel like it’s impacted on us for our sense of unity as a group, our creativity. We’re all pulling out all the stops to make sure we take all the opportunities to get together and write and practise. Summer’s fairly quiet, so we’re using the time while everyone’s available, because as soon as winter kicks in we’ll be really busy. I don’t like the expression “broken the back,” but we’ve covered a lot of material already.

Siggi: That’s also been because, this album may be brand new to the world, but to us, the material’s two years old. So as much as I love singing those songs, the songs we’re working on at the moment, I’m passionately in love with. Wait till you hear the new material, it’ll blow your mind. The success so far, instead of making us think “oh, let’s take a holiday,” it’s spurring us on, making us think “OK, next album!” And it’s cooking quite nicely.

Are you looking at a national or international tour?
Cicely: Yeah, we’re signed with Diplomats of Sound now, the agents, they’ve just organised the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble UK tour, and the Hot 8 UK tour. I hope it will turn into more gigs. We’ve had some interest from a promoter in France. We really want to play Europe because we’ve heard they look after musicians well out there – and we really want some lovely holidays.

Siggi: It’d just be nice to spread some of the Lakuta love.

Cicely: At the moment with gigs it feels a bit like we’re treading water. From when we did the album, two years ago, things take a lot longer than you think.

Siggi: Especially since all the reviews have come out in the past couple of months. It’s coming in waves, really.

Siggi: Ideally we’d love to do festivals next summer.

Cicely: We’ve got a few already, but nothing’s been signed off yet.

How long do you think it will be until you release the next album?
Cicely: Well, it takes a while to line things up. Luke, the guitarist, doesn’t want to record it until we’ve gigged it out for a long time. So that will depend on how often we’re gigging. I love playing long sets, I could play for eight hours, but as a percussionist it’s different to a horns player, for example, who has to worry about their lips. The irony is that if we’re touring the current album, we’ll have to stick to that album, while we’d love to trial the new material. Unless we cut the solos in half and double all the tempos! It’s sad that if we play at festivals, we might have two albums’ material, but only fifty minutes to play. If it’s our show, like this one we’re setting up at Patterns, we can incorporate our new songs and play for two hours if we want to, really cook the material without having the pressure of someone standing at the front telling us to get off the stage.

For how many of the band is this a fulltime job, at this point?
Cicely: Luke’s a full time musician, in about seven bands. Pete and Tom play in loads of bands, Jack Kendon, who’s playing trumpet with us now, runs lots of jazz nights and bands, Will’s in tons of bands, Claire Matthews is in three, Claire Wooten’s only with us but is thinking of joining a jazz project, Trees. Siggi runs choirs, but this is her only band – she’s the most committed of all of us, and as you know I’m in Voodoo Love, along with three other members of the band. Happily I’m the one booking the gigs, so I can prioritise Lakuta when I need to.

How does all of this fit in with your family lives? Some of you have kids, so how is the experience of touring different?
Siggi: Well my daughter’s going to be thirteen on Saturday, and I joined the band when she was four.

Cicely: We just took her with us, really. When she was six, we put her to bed under the stage in my sheepskin conga case, at Glastonbury, when we were headlining a stage on the Saturday night.

Siggi: We asked the crowd, about 500 people, to sing goodnight to her.

Cicely: And she still talks about that as the best summer of her life. I had such a good time with her that summer. One morning at Secret Garden Party we went out, and there was a crazy-golf course. After about fifteen minutes of working out the course, she was basically ordering around all the night’s casualties, saying “You do this, you do that!” And they were loving it. Everyone’s so friendly in that environment, it’s a great place for kids.

Siggi: I was talking to her about the possibility of festivals next year, and she’s chomping at the bit. It’s been part of her life for a long time. She’s been onstage at Glastonbury, she’s been on stage at Shambala. She’s upstaged me many times. It used to be a bit trickier, with childcare, but often I just bring her to rehearsal, she’ll fall asleep on the sofa.

Cicely: We’re in very different situations, where you don’t have much family around, so you rely more on friends for support. I’m very lucky with my son Joey, because I’ve got loads of family living nearby, plus friends, and I’ve had partners who were very helpful. Plus Joey’s older, he’s seventeen now. Hats off to you, Siggi.

Siggi: When the album came out, and I took it home to my daughter, I played it to her on the stereo and asked “what do you think?” She was absolutely over the moon, she loved it, and it was one of those moments where you think “This is why we’re doing it.” It can be quite tough, but she’s really supportive, really excited, and she completely gets it. In the beginning it was a bit of a juggling act, but here we’ve got the fruits of our labour in our hands. It feels a lot smoother now.

Cicely: I think a lot of parents feel like that anyway, like they’re juggling. Will, who plays trombone, is a single parent with his two kids.

Siggi: That’s what ‘Rice & Peace’ is all about, in a nutshell. A parental moan between myself, Cicely and Will, the three parents in the group.

Cicely: I really like that you made that song about dads as well, because I feel that’s under-represented. There are a lot of dads out there doing their bit, looking after their kids the whole time. You don’t often hear about those dads.

Let’s look at some other themes in the album. There’s some defiant songs, there’s a couple about family. What’s Changanya about?
Cicely: That was something I wrote as a poem. It was a slow process, it took me a very long time to properly articulate a complicated feeling. I played classical music from a young age and grew up playing folk, but always listened to world music. I lived in Britain, travelled to West Africa when I was 16, and I’ve studied with a lot of musicians from other cultures and countries. I realised that attitudes to music, and the level of integration and dialogue between cultures, really changes depending on where you are. I really appreciate having grown up in Britain, where we have a strong multicultural tradition. Where I was born in Brixton, we were right next to the market, where there were so many sounds and smells, lovely African ladies selling us vegetables, and interesting types of yam I couldn’t identify. I moved to the North, and even up there there was a women’s percussion group, for example, the kind of thing you wouldn’t get in a lot of other countries. My experience (of growing up in Britain) allowed my two best friends when I was tiny to be two African boys, and my best friend when I was nine was the only mixed race girl in Lancaster, probably. I grew up with a very multicultural crowd, a lot of my best friends now are from all over the world, I’m the granddaughter of refugees myself. This vibrance and colour is the experience I tried to bring across in Changanya. You hear the term cultural appropriation a lot nowadays, and I can see where the concept comes from in the States. With songs like Changanya, and our music in general, we’re trying to celebrate culture, not appropriate it. I think it’s respectful, the music we make. I can’t unhear the things I’ve heard, I can’t unlove the music that I love. It’s a product and a celebration of multiculturalism in this country, and I feel like bad things happen because we don’t celebrate it enough. But that’s what music does. There’s not enough time now for us to be concentrating on division. We need more unity, and a movement of equality and equalism. A lot of our songs question things in culture that don’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense to chop up small girls’ genitalia in the name of culture, tradition, religion, so there’s elements of that within the album, where it’s just “What the fuck”. With Changanya, I wanted to create something that was a celebration. There’s Latin elements, to me it sounds like a lullaby, or a love song to a multi-racial and integrated society.

Siggi: It’s a love song to unity and diversity. If you listen to the words, it’s a relaxing of ego. We don’t have any egos within the band, we’re all in love with each other. We all think each other are brilliant, and we’re all celebratory of wherever we may come from.

Cicely: We grow through collaboration, and we’re all products of it. Humans couldn’t exist without cultural exchange.

Siggi: So we celebrate it, and write great songs about it.

What else have you got coming up?
Cicely: We had a video come out last week, I’d quite like to do one for ‘Pique’ as well. Jack Chute, whose work I love, I’ve been speaking to. It’s just hard to find people whose work you love, who are available, and who you can afford. We have a photo shoot coming up soon as well. So film and marketing stuff, yeah. We are going to be working with Brighton Film School again, they did Mr. Serious, so we’ll be working with them again in the springtime. We’ll be starting the bi-monthly night at Patterns soon. In terms of collaboration, Dizraeli’s just done an amazing remix of Bata-Boy, it’s almost more like a creative response, rather than a remix, based on his personal experiences. There could be more videos based on that. I’d love to get him on stage with us, if he was ever available. With the Patterns event, it’s a three-hour slot, so if we want a nice big set ourselves, it might be hard to get someone who fits with our setup. We used to do this kind of thing at the Blind Tiger, but a DJ or someone playing with a DJ might be better. We love J-Felix, he’s said he’d DJ if he was available. I love all the Mr. Bongo guys, we've played with Russ Dewbury  before. But Nick Faber’s doing the first one. There’s some fantastic DJs out there. We’re open to work with whoever.
 

Read our review of Lakuta's debut LP, Briothers & Sisters, HERE.

Website: lakuta.co.uk
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