January 12, 2009
Interview by Scott Preston
Thirteen years after playing their first note together in Philadelphia, PA, The Disco Biscuits continue to make mind bending, genre defying music. With their fifth studio album on the way, the band's first since 2002, the Biscuits once again look to redefine what it means to be a live band living in a studio setting. The product of three years in the hole with Philadelphia hip-hop duo Don Cheegro and Dirty Harry, along with some close guidance from the UK electronic duo of Simon Posford and Benji Vaughn (Twisted Records UK), will once again satisfy fans of the band in a way they have never heard before – a quality many have come to find synonymous with the band's releases and performances through the years.
The hosts of Camp Bisco, one of the country's largest and longest running electronic music festivals, the Biscuits have continued to bring a myriad of talent to the scene in recent years, including: Snoop Dogg, Thievery Corporation, DJ Shadow, MSTRKRFT, The Roots, Infected Mushroom, STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector Nine), Shpongle, Younger Brother, Alex Paterson (The Orb), and many, many more. Camp Bisco, which has found a home at upstate New York's Indian Lookout Country Club, attracted nearly 8000 concert-goers a night for three nights in July 2008. With the eighth installment of the festival set to blast off in July 2009, Camp Bisco veterans and first-timers can count on a fresh, one-of-a-kind, party that's not to be missed.
Cincy Groove: So I understand you have a studio album coming out pretty soon?
Aron Magner: Yeah pretty soon, there's no street date for the release yet, but we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. That light, mind you, has been visible for the last year. We keep inching closer and closer and we are almost there.
Cincy Groove: Is there a title for the new album?
Aron Magner: We have a bunch of titles that we are throwing around, we haven't decided on anything definite yet.
Cincy Groove: Were there any special guests on this album?
Aron Magner: Yes, but not in the traditional sense. For instance when we were in California recording Senor Boombox, we were in this great studio called Fantasy Studios in Oakland. Carlos Santana was recording in the studio right next to us. We aren't buddy buddy with Carlos so we felt it wasn't appropriate to ask Carlos to be on the record. But we did put his percussion player on Jigsaw Earth and that was great.
There are a lot of other musicians on this album, but they got on the album very organically. Tom Hamilton played some guitar on the cd. It wasn't like we approached him ahead of time and asked him to play this particular solo. He just walked into the studio one day and we kind of said "Hey do you want to strap a guitar on?". We have our own studio here in Philly, so there are people walking in and out all the time. A lot of people lended their talents because that's what we do, play music.
Read the full Interview here
