FaizeMusic.com //Teddy Douglas Interview\\

I know you are celebrating your 15th year together but when and how did the Basement Boys project start from?
It happened in 1984, we were basically all club DJ's in Baltimore DC. We all worked at the same record store at one time and we basically got together to create music music that wasn't around and that we were all wanting to play. The Disco thing had kind of gone and the electronic music had come round in the 80's, we wanted to re-create that feeling again so that's really what drove us to buy equipment and start messin' around with drum machines and that kind of stuff.

Where you influenced from an early age with music or was it a natural progression of self interest in music?
Actually yeah my mom, um they were pretty much into whatever was being played on the radio they weren't really that much into music, it was through my sister that I was exposed to music from an early age. She would listen to Jazz, Gospel and I was really effected from that, actually at a young age I fell in love with Jazz which was kinda' weird for a kid of my age then and as well most other people were listening to The Jackson 5 and Nina Simmone.

The music, from what you produce to what you play in your sets reflect quite a spiritual and Gospel sound, does this reflect you personally, are you a spiritual person?
Yeah I don't sit in church every Sunday but um the belief is there. You see Baltimore is a city that's on the east coast about 30 minutes from Washington DC. Its pretty southern so I kinda' grew up with the hole church thing and so its always played a part in my life.

You guys have been around as we know for a long time and in the music business 15 years isn't bad going! You have been pioneers within the House scene and even managed to cross over into the main commercial sector, is there any particular aspect that you put this success down to or is it simply a great partnership that has just seemed to work well?
Yeah I think its mainly about following your heart and your instincts, we work like that in the studio and as well as when we DJ. I've been a DJ since around 1980, you can kinda' use the dance floor as a testing ground you know, its probably the best testing ground you could ever have. I remember the first time we did 'Gypsy Woman' we didn't know it was going to be the big international world wide hit it was, we just thought that the hook 'Lad-da-dee-la-de-da' was pretty catchy, we wanted to emphasise that so we looped it and made it go on forever and we tested it for the first time on a dance floor I remember the reaction was like, Wow.....!

That track must have been a very Poignant Moment for you guys?
You know yeah it was great cos' we were basically doing stuff that felt good to us, if it had some Gospel, some Jazz or some whatever you know, we started using a lot of musicians, Saxophonists and such like to do somethings that weren't in house records at that time and simply create tracks that felt good.

Are you musically trained?
No I guess I'm err... blessed.!!! I hear music in my head, I hear rhythms and because I grew up with tones of music I believe that has a lot to do with that and basically i hear these things and because I don't physically play and am not a musician we have a whole staff of musicians that I relate to, you like I may hum a bar or something and say play this play that and they come up with all the great sounds so I'm kinda' like a musical director.!

Would you say that there is an overall Basement Boys style, your records are quite distinctive, but with you new Elephunk label you have move in a very positive way to a more lush instrument led organic sound, is that the focus for the label, to differ from the Basement Boys label or do you think that the sounds between the labels will fuse together?
It is definitely another creative way for us to step out of the box from what people know Basement Boys for. We're gonna' keep doing the Basement Boys label but Elephunk is an experimental side for us to step out to. I'm from the era where the 4/4 kick drum was shared not only just in House but there were Rock records there were R&B records Funk records Rock records Gospel records even The Clash they all had the 4/4 formula to them, there was so many different records out there and we just wanted with the Elephunk label to to show how we can push boundaries. I think every bodies playing it a little safe..... Yeah I know what your saying, I feel that it all got a bit boring for a while with too much quick and easy 'funky house' nonsense tracks coming out, but recently there has been some great stuff surfacing that is pushing new styles and progressing the Soulful sounds further..... Exactly,.. you know we just love really good songs and strong melodies and have been very fortunate to have survived so long, its actually been longer than 15 years its more like 18-19 but that doesn't sound quite as good, we wanted to wait to our 20th year but with the current progression of the music we felt that it was time now to release the anniversary compilation.

There are a couple of down tempo tracks on the Elephunk Album, is this something we are going to hear more of in the future on the label?
Yeah we wanted to reach out to the likes of Giles Peterson and the other lounge guys, because the down-tempo tracks have the same 4/4 formula so we want to release some music in that genre and we're gonna' do a lot of different stuff you know stuff for the house heads and stuff for the guys who just gotta' have their tracks at that 128 tempo.!!

Do you draw from any kind of inspiration when making your music or do you literally have an idea and take it from there?
You mean do I take a lot of drugs?!!!
No you know what I mean...!!!
Definitely, you know lived the whole Paradise Garage days and Zanzibar, Better Days. There's a whole list of clubs, every city in the United States has a club like Paradise Garage that was popular and where the early days where had in any particular city and so I always draw back from those days even as far back before I was a Dj to listening to records in my bedroom at my mom's house those are the two eras that I draw most of my inspiration from and my record collection, I have a huge record collection and that's I suppose basically where my inspiration starts also.

The track you did as Those Guys 'Tonight' is one of my all time favourite records, would you ever consider remixing any of your past work or do you feel that music is a sign of the times and thatÕs what makes a classic a classic?
Well what we'll be doing is featuring those tracks on the Anniversary Compilation and we're gonna' have some of that stuff on vinyl single as well so its available to those who perhaps didn't get it first time around. But the idea to remix 'Tonight' and 'Gypsy Woman' was pitched to me not too long ago but I wasn't into it, you shouldn't mess with stuff like that..!

Was the vocal intro on the track 'Tonight' from a film?
No that was actually taken from a Broadway play called 'For Coloured Girls Only' and eer.. its a bit of a cheeky line!! I used to use it in my DJ sets in the clubs as a DJ tool, I would stop the music and then she would start saying all the stuff she says and the crowed really like it as I built it up and banged in another record over the top and so I thought you know this would be great to use on a record and so there I was again drawing on my DJing for inspiration in the studio.

I'm really into the percussive beat driven tracks you have been doing like 'The Bush' & 'Bombelaya' they sound really great, From listening to them I get the feeling that you really get into a groove when you are making these tracks and just vibe out with them is this the case?
Man Bomelaya is a ten minute long track!, it actually started off as an idea that me and my percussionist had, he started to freestyle over what I was doin' and it sounded great and so we did it as a DJ tool, you know something you could work into your sets so thatÕs how we left it, just like that cos back in the day when I was a young DJ there were records that were made exclusively for you to mix in and lay over the top and thatÕs really what I wanted Bombelaya to be, a tool for the DJ and a lot of people say they really like stuff like that so yeah I had some pretty cool feedback on those tracks.

Apart from Spen & Karizma's involvement in the Basement Boys has it always been just you and Jay Steinhour? Wasn't Maurice Fulton involved along the way, I know he was involved with you very first release on the Basement Boys label?
The Basement Boys original members were Tommy Davis, Jay Steinhour and myself and the third member kinda' lost interest after the success we had with 'Gypsy Woman' cos' we were getting a lot of pressure from the major label to come up with a follow-up track and you can imagine having that kind of pressure on you like 'come we gotta' do another one' so we ended up loosing a member through that and then what happened at around that time was that we started recruiting people for staff you know like staff producers to help out with the workload cos' at that time we had two or three artists in Ultra Naté, Chrystal and Mass Order and they all had major label deals all at the same time and so I brought in DJ Spen in the late 80's to help out with the song writing and drum programming then Maurice Fulton came in after him and of course keyboard players change all the time, but these are the two producers we brought in. Then Maurice moved to London, so Spen has been with us since then and of course Karizma came in and now it's back to the original members, as Spen and Karizma as you know are now doing their own things. These guys were brought in to help the company grow and it has certainly worked, you know that there's no grudges involved with their departure. It was the right time for them to move on to new things and what they did whilst part of the Basement Boys was great.

I received a pre-release copy of the compilation and one of the mixes is done by Spen, will that remain or now he has departed, all be it on good terms, be re-recorded?
Yes Spen's mix will remain on the compilation, you know I can't, and don't want to take anything away from him, cos he has been a stable with my company for a long time and done so much, and not to discredit anything he has done so his mix will remain.

When will you be releasing the 15th Anniversary compilation, I know it was suppose to have been a few months back, what happened there?
Well that's what i'm doing in London right now, I'm sorting that out with the label it's now going through but was supposed to be out sort of now, really. May/June 2004. Prior to that it was Fall of last year and then we decided that the end of the year was a bad time and we would rather wait until the New Year and do it around the time of Miami, and you know, build it up with a tour and that kind of thing. Then we go to the summer and so now i'm going to snatch the project and get it out. At the very latest it will be out Fall 2004.

So can you tell us what's forthcoming over the next year from your labels?
First of we have the Elephunk Album which includes a vast cross section of music representing the styles that the label covers. Then Vinx has a full length album out, which is more of a Jazz thing, which is really cool, and we will be putting that out on Elephunk also. Then after that there's a Jasper Street Company box set collection of three albums. A lot of people never got the first one, and a lot of people have also been requesting we re-release a lot of their old stuff, so i'll be releasing the whole JSC catalogues. Then from there we have a new Basement Boys record out in the fall so we'll pop a couple of singles off that so there's quite a few things in the works across the labels so we're gonna' be quite busy.!

You played at Turnmills last week, how was that party?
Yeah that was a great party I had a great time playing there and the crowed were up for it also.

How do you like playing in the UK, is there much of a difference from playing back home?
Yes I do enjoy playing over here but in all I love playing period!, I don't care where it is, it could be my Mom's basement! I just love shearing the music and watching people react to it, playing with their emotions a little, makin' them move, but yeah you know I don't care where it is I just love playing the music I really do...

Do you have any parties planned to mark the 15th Anniversary?
Well we have a tour we are going to put together, I have a manager and a couple of other people sorting that out, so as soon as we have a release date nailed we can start to put that in place. It's going to be a worldwide tour so i'm looking forward to that very much.

And finally how do you like to chill out and take time off?
When i'm doing music, my favourite thing is basketball, NBA, I love basketball... I have a TV in the studio and we have the play offs on, you know it's a bit like you guys with your football. I enjoy that and doing nothing, that's actually been another good thing about me being over here in London at the moment, there's no studio, and so I'm sleeping longer than I have for a long time. So i'm chilling lots over here, it's great.