SPECIMEN
Adam, who are Specimen? ”There’s me, Hugh Drumm and a singer, Violet Williams; myself and Hugh were in Bumble, who were really the first Irish dance act. There were too many cooks involved, there were six people in the band! We were on Mother Records and they got sold to Island, and there was no one we could turn to. We could never get anything done in a hurry, so it just didn’t work out.” |
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So when did Bumble go their separate ways?
”We kept on making music, sending material out. We did a limited edition vinyl release as Doppler, and then I got quite sick and spent some time in hospital and go out of the swing of things. The studio we worked in got sold, but we still managed to make an album. We never sold it to anyone, actually it was more fun making it than trying to flog it!”
Is that why you sent your music to Sonarstate.com?
”I was coming out of hospital and I saw a poster for Sonarstate; I thought I had nothing to lose so I sent in a DAT. I’m really glad it’s happened, because we were making music for a long time and no-one was hearing it. It’s a bit like being a chef, preparing food and no one delivers the meals, they just stand there going cold. Why would you keep making more? Just to get this far is a great result for us.”
Apparently the material you submitted was recorded quite a while ago…
”Yeah, all the material was recorded ages ago, I’m glad it still holds up. It’s six years old; at the time I was making it I was pissed off because no one wanted to know about it. I suppose it was ahead of its time; the material I sent in is also more song based than most dance music tracks, which don’t really go anywhere, they just get bigger! We’re going to go back and remix the older material but keep it more song based. “
Is there any newer dance music you rate?
”Someone gave me an album of French house recently which was good. I also heard Fergie on the radio recently. It’s pretty hard but it’s quite exciting, full of energy. That’s the surprising thing about dance music isn’t it? You can be surprised about the amount of energy it can give you, tracks like ‘Sandstorm’ by Darude.”
Tell us about your live show…
”We’ll be playing as live as possible; I’ll be playing keyboards, triggering samples, Violet will be singing and Hugh will be mixing it. There’ll be no hands in the air or choreographed dance routines though! Anthrax used to use an exploding cod piece for their live shows, but I don’t think we’ll be going down that route…”
What’ll happen if you don’t win?
”Either way, it’s a good catalyst for us; it has given us an opportunity we didn’t have before. Sometimes it feels like we’re working in a vacuum because there’s no outlet. Sonarstate is really the first of its kind, so let’s see what happens…”
