Interview with Soul Clap

Soul Clap are the perfect mix of search and innovation. Their sound, although deriving from the past when the music had a political and generational message, is one of the cooler and more interesting projects on the international panorama and this is the heart of our interview: remember the past to look for the future.

After their performance at ICONIC on October 8th, a party organized by Lele Sacchi and Rollover at the Apollo Club (Milan), the Soul Clap have also emerged in our country thanks to their black sonority, with a touch of house, afro and funky that is always a good idea. 

#1 Where do Soul Clap come from, musically speaking? What are the musical and socio-cultural elements that have driven you to a certain musical genre?

Soul Clap comes from Funk, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Reggae, Rock, Punk, Hardcore and of course THE RAVE.  Our love for DJing came from being alive in the 90’s, but it was once we discovered raving and the power of electronic music like House, Drum & Bass, Jungle, Garage, Techno and on and on, that we were hooked and knew we wanted to become part of DJ History.

#2 How important was Caril Mitro's figure for your artistic growth?

Caril played a tremendous role in our growth by teaching us about house music’s history, telling us stories from disco’s past and teaching us about life in general.  We have humbled that Caril and her business partner Tom accepted us and took us under their wing. Getting with those two was a really important moment in our history in the early Soul Clap days.

#3 Having founded Soul Clap Records with a view to creating a reflection on Boston's young talents, do you feel like true patrons?

It is really our annual Dancing on the Charles compilation series that has shown a light on Boston’s young talents.  There’s always interesting creative things happening in the Boston electronic music community. We love our roots and we will always continue to represent BEANTOWN!

#4 According to you, the Crew Love Records, which you share with Wolf + Lamb and the Double Standard, could be compared to the Funkadelic artistic group in the 70’s?

Nothing can compare to what Funkadelic had going on back in the day, but one aspect that the Crew might share is a that we are a group of talented artists full of creativity who love to come together and collaborate to make music and put on these truly epic Crew Love events.

#5 About Funkadelic, in your last job you worked closely with George Clinton and Billy "Bass" Nelson. Do you still think that soul and funk can have a marked political sense as it was in the 70s with the advent of Motown?

Well while George Clinton got his start with Motown, funk and soul, he goes way beyond just that one musical hub. In terms of having a political sense, absolutely, funk and soul stands for something real and important. Whether it's anti-war, civil rights, workers rights, anti-violence, there is often a strong political message in the music, but, keep in the mind that in the 60’s and 70’s especially, politics made its way into almost every genre of music. So it's more about the politics of the time, and less about the type of music specifically.
In today's turbulent times we hope popular music can really start to share a similar message of leadership, protest and hope.  God knows, the politicians AIN'T CUTTING IT!

ICONIC returns with Rimini, Italia 1989 at the Apollo Club in Milan on October 22nd.