The exciting return of Vibes On A Summer's Day to Brisbane this month brings with it more good news for lovers of top-quality electro and dance music – the addition of British nu disco giants Faze Action.
With another entry in the top ten of Traxsource's annual Top 100 Nu Disco Artists list last month (number nine to be exact), Faze Action – aka brothers Simon and Robin Lee – are often credited as the originators of the nu disco genre.
You made the top ten again in Traxsource's Top 100 nu disco acts of 2015... it must be nice to still be rated and relevant within the scene?
[Robin Lee] It feels good to be validated in the business of disco and we are grateful to Traxsource for rating us so highly once again. We’re also humbled to be alongside such talented peers.
You are headed to Oz for the the return of Vibes On A Summer's Day? Are you excited?Of course, we are absolutely made-up that we were asked back for a second round at Vibes On A Summer's Day. All our excitement is tempered by the amount of preparation that’s required, but we are champing at the bit and ready to bring some explosive, Faze Action energy to these shows.
Vibes’ promoter Joe Conneely described you guys as “one of the best live acts we’ve ever had at the Pavilion”; what are some of your memories of playing Vibes?
That is incredibly kind and generous of Joe to say. We took advantage of being in Australia to enjoy the experience as much as possible, so as you can imagine a lot of our memories are a little bit hazy. But I do remember a sea of hands in the air, a lot of smiling faces and a lot of dancing.
Will you be touring with the live band for VOASD?
This time, alongside Simon and myself, we will be performing with legendary Zimbabwean vocalist Zeke Manyika with the high-gloss disco vocals of Mary Minors, who has been touring with us since 2009.
When was the last time you were in Australia?
The last time we were in Australia was in 2000, which was when we played at Vibes On A Summer's Day. Although we have been around the globe several times since, we’ve never had the opportunity to return until now so in a lot of ways we see this tour as unfinished business.
Is there a visual element to your live shows?
I don’t want to reveal too much, but suffice to say all will be revealed so get a ticket and come down and enjoy the show.
If you get any spare time while you're in Australia, how do you hope to spend it?
There isn’t much in the way of spare time, but it would be great to hang out with friends I haven’t seen for a long time as well as any new friends we pick up on the way.
With the event taking place in the middle of the Aussie summer, how do you plan on staying cool both on and off stage?
I’m a heat fan. Never liked the cold. Always been more than comfortable sweating my socks off rather than shivering in rainy, grey weather. There’s no escaping the heat on stage, so we might as well just give in. Stage lights will no doubt make an already warm stage feel like we’re dancing on the surface of the sun, but I’m quite happy with that.
As fans of classic disco, who are your favourite disco artists from the '70s and '80s?
We’ve always been fans of disco classics… so of course we love Donna Summer, Salsoul Orchestra, the productions of Patrick Adams, Patrick Cowley, Prelude Records, Sylvester… the list could go on forever and ever because there is so much great disco music out there that probably hasn’t been discovered yet. Most of the originators of the disco sound are still around and as musicians we don’t tend to have things like pensions and health insurance plans so we’d like to take this opportunity to shine the light of gratitude on Colonel Abrams who really did a lot for dance music in the mid-'80s and we look forward to experiencing him perform when his health returns.
Being credited as 'the brothers that made disco acceptable again' and the flagship act of the legendary Nuphonic label; do you ever feel increased pressure to be cutting edge or ahead of the curve when it comes to producing new material?
It’s a huge honour to be thought of as the brothers that made it ok to do disco again. But to us we have always been into the music of the past. I should say… music with strong roots. If music has strong roots then it never really goes away. There have certainly been times in our career when the music business has increased the pressure to be 'cutting edge', but nobody actually really knows what that means. Does it mean that we have to use the latest, crazy-filtering-flange McDivot production technique or do some weird art piece that doesn’t connect with anyone… less ourselves. The only pressure we feel is to be true to ourselves.
In your minds, what distinguishes nu disco specifically from other genres of electronic music?
This is a very good question and one that probably has been asked about any genre you can imagine from the beginning of… genres. I think everyone is going to have their own view on what makes nu disco nu disco. It’s nice to be associated with a genre that is popular, but we’ve never put ourselves into a corner and only done the disco thing. We’ve been called the Kings of Latin house in eras past. So it doesn’t matter so much to us. But we also see how convenient it can be to see where you fit into things in the current, musical landscape.
Do you have any plans for an album release in 2016?
Yes we are busy working on a new 12” featuring Zeke Manyika called 'Mangwana' which should be out on FAR at the end of March. Also, we are expanding our own label and will be releasing a Rudy's Midnight Machine 12" (Rob's solo project ) sometime in May and we are going to be releasing a digital compilation at the end of the spring, which will be part two of our 'To The Sunset & Beyond' series, which will reveal the sunnier side of Faze Action and will include some exclusive new material.
Is there anything you'd like to tell your Aussie fans before you get here for VOASD?
Don’t hang about. Get your tickets and we’ll see you on the beach.
Faze Action play Vibes On A Summer's Day at The Triffid (Brisbane) 23 January and The Bondi Beach Pavilion (Sydney) 24 January.
