‘We’ve never had a fight’: Basement Jaxx party into 2024

Happy to be classified as a ‘nerd who likes making music’, iconic electronica wizard Simon Ratcliffe has been conducting the world’s lartgest dance parties for decades. He talks to Jonny Mahon-Heap.

For many bands, the sequence of success can feel ordinary in its rhythm – the deals, the fame, the whirlwind touring. For others, success can evolve over time, achieving something more permanent – their music becomes a cultural totem, one we affectionately refer to as “a sound”.

“A sound” defines an era instantly, summoning that texture for all that hear it, years after they first pressed play.

Basement Jaxx is a group responsible for the “sound” of a generation – in the late 1990s, the electronic dance music duo’s sound was everywhere. It was in Angelina Jolie’s Tomb Raider movies. It was in hypnotic music videos. It was at Glastonbury and the Grammys – even Big Day Out. It was, and still is, the sound of the generation.

When Basement Jaxx first sang their most famous refrain – “we can live on, live on without you” – it was unclear whether they meant their critics, their fanbase, or the house scene itself. The London duo were the ultimate hitmakers for Generation X, their sound crashing into living rooms everywhere, from cinema screens to arenas.

So, when that sound returns to New Zealand in 2023 – which it’s set to do for a special concert on December 29 – Basement Jaxx is ready to deliver the same rush of nostalgia. Not that Simon Ratcliffe, one half of the Grammy and BRIT-award winning duo with Felix Burton, can recall how it started.

“How did people book us then? I can't remember – we had a fax machine in the studio, it would start whirring, and the bookings would come… We didn’t have a manager. But, of course, we did it fine,” Ratcliffe recalls.

“It [the 1990s] was a very exciting time. My mum would lend us her Mini, we would pile it up with boxes of vinyl from the factory, and you’d take them to the specialist box, and they go ‘Yeah, yeah, alright we’ll take a box’, and give you cash. Wicked. So cool.”

Singles like Red Alert, Romeo, Rendez-Vu, and Where’s Your Head At crossed into the public membrane, playing beyond sweat-slicked Brixton dancehalls and into cafes of Ponsonby.

That rare thing – a real genre crossover – only happens once in a generation, which might explain why, for this generation, Basement Jaxx holds a place of reverence.

“I’ve just enjoyed it. There’s an appreciation of how lucky we are to get paid to go to these places. Extremely lucky,” he explains.

Ratcliffe, now 53, acknowledges the rhythms of the group have slowed down but marvels that interest hasn’t waned.

“We’ve travelled a lot this year. I suppose in the past travelling became really arduous and tedious – but I’ve quite enjoyed it, probably because of the pandemic.

“We’ve attempted to slow down and

get a bit more choosy with the gigs we take on. We have been around the block. If you’re not selective, it can wear down your general enthusiasm for stuff. When you get back to writing music, you don’t want to be jaded, you want to be pumped and enriched.”

The two men project differences when it comes to their style of music-making, but there is a symmetry when it comes to the important stuff, such as their love of live performance and their ways of working.

“I suppose I think people sometimes fall

out because they’re similar, maybe, and they step on each other’s toes. Felix and I have quite distinct personalities, you know. We’ve never had a fight. He does his thing, I do my thing, we both love what we do. We love making stuff, and we’re both appreciative that we’ve been able to live a life like this. We listen to music in different ways and see things in different ways.”

Unlike Daft Punk, there’s no costume or mystery. And unlike Portishead, there’s no mythos. All they have to rest on is their music and the hope that it will live on. The refrain, “Where’s your head at”, instantly calls to mind the era of Trainspotting, The Beach and that brief shimmering movement known as Cool Britannia.

Basement Jaxx’s sound paid no small part in this brief upsurge of affection for Britain’s cultural scene, a kind of fondness that feels unlikely in 2023.

“There’s lots of things [to success] - it’s admitting that you’ve had luck and making the most of your luck, I suppose.”

Just because you’re partying like it’s 1999 doesn’t mean you’re not relentlessly experimenting. Ratcliffe has been in Japan this year, with his jazz group, after a stint hosting the prestigious Ronnie Scott’s club in London, alongside Basement Jaxx shows in Ibiza, Belgium, Detroit, Australia, and New Zealand already earlier this year.

As trailblazers for the dance scene, Basement Jaxx still play to sell out crowds.

Now, the band are veterans of the scene - but it’s testament to the legacy of their sound that it still feels new.

“For some reason, stars aligned, and it’s not just one reason, it's not just ‘cause a track was good, it’s thousands of things.

“I was a nerd that liked making music.”

Basement Jaxx is playing at the Love

Your Ways Music Festival, on December 29, 2023, at the Hunting Lodge Winery & Restaurant, Waimauku. Tickets are available now.