15 questions with…MORCHEEBA

As producers of lush, downtempo tunes, Morcheeba have had more than a quarter of a century of success. It’s been quite a ride, and we’re not just talking about the transition from Atari to Mac…

Morcheeba return with their tenth studio album this year, although it’s not been the easiest of journeys, by any means (and consequently, really it’s actually their 11th release). Brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey formed the band in the 90s, after meeting singer Skye Edwards, and released a succession of successful albums over the next decade, four of which went top 20 in the UK. After the band’s Charanga album, however, Edwards left to be replaced by a string of other vocalists until she returned in 2010 for the band’s seventh album, Blood Like Lemonade. Happy ever after? Not quite. Paul left the band in 2014, leaving Skye and Ross to record their next album under that name (2016’s Skye & Ross) rather than Morcheeba. However the duo reverted to Morcheeba for 2018’s Blaze Away and this year’s latest offering, Blackest Blue. Why can’t brothers in music just get on? We asked Ross Godfrey for his thoughts…

1 Tell us how you got into music production in the first place?

Ross Godfrey: “Ever since I was a boy I have loved music of any kind. I started to play guitar at the age of seven and joined bands from 12 onwards. I was heavily influenced by Jimi Hendrix and blues artists like John Lee Hooker and Lightnin’ Hopkins. Later I started to get into early hip-hop and electro.”

2 When did you start to feel you were getting somewhere”?