the band, they just wanna see a great show,
or see N’Dea singing the hits. That’s
basically what Mark wanted and I wasn’t
going to let him down.”
Ronson returned the favour, producing
These Walls – one of three tracks to feature
N’Dea on their new record. Always ready to
look forward, the band sound rejuvenated on
this celebratory collection of tracks, TBNH.
“Because we haven’t done a tonne of
albums, there’s still all of these different
grooves, beats and chord changes that we
haven’t got out of our systems yet. We’re still
catching up! We’ve got a big back catalogue
of jams and ideas. Also, after at least 10 years,
people expect to hear a certain sound from The
Brand New Heavies and I’m very happy to
deliver. We can’t go trying to be the new Stormzy! I mean,
I think there’s something very authentic about a real drum
kit, bass, guitar and brass that stands the test of time. If you
listen to it in 50 years’ time, you can still understand it
because we’re using real instruments.”
He considers how this might sound. “We’re not fuddy-
duddies that are only into retro music. I listen to every single
thing that’s out there. I watched the Download festival the
other day with my son, that blew my mind. There’s this
whole thing about Viking metal that blew me away!”
Don’t go expecting any Viking metal on the new Heavies
record or at upcoming shows. But what you can guarantee
is incredible grooves and packed-out dancefl oors.OTBNH is out now on Acid Jazz. For details of
upcoming live shows, visit tbnh.co.ukpretty much anything by
Bruno Mars.
Dig a little deeper, and
it’s not too tenuous to
credit The Brand New
Heavies for helping to
spur this reappraisal.
Hidden among the crowd
of A-listers at one of their
very fi rst US gigs, in a
Manhattan club called
The Sound Of Brazil, was
an unassuming 16-year-old
called Mark Ronson.
“It’s only really the past
fi ve or six years that we
realised he was such a
massive fan,” says Andrew.
Indeed, Ronson was such a big
admirer he booked the Heavies
for his recent 40th birthday. “He
books us occasionally to play bass or
guitar. I played bass on a Robbie
Williams track for him because we
were both in New York at the
time. He’s a massive fan of
N’Dea as well.”
It must be a little
tempting to draw a link
between what the
Heavies did and the
new wave of artists
coming through.
Even the indie kids
are going disco...
“I’m not sure
how much they’re
rediscovering us,”
ponders Andrew, “but I
defi nitely can hear... it’s a
specifi c point in the late 70s
just before electro came in, or
that early 80s soul. But bands like
The 1975 and Haim, some of the stuff
they do is totally like Prince soul, kind of funk
stuff, and I love the idea of that. I’m so happy
that people are discovering it.”
But equally profound is the discovery of his
infl uence in more understated ways. A big fan
of YouTube when putting together ideas for
his DJ sets, Andrew often stumbles across
Brand New Heavies covers put up by fans.
“There’s even this guy in Italy who’s learning
all my basslines – that’s amazing to watch.
It’s really fl attering that someone’s sat there
and learnt all my notes.”
As good as getting the thumbs up from
James Brown and Stevie Wonder? “Yeah, it’s
the whole cycle of life, someone’s now impressed by
meeting me... oddly enough!”
A NEW BEGINNING
The band’s connection with Mark Ronson was integral in
bringing N’Dea back into the fold, although this joy would
be tempered by another milestone in their story.
“We were on tour in Japan when we got the call saying
Mark wants you to play at his birthday party. Something
happened where a certain member didn’t want to do the
show with N’Dea and some other members of the band
said, ‘We’re gonna do it, because that’s what Mark wants.’
So we went ahead and did it. Strangely enough, a couple
of months later that person left and I think that might have
been a trigger. It wasn’t planned, and I just thought, ‘Let’s
just do this for the fans’, you know. They don’t care about
the internal wranglings of who doesn’t get on with who in
New album TBNH
sees the band
returning to Acid
Jazz Records“THERE ARE
ALL OF THESE
GROOVES WE
HAVEN’T GOT OUT
OF OUR SYSTEMS
YET. WE’RE STILL
CATCHING UP!”