Interview by [Cryonix UK]
March 2002

Chris Carter is the man who coaxed the legendary Shara Nelson of Massive Attack fame into the studio for the heaving vocal breaks track that was "U", as part of the Kasha set up. He earned his production spurs while hanging out with the On U Sound System and was B.L.I.M.'s right hand man on last year's storming collaboration for the Track label, "Check It Out". Now back with a new single on TCR, "Europa", he tells Breaksworld why he and Shara didn't see eye to eye and reveals his plan to become breakbeat's answer to Judas Priest...

Q: So Chris, you're back with your second single on TCR, "Europa". It's got a bit of a tougher sound than your last track for the label. What's the story there?
A: I did something for Forged, which is Koma and Bones' label, last year called "What Sounds Are" and it was quite different from what I'd done before for TCR. It wasn't too melodic and had more of a simple bass sound. That did quite well and [TCR boss] Rennie Pilgrem liked it and said to me that he thought it was possibly a little more TCR-orientated than the previous stuff I'd done for them. I did bear that in mind a lot when I was making "Europa".

Q: What has the reaction been like from the DJs and record-buyers?
A: From what I've been told byClive and Pippa at TCR it does seem to be positive. The people I've spoken to have liked it and I've played it a couple of times and it's gone down well. It's not as hard or aggressive as "What Sounds Are", though. It's more of a builder track.

Q: You first came to the attention of the breaks world with "U", a track which came out under the Kasha name and which featured yourself, B.L.I.M. and Shara Nelson. I remember when it came out it totally blew up and still stands out to this day as one of the best nu skool records with vocals on it...
A: B.L.I.M. was living with a friend of mine at the time and this friend was very interested in the music that I was making. I was playing something to him one night and G [B.L.I.M.] heard it and said he was interested in getting together to work on a track. At the same time a friend of mine who worked at the On U Sound System studio had been introduced to Shara, who had done work with them even before the Massive Attack stuff. He played her some stuff and she said she liked it and she particularly liked the track that G liked. So we went into the studio and she recorded some vocals. I think it was the day which I'd booked the time to come in with G, so I said I've got a track here with some vocals on. We had everything we needed and we put the track together.

Q: Weren't there plans to release a Kasha album at one point? What happened there?
A: We did try a few other things but I would have liked to have made an album that was really in keeping with that single and was basically aimed at the same people. It's not really pop music. Shara was more interested in commercial songs and radio friendly music. She wasn't really from an underground perspective at all. At the end of the day there wasn't enough common ground there. But me and G have talked about doing it again and if we could find the right singer we would do it. But to be honest I'm actually not a fan of vocals in breaks at all - if there's an instrumental version I'll always play that... But I think if you don't try and do too much it can really work. The thing about that track was that it was really just a few lines, because that was all we had at the time. The vocal that's there is really strong, but if you got a singer in there they'd probably want to do a little bit more. If Shara had been in on the recording she would have wanted to make it more songy. It's more the remix approach to a vocal. The mistake would be to get a vocallist and write some songs. But people will no doubt prove me wrong.