I’m sure it won’t surprise many on this site to hear that the first time I met the guys from The Egg was when I charged them to get into a mate’s psy trance party in Acton. Despite their friends incredulously asking “But don’t you know who they are?”, as I didn’t I managed to extract some dollar from them. Mortified later on when I realised my mistake I was exceedingly relieved to discover that Maff and Ned Scott aren’t “Don’t you know who I am” kind of guys.
And after being blown away by their amazing performance at Easter’s Elixir of Life party, I’ve discovered that if you don’t know who the Egg are then you most certainly should. With the release of their new album Something To Do this week and a headline set at Waveform Festival this coming weekend, it’s certainly time they made their HarderFaster debut . . .
I meet up with Ned in his West London studio and after a couple of technical hitches, finally managed to get Maff, who’s based in Bristol, up on Skype. With a band practising below and trains going above, it’s all suitably hectic but the guys get straight in with the easy banter only those who know each other very well – such as twin brothers – can get away with. First, I’m curious to find out whether they were both into music growing up. “Not really,” says Maff. “Until we were 17 we weren’t really into music!” “But we liked movie themes!” Ned interrupts, “I got into Vengelis!” “We got into movie theme tunes and had a bedroom what was all orange and brown!” There’s a strange noise coming down the Skype-ways, which turns out to be Bigfoot. “What’s bigfoot done for us?” Ned asks. “He started the whole thing off with his conspiracy theories . . .” says Maff, and so the Bigfoot jokes flow. Welcome to the wonderful world of the Egg, where absolutely nothing can be taken too seriously.
But the guys quickly tire of Sasquatch and Chewbacca jokes, for ‘Chewie’ sounds like ‘Julie’ and it transpires that Ned has played big Julie in Guys and Dolls in Oxford many years ago. Recalling that there had been a question, Maff relects that “thinking about it now, ambient dance music and chilled house probably all came from all that! Cos we were listening to it as kids.” Ned continues: “We used to do a lot of jams with our Mum’s boyfriend’s band, Stoneflow. Our band was called ‘Torn Up Green Bits of Paper’, then we changed it to ‘Torn Up Yellow Bits of Paper’.” “Then we moved on” says Maff. “I had a bass drum with only one pedal. I had to time it really well!”
But, I wonder, how did all that go on to become ‘The Egg’? “Ned was doing ‘Midnight Sonata’ and at the same time I started learning 4/4 drums,” Maff explains. “We jammed for ages and wound up all our neighbours. Then we started jamming for other people and singing songs about going to the shop. Our sister was into British rock – Led Zep and Rainbow – but we were more into the hippie stuff. It was like a craze, we had a Lego phase then we had another phase and built a thing under the stairs and made things . . .” “I don’t think we ever made anything,” Ned interrups.
“I made a cello and I made a film,” Maff continues. “I thought it would be amazing to make a film with no characters and no plot, with lots of blipverts and images of the world… it’s now an amazing ’70s time bubble of New York! It made me think of music and video and film all being one, so we started The Egg (after a few other bands) doing projections and making housey kind of beats with projections over it. We still jam, but the albums are something different. It was all tied into the start of dance music and the crowd and audience, it went down really well and then we did a couple of albums.”
“I think if anyone has seen us live they’d get what we were trying to do. We were more on the electronic side of things. The Americans really got us, we had a few trips there”, says Maff.
“I think the important thing when we were jamming with our mum’s boyfriend’s friends was that everyone was involved and we learned that it was a very nice thing that goes between the generations well,” Ned interjects. “We had a really battered piano!”
So with Maff playing the drums and Ned ‘Moonlight Sonata’, surely they had different influences? “We both got into the same things at the same time,” Maff says. “We moved straight into rock and funk really and into stuff like Supertramp.”
Live at the Highline Ballroom, New York City
As someone who used to know the Supertramp album ‘Breakfast in America’ off by heart as a kid, this impresses me. “They put so much effort put into it,” Ned recalls, “and they always looked like they were on stage having so much fun. The boss of our previous label, Derek Green, signed Supertramp, and one night he called me up and said “Hi how’s it going, I’ve got Roger Hodgson with me, we’re having a jam tonight! And Roger Hodgson came along with Derek and we were about to play with him then the gig got closed down by the police – which was ironic, as Derek Green had also signed The Police!”
“We did a couple of EPs on Cup of Tea Records,” Maff continues, “and everyone on that label ended up getting signed. That was really lovely and from that we got signed to China and that was pretty much what we’ve been playing out the last couple of years. Then Warner got bought up and we did another couple of EPs, working with Twisted Records, with Benji [Vaughan] producing. We were pretty much doing what we wanted!” “And we went on a lot of compilation albums: Zero7, Lamb . . .” Ned interrupts, “But then they went bankrupt,” Maff laughs, “basically every label we’ve been on has gone bankrupt! Then there was the big remix.”
‘Walking Away’
“First Milo did a remix of a track called ‘Wall’ and that got heard by a guy in Germany who does Great Stuff Records who wanted to license the whole album,” says Ned. “Then the next track we did was ‘Walking Away’ with Sophie Barker, a friend of ours.” Maff continues: “Tocadisco did a remix, then that came back to England as a major import, then it got taken up by David Guetta. I met him at Turnmills when Fischerspooner were playing and went into the DJ booth to say hello. When I met David he said he’d done this mash up and then it [‘Love Don’t Let Me Go (Walking Away)’] did really well at Miami . . . it was quite similar to Tocadisco though!” “But he did a different vocal,” notes Ned. “Then we toured Brazil and Australia, but that came from us . . . we were partly booked off that track and then people expected us to play it. But at least it helped us sell some records!
“But we were already a big festival band,” says Ned, “we’d played second stage at Big Chill, then we got to no. 3 in the charts and it was the biggest dance record in the world that year! Then we did the Australia tour, Future Music, and we were touring with Carl Cox and Feddie Le Grand, so we were in that dance/DJ thing. We’d play that riff and the crowd would increase by another thousand by a minute! We were peaking at that moment!”
“What note is this?” asks Maff, playing the piano over Skype. Ned guesses “F” and I try and squeeze in another question while I can. So having toured the world, topped the UK charts and headlined the world’s biggest festivals, I wonder what the highlights have been for them so far?
‘Electric City’ @ Secret Garden Party 2011
“We met Lou Reed,” Maff recalls, “as he’d written in ‘The Times’ that he was a big fan and that he loved us and we thought it must have been a spelling mistake! It was the first time we’d taken an album to a gig. We went to South Bank and told them that he liked our music. Then out he came! We’d done an hour of one of our live recordings of our psychedelic freak out stuff which he was into . . . that was really nice!”
“We’ve also played at Brixton Academy. We did a few tracks with Pete Docherty and were co-writers of some tunes. But back to Egg, there were some tours of Amercia.” “Porto Alegre in Brazil was amazing,” Ned remembers. “Our friend Tim Healy put us on after a Russian techno artist and we played to about 9,000 people and they just went mental. Being in Ibiza when we played there and everybody had the tunes on their ringtones and I brought whistle tops and I was getting everyone to record the tune with whistle tops!”
“We did a track against the Criminal Justice act with people from Ride,” Ned says. “A friend from Radiohead sorted out the press for it and we had a guy we met at the pub collecting glasses who did the vocals and released it . . . it was called ‘Less Than 10 People’, we made 7,000 flexidiscs and sent them out.” “Then last year I bumped into the guy from the Rinkidink Sound System who’d played the track and had kept it in top condition!” Maff laughs.
“It’s really hard to stay what the best part is because we can’t stop doing it cos we can’t really do anything else!” Maff. says “A highlight is always finishing an album as it’s such a long tortuous process, it’s really important what you think as when you’re the person who made it you’re so close to it and it‘s just great for it to be done. If we just recorded what we did live it wouldn’t matter! I’d like to do a live album as what we’ve got live has such a different vibe.”
I wonder how working with new producers this time around on ‘Something To Do’ might have had an impact on their music. I’ve heard that they’ve worked with Bruno Ellingham on the new album? “Yes, he did New Order and Manic Street Preachers and a lot of Paul Oakenfold, he was really good,” says Maff. “We also did a few new tunes with Benji, and then we did the majority with Robin (part of the Discosluts and Slide), he likes to have a beer and a laugh. It’s been really good to have someone like that to take us out of ourselves. We did a couple of tunes with Greg Hunter, part of the original Orb team, who did a lot of the grooves on ‘Fire’ and another tune with him, which is really digi dub, it’s beautiful, it really rewires the brain . . . so that’s four producers!"
"And we had Sean Hunter, our sound guy. He’s taught me a lot of what I know about computers and a lot of the new album is from him, I wrote a couple of tunes with him. Also Balric Shnouse, he’s great, and did some beautiful chilled versions and he’s got a bit more progressive house now. Beautiful! He did some synths for us. So there’s quite a few styles. We also met a taxi driver in New York who was telling us all about Woodstock and how he had met Jimmy so he’s on there and also another guy who was trying to sell us oil shares! I probably would have liked a few more dance tunes on there, but if we’d waited to get those done it would have been another couple of months.”
New single ‘Catch’
I know what goes on tour is supposed to stay on tour, but I’m thinking the guys must have some more stories from life on the road? Ned answers this one: “What’s great is the afterparties in towns you go to, then you sleep in the van all day. I quite liked not knowing where we were going and getting in the van then waking up. There’s a lot of driving in America and you get a real sense of space. We flew into Denver and drove around the Rockies. Then the next time we did a lot of tours around the southern States where you’re driving for something like 2 days across Kansas, then seeing the Rockies in the distance getting slowly bigger and bigger. People would travel for five hours to go out over there and stay in hotels. Once you do those long journeys and you’re used to it, it doesn’t seem so enormous!”
“It’s really sweet you can get somewhere and you find people are kind of hip everywhere… We’ve got a lot of silly stuff on tour where I an animated voices using thing I found in Thailand, so whoever comes to the band has to be into silliness!” “I don’t think we could be cool if we tried,” laughs Maff.
From left to right, The Egg are Ned Scott, Maff Scott, Paul Marshall & Drew Thane
So do they have any silliness planned for Waveform Festival this weekend? “We’re not that silly really!” says Maff. “It’s English self-depreciating irony. You’ve got to laugh at how fucked up the world is. We’ve got a few things planned; we’ve thrown in a lot more electronics. Most gigs are different usually because something goes wrong! So there’s a bit of that . . . so it won’t be like any of us expect!”
Finally, with Maff and Ned being hardened festival goers, I want to know what the three things they wouldn’t go to a festival without: “Air, fire and water,” says Maff. “But you don’t need water, there’s water there,” argues Ned.
“I’d probably not go without clothes!” Maff continues. “And I generally bring my electronic music gear with me. I tend to prefer playing at festivals as a lot of friends of mine manage stages so I tend to take my laptop. What else? Money, although we went to Burning Man and we didn’t need money at all! I think a money-less festival would be great. You look at some festivals and they’re not really festivals.”
“When you look at Woodstock and it was all about peace. I met Melanie, one of the original Woodstock members, and I was with my friend making tulips and that was the big thing, changing the world. While now it’s just a lot of bands trying to get famous and singing about their girlfriends. Bands are trying to get the band going and the burger man is trying to sell burgers when we should be trying to come away with something.”
“Magnets . . . that would be a good thing to bring to bring to a festival to stop the shift,” jokes Maff. “And some iron filings!” laughs Ned.
Maff: “I’m really looking for Waveform. Million Way are friends of ours from Bristol and they’re playing on Saturday night. We’re really encouraged by bands who are taking electronic stuff out live. Gaudi is fantastic as well, we did a track with him ages ago. So we’re going to stick around for the weekend.”
“That’s the great thing about playing on Friday night. Taking equipment to a festival and then trying to play on Sunday is like taking a jar of ants and letting them go and then trying to get them back into it. So Friday is good and it should be a lot fun!”
Tickets now on sale for the biggest and best ever Waveform Festival. Stunning eclectic music line up with the likes of Gaudi, The Egg, Graeme Park, K-Klass, Dickster, Eat Static, Kaya Project, Banco de Gaia and so many more…
To celebrate our being granted a full licence we are giving away one pair of VIP tickets to one lucky reader with loads of onsite goodies for you over the weekend to make your stay an unforgettable one.
We have got a full, fun packed weekend program including talks from the world-renowned Worldshift Media, yoga, massage & many types of healing from all over the world for you to sample and join in with. Classes are available for those who just want a taster or full workshops for those with a little more experience. Partner yoga is a fun way of getting support from your partner but if you are on your own then come along and meet new friends as you partner them. We have many other healers and areas offering an abundance of holistic treatments.
Our Green Village is growing every year and this year is no exception. Attend a talk of living in a more carbon neutral way, maybe you’re interested in off-grid living. With talks and workshops covering many different aspects of being green and more aware of our planet, we are sure you will become as enlightened as we all are. Powered by renewable energy like solar & wind, we hope to run this area entirely for these plentiful sources.
Music is the answer. At Waveform we pride ourselves in our eclectic musical tastes. We have become synonymous with quality underground music with our sustainable edge. Winning awards every year for our green endeavours, Waveform has reached the premiere position in sustainable dance events.
2012 Shift & Sustainability Workshops – Hosted by WorldShift Media: World Festival Exclusive “How to activate & program your Merkaba”, Higher Self connection and communication, Anchoring of source consciousness, The Shift, how will it affect me? A history of Gnostism – a strange familiarity, Sustainability “In the stars”... more to be announced...
Visionary Art: Exclusive Exhibition from Robbie’s Psy Art psychedelic-art.com
Green Village: Solar & Wind powered, Organic food, Alchemy juice bar, recycling space, cloud busting, site wide organite, higher frequencies through XTALS c/o Tim Orgone.
Facilities: Solar Showers, Lock Up, Water, Lost property, General stores, Medical & Festival Welfare Services, Disabled Facilities.
How to get there: Lift sharing, Public bus service to within a few hundred yards, Waveform Welcoming Team at Taunton Rail Station.
Solar Live Stage – Hosted by Cats Cradle & Om Bongo: The Egg, Gaudi, Eat Static, the People\\\'s String Foundation, New Groove Formation, Akahum, Hedflux, Subajah Family, Step 13, Beneath the Beach, zubzub, Orchid Star, 3-Parts DJ vs. Melc, Public Service Broadcasting, Zetan Spore, Neurodriver, Flutatious, Bad Tango, Million Way, Infinite Collective, Luke Hooverhead, Strobe Circus, Broken Robot DJs, Captain Flatcap, Orangafruup, Blipverts, Little Eris, Agent Smith, DJ Clumzi, Shiny, Ade.
Psy Stage - Hosted by Tribe of Frog: Dickster, Voice of Cod, Monad, Laughing Buddha, Liquid Ross, Monk3y Logic, OOOD, Subliminal System, Mr Black, Simon Pieman...more to be announced...
Electronica Stage - Hosted by Archangel^ & Kane FM: Calvertron, Eddie K, Funkatech All Stars session: PYRAMID, Specimen A, James D\\\'ley, Freshold, Retrix, Headroc with Masterbreaks, Pook, Agent Orange, Mary Tale, Quextal... more TBA...
Prog & Tech House Stage – Hosted by Choony’s House: Graeme Park, Disruptive Influence, Tomoki Tamura, K-Klass, Choonmaster, Paul von Goulding, Steve Bicknell, Colin Dale... more to be announced.
Downtempo Stage – Hosted by Gaia Chill & Eartheart Dragon Cafe: Gaudi, Banco de Gaia, Eat Static, Entheogenic, Sephira, Terra Nine, Dub Tek, ZubZero, Michele Adamson, Antonio Testa & Susana, Beatriz Alvear, Irishfaery, Robin Triskele, Squazoid, Red Earth, Ben Crystal, Naked Nick, Mudra, Toulliche, Mischief for Breakfast , Pete Ardron, Matthew Callow, Lunarsonic, Chandrananda... more to be announced.
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