Words: Jay Thomas

Mint Royale Universal Records

Mint Royale are Neil Claxton and Chris Baker, and they have become a household name across Europe with their latest album, “See You In The Morning.” Songs off the album have been used for ad campaigns by Volkswagen and Hugo Boss, they’ve being triple-played on radio stations across Europe and are still destroying dance floors into the wee hours of the morning by DJs of all genres. With the album’s release here in Canada this summer, Klublife caught up with Neil Claxton and asked him what all the hype is really about.

Klublife: Can you tell us what went into your latest album, See You in the Morning and what was the biggest surprise for you? Was it the all the interest from the music licensing and so forth?

Mint Royale: I think it was a bit of a strange album to make ’cause it spanned quite a long time. It also spanned various sorts of changes in the band, because when I started it, I was still working with my partner Chris, whom I’d done the first two albums with. By the end of it we were no longer actually doing it together. And then all this stuff with the “Singing in the Rain” happened in the UK as well before we sort of got to release the album, which was a bit of a surprise as well. So I think going into the album I wouldn’t have expected coming out of it with only one of me left in the band. We were just hoping to make an album that was a bit more lasting than really our last two albums, which had been very perky and upbeat. But we sort of felt that there wasn’t enough deep material that we always had wanted to get in there. Which we think we got more in See You in the Morning.

Klublife: Why did Chris Baker leave Mint Royale? Was it creative differences? Mint

Royale: I think there was a basic geographical problem in that Chris had actually moved to London—actually, no, quite a bit before, and he always thought he’d be fine doing that sort of traveling. I mean London to Manchester is sort of like a huge difference for a Canadian. But it’s, you know, it’s long enough to tire you out. And I think he was a bit physically exhausted by that. And I think he found that quite tiring. And he just wanted to do some different stuff for a while. And it wasn’t so much creative differences because really, I would say it’s more his album than mine. So if anything, you know, if anything I should be the one saying I wasn’t 100 per cent happy. But um, in the end I think we just—hell, we’d been working together for so long. I think we reached a point where we were like three-quarters of the way through and Chris just thought “if I sort of finish this off then I’m then involved in the whole sort of shenanigans that happen afterwards, all the promotions, all the gigs and things like that.” And I think he thought at that point it would be better for him to sort of duck out rather then wait until we finish the record, and then be involved in all these things and then sort of turn around and say “look, I’m not sure I want to do this.” It would really have left me in a lurch, if you know what I mean.

Klublife: What is the label? Is it a struggle to balance the label obligations and the needs that you have as an artist?

Mint Royale: The label is called Faith & Hope records. Mint Royale is on Faith & Hope records in the UK but it wasn’t actually set up for us—we actually set the label up for some other people. And then I’d always done music and I just sort of met up with Chris and we started doing Mint Royale. And basically the people I was working with at the label said “look, you know, get a demo coming in and we’ll try and sign it—just because it’s you doesn’t mean we can sort of not sign it.” So the label and Mint Royale have been very intertwined since the beginning because of that. But it is a genuine label. You know, we have other bands. Um, you know, I spend quite a lot of time in the studio with other bands and rehearsals and going to the gigs and doing all the stuff you have to do when you’re running an independent label.

Klublife: What was the feeling like when you got the phone call and someone said  “Oh, by the way, Volkswagen is going to use your version of ‘Singing in the Rain’ as their theme?” And was that during the same timeframe that the director or yourself made the choice of using the Gene Kelly dance sequence?

Mint Royale: Ah, well no. It actually was all happening the other way around. The way it happened was that I just finished the album. I can’t remember the exact kind of time and month and all that sort of stuff. I just finished the album and I got a call from an ad agency who basically said that they were trying to get people to demo a remix of the original “Singing in the Rain” because they were going to do this ad for it. They knew at this point that they were going to do an ad for it where Gene Kelly was made to breakdance or whatever, and they needed somebody to update the music for it to work. And they got in touch with about 10 people and we never found out who they all were. We found out a couple of them—well, a couple of managers have sort of said “Ah, one of mine went for that and they didn’t get it”. But basically we all did demos and they chose mine and up to that point I really didn’t think anything of it.  

The new album, See You In The Morning, has dropped here in Canada For more information, be sure to check out www.glowdigital.ca for the late-breaking news. If you want to learn more about Neil’s label Faith & Hope records, you can find them online at www.faithandhope.co.uk!