A little while ago, we brought you an amazingly funky EP, Never Let You Go, by a Belgian group, Maseratay. Upon first listen, we were blown away not only by the name of the group, which sounds like the 80s Minneapolis and Prince influenced group, Mazerati, but also by the wicked synth grooves and vocals. As such, we had to learn more. After reaching out to the group, we were able to get some answers to the questions we had. Thanks a lot to Alex Deforce, owner of On-point.be, Maseratay’s record label, for his assistance. Enjoy.
1) We really love your style of modern funk. Some of the influences are obvious to soul music aficionados (read: nerds) like us, but what inspired these tracks?
Musical influences range from mid to late 80’s outfits such as Surface, Kleeer and Michael Cooper, UK bands like 52nd Street and Loose Ends, early house by the likes of Larry Heard, Burrell Brothers as well as contemporary drum machine funk from peers like GB, Inkswel, Benny Badge & Moon B. Apart from that, life is, of course, the main inspiration & reason why we all make music. Love situations, the weather, or just a good talk with a friend over some beers, can all result into something musically.
2) Tell us about the scene in Belgium? Are there a lot of artists? A scene?
We won’t go into namedropping here but there are a lot of talented cats and we’re blessed to be surrounded by them.
3) How did you get started as a group? When did you get together? Did you have any formal musical training?
We’ve known each other for about 10 years now and we recorded before on other projects together. We both combine some sort of musical training we had in the past with a constant autodidact learning process, learning about chord changes listening to records for example.
4) Are you working on a long form LP?
For now we’re slowly working on the second EP, which will be a step away from the first one, both in process and sound. We’re both involved in other music projects so it’s just a matter of fitting it in. One of us is a proud dad of a beautiful son, so that takes up & deserves a lot of time.
5) What about touring? Trips to US?
We would love to reach out transatlantic! So far there aren’t any live shows planned, but who knows in the future… For now we intentionally didn’t put a face on this project, as we chose to put all the focus on the music.
6) What kind of equipment are you using with these tracks? Tell us about your recording process?
The recording process can go all ways, it’s mostly a mix of old & new, analog & digital. Recording drums on cassette or reel-to-reel is great way to get that analog compression. We both have our share of eighties equipment, which tends to be mostly Korg at the moment, haha. Although it’s a cliché answer, in the end it’s not what you use, it’s what comes out.
End.
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For those of you not familiar with their sound, download their EP here and watch this cool video for their song, Sexxxy.