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“Originality is everything, isn’t it?” says Mark. “It’s all about trying to make something different.”
“I have a short attention span,” says Nick, “so to keep me awake we have to keep changing styles.”
The current line up has been in place since 2003, after one Rusty Sheriff departed to be replaced by Kate. A self-released EP, ‘Monstrous Fromage Excavator’, was followed by a 7”, ‘Baghdad Boogie’, on local label Gringo earlier this year. A 3” CD is expected soon through the Olwyn Plant label (www.olwynplant.com). Describing the band’s sound is a fruitless task – it’s too hard to break down into easily recognisable pigeonholes – so the best way to get some idea of what Designer Babies offer you, the listener, is to probe them for influences and inspirations…
Mark: “Ruins and Captain Beefheart.”
Kate: “Japanese experimental music, The Boredoms.”
Nick: “Venetian Snares and Jeff Buckley.”
Kush: “Mauritiuan music and Reunion Island music [is what] I grew up with. Different things influence us at different times, I guess.”
Mark: “I would say I’m not necessarily just inspired by the media; anything can inspire me.”
Kate: “I’m definitely influenced by sound. We live in a really noisy world – you can’t even listen to music without other sounds interfering and becoming part of what you hear. Sometimes that can actually sound really good. I like the randomness of sound.”
Part of the fertile alternative scene in Nottingham, Designer Babies have enjoyed a mixture of gigs, from shows with foreign touring acts such as Melt Banana, and ones with local acts: “We have some really good promoters,” says Kate, “so it’s kind of 50:50 really, with half our shows being with local bands we really like and half with bands we’ve never met before.”
“There are a lot of bands in Nottingham, and Gringo sort of help to sort out the good ones,” says Mark. “They kind of hang out together ‘cause they’re all part of this happy Gringo family!”
“There’s a focal point that allows these type of bands to come together,” says Nick. “Bands help each other out a lot.”
“There’s not really much competition between bands, like you might find in some places, so everyone is open to hearing new stuff and they don’t get threatened by it,” concludes Kate.
The forthcoming 3” CD marks a change in the band’s approach to recording:
“All our previous recordings have been a real rush, so we want to take out time with the next one and not have loads of pressure to get something down so we can get it out,” says Kate. “We’re probably going to try and do something a lot more lo-fi, and record it in our own practice space.”
“The EP is a lot rawer sounding,” says Mark. “We recorded it in a friend’s bedroom on an eight track reel-to-reel, so it’s got a less-produced feel to it than ‘Baghdad Boogie’.”
With a bucketload of invention and ambition – “If Merzbow can do it, then anyone can make music and sell enough to live off,” offers Mark – Designer Babies could well be going places. Keep up to speed with them here: Designer Babies.net.
