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Think percussion is the passive part of a pop song? Not when it's in the hands of these classical musicians-turned-dance-music-heroes. Safri Duo is a smashing success and The Record chats exclusively with Morten Friis from the band.
THE RECORD: Tell us about the new album...
Morten: It's called '3.0' and it's another album with a lot of drums and ethnic inspired music but a new element is our collaboration with an American signer called Clark Anderson. So now it's Safri Duo plus singer.
TR: Previously, you had said that the elements of your music were - tribal, percussion and pop. What is new this time?
Morten: I think maybe this time it's maybe more melodic than the previous Episode 2. We tried to integrate the drumming a little bit more in the whole melodic world. We have also developed production wise. So there's more perspective in the sound picture
TR: Fallin' High is a great track. Tell us more about it.
Morten: Fallin' High is a collaboration with two Swedish producers. Actually the theme is taken from an old disco song in America from the seventies. In the original version it's very different and much slower and you couldn't recognise it. We have used it in this way so it has more energy. You feel like going to a party when you hear the track.
TR: You started out being a trumpeteer, and Uffe (Savery, the second half of the duo) played the saxophone. How did you end up being a percussion duo?
Morten: It was because we both played in a marching band in Copenhagen. That's where we met each other 25 years ago. There we started, as very young boys, to play the drums and then they wanted us to play another instrument when we were growing up. So we played the trumpet and saxophone for about one year and we weren't very good. So we went back to drums. And that's where we have stayed ever since.
TR: What prompted the move from classical music to dance music?
Morten: Uffe and me established Safri Duo in 1988 and in the beginning we only did classical concerts around the world in classical concert halls and tuxedoes and all that stuff. But we felt we had too much energy to be on the classical scene. It was a very good education and very good for us to go through when it comes to technique and musical perspective. But when we toured in some places in Europe and the UK we started to go into the clubs and there we heard the possibilities of combining our classical drumming with dance music and electronic beats. That's how we started this new episode.
You can read the rest of our exclusive interview with Safri Duo in the October 2003 issue of The Record Music Magazine available at your local newsagent.
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