Reclaiming The Band Name & Struggling To Describe Their Sound

The British band Morcheeba could be the true survivors of trip hop, even as their music has transcended it. Over the past two decades, they've presented eight boldly distinct albums, as many as Massive Attack and Portishead combined. But Morcheeba have also had their dramas, with endless personnel changes. Indeed, as the group's remaining members, frontwoman Skye Edwards and guitarist Ross Godfrey, briefly dubbed themselves SKYE | ROSS following the departure of Ross' older brother Paul, their chief producer. Yet, happily, when the combo headline Bluesfest 2018, it'll be as Morcheeba. "We have reclaimed the name," Edwards announces. "We were SKYE | ROSS for, I guess, a year and a half while they were just sorting out legalities with Paul, who's no longer part of the band. So Ross and I are now Morcheeba again."

The story behind Morcheeba's formation is that the Godfreys - with Paul a b-boy/turntablist/beatmaker and Ross a multi-instrumentalist rocker - encountered Edwards - an undiscovered quiet-storm vocalist - at a party. Signing to China Records at the height of the UK's trip hop boom, Morcheeba generated buzz with 1996's cult debut Who Can You Trust?, home to Trigger Hippie. The Londoners experienced their greatest commercial success with the sequel, Big Calm, which veered into dub-reggae, blues and folk. In the 2000s, Morcheeba consolidated a mainstream profile with Fragments Of Freedom, which spawned their biggest hit in Rome Wasn't Built In A Day. They started reaching out to guest rappers like Biz Markie. However, Edwards felt constrained, writing melodies but never lyrics, which Paul territorialised. Possibly inevitably, she left for a solo career. In 2006 Edwards delivered the ballad-oriented Mind How You Go, which was largely recorded with Madonna-cohort Patrick Leonard (dude was credited on Like A Prayer). She had a European hit with Love Show. 

Meanwhile, Morcheeba attracted Daisy Martey from Noonday Underground as their replacement singer. She only lasted one album, The Antidote, which lead to legal turmoil. The Godfreys switched approach with Dive Deep and featured multiple vocalists: folk-rocker Judie Tzuke elevating the adult-contemporary Enjoy The Ride. Eventually, they persuaded Edwards to rejoin Morcheeba for 2010's widely promoted Blood Like Lemonade. Morcheeba had long been popular with Hollywood music programmers and the album's title track would be synced for the vampire TV show True Blood. Alas, by now, Paul and Ross were clashing. Paul finally quit after 2013's Head Up High. Reportedly, he proposed that Ross and Edwards buy out his stake in the Morcheeba brand name for a small fortune. They decided to alter their handle instead. Two years ago, the duo aired their most live-sounding LP, SKYE | ROSS. Ross joked that Morcheeba's bio was like "a soap opera". 

The 2018 version of Morcheeba is sanguine, Edwards assures. "It seems that things flow a little more and there's certainly less conflicts in the studio. But we still sound like Morcheeba. It's still myself singing; Ross on guitar. He's now producing... But, creatively, it's a lot more fun." She pens the lyrics.

The Godfreys have averted any Gallagher-level public feuding. Inherently a studio guy, Paul is running a recording complex in Hastings on England's South Coast and DJing. Says Edwards, "He's not involved in Morcheeba, as far as creating the music - and, the live side of things, he hasn't been on tour with us for at least 14 years. So it just feels quite normal for him to not be there."

And Morcheeba are preparing to drop album nine. "We finished it just before Christmas," Edwards reveals. "The aim is to try and release it in May, just before the [Northern] summer. We've got a few up-tempo, summery songs on there. One of them actually starts with the lyric, 'It's summertime'!" Morcheeba have a collab with the legendary UK hip hopper Roots Manuva and Edwards duets with French icon Benjamin Biolay, known outside of the Gallic world for briefly romancing Vanessa Paradis. Edwards is mulling over album titles. "We did have a title, but we're changing it," she laughs. "We need to come up with a new one by tomorrow!"

Today, Morcheeba's music is simultaneously amorphous and continuous, akin to electronic psychedelia (although they've performed at New York's Afropunk Festival). The outfit is routinely classified as "chill-out". "It's funny, but I always struggle to describe the sound if I meet somebody new and you get onto the subject of, 'What do you do?' or, 'I'm in a band'," Edwards ponders. "If they've not heard of Morcheeba, then I usually direct them to YouTube or Spotify and they can make up their own mind. I don't really have the words to describe our sound, so I leave it up to journalists to do that." Trip hop was once perceived as just another '90s club trend, but its influence is now pervasive in contemporary urban culture with all those subliminal avant-soulsters and cloud rappers. Weirdly, FKA Twigs is deemed to be trip hop. Not that Edwards would know. "I don't really listen to what's happening on the radio, as such. I hear stuff coming out of my [older] daughter's room, she's 19. But I mostly listen to pod talks."

Ironically, Morcheeba's current live incarnation is more of a family affair than ever. Edwards' husband, Steve Gordon, plays bass (they met when he gigged with the band circa Fragments Of Freedom). And the couple's offspring Jaega is Morcheeba's drummer. "We needed a new drummer and Ross suggested my son Jaega play drums. He was playing drums in his own band, but he'd only been playing for two years so I was quite apprehensive and wasn't even sure about the idea. But Ross said, 'Let's give him a chance.' [Jaega] was 18 at the time and Ross said, 'Hey, I was 18 when I first was in Morcheeba!' So my husband and son went into our garage and they rehearsed for three months, every day, going through the songs... Of course, the songs were in his blood, anyway. I was pregnant with him when we recorded Who Can You Trust? and he's been on tour with us from a young age. He's a natural." Remarkably, Edwards is still forging a solo path - last issuing In A Low Light in 2015 - between her commitments to Morcheeba and raising four kids with Gordon.

Morcheeba performed at 2014's Bluesfest, where they were inspired by a co-headliner. "We got to see Gary Clark [Jr], we watched him at the side of the stage," Edwards enthuses. This Easter, they'll preview material. "There will be probably about four new songs from the new album. But, when you do festivals, people really like to hear your 'best of'."