| Classic reinterpretations: Barefoot |
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| "You start off with all these nonsensical lyrics, and you’re like ‘what the fuck am I going to do with this'" |
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We’ve discussed the bad rep of the cover version before. The tendency of the manufactured pop machine to raid the music library of old to give their newly formed teen bands the kind of familiarity needed to appeal to the Asda shopping record buyer means that the humble cover version is generally seen as an easy way out for pop combos not capable of creating their own tunes. But it is unfair to write off all cover versions in this way. When done right, a cover version can give a track a whole new sound, equalling and sometimes surpassing the original. Last year’s ‘Cosmosonica’ album, a collection of great covers compiled by Tom Middleton, surely proved that. But if you wanted further proof, then get yourself a copy of the ‘Barefoot’ album, which is released by OneTwo Records next month. Sam Obernik and Tommy D have set themselves the task of taking tracks better known for shaking the walls of nineties warehouses, and transformed them into a string of seductive jazzy numbers. It’s a great concept to start with, and a concept so expertly executed that it never wears thin during this twelve track long player. All are good, several are wonderful, and the Barefoot take on Underworld’s ‘Born Slippy’ is just possibly the best cover version ever made. Having first discovered this project when Barefoot’s ‘White Lines’ appeared on the aforementioned Middleton compilation, as soon as the full album arrived at CMU we just had to talk to the lady behind it. |
"It began with the Tim Deluxe track ‘I Won’t Do’”, Sam Obernik says, explaining the background to her Barefoot project. “I’d done the vocals on that track, obviously. Then [record label] Underwater called and asked me if I’d do a performance of the song on Jo Whiley’s Live Lounge. Well, that posed an interesting challenge – how to perform a clubbing track live on the radio? So I rearranged the song, put some chords to it and turned it into a Cubano-type affair. It really worked and got repeat plays, which made me ask the question: how can I bridge the gap between my success in dance and what I love to do for me, which is writing my own songs with my guitar?"
It was with that thought in mind that Sam teamed up with her friend / producer / DJ Tommy D, and so the Barefoot project was born. “It became our own pet project,” Sam continues. “It was self-funded, so we worked on it in our spare time. We got together a five track sampler, and passed out some copies to friends. People just seemed to pick up on it, and then we started getting approached. We weren’t proactively looking for licensing opportunities at that time, because to be honest that tends to cost money, and we didn’t have any. But word seemed to grow about the project and before we knew where we were there was a track on the ‘It’s All Gone Pete Tong’ soundtrack, and another on Tom Middleton’s compilation”.
From that growing interest came the offer from OneTwo Records to formally release the project, and so work began full on to complete a long player. How did Sam pick which clubbing classics to tackle? “Me being me, I wanted to go for the most difficult sounding tracks, the ones that posed more of a challenge, though to be honest, they often turned out to be the easiest to do. Me and Tommy put together short lists and long lists, and shared those with DJs and club people we knew. We took on their feedback, and then I sat down with my guitar and started to play around. Some really worked, some didn’t – the album developed like that”.
Some of the tracks selected needed more work that others. One of the stand outs, Sam’s reworking of Underworld’s ‘Born Slippy’, required quite a radical revamp. “That’s a good example,” she admits, “You start off with all these nonsensical lyrics, and you’re like ‘what the fuck am I going to do with this’. But then I honed in on one line, the ‘on your telephone line’ bit, and I took it from there, moving things round, adding in some of my own lyrics. It’s still a very black song, quite subversive, but in a more sexual way. The original was about the drugs, my version is about the sex!”
The Barefoot project has been developing for some time now, reaching a public audience through various recorded and live appearances. Are clubbers as excited as we are by Sam’s reworkings? “They seem to be. You meet people who have a real affinity with one of the tracks we’ve done, but they still seem to like my version. And it’s funny watching people’s faces as they slowly figure out which track we’re doing. You get very animated responses.”
And what about the artists and producers whose work Sam is reinventing? “We’ve heard some anecdotal feedback. Obviously Tim [Deluxe] has heard the Barefoot version of ‘I Won’t Do’, and he loves it, which is great. And I know [former Underworld man] Darren Emerson, of course, via [his label] Underwater Records. He loved our ‘Born Slippy’. I’m told John Peel played it to [the other Underworld man] Karl [Hyde] and he gave it a positive response. He said that other people have covered the track, but that mine was really refreshing. Which was great to hear”.
It’s good to hear Sam is getting such good responses, because the dance world should support the Barefoot project, because these are no novelty cover versions. “There is a tendency for people to write off house tunes as just being a lot of thumping bass for the clubs, but this album should show that there is some really good songs coming out of the genre. Some people have criticised the project along the way, but I always get the impression they haven’t actually heard the album when they do!”
Does Sam think her album is for the aging clubber, or younger music fans? “I suppose I wrote it primarily for people like me, people who have a certain nostalgia to these songs from first time round. You know, you used to go out on a Friday night and keep clubbing till it was time to crawl back to work on Monday morning. Now we’re a bit older, we find ourselves with Saturday mornings to fill, tidying the house, looking after children. These songs are a kind of soundtrack for those Saturday mornings”.
But that doesn’t mean the Barefoot album will only appeal to those there first time round. As we both realise that the original ‘Born Slippy’ is now well over ten years old, Sam adds “obviously it depends on how far these tracks get exposed, through radio and the likes, but if they introduce some of these songs to young people who missed them first time round, then that’s great”.
As Sam prepares for the release of the Barefoot album, she is concentrating most of her efforts on her live show. “I want to really develop the live show,” she says, “to make it as showy and entertaining as possible. To really go to town. And we’re doing some new tunes for the live show, so perhaps we’ll release another record at some point too, or some kind of live album”.
We hope so. You have to be careful not to overstretch clever concepts of course, but I can’t help thinking Sam’s club classics revisited project is not spent yet.
Some Barefoot plugging:
Barefoot's eponymous album was released on 20 Feb 2006 on OneTwo Records.
chris@unlimitedmedia.co.uk - published jan 2006
