by SCOTT C

After a three-year absence, Jake Wherry, Ollie Teeba and their band are back in business with the brand new LP, Take London. Still one of the few groups out there able to seamlessly blend serious underground hip hop sampling and sequencing with live instrumentation, their unwavering approach to quality hasn't changed. When I reached the home of Wherry, his mother-in-law answered the phone in a very polite, yet apologetic tone. "He's just putting the boys down, I'm afraid," she whispers. "You know his wife died very suddenly a few months ago, so he's been a little bit engaged." A quick look inside the album reveals a dedication to the memory of Mary Louise Wherry and an ode to her life in the form of "Song for Mary." In anticipation of the Jazz Fest's Ninja Tune triple bill, the Mirror spoke to Wherry about the return of the Herbaliser and the changes in his life.

Jake Wherry: You've just been talking to my mother-in-law.

Mirror: So she said.

JW: I lost my wife last year, after being married for almost 10 years, so I need a little help from time to time with my kids.

M: You often hear of tragic circumstances having a profound effect on how artists conduct themselves, but this must have been very difficult all around.

JW: Luckily I had done most of the writing for the new record before she died. So after she had died, I was able to finish the record, even though it was hard work, but it was still something where I was able to take my mind off things. I did put it all aside for a few months, because I couldn't do anything. I really tried to be with my kids.

M: Were you able to get satisfaction out of the new record?

JW: Oh, yeah. It was quite a challenge, because I thought we had really achieved something with [2002's] Something Wicked This Way Comes. I was a bit apprehensive about carrying on from that album, and I thought it was going to be really hard to do something as ambitious. We just made the record, though. We don't really intellectualize, or concentrate on anything else other than making the music.

M: I see you have, once again, a solid wish list of featured artists.

JW: I was surprised to see that some journalists have no idea that Jean Grae was actually What What, and that we had worked with her in the past. She is one of the best rappers on the planet, full stop.

M: People have been sleeping on Jean Grae for much too long, but you guys had a hand in her getting her name out in the first place.

JW: For fans of Jean Grae, it's all become really clear that in the music business, having a successful record doesn't really have much to do with having a good record. We've got a tight record, but we've only got one review for this album in the London music press, and that's it.

M: So the Herbaliser hasn't taken London?

JW: Well, we get loads of press around the globe, but in the U.K., they're always looking for something trendy and new, and Herbaliser is 10 years old this year. What could they possibly write about that?

With Bonobo and DJ Food at Metropolis
on Sunday, July 3, 9 p.m., $28.50

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