Interview with Black Sun Empire and MC LowQui

What makes a good drum ’n’ bass MC? Sometimes they don’t really add to the song.

Sacha Heyboer (S): I think in that case, sometimes they try to add too much. They should add to the vibe, and not destroy the track by babbling over a drop or something.

LowQui (L): Well, my name’s LowQui so hopefully that’s a guide to what I do as an MC. It’s all about being minimal, trying to add an element of excitement to the music at the right time. So you’ll hear me in the buildup to the drop, you’ll hear me get excited, but when the drop comes, I’ll be out of the way and let people enjoy the music. It’s all about sporadic, intelligent lyrics that hopefully add enjoyment. I communicate between the DJ and the crowd. I’m sort of like a conduit for the energy.

Have you ever had a moment where you’ve wanted to kill each other, during a show?

S: I don’t think I’ve tried to kill you, have I?

L: Not yet.

S: I’ve tried to kill a couple of MCs though.

So what’s next for you guys?

S: We’re working on a new album, we’ll probably have it ready by February, I think. Doing a bit of dubstep on the side, too.

No UK funky?

[Both laugh] No, no way.

L: I’ve got a track up called ‘Ice House’ that’s out as by Johnny Hooves and LowQui, and on a recent trip to South Korea I did a collaboration with a guy called J Path called ‘Anima’ that’s getting a bit of support. Also doing a new night in Melbourne called Polaroid – I live in Melbourne at the moment. It’s a collaboration between myself, Joe Seven, Consequence, and another DJ called Dust. So, four of us are running Polaroid, focusing on the more minimal, deep side of drum ’n’ bass. And then there’s Hospitality in London, and Sun and Bass, the best festival in the world, in Sardinia.

Is Black Sun Empire going, too?

S: We’ve been asked a couple of times but we’re just too busy.

Ouch. During the daytime do you just lie around on the beach?

L: You can do that if you want. There’s a kilometre-long beach and the only building on that is the beach bar. Everything else is disposable – tents, deckchairs, banana boats and that kind of stuff. Last year we built a man tower.

A man tower?

[Sacha starts laughing hysterically in the background]

L: It was me, Klute, D-Bridge, Dom and Roland, and some other guys…

Is that…what it sounds like?

L: Well, basically, four of us linked arms on the bottom, and then another four guys climb up top and another two on the top of that. And one of the funniest things that happened there was, I’m linked arm-to-arm with Dom, and somebody else on the other side and Dom just can’t move. And Klute had a broken foot at the time and he climbed up onto [Dom’s] shoulders and basically ended up with his feet planted on Dom’s eyes like that [demonstrates] and Dom couldn’t move, he had this manky broken foot on his face and…well, I guess you had to be there. So we do things like that.

Man tower.

L: Man tower.

S: Man tower. I haven’t done it in a while. [Both laugh]

Go to www.lowqui.com and www.blacksunempire.com for more info.