MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUTSAn Interview with Vincent Vendetta

Vincent Vendetta of Midnight Juggernauts is coming to town for a special DJ set at Webster Hall Saturday night. The event also features live sets from Crookers, Spitzer, DJ Funk, Danger, The Captain and more. Full info below.

While in Barcelona for the Sonar Festival, Vin took the time to answer a few questions for us.

THE SKY REPORT: How are you?

VINCENT VENDETTA: Well thanks. Yourself?

TSR: Great! Where are you now?

VIN: I'm now in a hotel room in Barcelona for Sonar. We're here to DJ some Vice party and other Sonar events.

TSR: I see you were just in London. How was the show with Thieves Like Us?

VIN: The show in London was a lot of fun. We always like playing that town. It was our last own show for a while, though. The next few months we just do the summer festival circuit.

TSR: Are you in New York specifically for the Webster Hall event?

VIN: Well yes. It's the only event I'm going to play. But I'm also there to go visit Coney Island and see more of NY. Maybe go to the top of a tall building.

TSR: Your appearance at Webster Hall is a DJ set. Any hints as to what you might play?

VIN: A little bit of Jive Bunny. Might see if there's an old compilation i could put on. Something from the '90s so i can let it play and then go outside to get a cheeseburger for 20 minutes. Very important.


TSR: How has the reception been to the Dystopia LP in America? Personally, I love it.

VIN: Personally, I love you too. It's been great. It's amazing when you play a show there and you see a crowd of people who know the songs and sing the lyrics and let loose. When you write music and release it it's like each track takes on it's own life and it's a special thing when it enters other peoples lives. Profound huh?

TSR: Rolling Stone described the Juggernauts’ sound as "David Bowie if his Berlin Trilogy was a collaboration with Kraftwerk and Faust." Was that at all what you were going for? Did you have specific influences when recording the album?

VIN: Well those references are fine. Though we didn't have any specific references when making the album. Like any band i suppose we've grown up with lots of music that has influenced us in some way. Though for us that palette is pretty broad. Anything from Ennio Morricone, to the Muppet Show, to Frisbees, to Xanadu, to a really Difficult Math test. We're now like a cultural unilingual Voltron. Our one language is XXXXXXXXXXXXX.

TSR: The Midnight Juggernauts’ remixes are always pretty amazing. I really love the remix of “I Get Around” by Dragonette. Are there any new remixes in the pipeline? Anyone specific you’d love to remix?

VIN: We always get a lot of requests to do remixes, but we have no time. We can only do them when the stars and the moon align and we have a free block to play with. There's a few things coming up which should be fun. Will let you know about them soon. Though someday we'd like to remix Randy Newman. Andy our guitarist grew up with him. Before Toy Story etc of course.

TSR: Finally, where are you off to next?

VIN: Next we visit NEW YAWK CITY!

-interview by Scot Bowman

MAPSAn Interview with James Chapman

MAPS is the one-man project of Northampton-bred electro genius James Chapman, a modest and insular man, who is as shell-shocked by his recent success as any hard line critic would be. After the recent nomination for the coveted Nationwide Mercury Music Prize (controversially won by KLAXONS for their extravagant debut “Myths of the Near Future”), Chapman, 28, finds himself at the center of a media frenzy as he briefly tours the States for the first time in his career, making select stops in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York.

I had the amazing opportunity, along with a few other music journalists, to sit down with Chapman for a roundtable discussion at Mute Records in Manhattan for a fairly intimate conversation about, among other things, his background, the U.S. tour, and “We Can Create”, the album that got him shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize.


James Chapman was not the typical kid growing up in the large market town of Northampton, England. While other boys were outside playing football, James was squeaking away at the violin, starting at the age of 6. In his teens he started playing in a band that, according to Chapman, was in the vein of The Stone Roses, though the lead singer was apparently tone deaf, hindering the band’s prolonged success. The demise of the band led to Chapman writing songs on his own, along the way adding percussion, keyboards, guitar, drums and the recorder to his musical palette.

Chapman sites many influences, beginning with the obvious - My Bloody Valentine, Spiritualized and The Stone Roses, but finds most of his current sonic stimulation in more electronic acts, such as The Field, M83 and Fourtet. As of late he has also been quite taken with acts like Deerhunter, Animal Collective and Caribou.

The debut album “We Can Create” was recorded alone in Chapman’s bedroom onto a 16-track recorder. After sending demos out to a couple of record labels, Chapman was stunned to find out that Mute Records were profoundly impressed with the homemade CD.

James says, “Mute were really interested, just from these really primitive demos. I was just lucky for them to get to listen to it. Daniel Miller (founder of Mute Records) came to my house on the strength of these CD’s that he heard. He was checking out my little studio and stuff. [It was] pretty intense.”

Miller quickly summoned Chapman to London, where he met with critically acclaimed producer Valgeir Sigurdsson, who has over the years worked heavily with Bjork, as well as Bonnie Prince Billy and Sigur Ros just to name a few. Discovering a common musical dialogue, the pair quickly hit it off and fled to an isolated studio in Iceland to add more cinematic layers to the homemade recordings.

“We basically took what I had done in my bedroom and just added to it. We kind of played around with the instrumentation and beats and things. We did stuff I could have never done on my own in my bedroom, like adding live strings and live brass. It’d be hard to fit that in my bedroom. It could have been weird, but he was so cool and so nice to work with, it just worked out really well. We were into the same kind of music. Just chatting with him, I think we just really clicked.

Iceland was amazing as well. It was amazing to wake up and see all these snowy mountains. It was quite different from Northampton. I was in Reykjavik. It was just outside the main city, so we were kind of still pretty isolated. We could just lock ourselves away. It was kind of similar to how I work at home. I like to just disconnect from everything and not have the phone ringing. It was just right.”


When asked what it was like to perform at the Mercury Music Prize award show, which was hosted by Jools Holland and televised on the BBC, James comes clean.

“It was probably the most nervous I’ve ever been in my entire life. I was shaking backstage. Since being nominated, I don’t think it ever truly really sunk in until the day that I actually got there. I saw all the tables set out and the massive video screens, I was like, whoa! This is really happening. And that’s when the nerves started to really kick in. But it turned out okay.”

It may be jumping the gun a bit, but with all the acclaim surrounding the debut, it feels only natural to look ahead at what we can expect from Maps in the future.

“With the second record, I definitely want to go along the same lines as I did with the first. I find that’s the best way I work. I’ve tried writing with bands before and it just doesn’t work. I definitely just- I love to lock myself away, stay up all night and immerse myself in it. I think it’s going to be more electronic and probably harder sounding. (jokingly) It could be a hardcore trance album. We’ll wait and see.”


Later that evening I caught Maps’ live show at The Bowery Ballroom. Joined by a full band, Chapman’s isolated bedroom recordings take on a more rigorous and primal feel, at times truly rocking the house. I was really intrigued as to how the album would be translated in a live setting.

Chapman explains, “It took awhile to get it right, really. I had been doing it in my bedroom for so long. I’ve never even sung anywhere apart from my bedroom, so it was quite a big step to get up on stage and sing. But I had to make a decision whether to go with a laptop and just me or get a band. I really wanted to get a band because I thought it was more interesting for everyone. For the audience and just us playing as well. It took awhile. It’s taken a few different line-ups. But I think we’ve got a really solid unit now. It’s the best it’s ever been. It’s quite a different experience.”


Maps’ latest single ‘To the Sky’ is out this month on Mute Records. The album “We Can Create” is available now worldwide.

All photos by Scot Bowman

Interview with LUIZA SA of CSS

Interview by Scot Bowman for The Sky Report

Firstly, it should be noted that CSS are #1 on my all-time LastFM chart. It should also be said that this chart only reflects the last year and only songs played within my computer (not including my iPod or DJ sets). Nonetheless, I'm pretty crazy about CSS.

Luiza Sa, guitarist for Brazilian pop-electro-rock sensation CSS (Cansei de Ser Sexy), recently dropped by The Sky Report on a sweltering post-Memorial Day evening in Brooklyn. We drank lots of sweet white wine, enjoyed a delicious Pumpkin Dumpling dinner (courtesy of the lovely Rachel Rosen) and she let me freely interview her for well over an hour. Among the many things I learned from Luiza, some highlights include:

-CSS are not and have not ever been involved in the baile funk scene, despite Pitchfork Media’s proclamation of such a fact.

-The next single from the debut album will be ‘Music is My Hot, Hot Sex’.

-The follow-up album will be recorded early next year and should hit shelves by June 2008.

-CSS turned down opening slots from such heavy hitters as BJORK, KYLIE MINOGUE, PEACHES and SCISSOR SISTERS due to scheduling conflicts, but will in fact be opening for GWEN STEFANI in Europe come September.

-COURTNEY LOVE really did storm the CSS trailer backstage at Coachella.

-LOVEFOXXX is indeed very much in love with Simon Taylor of KLAXONS


Here is part one of the Luiza Sa interview:

THE SKY REPORT: I saw you at the Mezzanine (San Francisco) almost a year ago with Bonde do Role and Diplo. How did you and Bonde do Role originally meet each other?

LUIZA: Okay, so we’re about to tour and we have this manager, Eduardo. He saw us, like the third show we did in Sao Paulo and he wanted to sign us. And at that time we were like, “We don’t need a label. Fuck this.” He used to work for this label that releases all Matador (Records), Domino, Warp, Sub-Pop. All these cool things. He’s the one that brings that to Brazil. And later he was pushy and he got us onto the label. At the same time he was working with Bonde (do Role) and he met Diplo while he was in Brazil. Diplo came to one of our shows. We already knew M.I.A. At the time we didn’t know if it was a good idea, because people are going to go to this ethnic baile funk show and we’re not that!

TSR: But you got labeled in America as being a part of baile funk.

LUIZA: You (The Sky Report) do your research, but journalists, they think they know it all. We have nothing to do with baile funk. Baile funk is something from another city. We never experienced that. We like baile funk. We think it’s cool. We like the philosophy. But it’s not in Sao Paulo.

TSR: Is it only in America that you got labeled as that?

LUIZA: Mainly. Really reliable people like Pitchfork (Media) saying “Oh, this band is baile funk!” Like what the fuck are you talking about? We’re so obviously not baile funk. And it’s like “I know Brazil”. No you don’t.


TSR: So, I wanted to ask you about the new album. Have you started it yet?

LUIZA: We have some stuff. Like five to eight songs. We’re playing two or three or four songs at the most in shows. But don’t really have time to work on them.

TSR: Do you guys have a timetable of when you’re going to record it?

LUIZA: Yeah. We’re gonna record it next year. We’re going to start end of February or March. We’re going to record some stuff here (New York), I think. We’re having ideas. I think it’s so good that we don’t have to record in that like- We’re processing. We’re already playing songs and they change. Processing the ideas. That’s how we want to do it. We just released the album in the UK. There’s no reason we should rush. The first album is so special to me.

TSR: Do you guys know who’s going to produce it yet?

LUIZA: We’re thinking about some names. Some people are expensive. We want the best, which we cannot afford. We’ll probably go back to Brazil. I think it’s going to be good.

TSR: And you think it will come out late spring?

LUIZA: June (2008).

TSR: Let’s talk about Coachella. How was that experience for you?

LUIZA: Amazing. I want to play Coachella every year! It’s so much fun!

TSR: Paris Hilton was dancing-

LUIZA: (interrupts) Right next to me! There was a PA and she was behind it, so people couldn’t really see her. And I was like, “Come onstage!” And she was like, “No, I’m shy.” And the song ‘Meeting Paris Hilton’…it was so funny.

TSR: Was she actually dancing during that song?

LUIZA: Yeah! We got onstage and Ira had some problems with her bass. The bass stopped working. She was really nervous. And I was right next to her so I was like, “Oh my God!” And then I looked at my side (of the stage) and it was like Paris Hilton, J.D. Samson (of Le Tigre) and Peaches. And they were all dancing together by me. It was a great time.

TSR: Wait, I feel like I have to sneeze.

LUIZA: Look at the light!

TSR: Seriously?

1st Photo by Scot Bowman ©2007
All other photos by Amos Mac ©2007