Soul man spin-off

The DJ half of celebrated Manchester dance duo Rae and Christian talks to STEPHEN JEWELL.

With its fine blend of hip hop and soul, Rae and Christian's Sleepwalking would have to be one of the best albums so far this year. However, Auckland clubbers shouldn't expect to hear too much of the Manchester-based duo's second album when Mark Rae DJs here on Friday.

"When I DJ, the relationship between the album and what I play as a DJ is rather warped," admits Rae, speaking from London. "I come to give a party and I'll do anything to make the atmosphere in that party.

"It's different to what happens with Rae and Christian because Steve (Christian) is not a DJ and he doesn't go to clubs. I'll play some of our tracks like Hold Us Down, Trailing in the Wake and Ready to Roll when I'm warming people up, but when the party's got to go, it's got to go!

"Having said that, I don't want people to walk out at the end of the night thinking that they haven't had an experience of Rae and Christian, because they will get some of that. I've been DJing for 14 years and this is a culture that my half of Rae and Christian has come from."

With its emphasis on soulful ballads such as Bobby Womack collaborations Get a Life and Wake Up, most of Sleepwalking is unsuitable for club listening.

"We wanted to focus on more straightforward songs on this album, which is why it's more ballad-based, with more live instruments," explains Rae. The tempos are down on a few of the tracks, but there's still a lot of funk in there.

"Sleepwalking is definitely more of a soul album than the last one. We like to work with vocalists who can hold an emotion in a song."

Collaborators on their album included Texas frontwoman Sharleen Spiteri and rappers the Jungle Brothers, while Sleepwalking also features hip-hop crew the Pharcyde.

Rae says working with soul veteran Womack was memorable: "He used to keep me entertained with hour-long phone conversations when I didn't say anything," laughs Rae.

"He gave an incredible vocal performance and is quite an amazing guy. He was keen to do it for not much money and was in it for the music.

While Womack's recording session was all phone calls and tapes in the mail, Rae never got to meet Womack in person. However, he did get to record Hold Us Down in person with Cedric Myton from 70s reggae legends, the Congos.

"I went to New York and went up to the Bronx to meet Cedric," recalls Rae. "He cooked me a big meal and we sat down and worked everything out. Some people have really worried about what's going on with Hold Us Down but I feel that it's one of the most sprightly, joy-of-life songs on the album, because a lot of the other stuff is quite dark.

"We didn't intend it to be like that. We didn't want to do Northern Sulphuric Soul again or mimic being a hip-hop band. That was the era that the first album was made in, with the connections that we had.

"It's just a journey for Steve and I. Maybe our next album won't have any collaborators on it or it'll be instrumental. We're still homing in on defining what Rae and Christian is."

*Mark Rae plays at Fu, Fri May 11.