“Soul Power” Common Electric Circus (MCA 2002)
We did a phase of beats that didn’t make the album, so “Soul Power” was
really the beginning, but we had already been working towards making
new stuff. I remember talking to Jay Dee about just taking the music to
another place. At the time we all were listening to Stereolab and
Radiohead and I was listening to Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd, so Jay
Dee knew I wanted some stuff that just didn’t sound standard, didn’t
sound as traditional. I would explain a direction and he would come up
with something that was completely above what I explained. We sat there
and he came across the bassline part. We were both like, Oh man, and he
started doing those drums the way he did it. It felt like that magic
that I wanted. I knew that the way the drums were programmed were
different than anything I had heard, and he went and pulled out this
record that had the “Soul power!” vocals on it. And once he did that, I
was like, “Man, this is a song right here.” The thing about Jay Dee was
he could take it anywhere you wanted it to go. He could play
instruments, he could cut. His musicianship was impeccable. Common
This song doesn't fall into the genres that make my usual Sunday Morning iTunes playlist but The Fader has me all sentimental.