Music – Jeff Hemmings: Skye & Ross

Skye Edwards and Ross Godfrey were two of the lynchpins of Morcheeba, the mid-90s to early 00’s trip hop/dream pop outfit,and who charted with several singles and albums beginning with ‘Trigger Hippie’ in 1995. From the angelic ‘Repay the Saviour’ to the dream pop of ‘Hold On’ and the psychedelic rock of ‘Feet First’, the eponymous album Skye & Ross is a delight from start to finish. Skye answered a few questions for us…

I saw you play Love Supreme Festival in July. How was that?
It was good. I felt we were very well received, a nice crowd. We played a mixture of Morcheeba songs and Skye & Ross songs.

Tell me about the album…
Initially we thought we were going to make an acoustic album. As the songs grew and Ross developed them, we thought the songs would sound great with drums. When we play live it’s a lot more guitar-heavy, we speed up the tempos more, and the drums are live rather than programmed. So we thought, why don’t we capture what we do live on the record and that’s what we did.

You’ve got another child, a one-year-old-daughter. Did she play a part in the recording!?
I was heavily pregnant at the time when we wrote the first song ‘Clear My Mind’ My daughter came three months early. That was a very frightening experience. A week before she came I was on stage in my six-inch heels and sparkly trousers. The song ‘Hold On’ is inspired by that. It was the wrong time, but the right place. I had never seen a baby so small! She was the size of an iPhone but with little arms and legs sticking out! She’s fine now.

She is child number four…
My son (Jaega) is on drums with us. He’s 20. I was pregnant with him when we recorded the Who Can You Trust album (Morcheeba’s debut). All of the children have been on tour with us, travelled with us up to school age. For the first four years of their life their education is aeroplanes and tour buses. When we came to needing a new drummer Ross suggested Jaega. I was 18 when I first started in Morcheeba, so we thought we’d give him a chance. My husband, Steve, who plays bass in the band, got him in the garage for three months.

Taking to it like his Mum?
His first gig was in Argentina in front of 1,000 people, and he killed it. He’s a natural. It still blows my mind. I couldn’t look at him for the first few months of touring, on stage. I was too nervous. It’s finding the balance between me being a parent, him being my bandmate and not wanting to embarrass him in front of people!

The Old Market, Tues 1 Nov, 7pm, £18.50