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urbandub.com's
Barbara Urban Dub found Stefanie Cayless in her manor
- Hammersmith.
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Barbara: To fill up this interview you will need to do a lot of talking.
Steff: Oh yeah, about what? That’s not very exciting. My favourite vegetable is
broccoli or anything green. I work with Urban Dub who are my favourites too. I’ve also worked with Kerr,
Subculture Sound System and Numatic Soul. I’ve done recording in New Zealand and in Britain. I’ve worked with Cuba –
the drum and bass lot. I came over hear to study music but I’ve got family in New Zealand and Australia. At the start
I wanted to be a backing singer and then I started doing lead vocals because I like performing. It’s a challenge. I
like fusion stuff like mixtures of jazz and soul and dub and funk, hip hop. Genres of music. Yeah, anything mixed up.
I don’t like one particular type, I like everything mixed in to one – eclectic.
Barbara: Do you play any instruments?
Steff: No, but I bought a guitar yesterday. I’ve got a “how to play guitar”
video, so I’m gonna watch that. I play keyboards a little bit, and I have my moments on maracas,
but apart from that it’s all in the voice.
Barbara: I notice you’ve got on some great clothes.
Steff: Thanks, we used to produce them in New Zealand for Doosh Clothing who are
now making their way in to the UK. We used to produce and manufacture clothes over there. I’m a
“making things” person. I’ve made loads of things. I used to make a lot of accessories in New Zealand
and sell them to wholesale markets and festivals and things. Bags and feathers and hairpieces and stuff
like that. I used to make Pacific art which had loads of glitter on it, using lots of New Zealand natural
fabrics and materials with animals and flowers and stuff.
Barbara: What does Doosh mean?
Steff: Doosh doesn’t mean anything it’s just a noise – doosh.
After singing in New Zealand for a few years, I decided to come over here
and follow my dreams. I came back here and travelled around a bit.
Barbara: What’s your plans?
Steff: In relation to what Urban Dub are doing, I just want to build it up and create a big
thing, a big noise and then keep going and do tours. Get popular in Europe and all over the world
and get out to reach as many people as possible. In relation to dub stuff, my vocals are not traditional.
It’s jazzy stuff. So it’s quite different, but it’s nice to have a mixture of stuff. We just keep blending
it and come up with some doodles. I’d like to talk about my history, because I quite like Urban Dub music,
because it’s different to what I normally do. I normally do dance things like House Music and that sort
of stuff. It’s soul, so it’s nice to mix Bangra with Urban Dub to create something new. I’m not trying
to be somebody else. I’m not trying to be a toaster or anything because I can’t do that.
Barbara: What was the first record that you bought?
Steff: Barbie’s party hits. It wasn’t Barbie singing herself, it was some other artists
maybe like T’pau or someone or maybe Belinda Carlisle or someone like that. Barbie was just the
face of the album to push a few more copies. I like it when it’s sunny with a bit of a breeze. I don’t
like it too hot. It’s quite mild in New Zealand a lot of the time. There’s a lot of good music over
there. Have you ever heard of Fat Freddy’s Drop? I love that band, they’re wicked. I went to see them
in Wellington. I’ve got their album. I can play it to you if you want. It’s wicked. Yeah, it’s really
good. I can’t say what sort of music it is really. It’s sort of weird. It reminds me of working with
Urban Dub’s Stella Walton, she’s a really good lyricist. Sometimes we’d come up with ideas together
and come up with melodies and two seconds later we’d completely forgotten it. You don’t come up with
something wicked and it fits really well. You blast it out and you do it again, but you can’t remember
what you’ve just done. So RECORD EVERYTHING. Especially melodies and little hook lines and stuff. Yeah.
I like singing or recording or coming up with ideas
just to focus your head on most of the time. It’s a CHALLENGE. If you listen to like “Fell in Love
With a Boy” – Joss Stone or anything by Jill Scott, then you’ll know what I mean. Jill Scott is one
of my biggest influences. She mixes quite harsh – well, not too harsh – hiphop lyrics, but she has
bassy soulful stuff going on as well and really good backing vocalists. Yeah, I sang one of her songs
in a club the other night and it went down really well. I had like two backing singers and they had
like loads of attitude because the song I was doing was quite full-on and everyone was going mad.
They LOVED it. Everyone else was doing stuff like “Hand In My Pocket” by Alanis Morrisette – real
softy softy stuff. But we came on and it was COOL. I like something with a bit of soul in it.
With BALLS. Jill Scott has played with Four Heroes and stuff like that! That’s the stuff I like –
that kind of eclectic mix of not just one type of music! It’s like TripHop, that sort of stuff.
In the mix, you’ve got some ambient stuff, with some hiphop lyrics … everything! Everything is
mixed up rather than one set genre. The singers I like are people like Jill Scott and Erykah Badu.
They are quite feisty female singers. They are not girly and they are not trying to be like
Christine Agalera. It’s quite ballsy female stuff without being angst. They’re just strong women
that have got good lyrics. You know, about life and about positivity and respect and how to treat
people and stuff like that. There’s no bullshitting about looks or images or stuff like that. It’s
quite straight down the line. Their vocal styles are really amazing! They’re not trying to copy
anyone. They’re coming from the old school jazz style of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. That
sort of stuff. I don’t really like mainstream music. When I was a kid the majority of the kids were
in to Whitney Houston or Maria Carey, but not me. I like something with balls to it and actually
has a bit of feeling. I’m talking about something REAL rather than just puffing on about your
ex boyfriend that left you and ran off with your best mate or whatever. I like fusion stuff,
because I like triphop and that’s okay and I like really old jazz as well. So that is the mixture
which is going on with that.
Barbara: Do you like sailing?
Steff: I tried it in New Zealand, but we didn’t used to go very far. We just moored up
and sat on the top and drank wine and had a barbecue. In Hammersmith there’s not much opportunity
to go sailing because it’s right in the middle of London. I live right in the heart of Hammersmith
– Westside. It’s really central and there’s kind of a lot going on. It’s close to the heart of it
- near the tube, as well. I’d love to play at the Jazz Café in Camden or there’s always stuff going
on in Shoreditch. I like to go to see other events and gigs and stuff really to see the other
performers. London is noisy and horrible, but there’s just so much going on. New Zealand is quiet
and chilled out and peaceful and nice, but there’s not the opportunities over there because there’s
less people. If you were huge over there – like I’ve got friends that I’m doing merchandise for over
there and they had multi-platinum selling albums but still hardly anyone had heard of them. I think
London is hectic and noisy and people are stressed out all the time, but there’s so much music on
and so many people and so many connections so the good balances up with the bad. I like living in
cities, but I don’t like the attitude people have in cities. Everyone is too stressed out to have
time to talk to each other. They shove each other out of the way and they are rude. But it’s got
it’s good side. It creates an atmosphere when a lot of people are doing a lot of things in one
place – creatively. It’s a good life style because it gives me time to come up with some good
ideas and do what I want to do, which is what everyone should do. Things take time, don’t they,
you know, and I think if you rush head first in to things and want everything done there and then,
you’re gonna be disappointed. But you do need the motivation otherwise you’re gonna spend years
going nowhere. You need that drive. I don’t know why I’m doing it, but I just love it. I love
singing. It’s my PASSION.
Barbara: You certainly are very very good at it!
Steff: Thank you. You’ve just got to follow your heart, I think. If I ever get bored of
singing, I think I’ll stop doing it and I’ll probably run away to join the circus. Yeah, my
message is keep it real and keep it positive and have the balls to do what you want to do.
Have some PASSION and then do it.
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