special quaye

It must have helped initially, though? "Don't think it's helped. Why should it have helped? A lot of people don't know the name. 'Specially all the Rastas I know. Not into Tricky? Some of my Rasta people would not step into a house that's number 666. It's not explanatory, he keeps his vocals submerged. Plays with your head. If you think that it's dark, then you deserve to think that it's dark. That's the way Tricky thinks. You think that it's bright, then lucky old you. Actually, I don't think he gives a monkey's about how people perceive it. He makes what he makes. Makes what he makes."
finley Finley's music can seem the polar opposite of his nephew's, "prosperous stuff" refracting the positivity of De La Soul, early Shamen and acid culture alongside Bob Marley and the reggae lineage. It shouldn't be surprising that as a teenager he MCd at early jungle raves with the likes of Top Buzz ("the proper old DJs"), before hooking up with A Guy Called Gerald for his recording debut. The track, the haunting drum n' bass tune 'Finley's Rainbow', emerged on Gerald's 'Black Secret Technology' album before being reworked as the lyric of 'Sunday Shining': "As the morning gathers a rainbow, I want you to know now that I'm a rainbow with you..." "A rainbow is symbolic of unity," he says. "It's a child of rain and light. Beautiful. It's not made from exhaust fumes. It's not called cancer. I don't like fucking cancer, I like rainbows. I like to walk barefoot in the grass in the morning, in the morning dew. I like to connect with reality."

Hippy talk? Or just a reminder of where the acid party started? Finley Quaye has spent his fair share of time "mashed up on mushrooms" and got to meet Shaun Ryder and Bez just by being a larger-than-life Manchester face in a pink Chipie bubblecoat. "Rave culture," he says, "I don't deny any of that. I've got some of the hippiest clothes you can imagine." So is he still a hippy? "I'm a pop star now. How can I be a hippy?" And with that, Finley Quaye can hardly stifle his giggles.

Finley Quaye's new single 'It's Great When We're Together' and his album, 'Maverick A Strike' are both out now on Epic.

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