MAXI Jazz has discovered an unexpected benefit to his musical re-invention.
“It’s actually much easier playing these songs live than with Faithless,” he says, before bursting out laughing.
“When it’s a 90 minute set with Faithless you are working out all the time. Particularly in England, the fans can be reserved so you have to almost give them permission to go crazy and jump around, and you end up doing that yourself.
“With this it’s all about what you’re hearing, you’re not trying to get people excited in that mad way but just mad for the music. So I’m not jumping around, I’m just swaying around the stage with a smile on my face – playing and dancing are harder to do at the same time than I expected. Maybe next year I’ll start doing the Pete Townshend windmills…”
The last comment is a reference to the biggest change for the 59-year-old. After 22 years with Faithless, he has now strapped on a guitar, started writing songs inspired by the likes of Sly and the Family Stone, and formed a new band, the E-Type Boys.
The results can be heard on the album Simple… Not Easy, and at Oran Mor tonight. It is a career change that the affable singer was not expecting in the slightest.
“I still find myself waking up in the morning shocked to the core that I am fronting a guitar band,” he admits. “Even six or seven years ago it made no sense, because if I was going to make a new album then I always assumed it would be hip hop, because I’m a rapper and love beats. It was around about four years ago that I realised I had several songs written on the guitar and I loved them all.
“I called up my old keyboards player (Chris Jerome), played them to him and he said ‘these are great’. So we thought we’d form a band and went from there.”
The E-Type Boys, with their heady mixture of soul, blues and jazz, are now occupying both the present and future thoughts for Jazz. That will likely disappoint fans of Faithless, who have been quiet since a run of shows to mark their 20th anniversary.
“You’re not going to see anything happening again with Faithless, probably forever,” he says. “It’s a done deal. I’m incredibly proud of what we managed to achieve in the 22 years we were together, and the amount of people we affected. But we started 22 years ago, and I was 37 then. If anyone is exactly the same after that amount of time then they’re not grabbing the moment, and I don’t want to go back 22 years.”
He is also wary of the dance act becoming a group where the music feels like a job, as supposed to be something that he would actually enjoy.
“I’ve stood at the side of the stage during festivals and seen bands where the keyboardist is clearly thinking about his wife and kids in Philadelphia while he’s in a field in Scotland,” he adds.
“That wouldn’t be the case with Faithless, because the fans are so enthusiastic that it would be impossible to get bored. They will always inspire you to give your best, especially as there are no hiding places as the frontman. But you don’t ever want to get to the spot where you’re going ‘oh no, another gig’ and hopefully I’ve ducked out before that happened.”
However while the music style has changed, the reasons why he makes music have not. The record even includes a cover of the Faithless politically-charged classic Mass Destruction, given more of a reggae feel, and the singer believes that music can make a difference, as long as it comes from the heart.
“Most of the stuff I learned growing up that was important were things I learned from the radio, so I always wanted to write songs that came from inside me,” he says. “Music can have an impact, no question, especially with the youngsters. It’s so easy to feel isolated when you’re 12 to 15, and that you’re the only one who feels like that, and then you hear something on the radio and it’s massive, because you feel like you do belong.
“It’s why there’s always a place in the world for people being honest.”
Maxi Jazz and the E-Type Boys play Oran Mor tonight.
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