NEWS
EVENTS
Crazy P Interview
How are you guys doing?
Tim: Good man, good. A bit sweaty, a bit hot.
Danielle: Always hot!
Tim: Better now we’re outside.
I’ve been following your guys’ music for years and everything. I mean, we were just having a conversation before about your sound; you guys evolved, evolved, evolved and it kind of got to a point where you came a little bit back on where you were going. You thought, hang on a minute... This is what we wanna do, not any of that.
Tim: Well, you have to sort of experiment a little bit, don’t you? And I think because we were playing with the band so much, the last album was a product of that. We wrote it with the band and it was recorded live, it was all recorded live in live sessions, and it was something we really wanted to do. And after that we started listening to some older stuff and we were thinking we lost a bit of something here, a bit of the quirk, a bit of sort of the samples, the sort of authenticity and the sort of the stuff that made it interesting in the first place. So for this album we dragged a bit of that back in but also kept the live thing going as well, so we’ve sort of taken a bit from the past.
Taken a bit from the past.
Tim: Yeahhh.
Okay. So what are you two’s involvement? What do you each do? Because a lot of people just listen to music right and then is like I like Crazy P and that’s it and they don’t really get the semantics and what really puts everything together.
Danielle: Well I think the Crazy P crew uh produces that’s Chris, remixes, musicians, Tim plays keyboard, I sing and Todd plays guitar, um his drums and live bass and you called me a viber.
What’s a viber?
Tim: To make the tea. Mate I don’t do any of that. Dani’s good, she has an amazing personality and she’s amazing to work with and when she’s in the studio it’s an absolute joy.
Danielle: Just don’t catch me on a Monday.
Alright! Okay. That’s it, that’s it! I get it. You’re a viber. So you vibe on the weekend and once the vibe is finish on Monday, don’t contact the vibe. Okay.
Tim: Naughty viber, naughty vibe.
Danielle: I’m just feeding my face with cous-cous. That’s it!
What is your background? What is your music heritage? Where did it come from?
Tim: Well I started off in Brass Bands, a trombonist when I was a kid and went to youth orchestras and then I did a music degree and then I found dance music in the early 90s.
Okay! At what age?
Uhhh, 18.
Right! okay, nice and ripe yea.
Tim: And umm so we really connected with it, so at that time it was like djs like Tony Humphries, he’s American house music which sort of, I really got into, it’s very musical and it was like it that went in sort of in line with me starting to go to clubs, starting to party. And Umm I just thought, I was 18, I was gonna try to be a trombonist but it’s such a difficult job. All the options had fallen, its just I thought lets do something different. That was about as far as the plan went, after that, its all.
Oh! dance music came in.
Tim: Well I met Toddy and it just sort of, it just happened. It wasn’t really my career goal from the offset but its umm we’ve had an amazing time over the past few years, haven’t we? It’s been brilliant, so we wouldn’t have changed it certainly.
How did you two meet?
Danielle: Umm well I’ve not really got such a professional musical history. I just wanted to be in Legs and Co uhh on top of pops (laughs) as a dancer from Green Apes and then when I was nine, my mum took me to see Sister Sledge in the Apollo in Manchester.
Sister Sledge in the Apollo. Okay, yeah.
Danielle: And from there on I just followed soul music and pirate radio stations in Manchester and umm then how did we meet Jim?
[Laughs]
Tim: Well I went down socially in Manchester just through going out and umm she’s obviously a star, you know on the dance floor a star. Then I heard her sing and when I heard her sing and umm it was hard to believe she’d never done any professional singing before. Uhh a complete raw talent and we were like right come on, you’re coming with us. (laughs)
[Laughs]
Tim: This way, this way.
Right. Results! [Laughs]
Tim: This way, this way. Just step into this studio here and umm we just really hit it off.
Danielle: I think the main thing with us and why we’ve been together so long and why a lot of bands don’t stay together, we’ve ultimately become the best of friends and we’ve seen each other at our worst at our best when we not so brilliant, when we’re average, deeply average. And we’ve seen all of our horrible bits and we still friends.
Tim: And we’ve come out the other end.
That’s beautiful.
Danielle: By the way I don’t usually look like this.
Tim: Yeah! No you don’t. Yeah
Danielle: I feel like I’ve been swimming in sweat.
[Laughs] So where are you guys at right now, at the moment? What’s happening because you have a new album out, right?
Tim: Our new album is coming out in September. The second week in September, so we’re getting ready, we’re doing an electric picnic in Dublin in a bestival and then we’re on tour after that.
Check that out!
Tim: There’s a deliver tonight, deliver tonight actually.
Deliver tonight? Can I have this one?
Danielle: Noooooooo!
[Laughs]
Danielle: It’s mine, it’s mine.
Tim: Well Andy from the label came down with a handful, so yea we’re just getting, starting, we’re rehearsing..
Danielle: Nooooooo!
Tim: Rehearsing with the band and we’re just getting ready for that tour.
[Laughs] Yeah
Tim: Yea yea and getting back on the road.
What can we expect from your album? Without giving away too much
Tim: Well, I’ll give it all away. (laughs) It’s a, well it’s a I would like to think its a good combination of what we’ve done in the past but also its we had a, in life you have weird times in your life and umm we had a bit of a weird year last year, a few things happened that you don’t expect. You sort of trundle along, thinking uh you know your untouchable and then something happens and I think this album.
Yep, yeah.
Tim: I think writing this album was after all that happened
Reflected on that.
Tim: Yea, a certain outlook, a certain amount of emotion on it and emotiveness we’ve never had before. So I would probably say it’s a little bit grown up in that sense.
I really want to hear this album because it sounds like a um an incidental kind of concept without actually wanting to have concept album. You kind of thought, let’s 180 back on ourselves a little bit on our sound and what we’re doing and now we’re ready to write an album out of that what ever you went through, the pain, strife, what ever it is the journey, yea okay right.
Tim: It was a cathartic experience, doing it you know, after all that, it made us feel better. It was a good thing.
Cool. How do you know Ralph?
Tim: Uhh I’ve known Ralph for years, because obviously you know 20 20 was going for years. We used to be signed to Paper Recordings which was sort of Manchester’s, they were rivals really.
Yeah, course they were. [Laughs]
Tim: So I met Ralph a few times in the early days
So you were on paper before you..
Tim: Yea, yea. It was all a bit stand-offish at that point. A few years ago, they’ve always been great those guys with us and been big supporters and we were looking for a deal for the last album and they came straight and said they really wanted to develop the label and take it, do something which wasn’t just straight house music and do something with a live element. We fit into that so they got us on board and they’ve been brilliant, we love them to bits.
He’s great musically. Umm I think he’s British genious, if you look at 20 20. I think sometimes he’s under-rated, I think myself. 20 20 is a massive brand but I think in London and the U.K. maybe people look abroad for people to be massive as such. When you look at what Ralph has put into the scene and what he’s developed and the 20 20 sound systems live and everything and who he’s brought on board, everyone is quality.
Tim: It started off as a passion project and they’ve retained that. They’ve got a passion for the music and that’s the main thing ain’ it? Definitely
I’m gonna bring it to a close; I know you guys have to fly somewhere. If you guys were banished to a desert island, it’s only you two and you have to take three people each, they gotta be famous people, who are they and why are you going to take them? Ladies first
Tim: Do they have to be alive?
Dead or alive.
Danielle: Prince, he would always entertain me all the time, pull out his guitar. I will learn from him, he would be an inspiration. I just want an equal viber.
Tim: [Laughs]
That’s one, second?
Danielle: Elvis Presley, I have a lot of questions to ask him. I’m not quite sure what at this moment in time because I’m having a long day. I would like to touch his bottom.
Tim: Would he be your love interest?
Danielle: Possibly yea! the army days, (laughs) early Elvis and thirdly, wow I’m struggling a bit. Any current politician.
No! Name one; it has to be someone specific.
Danielle: Mo Mowlam
Tim: [Laughs] I can’t better that. I’d go for Les Dawson. Apparently he used to be exactly like he was on TV in real life and having someone like that around would just be awesome wouldn’t it, so Les definitely. My love interest would be, ohh I don’t know, anyone who would love me basically, a super model or a not so super model.
So that’s Les Dawson, next is?
Tim: Next is, umm who could be my love interest?
Danielle: Ummm, your love interest. Are you a Carol Vorderman fan?
Tim: Oh F*****g, she knows me too well. Voderman definitely, Vorderman is in there. I love a woman who knows maths.
That’s great isn’t it
Tim: And Carol knows maths. I love to have somebody musical who I could quiz, like say you wanted to quiz someone so I would have somebody quite deep and meaningful like an old school Beethoven, someone like that, they were geniuses those guys, say Beethoven for the sake of it. But he was death wasn’t he so he wouldn’t be much company, you would have to write it all down.
Danielle: You’d have plenty of time to work with him
[Laughs] Oh my god. It’s been absolutely amazing. Thank you very much. Just tell us when is your next tour date.
Tim: In the U. K. September/October. We’re playing heaven in London but we have an album launch 30th September and we’re playing Heaven later on but I don’t know the date unfortunately.
Tim: Good man, good. A bit sweaty, a bit hot.
Danielle: Always hot!
Tim: Better now we’re outside.
I’ve been following your guys’ music for years and everything. I mean, we were just having a conversation before about your sound; you guys evolved, evolved, evolved and it kind of got to a point where you came a little bit back on where you were going. You thought, hang on a minute... This is what we wanna do, not any of that.
Tim: Well, you have to sort of experiment a little bit, don’t you? And I think because we were playing with the band so much, the last album was a product of that. We wrote it with the band and it was recorded live, it was all recorded live in live sessions, and it was something we really wanted to do. And after that we started listening to some older stuff and we were thinking we lost a bit of something here, a bit of the quirk, a bit of sort of the samples, the sort of authenticity and the sort of the stuff that made it interesting in the first place. So for this album we dragged a bit of that back in but also kept the live thing going as well, so we’ve sort of taken a bit from the past.
Taken a bit from the past.
Tim: Yeahhh.
Okay. So what are you two’s involvement? What do you each do? Because a lot of people just listen to music right and then is like I like Crazy P and that’s it and they don’t really get the semantics and what really puts everything together.
Danielle: Well I think the Crazy P crew uh produces that’s Chris, remixes, musicians, Tim plays keyboard, I sing and Todd plays guitar, um his drums and live bass and you called me a viber.
What’s a viber?
Tim: To make the tea. Mate I don’t do any of that. Dani’s good, she has an amazing personality and she’s amazing to work with and when she’s in the studio it’s an absolute joy.
Danielle: Just don’t catch me on a Monday.
Alright! Okay. That’s it, that’s it! I get it. You’re a viber. So you vibe on the weekend and once the vibe is finish on Monday, don’t contact the vibe. Okay.
Tim: Naughty viber, naughty vibe.
Danielle: I’m just feeding my face with cous-cous. That’s it!
What is your background? What is your music heritage? Where did it come from?
Tim: Well I started off in Brass Bands, a trombonist when I was a kid and went to youth orchestras and then I did a music degree and then I found dance music in the early 90s.
Okay! At what age?
Uhhh, 18.
Right! okay, nice and ripe yea.
Tim: And umm so we really connected with it, so at that time it was like djs like Tony Humphries, he’s American house music which sort of, I really got into, it’s very musical and it was like it that went in sort of in line with me starting to go to clubs, starting to party. And Umm I just thought, I was 18, I was gonna try to be a trombonist but it’s such a difficult job. All the options had fallen, its just I thought lets do something different. That was about as far as the plan went, after that, its all.
Oh! dance music came in.
Tim: Well I met Toddy and it just sort of, it just happened. It wasn’t really my career goal from the offset but its umm we’ve had an amazing time over the past few years, haven’t we? It’s been brilliant, so we wouldn’t have changed it certainly.
How did you two meet?
Danielle: Umm well I’ve not really got such a professional musical history. I just wanted to be in Legs and Co uhh on top of pops (laughs) as a dancer from Green Apes and then when I was nine, my mum took me to see Sister Sledge in the Apollo in Manchester.
Sister Sledge in the Apollo. Okay, yeah.
Danielle: And from there on I just followed soul music and pirate radio stations in Manchester and umm then how did we meet Jim?
[Laughs]
Tim: Well I went down socially in Manchester just through going out and umm she’s obviously a star, you know on the dance floor a star. Then I heard her sing and when I heard her sing and umm it was hard to believe she’d never done any professional singing before. Uhh a complete raw talent and we were like right come on, you’re coming with us. (laughs)
[Laughs]
Tim: This way, this way.
Right. Results! [Laughs]
Tim: This way, this way. Just step into this studio here and umm we just really hit it off.
Danielle: I think the main thing with us and why we’ve been together so long and why a lot of bands don’t stay together, we’ve ultimately become the best of friends and we’ve seen each other at our worst at our best when we not so brilliant, when we’re average, deeply average. And we’ve seen all of our horrible bits and we still friends.
Tim: And we’ve come out the other end.
That’s beautiful.
Danielle: By the way I don’t usually look like this.
Tim: Yeah! No you don’t. Yeah
Danielle: I feel like I’ve been swimming in sweat.
[Laughs] So where are you guys at right now, at the moment? What’s happening because you have a new album out, right?
Tim: Our new album is coming out in September. The second week in September, so we’re getting ready, we’re doing an electric picnic in Dublin in a bestival and then we’re on tour after that.
Check that out!
Tim: There’s a deliver tonight, deliver tonight actually.
Deliver tonight? Can I have this one?
Danielle: Noooooooo!
[Laughs]
Danielle: It’s mine, it’s mine.
Tim: Well Andy from the label came down with a handful, so yea we’re just getting, starting, we’re rehearsing..
Danielle: Nooooooo!
Tim: Rehearsing with the band and we’re just getting ready for that tour.
[Laughs] Yeah
Tim: Yea yea and getting back on the road.
What can we expect from your album? Without giving away too much
Tim: Well, I’ll give it all away. (laughs) It’s a, well it’s a I would like to think its a good combination of what we’ve done in the past but also its we had a, in life you have weird times in your life and umm we had a bit of a weird year last year, a few things happened that you don’t expect. You sort of trundle along, thinking uh you know your untouchable and then something happens and I think this album.
Yep, yeah.
Tim: I think writing this album was after all that happened
Reflected on that.
Tim: Yea, a certain outlook, a certain amount of emotion on it and emotiveness we’ve never had before. So I would probably say it’s a little bit grown up in that sense.
I really want to hear this album because it sounds like a um an incidental kind of concept without actually wanting to have concept album. You kind of thought, let’s 180 back on ourselves a little bit on our sound and what we’re doing and now we’re ready to write an album out of that what ever you went through, the pain, strife, what ever it is the journey, yea okay right.
Tim: It was a cathartic experience, doing it you know, after all that, it made us feel better. It was a good thing.
Cool. How do you know Ralph?
Tim: Uhh I’ve known Ralph for years, because obviously you know 20 20 was going for years. We used to be signed to Paper Recordings which was sort of Manchester’s, they were rivals really.
Yeah, course they were. [Laughs]
Tim: So I met Ralph a few times in the early days
So you were on paper before you..
Tim: Yea, yea. It was all a bit stand-offish at that point. A few years ago, they’ve always been great those guys with us and been big supporters and we were looking for a deal for the last album and they came straight and said they really wanted to develop the label and take it, do something which wasn’t just straight house music and do something with a live element. We fit into that so they got us on board and they’ve been brilliant, we love them to bits.
He’s great musically. Umm I think he’s British genious, if you look at 20 20. I think sometimes he’s under-rated, I think myself. 20 20 is a massive brand but I think in London and the U.K. maybe people look abroad for people to be massive as such. When you look at what Ralph has put into the scene and what he’s developed and the 20 20 sound systems live and everything and who he’s brought on board, everyone is quality.
Tim: It started off as a passion project and they’ve retained that. They’ve got a passion for the music and that’s the main thing ain’ it? Definitely
I’m gonna bring it to a close; I know you guys have to fly somewhere. If you guys were banished to a desert island, it’s only you two and you have to take three people each, they gotta be famous people, who are they and why are you going to take them? Ladies first
Tim: Do they have to be alive?
Dead or alive.
Danielle: Prince, he would always entertain me all the time, pull out his guitar. I will learn from him, he would be an inspiration. I just want an equal viber.
Tim: [Laughs]
That’s one, second?
Danielle: Elvis Presley, I have a lot of questions to ask him. I’m not quite sure what at this moment in time because I’m having a long day. I would like to touch his bottom.
Tim: Would he be your love interest?
Danielle: Possibly yea! the army days, (laughs) early Elvis and thirdly, wow I’m struggling a bit. Any current politician.
No! Name one; it has to be someone specific.
Danielle: Mo Mowlam
Tim: [Laughs] I can’t better that. I’d go for Les Dawson. Apparently he used to be exactly like he was on TV in real life and having someone like that around would just be awesome wouldn’t it, so Les definitely. My love interest would be, ohh I don’t know, anyone who would love me basically, a super model or a not so super model.
So that’s Les Dawson, next is?
Tim: Next is, umm who could be my love interest?
Danielle: Ummm, your love interest. Are you a Carol Vorderman fan?
Tim: Oh F*****g, she knows me too well. Voderman definitely, Vorderman is in there. I love a woman who knows maths.
That’s great isn’t it
Tim: And Carol knows maths. I love to have somebody musical who I could quiz, like say you wanted to quiz someone so I would have somebody quite deep and meaningful like an old school Beethoven, someone like that, they were geniuses those guys, say Beethoven for the sake of it. But he was death wasn’t he so he wouldn’t be much company, you would have to write it all down.
Danielle: You’d have plenty of time to work with him
[Laughs] Oh my god. It’s been absolutely amazing. Thank you very much. Just tell us when is your next tour date.
Tim: In the U. K. September/October. We’re playing heaven in London but we have an album launch 30th September and we’re playing Heaven later on but I don’t know the date unfortunately.
