Music Q&A: Goldie Lookin Chain

What informs your music and songwriting?
GLC have always been into hip-hop and we grew a strong love for dance music from the Sasha tape (a mix tape of a set by DJ Sasha from a Universe rave in 1992 that was held in Newport). We all grew up listening to the same artists – well, all of us except Graham the Bear who likes David Bowie and won’t shut up about him. Most of us started with Eric B and Rakim, Public Enemy, Beastie Boys and Geto Boys. We knew we could never be like them nor did we just want to emulate them, so we kind of struck up our own Newport slant on hip-hop. We have other influences, from R&B to metal to garage. We would be nowhere without Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Dio and the Artful Dodger.

How have you evolved over the years?
We haven’t and I think that is the key. You listen to some bands and they sound completely different from when they set out and when they broke up. Look at Fleetwood Mac or Pink Floyd or the Beatles – all ended up sounding different and lost touch with what they set out to do. They all ended up rubbish. It’s bands like Cardiacs or The Doors who sounded the same on the first and last record that really are staying true to what they believe. Those are bands I’m into. Even Jesus and Mary Chain, who basically wrote the same song 100 times, are way better than Coldplay, coz it all sounds the same.

What are you up to at the moment artistically?
We have just finished Fear of a Welsh Planet so we are all working on other projects. Adam Hussain is rewriting every classic hip-hop track with words about his nan, I’m trying to finish off my second piano album and Eggsy is learning to play the guitar again.

What’s on your rider?
We keep it simple. Two bottles of white wine from the Marlborough region of New Zealand (we call that the accelerator, coz you can drink it really quick), one large bottle of quality brandy (we usually end up with something you would have cooked with in the 1970s), novelty chocolate bars – the type you get at Halloween, 40 cans of strong lager and one large towel. Weird Al Yankovic asked for a balloon animal or something made out of them stretchy balloons. We should probably do something like that. We once got given a load of sex toys on the rider and Adam sold them on eBay. He hadn’t used them. Well, not all of them.

What song do you wish you’d written?
That’s Where You’re Wrong by Arctic Monkeys. They are massive bellends; we met them in Ibiza and shared a dressing room with them. They just sulked in the corner for three hours, but this song is absolutely perfect. It sounds like the type of song I write on the guitar, so I really identify with it. So that song or Groove is in The Heart by Deee-Lite.

What’s your worst lyric?
All of them…