Billie Ray Martin: The Crackdown
With the The Crackdown Project, disco diva Billie Ray Martin referred back to two classic songs by Cabaret Voltaire, Crackdown and Just fascination, offering multiple versions and collaborations with DJs and video producers. The project’s influence has carried over to Art Design Publicity magazine at artdesigncafe.com with The Crackdown Project’s general theme and experimentation in music and visual presentation. In fact, one video of Crackdown made the cover of Art Design Publicity as a point of inspiration.
To find out more about The Crackdown Project, we interviewed Billie Ray Martin by email. The following are excerpts of the exchange:
Sarah Giddens: We’re familiar with some of your different versions of Crackdown and associated videos, but could you please tell us, what exactly is The Crackdown Project?
Billie Ray Martin: I’d always thought of Cabaret Voltaire’s album The Crackdown as a milestone in electronic music and dance music. It bridged the gap between the two effortlessly. I felt it had not received the kind of praise it should have to this day. Also I had simply always wanted to see if there was anything I could add with my interpretation of the songs. So the idea had been in my mind for years to do a cover project of the main two songs from that album, “Just fascination” and “The crackdown”.
When I asked Mal (Stephen Mallinder) if he would feature alongside me on vocals he immediately said “yes”. I couldn’t believe it. He’s one of my heroes and I used to stalk the Cabs (Cabaret Voltaire) as a teenager!
What I ended up doing is working with Maertini Broes and Lusty Zanzibar on my main interpretations featuring Mal, and then I got some amazing electronic producers to do their own interpretations. I didn’t give them any restrictions on styles, but asked for high production values. I wanted the vocals to be perfectly produced and the mixes must be “posh”, as I like to call it. I feel that each producer rose to the challenge in ways that I am still marvelling at.
The producers fit the songs and the songs fit their styles; it was a no-holds-barred situation for them. The songs have uncomplicated chord structures, so it’s easy for a mixer or producer to let ideas flow without feeling that they had to serve a pop song format.
Sarah Giddens: To what extent do you see yourself as responding to the original Crackdown by Cabaret Voltaire?
Billie Ray Martin: Mainly, I wanted to remind people of this groundbreaking album. Flood producing Cabaret Voltaire and creating dance floor hits was a big deal at the time. The Cabs were accused of selling out to disco but Mal always said that disco had sold out to the likes of them. So, in a way, my take on it was.... either way, so what? Let’s just do it and see what can be added to the story.
I also wanted to remind [people] of times when dance music still meant something, when musicians were still striving to break new ground, getting “machines” to make unusual music. I had always been very excited by and drawn to the Sheffield style, i.e. real songs, real vocals, cutting edge music. While the Cabs had always been on the outer edge of that, they still managed to expand their style and write some incredible songs on this album, whilst sticking to their guns and not in any way compromising their style.
Billie Ray Martin interview: 1 | 2
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