Bass is Base

When the lovable arts editor, asked me to interview Base is Bass, I nodded my head until my teeth rattled. It's not that I'm a particularly big fan of the three-member group from Toronto, or that I think any of the band members is a babe, or even that I wanted to get on the guest list at Dick's on Dicks. No, my interest stemmed soley from the fact that Mystic, the lead rapping guy, has the loveliest, puffiest Jackson 5 'fro I've seen since dear old Dad moved with the fashion times and mowed his off after belatedly realizing in the mid-80s that the disco era had, in fact, already passed.

Plus, I've always secretly kind of liked that "Funkmobile" song.

Peak: "Funkmobile" got some pretty heavy exposure. Did you ever just get tired of it?

Mystic: Um, no, I like the song.

Ivana: The thing is, when you're playing a song, it's not so much that you're playing it over and over. It's always a new audience and new people that you're seeing enjoying it. So there's always a new life added to it.

Peak: What does each individual member add to the group that makes it work?

Mystic: You know, I don't even like to really think about it like that. Just let whatever happens happen, and go into the studio and have fun. Like, you know when you brainstorm and come up with a ridiculous idea? But that ridiculous idea might refer back to something that was actually logical that you could use. That's what we do. We just throw everything out, man, don't even think about it, and then just sift through the ideas.

Ivana: There's a chemistry to it, and sometimes by sitting and analysing it you can stifle it.

Peak: You have a song called "soma." Is that the Aldous Huxley kind of soma or something else?

Mystic: No, soma actually is Swahili word.

Peak: Okay, because the lyrics didn't really make any sense to me.

Ivana and Mystic together: What are you, what are you referring to?

Peak [rather bemused]: Oh, in Brave New World there's this drug called soma that they all take.

Mystic: Oh, for real?

Peak: Yeah, it's like a government mind control thing to make them all complacent.

Ivana: Oh, 'cuz I've seen that word in a couple of places and I was wondering what they were relating it to. We need a lessen.

Peak: Unlike a lot of hip hop artists today, you guys use actual instruments. Do you think that adds something that can be lost through sampling?

Ivana: The thing is, for Chin (the third band member who was being interviewed by someone else at the time) and myself, we've been musicians for a long time. So for us it's just natural-these are our instruments, you know? This is how we translate our ideas. But the thing is, when people sample, even like a DJ with his turntable, that's his instrument. A lot of people don't understand that. And a lot of people don't understand what rap's all about, but that's percussion. That's like, speaking, telling stories within the music.

Mystic: A lot of people still don't credit sampling as an art and a craft. But if they were to hear the original and then the end product, they'd realize how completely the context has been changed.

Peak: What about playing live?

Mystic: Oh definately. It's the moment. Sometimes if everything's on tape, you can't feed off each other.

Ivana: There's a certain spontaneity and a certain feel that is better translated live. But as far as in the creation of the music, I think it's the same thing.

Mystic: By the same token, when you see a group like Pharsyde live. No instruments, and they're slammin'.

Peak: You've done a bit of promo work in the States. Do you feel pressure to achieve recoginition in the US?

Mystic: No, we're just making music. If people in the US appreciate it, if people in South Africa appreciate it, we're there. But the thing is, there's a lot more money to be made in the States. But if I were into this for money, I wouldn't have been up in the middle of the night in Grade 8 writing. It was nothing about money back then. So we didn't begin this for love of that and I don't think we're gonna end for that either.

Peak: What's the reaction to your shows down there been?

Mystic: Amazing.

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