We're big fans of The Very Best - a collaborative project between two European producers called Radioclit (Johan Karlberg and Etienne Tron) and Esau Mwamwaya, a Malawian singer. Their mixtape took the world by storm, making our Best of 2008 list and winning over some ears. Since then, they've released a full length album, spawned dozens of baller remixes, and become a big name to watch in independent music. We recently caught up with The Very Best's Johan Karlberg to ask him about some things we've been pondering. Check it out!
The Stu Reid Experiment: To much of your US audience, you really came out of nowhere last year, with the mixtape dropping late in the year with little fanfare and then gaining a word of mouth following. But you had already been pretty well established as Radioclit before connecting with Esau Mwamwaya and forming The Very Best. Tell us a little bit about how you got into music.
Johan Karlberg: I came from a producer background in hip hop, I used to be in a Swedish rap group called Stacs of Stamina. I met Etienne who was a DJ and worked for Big Dada/Ninja Tune Records in London about five years ago. We just started doing fake radio shows for our website and mixtapes and DJ sets, etc. - then we started to produce together and it led to remixes and some production work for artists. We did a couple of EPs on Switch and Sinden's Counterfeet label, we did an EP with No Surrender and TV on the Radio singer Tunde [Adebimpe], we did some more dance singles and remixes, and then we met Esau and here we are.
Who would you say are your biggest musical influences?
Too hard to say. Our lives. Nature is a big influence too. I decorated my studio with lots of plants and African fabrics covering our acoustic treatment. We watch nature films and listen to classical music and animal noises…true story.
Anybody we might be surprised to hear has influenced your work?
Phil Collins, Enya, Karl Jenkins.
You met Esau while shopping in his thrift store, is that right?
Yeah, Esau was running a second hand junk shop on the street outside our studio and Etienne used to walk in there looking for stuff. One day he bought a bike from Esau and invited him to a house warming party. That’s where I met him and he told me he was a drummer so I invited him to the studio. Turned out he was an amazing singer - when I played him some beats and he started singing. That day we recorded "Chalo," which is still an album track.
Was it the kind of situation where you knew immediately that it was going to be something special, or did that realization come later?
We probably did something like six to eight songs together over six months before we realized we were making an album. But we knew from day one we had something really special and that Esau could be a big star.
When you are recording/producing songs, what is the dynamic like between you and Esau? Do you guys do your thing, hand it over to Esau and wait for him to add his vocals separately, or is it more of a collaboration during the creation?
Usually Esau picks beats and writes and then we work on them, so everything works. You need to give Esau a lot of space on the tacks 'cause hes got such a big voice and big melodies, so we keep the production pretty minimal and let Esau do his thing. The process is usually pretty fast. One song per day, or tops two days.
Explain the name “The Very Best”. Obviously it’s a bit of a big call – did you name the group as a tongue-in-cheek joke, or you do you think you live up to the name? Whose idea was the name?
The name comes from Etienne's little cousin. He used to have a band called The Very Best and we always liked it, thinking it was really funny. When we needed a name he had split the group and we asked if we could take it, so that’s how it happened. Obviously it's a tongue-in-cheek name - you can't take life or music too seriously!
When The Very Best Mixtape started getting a lot of buzz, did it come as a surprise to you? Did it happen overnight, or did it sort of slowly seep into your consciousness that “Hey, people are giving us some love for what we’re doing?”
Well, while we where recording the album we did the "Tengazako" track over M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes," and put it on MySpace. All of a sudden Esau was on the cover of Fader magazine and getting a lot of attention in the UK and Europe, and some in the USA too. After the album was done we kept recording and did the mixtape. We wanted to introduce people to our musical universe. We didn’t really know what to expect. We had a lot of confidence and thought we’d done something pretty good and different, but it's been wonderful to see all the great feedback. And having more than 300,000 people download it...The whole process has been wonderful working with Esau - and still is 'til today. So we're just happy people like it.
You’re embarking on your first big tour as The Very Best. What is that like?
Obviously we're super excited. Now, we had this passport mess with Esau’s UK visa application taking longer than expected, which made us miss the first half of our tour, which was a real real shame - and we apologize to everyone who was going to come and see us. We'll try to make up for it as soon as possible. But we're just happy we get the last five shows of the tour. It's always amazing touring in America - haha, it's been so far, we've only done like six shows here. Feedback live is so great and people are really responsive to the music which is amazing…I say amazing a lot don’t I? Well this whole thing is amazing, life’s amazing!
Is it tough to translate the songs you created in the studio to the stage?
For now we play with DJ and dancers, so not really. The live show will keep building into bigger things down the line, but for now its pretty simple. We play some of the hottest remixes people have done for us too, so not just straight album and mixtape stuff.
What else is in the works for The Very Best? What happens after this tour ends?
We go on Euro tour, then Australia and New Zealand. We've just been in Malawi shooting a video and played Lake of Stars Festival out there, which was amazing. We're slowly working on new The Very Best songs too. There's a million things. Radioclit producing other artists (Sky Ferreira, Kano, Marina, African Boy etc) and projects and singles and dance tracks and remixes etc etc etc etc etc hahaha
I’ve heard that The Very Best have a track on the upcoming Crookers album, is that true?
Yeah it's true. Radioclit and Crookers produced a track together and Esau sings on it - so does Marina (ex Bonde Do Role) and an Italian rapper I can't remember the name of now, sorry!
What is your opinion of music blogs and the “blogosphere”? Are they a necessary evil? Are they good for musicians? Good for music? (No need to candy coat, we have thick skin).
They made us what we are - if it wasn’t for blogs The Very Best would have had a very hard time. And if it wasn’t for the internet and blogs, the globalization of music wouldn’t be what it is and a project like The Very Best would have a much harder time. We don’t mind. Look at a band like Phoenix - one of the most blogged bands in the world - still selling a good amount of records. There's space for all these things. The music industry is slowly changing with this, and it should. There are some really clever ideas out there to tackle these issues and I think they will prevail and labels will suffer unless they change too.
And finally, a question we ask everyone we interview…what is the most awesome piece of clothing that you own? Bonus points for pictures!
The Very Best - Yalira (YSI) (filesavr)
The Very Best - Warm Heart of Africa (So Shifty Remix) (YSI) (filesavr)
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