If you love Bah Samba’s debut album or their new 4 set as much as I do, you certainly want to know more about the band. Here’s your chance with this interview with Bah Samba’s founding member Julian Bendall.

Q: It’s been ten years since Bah Samba had released their debut single Carnival on Loaded. Congratulations for the decennial. How content are you with what you have achieved as Bah Samba in these ten years?

Julian Bendall: Thanks, I think Bah Samba has achieved a great deal in the last ten years, since we only recorded two albums! The success of ‘Reach Inside’ has been incredible it’s kept the whole project going, speradic though it may be. ‘Reach Inside’ was an experiment really, I wouldn’t say we were pioneers, but many people see Bah Samba in that way, I just wanted to incorporate as many live elements into one house 12″ as possible, I didn’t really have a song, just loads of original parts and vocal takes, we filled three Akai samplers in the end, and sequenced it all in an old Atari computer. ‘Reach Inside’ is endorsed by the worlds top DJ’s and producers now and features on practically every latin house compilation that exists, I think Dimitri’s ‘A Night at Playboy Mansion’ brought it to the mainstream, possibly everyone has a copy of that CD, it’s even on Hollywood films. I am content, I’m also happy that we never ’sold out’, artistically speaking that is, and to be honest I wouldn’t know how to.

Q: Why have you released only two “real” albums with new material in these ten years?

Julian Bendall: Bah Samba started out as an underground project, more of a hobby, a learning curve and some fun, don’t get me wrong though…I was always trying to make a living through music but in those days it was more about getting gigs and playing out live as much as possible with various bands.
I suppose some people may see Bah Samba as un-productive due to the huge gaps between releases, but not the case, we were all doing different projects everyday doing session work and writing, besides I personally wanted to keep it special and not let it fall into monotony, I’ve seen a few bands/friends go in this direction and it’s quite depressing, at least we kept it fresh and still do. The other reason for these gaps was the time it took the label to release material.
In 1999 myself and Alice went travelling, not together though, she went to Africa and I went to Brasil, I initially went to do some shows in Sao Paulo only for two weeks, however I found myself staying for four months, on return in 2000 we met up and decided we should record a new song taking on board our new influences, it was actually ‘Drifting’, this version was never released by the label. I later put in an ultimatum to Estereo to come up with some budget for an album and they said yes!

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