From performing in abandoned pizza joints in South London to sitting at a South-Indian fine dining restaurant Dakshin for a quick dinner before he DJs for the crowd at Chennai's premium nightclub Dublin next door, Grammy-winning musician Felix Buxton of Basement Jaxx has come a long way. The band he formed with his mate Simon Ratcliffe won its first Grammy for Best Electronic Album in 2005.
The Indian experience
As he waits for his food to arrive, Felix is visibly excited about his first taste of India. “I had never been to India, which is why I agreed to come and play. And, it's been a packed three days. I was in Delhi and Pune before this. I went to the Taj Mahal and recorded with the Midival Punditz,” Felix tells us all about his trip and the experience of recording with an Indian flautist and vocalist for their new album to be out next summer. “This time we want to be more global. In the past, we would've just got an Indian flute player from London. But, this just makes it more Indian.”
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Felix is in India as a part of Eristoff Wolf Night tour and was next heading to Goa for a show. Having sold over three million copies split across seven albums since its debut ‘Remedy', Basement Jaxx sees itself leaning towards orchestral and global music. “We are not just electronic. We are a lot wider. Our last album ‘Basement Jaxx Vs Metropole Orkest' was recorded completely with an orchestra,” Felix sets the record right about the band being described as electronic owing to its party music roots. Basement Jaxx's live acts usually feature live musicians, singers and visuals. But, for the Chennai show it was just DJing. “That's where we came from. So, this is kind of a part of the Basement Jaxx world.”
Recently, the band got into scoring for film. Is he familiar with A.R. Rahman's music? “Yeah, we just did music for a movie on hula-hooping, and the director wanted either him or us,” he laughs.
“We also did music for ‘Attack the Block'. We said we'll just do a scene and we ended up doing most of it. And for this documentary called ‘The Hooping Life', the director came home, and we did all of it. We enjoyed doing music for movies, but it's not something we want to do all the time.”
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Growing gracefully
What next? “We want to grow gracefully. I don't want to be jumping around when I'm 50. Maybe more of the orchestral thing, live shows, maybe a musical with Bollywood elements.”
Basement Jaxx sees itself evolving into a global act. “We travel more. So, there will be music from different parts of the world. I never intended to be a gypsy, but it's about accepting what life becomes. My dad was telling me that the problem is that you don't belong anywhere now since you travel so much. But like someone here said, if you don't belong anywhere, you belong everywhere.”