SNEAKER PIMPS

"6 UNDERGROUND"

My comments

I like the remixed version found as a bonus track on the album cause it has more acoustic guitar and tambourine and less of the strings and harp track.

From what I have read this song was about a town who didn't allow creativity to be used, and thus buried those creative people hence the 6 underground which the depth at which people are buried. Kelli Dayton sings this song a soft sensual but get that point across vocal. The video is basically kelli in a barbers chair singing the song. The song was used in the film "The Saint".

The Writers First Comments about the song (this is what I always thought the song was about)

'6 Underground' is about the claustrophobia," says Howe, "of not being able to creatively express yourself in a very small town. It's enormously difficult to have your say, or any effect from what you say. We compared it to existing in a coffin, or being restricted to the point of being buried. So it's a reference to being 6 foot underground."

However the writer also later on says this about 6 Underground

Howe, who penned the lyrics for "6 Underground" with Corner, said that Dayton's vocal interpretation is paramount to the song's success. "We were hoping that if something was written by somebody else, Kelli would be able to distort it in her reading of it," the songwriter said. "That she would encourage a claustrophobic sort of cynicism about it. The song is really about the death of a relationship in the most crass kind of terms."

The Lyrics and Chords

History of the Sneaker Pimps

Chris and Liam met as teenagers in the eighties, drawn together by their love for recording and bedroom studio experimentation. Those efforts produced the "Soul of Indiscretion" E.P., an early example of what became known as trip-hop. The mix of beats and acoustic folk sounds was further explored on two more E.P.s: "F.R.I.S.K." and "World as a Cone".

The limits of instrumental music soon became a source of frustration. Songs mean more to people than head nodding beats so with an old school friend, Ian Pickering, helping with lyrics they wrote the debut album "BECOMING X". They drafted in college friends Joe, a polymath chancer, David, a reconstructed jazz drummer, and vocalist Kelli Dayton who was discovered singing in a pub in her native Birmingham.

Thus was formed Sneaker Pimps, a band united only by their mutual mistrust. "This could be a laugh," they all secretly thought to themselves.

"If you can’t find it in your heart to love such brilliantly stupid, stupidly brilliant pop stars, the joke’s on you." Stephen Dalton NME

"If you’re still looking for a reason why Sneaker Pimps are set to become one of the greatest pop bands to emerge from Britain... then their love of pop culture and their contextual knowledge of pop’s finer workings must surely be it." Tobias Peggs, I-D

"...A stunning impersonation of Bill Drummond hijacking the rhetoric of early Manic Street Preachers after a week in a cupboard with the texts of Jacques Derrida." Roger Morton, NME

"...Total fucking liars..." The Guardian

The success of "BECOMING X" caught everyone by surprise. Not least the band members, who woke up in a haze, in America, after eighteen months of touring. Eighteen months of repetition. What do you do when a small idea becomes an international commodity? When the response to an idea far outweighs your expectations of it? If you are Sneaker Pimps you change things around a little.

The musical genre they had helped to introduce had become wallpaper, the soundtrack to every pizza café and cappucino bar in the world. Sneaker Pimps had fallen into a genre trap and only drastic action could help them escape. Over the course of a year the band put together "SPLINTER", an album that saw the four boys working together, sharing the tasks of programming and production with the door to the outside world firmly shut. It was music as therapy. Chris would sing the demos and then the exhaustive process of collage and deconstruction would begin. It soon became clear that Chris’ voice was the right voice for Sneaker Pimps and to the consternation of record companies and the music press, Kelli was asked to leave.

Every sound has a meaning.

All music is manufactured. Never believe anyone who talks about ‘keeping it real’.

Since "Splinter", Sneaker Pimps have hosted a cult concept club at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London called "Home Taping". Taking a stand against the taste tyranny of DJ’s, it attracted Madonna, amongst others, to its doors. They also started their own record label in 1999, Splinter Recordings - a launch pad for acts such as Robots in Disguise, Trash Money and The Servant.

They have worked recently with Maxim from the Prodigy, co-writing and producing a track for his album, and have remixed artists from completely different musical backgrounds such as Placebo, Natalie Imbruglia, Sophie Ellis Bextor and Eagle-Eye Cherry. Done at their own South London studio, projects such as these break the routine of touring and recording their own material. This is the band credited with kicking (Speed) Garage into the charts with the Armand van Helden remix of "Spin Spin Sugar".

In the summer of 2000, Sneaker Pimps walked away from what had become an unproductive recording contract with One Little Indian / Clean Up. That courage has been rewarded with starting-over enthusiasm. They packed a car and traveled to the centre of France to write and record material which has Chris Corner commanding the vocals - a marked difference to the standard white male indie voice. They returned with a third album that is as much informed by the contemporary edgy electronic production of Detroit and Berlin as by the pop of Prince and Roxy Music, the electronic howl of Cabaret Voltaire and the emotional clarity of Curtis Mayfield. Previewed during their twelve country tour of Europe with Placebo in the Spring of 2001, it should substantially add to their tally of 1.5 million records sold to date.

Sneaker Pimps have been touring the world with the "Bloodsport" album throughout 2001-2002 and are currently working on a brand new project which will include the release of their fourth, as yet untitled album.

In the meantime, on top of his producing credits, Chris is launching "I AM X". Musically the album is a cross between Detroit or Berlin techno escapades, Prince or Roxy Music's pop, and the electronic universe of Cabaret Voltaire. Chris' voice, of course, brings the production to another level.

Influences: Massive Attack, Portishead, Shirley Bassey and the B-52s

Origin of Name: Supposedly the nickname given to the guy the Beastie Boys hired to hunt down vintage sneakers

The Story So Far: Howe and Corner grew up together and were in a series of unsuccessful bands in the early 1990s. After seeing Dayton singing in a pub, they convinced her to join them and formed the Sneaker Pimps. Their first single, "Tesko Suicide," is an elliptical trip-hop number that has something to do with advocating the sale of suicide kits in a well-known UK grocery-store chain. Follow-up singles were remixed by Nellee Hooper of Soul II Soul. Their debut album, Becoming X, was released in the UK in August 1996 and was chosen as one of the best records of the year by Q magazine.

Analysis: The Pimps create haunting, smoky movie soundtrack music not unlike their influences, Portishead. The difference is this band's strange sense of humor and their tendency to occasionally drop all the stony-faced seriousness and travel off into the land of B-52s silliness. While they've easily gotten lost in the here today, gone tomorrow world of the British music scene, they may be able to make a much more lasting impression in the U.S. with the help of the newly reformatted and electronic pop-friendly MTV. If this is the year of electronica in America, then the highly accessible Pimps will help soften up the audience for the tougher stuff to come (see Atari Teenage Riot and Spring Heel Jack).

What's Next: Virgin Records will release Becoming X in the U.S. on Feb. 25. The Pimps also will tour the U.S. in the late spring.

Interviews

Interview - July 1996

Weird beats, sultry vocals, and collision influences - Sneaker Pimps are all this and more.
Less than a year old but already tipped as a band to  look out for in '96 the 'Pimps' formed from
the ashes of various campfires; firstly Line Of Flight (formerly known as F.R.I.S.K.) an experimental dance outfit steered by 'monkey hangers' Chris Corner and Liam Howe, and thriving on a shared love for Shirley Bassey, Kraftwerk and Afrika Bambaata, then there's The Lumieres a Brummy punk band weaned on a diet of The Pixies, The Cramps, Sonic Youth and P.J. Harvey and featuring the extraordinary vocals and songwriting talents of Kelli Dayton.
Dave and Joe complete the line-up and the diverse influences to provide live drums and bass. Their debut single 'Tesko Suicide' successfully fused indie and jungle and brought acclaim from all sides, their follow-up 'Roll On' - the musical equivalent of a slow sweaty shag - is even better, providing a suitable taster for the release of the debut album 'Becoming X', out in August. Their recent date at the Middlesbrough Arena provided the ideal opportunity to corner Kelli for a quickie . . . I wish.

The Press usually pick up on certain aspects of a band, so what's
been said about you?
The press have been really nice to us, which is a bit dubious, but we've been called 'tortured', and 'too clever' (which I can't understand) :-), and 'very intelligent musically'.

So how did the recording deal come about?
Chris and Liam were already signed to Clean Up, which is an offshoot of One Little Indian, doing experimental dance music, and  decided they wanted to start making more formula song, but they needed a singer. They'd been looking round for ages and by chance they were in Birmingham when I was playing with my band, and asked me if I was interested. My band weren't really doing anything so I was basically poached, and they were on the label anyway, but they started taking alot more interest when we started doing Sneaker Pimps.

Where does the name come from?
It's from a Beastie Boys interview. They very cleverly have all  their friends on the payroll, and this one friend in particular couldn't do anything, so they'd make him go out and get all their
second hand trainers for them - so they called him the sneaker  pimp. We liked that idea.

What makes you different from other bands around at the moment?
I think because we come from so many different musical backgrounds; from dance music, to hardcore and punk. So we all clashed and combined and thought we'd try something different.

What can we expect from the album 'Becoming X'?
It's a really mood inspiring debut, and so potent musically, and so full of different influences - it's just something special.

The music is quite slow, which must make you the centre of
attention - what's it like?
It's nice, but weird, especially in Europe. When we played there they just didn't know what the f**k was happening - I think they thought the singer from the real band had gone missing, and they just dragged me out the audience.

What sticks in your mind from playing Europe?
We were in Toulouse at this massive festival, and we were in this tent playing to 2,000 people when in the middle of the set they all started shouting out 'punk rock, punk rock' - and we were like wow, brilliant!

What will you be doing up to the release of the album?
Lots of things really. Playing live is the most important thing - I think once people see us live then they'll get the gist, but we don't concern ourselves with the selling.

What about promotional videos?
We've only done one video so far for 'Tesko Suicide', which was quite funny and basically involved freezing in Hartlepool - I'd seen nothing like it; snow, gales and us freezing on the beach. So I think we might be re-making that one because we all looked really terrible.

THERE'S DEFINITELY A SEEDY SEXUALITY TO YOUR MUSIC.
LIAM HOWE: I'm actually glad you said that. Yes, it's quite macabre, sexy and even dirty in places, which has nothing to do with me. It's purposefully conecting to the darker side of sexuality and the difficulties of modern sexuality - the whole fear of sex in the '90s. Music needs to have raw sexuality.

THERE'S ALSO A SORT OF CREEPY ELEMENT.
HOWE: We've done a few mixes using real deep, John Carpenter-like string sounds, with the dramatic cellos grinding away in the background. The whole comedy/horror thing is appealing to me.
I like to think the album has a B-movie feel. The last tune on the albim, "How Do," is a cover tune from an old 1973 British horror film called "The Wicker Man." The song actually features a sample from the film with Britt Ekland. We had to ring her up to get permission to use her voice. I've actually got the piece of paper she signed giving us permission to use it.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE "BECOMING X"?
HOWE: We've been going for a year-and-a-half now and I haven't come up with a satisfactory definition. That should be one of the first things you think about when you start a band - what kind of music are we making? In a funny way it demonstrates how we actually survive as musicians. Our music relies totally upon antagonistic definiions. We're influenced by punk and folk. Now most people would say those two forms are fifty feet away from each other categorically, and we see no harm in throwing together diverse influences into one song. The problem with doing that is, when you attempt to define the music, you get into big trouble. You end up naming all the different departments in the records shop.
Hopefully, if everything goes as planned, we'll be defined posthumously. We're kind of living in a definition-obsessed culture and if we wait and see, maybe some decent terms will come out for this kind of music.

KELLI, COMING FROM A ROCK BACKGROUND, WHAT WAS YOUR INITIAL IMPRESSION OF SNEAKER PIMPS?
KELLI DAYTON: I had never worked with samples and computers before. I'd always liked the live side of things. I had a fixed image of what computers were like. At first, I thought, this is too tame, too mellow for me. But Liam and Chris took it a bit further. They were writing really great songs. They weren't just making up faceless melodies. I started thinking what I would do with a sampler. Once I started thinking that way, all these possibilities came floating in. So at first I felt fear, followed by this confusion, which mutated into excitement.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE COMPARISIONS TO TRICKY?
DAYTON: We've been compared with so many people, so I guess it's the way people sort of relate. That's the way the wold is. What people say doesn't affect me. What we do is make music, and what other people think is kind of superficial.
HOWE: To be honest, we do have a certain shared heritage. I can't deny that [Massive Attack's] "Blue Lines" is one of my favorite albums, a huge influence. The Portishead album was a huge influence as well. So we've certainly paid our dues to those influences, but we've also made a distinct effort to be a pop group, where the others still tend to be more introspective, deprecating material.
Tricky captures that self-pity and absolute despair that comes with living in a modern world. But we steer in a different way. We look at despair in an almost cynical, comical way. We acknowledge that we come from the British Massive Attack/Tricky school, but at the same time we're just as excited about Sonic Youth and alternative pop.

WHAT DID YOU AND CHRIS LIKE ABOUT KELLI"S VOICE?
HOWE: Kelli's very graphic when it comes to interpreting the lyrics. She's fantastic at making up her own images for the songs. She tends to interpret everything in this really strong sexual fashion.
DAYTON: When I sing, I've got a lot of visual imagery going on. It all intermingles with my voice. Since I started working with Sneaker Pimps I think a lot more about the way I sing, because a lot of times it's someone else's words. Being in this band gives mme the chance to sing seriously, I'm not expressing inner feelings.

IF TRIP-HOP BANDS LIKE YOURSELVES ARE TO SUCCEED THEY'LL NEED TO BE DRIVEN BY STRONG IMAGE AND PERSONALITIES.
HOWE: That's one of the reasons we stopped playing dance music - it became increasing irritating being anonymous and faceless. We wanted to be in a pop band with a profile, to be on the cover of magazines, and all those childish things everyone dreams of. To be honest, that was one of our motivations.
If people can link a product to an image, then the music becomes stronger. In this post-modern era, it does come down to clothes and haircuts, and to ignore that is being foolish and naive. It's all part of the gambit in pop music to be visual.

 Addicted To Noise Staff Writer Chris Nelson reports : Watching the Sneaker Pimps single rise steadily up the charts has been nothing short of "fucking amazing" for the band's singer Kelli Dayton.

"We thought it would be way out (of the charts) by now, but instead it just climbed really, really slowly," said the 22-year-old Briton, speaking of the trip-hoppy cut "6 Underground," from the band's Becoming X debut album.

Any avid chart watcher knows that some of the most intriguing songs to track aren't the ones that debut near the register's upper reaches, but rather those that make a slow steady climb. That's just what "6 Underground" has done. The song debuted on Billboard's Top 100 four and a half months ago and began an incremental rise. For the past two weeks it has hung steady at #49.

Of course, the Sneaker Pimps are fortunate to have not only a steady climber on the Top 100 "6 Underground" has also been sitting pretty in the top 10 on the modern rock charts for the past several weeks. All of which is, in the words of Dayton, "fucking amazing."

Along with a mysterious slice of harp sampled from spy movie composer John Barry, it's Dayton's voice that effectively establishes the poison mood of the song. On first listen, "6 Underground" (shorthand for six-feet underground) actually sounds pleasant, propelled by head-nodding drums and full of airy acoustic guitar.

Then Dayton's bare-faced declaration in the song's spare refrain knocks away any hint of playfulness: "I'm open to falling from grace," she declares with dead seriousness. As if that weren't blunt enough, she hammers her disdain home with invective observations such as "Don't think 'cause I understand, I care" and "Don't think 'cause I'm talking, we're friends."

Back before Dayton joined the band, Sneaker Pimps' musical creators Liam Howe, 26, and Chris Corner, 22, had been collaborating for several years on trip-hop singles sans vocals. Dayton was fronting a Birmingham punk band when they asked her to join the group. She said that the relative peacefulness of "6 Underground" captivated her and challenged her to develop her voice in subtle ways.

"I didn't know Chris and Liam when we started recording the album. It was very off the cuff, 'Do you want to come track some stuff with us?' I wanted to inject a slow burner, an aggression into the song, but not my usual style of aggressive singing. I wanted to make it an angry, intense, sensual song."

Howe, who penned the lyrics for "6 Underground" with Corner, said that Dayton's vocal interpretation is paramount to the song's success. "We were hoping that if something was written by somebody else, Kelli would be able to distort it in her reading of it," the songwriter said. "That she would encourage a claustrophobic sort of cynicism about it. The song is really
about the death of a relationship in the most crass kind of terms."

Dayton follows in a tradition of singers from Elvis on down who make significant contributions to songs that they may not have written, Howe said. "By singing the song, she's dealing with any questions that may be raised by it," Howe said. "It gives her own criticism of the song within her own singing of it."

 

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