“We hate being grouped under that term of trip-hop.”
It’s not often that opportunities arise to pick the brains of a member of one of the groups that defined a musical genre. Trip-hop being said genre and Grant Marshall, aka Daddy G of seminal UK outfit MASSIVE ATTACK, being the man in question. Though he and fellow core contributor Robert ‘3D’ Del Naja led the way (along with fellow Bristolians Portishead) in the early ‘90s in the field of downtempo electronica, Marshall reveals that these days he is quick to distance himself from the term.
“We hate being grouped under that term of trip-hop because it seems like you’ve pigeonholed our activities and how we approach music,” he says. “Music’s a set of numbers – it gets redefined every now and then [but] it’s already set in stone what music really is. People sometimes come up with different definitions of sticking those numbers together and that’s what happened with us to a certain extent. We’re still up for learning lots of stuff in the studio and for a lot more experimentation.”
It was in this spirit of experimentation and innovation that the band regrouped after a seven year hiatus and released their highly anticipated album Heligoland. Named after a German archipelago in the North Sea (“It’s something that D read in books,” says Marshall. “He was drawn to it and we liked the sound of the word. There’s no real deep meaning behind it.”), the group’s fifth major studio release is a stark contrast to its predecessor, 100th Window. “100th Window was quite a hard album to digest, really,” he admits. “It’s an album with a lot of little sound effects all over the shop. This is more simple and stripped back and the songs hit you straight and direct.”
Heligoland continues Massive Attack’s longstanding tradition of collaborating with a string of amazing guest vocalists. Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star), Tunde Adebimpe (TV On The Radio), Guy Garvey (Elbow) and Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz) all feature in what could only be described as an all star cast. Of working with such high profile musicians, Marshall says “they’re stars in their own right. With us, it’s really simple; we just go back to when we were DJs and we were playing these people’s records – people like Sinead O’Connor and Elizabeth Fraser. Working with them has been a godsend because we’re big fans and we knocked at their door for help to make the record, to come on board with collaborations and they have.” He notes that a number of the singers the band has been friends with for years, aiding the ease of the collaboration, adding that “it’s been more of a family occasion, this time around. Intimate’s the word.”
One of the most intimate and haunting tracks from Heligoland is Hope Sandoval’s contribution, Paradise Circus. “That’s a really weird one actually, because that is the only collaboration we’ve had that wasn’t an actual face to face,” says Marshall, discussing how the track came into existence. “That was done through the powers of electronics! We originally had quite an orchestral line but trimmed it right down and sent it to Hope because we love all the stuff that she did with Mazzy Star and she’s got this amazing voice. She added a sentiment to it that we love. Turned out to be something quite beautiful, really.”
An important part of the mystique surrounding the band over the years has been the compelling visuals that accompany the music. From the iconic shot in one take Unfinished Sympathy to a singing foetus in the womb in Teardrop, Massive Attack’s videos have always been eye-catching and the most recent Heligoland productions are no exception. The very NSFW Paradise Circus clip showcases an interview with a retired porn star, interspersed with scenes from her glory days, and Splitting The Atom features an incredible journey through a computer generated city frozen in time in a moment of destruction. “We’ve made some amazing videos in the past but they’ve cost millions of pounds to make and those days are gone,” says Marshall. “It was a case of saying to certain producers, ‘listen, we’ll give you literally a tenth of that budget and can you make a video from that?’ and this [the video for Splitting The Atom] is the outcome we get. The less the budget, the more creative the videos are, it seems.”
Given that the group have now been in the public domain for close to two decades and have achieved global acclaim and recognition (Teardrop is the theme tune to TV’s House), it’s refreshing to see that fame hasn’t gone to Marshall’s head. “With tunes like Unfinished Sympathy and Teardrop, you kind of know in your mind’s eye that something special is going on,” he muses. “When you work with someone like Liz Fraser [who sings on Teardrop, in addition to a number of other Massive Attack tracks], you think there’s something special going on whatever song she’s on. So we never thought that would have such an impact, no. You put something out into the public domain and you don’t know what impact it’s going to have until you actually let it go.” Given the group’s track record and the calibre of its guest vocalists, anything they decide to “let go” into the world will almost certainly be an instant classic.
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