Having lived in Barcelona for the last four years, there’s nothing more we love than showing friends and family around the city; La Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, Montjuic. But there is one area that always seems to get a bad rep…our neighbourhood, El Raval! Known for the drug-dealers, sex workers and money launderers masquerading as phone shops – the place has got it going on and we love it for that. Someone else who clearly agrees with us is East London duo, Payfone, who shot the video for their latest single, ‘Sofian’, right on our doorstep.
Payfone are Phil Passera & Jimmy Day, two DJs/instrumentalists who, rather than sample, prefer to create all their music from scratch. Signed to iconique label Leng, the pair have recently dropped ‘Sofian’ which tells the story of….well, why don’t we let Phil tell you himself!
Phil, first up, I know you released an EP named Quarantine in 2016. You must be a millionaire from that track in 2020!
Strangely enough there hasn’t really been any impact on the song ‘Quarantine’ which I personally believe is the best song I’ve ever produced and written with Jimmy Day. Surely the track is primed for Pandemic themed playlists.
When it came to ‘Sofian’ did you and Jimmy create the beat and the lyrics too?
I’ve been sitting on that baseline since I wrote it in 2014. I tried a few things over the years – nothing really worked. Then earlier this year I took it into Jimmy, and we rewrote all the parts – we used an old drum machine we recorded to tape – processed it – got something really solid – then I brought Barbara in to record the vocals. When I recorded Barbara I had her record to silence as I didn’t want her to be influenced by the rhythm. I would read out the lyrics and she would read them back to me. A bit like Francis Ford Coppola directing Marlon Brando.
I know you have always been political, but I wanted to know why you decided to cast LGBT in this video in particular.
The story of the song is that the main character is pregnant – her lover is bisexual – which puts her in a conundrum – is this man going to stick by her and their baby? She asks ‘Tell me what to do Sofian.’
I live on the very block where you shot the video here in El Raval, Barcelona. What drew you to the Raval for the video? The place has kind of a bad reputation – depending on who you speak to!
I have been living just outside Barcelona in Sant Celoni for over this years – but this week I just moved into the Poble Nou area of Barcelona. Raval has always been a huge attraction to me ever since I first visited in 2005 – and this video which I made for $700 is my love letter to the area. The Sunday flea markets that happen every month are fantastic. Yesterday I bought a brand-new gas mask ($10) a brand new megaphone and 47 fantastic 12 inch records from the US -late 70s early 80s for the grand total of €50. From a vinyl perspective I got very lucky yesterday and it doesn’t happen every day. Clearly someone local had died and his record collection ended up on the street – I happened to get there 10 seconds before another vinyl junkie who had to wait behind me gritting his teeth whilst I picked out all the good ones – thank you and good night!
Which parts of the city have got you through 2020?
The whole enchilada.
Phil you released your first track in 1998 under the alias Kitty Bronx. What has been the best thing and the worst thing that has changed to Dance Music in that time?
As a young boy I played the saxophone before moving onto bass guitar. My parents never owned a music system – but my brothers and sisters were all musical. Being the youngest of 4, I grew up in a household with a drum kit and DJ decks. Then around the age of 17 -18 I got into hip-hop and jazz and then sampling. Kitty Bronx was born from that and was comprised of 100% sampled material.
Simon Baxter and I would spend the long days and weeks and years searching through charity shops in Brighton finding odd records and taking bits and pieces from them to form whole songs (The intro to the song ‘AIR’ was nicked by Fatboy Slim for the intro to ´It’s a wonderful night´, he had to pay up eventually). Years later in 2010 we re-joined together to make a record titled ‘Live from Henriques Street’ under the moniker LEON LACE. This project was 100% written & recorded with zero samples from outside sources. My next project after that was Payfone – and took that same ethic but onto the dancefloor as opposed to the lounge.
I despise dance music that has two or three sampled components that repeat, repeat and repeat for six minutes. Not good for my Tourettes.
Lastly Loverboy is named after the infamous Mariah Carey song, so we always ask, what is your favourite Mariah Carey song?
Never been a Mariah Carey fan although I did meet her once in the cafeteria of CD:UK – a popular UK music TV show that shows its age with its title. She was very, very nice – very friendly. If I had to choose a favourite song of hers it would probably be her duet with Justin Bieber. A Christmas song where a 45-year-old woman confesses her love to a 14-year-old boy amid the seasonal festivities.
PAYFONE’s ‘Sofian’ is out now.
