Getting back in the Groove
After a farming foray and vowing to never make an album again, the dance duo have returned
THIS year has been full of surprises, not least that of 90s club veterans Groove Armada returning with a new album a decade after claiming they were done with making them.
The duo – Tom Findlay and Andy Cato are behind some of dance music’s favourite anthems – Superstylin’, I See You Baby and Song 4 Mutya (Out of Control) as well as chill out classic At the River.
After Grammy nominations, creating their own festival Lovebox, turning down Elton John and making music to chill out and get dancing, the pair decided to get back to basics after their Black Light and White Light albums in 2010.
Andy became a full-time farmer in France and the duo stuck to DJing.
But here they are with eighth album Edge of the Horizon which includes lockdown classic Get Out on the Dancefloor.
So what made you make an album again?
Andy: It’s an album we said we’d never make. When we clocked off in 2010 and stopped doing the live tours, we went underground back to DJing and making the house music we started with in the early 90s. That was going to be it for albums until we got the live band back together. It was for one weekend, for the craic really and to do it one more time. It turned out to be a pretty electric weekend and that got us thinking. We started looking back through the Black Light album archives finding grooves and ideas.
Is there a theme?
Tom: Loving nostalgia. The album is hinting that we’re not getting any younger. This could be the last record we make. There’s sadness but there’s joy too. You had gigs cancelled because of Covid, including Glastonbury. But you’re already announcing gigs for 2021 including Camp Bestival. How are you feeling for next year? A: We are holding our breath and crossing everything. Music is the togetherness business, it’s the opposite of the social distancing business. We’ve got to find a way of getting back on track in some way because the long-term consequences will be dramatic. T: We can’t wait to play the album to people in fields in 2021 when we get this miserable year out of the way.
You met in the mid 90s, started up your own London club Captain Sensual at the Helm of the Groove Armada and then started making your own tunes. What has kept you together for over 20 years?
A: When we’re in the studio, we go about it in a super intense way but it’s a laugh. It’s like the rest of the world shuts down and the two of us make our ideas become reality. It’s fun, and it always has been. I See You Baby was
remixed by Fatboy Slim and used in a TV advert for Renault Megane. How did it come about?
T: We were in Ibiza at the Manumission Motel with all these dancers. There was a woman there called Gram’ma Funk and she was the “hostess with the mostess”. That was her line. She would say, “I see you baby” to various people in the crowd. We got back to Tottenham and our A&R guy said: “You need a single”. We got her [Gram’ma Funk] into a studio in Tottenham with a few cans of Red Stripe, fired her up, edited the tune and that was it.
Tell us about your connection with Elton John and not working with him?
A: Elton once argued with Madonna about who discovered us first. When we were making the third album Goodbye Country (Hello Nightclub) we went a bit mad.
Then Elton’s assistant called and said he wanted to work with us but we said we were busy. Which is a regret. Luckily the stars still like you and Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Rose McGowan appeared in your Get Out on the Dancefloor lockdown video. The tune had a lot of folk dancing during the pandemic. But the song was spliced together? A: When we decided to do the new album we went back through Black Light’s recordings. I realised there were lots of cool phrases we could use. It took a very long time to find the right order for them, but once we had that line “Get out on the dancefloor” it felt vibey. Slotting the music underneath was the easy bit!
Edge of the Horizon is out now.