Night Vision

One half of The 2 Bears, Raf Rundell (aka Raf Daddy), is in his kitchen in South East London and has just polished off a cup of herbal tea (“berry berry from the Knightsbridge tea company”). That brand sounds very posh! “It does,” Rundell offers, “but I think it actually came from Aldi or one of the budget supermarkets.” 

Lately The 2 Bears (Rundell’s other musical half is Joe Goddard, on loan from Hot Chip) have been “all over”. “We were in Ibiza last Monday; we played with Giorgio Moroder at Pacha. It was a fun gig. I mean, he’s really a sweet guy – we had a real giggle with him – and Pacha’s real amazing, you know – it’s been a club since he was making all those records in the ‘70s. It’s one of the original discotecas. So that was really good. Then we played a festival in France at the end of last week, and we did a bunch of press and promo in Paris on Friday, and then we went to Berlin where we played the Panorama Bar, which is famous – or infamous, I should say – sorta house and techno. 

“I’m losing my voice as you can hear. I’ve been busy being hungover and talking about myself for the last few days.” Far from struggling to muster up even a modicum of enthusiasm, Rundell prefers to be hungover when interviewed. “I quite enjoy it,” he admits. “I find this mad disconnect and the answers get kinda mystical and, um, quite nonsensical. But that’s good, I think – it’s probably more entertaining for everybody.” Being hungover perhaps takes the edge off performance anxiety. “Yeah, all the actors always say that, don’t they?” Rundell concurs. “If you really want to ace an audition, you should get completely plastered the night before because you’ll try less in the audition. That’s probably terrible advice; as long as you’re a good actor, maybe.”

Since he was 17, Rundell has worked various roles within the music industry. “I was the tea boy in the press office at Atlantic Records when I was straight outta school and then just sorta worked my way through there with the press officer for some time.” This led to his working for “a bunch of independent PR companies” before Rundell moved onward and upward: “[I] ran a label for a guy called Matthew Herbert [Accidental] and also Basement Jaxx’s – the label that they put all their underground stuff [out] on.” Next up, he did A&R “for a label called 1965 [Records], which was a part of Sony”. “The Sony deal kinda came to an end a few years ago and so I wasn’t really sure what I was gonna do,” Rundell shares. “But I had some time so I started making some music and it all kind of unfolded really naturally from there.”

Rundell admits his employment history “probably helped” The 2 Bears get where they are today. “Our press officer here in the UK is someone that I’ve known since I was 17 or 18… We always had an idea of the team we’d put together and all of that stuff is really helpful.”

While waiting for their new album The Night Is Young to drop, Rundell says he was reminded of a piece of advice he used to dole out from the label boss chair: “Bands make a record and then it doesn’t come out for quite a long time, and they’re just sitting there kicking their heels going, ‘What am I supposed to do?’ you know, ‘What’s happening? What’s happening? What’s happening?’ It’s like, ‘Well it’s all happening, it’s gonna happen,’ do you know what I mean? It happens three, four, six months down the line or whatever and so, yeah! I had to take a bit of my own advice this summer and just take a bit of time off, basically.” So, from a musician’s perspective, is the aforementioned waiting-game frustration associated with fear that another artist will drop something similar to what you’ve created and get in before you? “I never feel like I made anything so hot that I was, like, waitin’ and waitin’ on someone else discovering this new secret I had cracked, but [laughs] I guess that could be an issue.

“Songs are kind of in the air a little bit,” Rundell hesitates, as if wishing he could retract this observation. “I dunno, that sounds a bit – but, you know, there’s a sort of sound that you can kind of pick up on, that people are heading in certain directions or whatever. But I think it’s important, as much as possible actually, not to think about that stuff. If you pick up on it unconsciously, then it’s fine.”

It wasn’t until The 2 Bears did some recording in South Africa that their new album really started to take shape. “We were a certain way through the record already and it just really helped us break the back of it and see the thing as a whole, where we were going with it,” Rundell says of the duo’s sessions in Soweto and downtown Johannesburg. “It’s just really great to see how other people do it differently, and how we all do it the same sometimes as well. Making music and the creative process, you know: the energy, the vibe – all of that quite nebulous stuff that’s hard to put your finger on.” 

The 2 Bears were only in South Africa for “a bit more than a week”, but, during that time, “were taken ‘round Soweto by Senyaka, the MC that’s on that track Angel [(Touch Me)]”. Rundell tells of a township outside Capetown that The 2 Bears got to play at – “a big place where they all get together and play house music on a Sunday”. “The original shop was a butcher’s where everyone would buy their meat on a Sunday. And someone had a sound system, and they started there, and it just sort of grew and grew and now it’s a massive club. It’s really an amazing scene.”

Another of The Night Is Young’s tracks, Money Man featuring British reggae artist Stylo G, explores political themes that threaten to go unnoticed if you’re busy focusing on the infectious beats and sunny melodies. (“Stand up, stand up for your rights, you see/Only have a short time in which to be free/Don’t give up, give up ‘cause we’re under attack/And the money man wants to break your back.”) “There’s a whole set of reggae songs and soul songs that are political, gently, or about having a broken heart,” Rundell laughs. “The serious issues that affect us as human beings, you know?” Rundell reckons these kind of tracks “always create a good reaction on the dancefloor”, but is quick to add: “Don’t get me wrong, I have lots of space in my life for kind of dumb, moronic music in clubs, but sometimes it’s good to have something else as well, you know?”

When asked whether he has noticed changes in Ibiza, in terms of corporatisation, Rundell confesses, “This summer I’ve only actually just been at our nights at Pacha, because I’ve been kinda flying in and out and getting back to London. It’s hard to stick around, really. It’s maybe a bit reckless, hahaha. Well, you can only do it so much, you know wha’ I mean?” Alongside the superclubs in Ibiza, Rundell points out, “There’s always interesting underground stuff going on [there] as well, there’s loads of really cool little parties all over the place… Nightmares On Wax actually have got a new par’y this year, which apparently has been brilliant. I was gonna go, but I missed the last one [mock cry-laughs].”

WHAT: The Night Is Young (Southern Fried/Liberator)

WHEN & WHERE: 24 Jan, Sugar Mountain Festival, Victorian College Of The Arts, Southbank