Dave Barbarossa back with Cauldronated

Futuristic sound of a modern cauldron

After years of silence wherein he took his time to think things over and publication of his first novel
Mud Sharks, Dave Brbarossa is back again with his passion: making progressive music. With his band
Cauldronated hes just launched his first mini-album Buy this thing. An exclusive article

Dave Barbarossa got fame as a drummer of Adam and the Antz, Bow Wow Wow and Republica.
Fifteen he was when he discovered the drumkit and when his career took of. Adam Ant asked
Barbarossa to come and play inhis new band Adam and the Antz. Adams drummer couldnt play. I
was asked to deputize. Adam gave me the job. I think I was around 18 when I thought: Ill probably
do this forever. But never thought Id always be a drummer in a band.
Three years he played in Adam and the Antz. It was an explosive time of social changes in London.
Although at the center of it, I was so so obsessed with playing well for Adam it became the norm
riots and madness. Thats how it was possible in those days a group of skinheads suddenly turned up
to make a row during a gig. They probably had difficulties with the drummer having a spark of etnical
background, hes half Mauritian. Despite the tension Dave stayed behind his drumkit. I played
harder and faster.
Self-taught
Barbarossa is a self-taught man. I never had a lesson or a teacher. I think its that acoustic wildness
attrackted me to the drums. And the fact that its such an overpowering instrument. The Londoner
got and still gets inspired though by many drummers. I think you can hear great drummingon the
most banal music as well as great music. The trick is never to be a snob. Give everything the benefit
of the doubt. You never know what you might find.
In that way Barbarossa developed is own drumstyle. Some call it tribal. I think that is a little bit
vague. We all belong to tribes after all. I come from urban London, so grew up with reggae and glam-
rock. Listened to Latin and jazz at home as a child.
From all the beats he heard he developed his own drumstyle. Barabrossa Beat he calls it. Striking
are the Latin influences in his play. After the adventure with Adam and the Antz, worldfame followed
with Bow Wow Wow. It was musicproducer Malcolm McLaren who gave the bandmembers of Adam
the idea to form an own group. Barbarossa became the leader. Do you wanna hold megave the
group their world breakthrough. In this song he plays a selfmade calypsorythm over the toms and
snaredrum. After three years the date of tenability of the band had been reached. Barbarossa
appeared ready to go. In the popgroup Republica it was him sitting on the drumcrutch, drumming
straight ahead with an afterbeat on the hi-hat. Not the style he enjoys most to play, he inidicates.
After Republica it became silent around the drummer.
Ive taken time to think things over,he says. And I have written a novel based on my childhood,
schooldays and the early punkrock scene in London. It is called Mud Sharks. But blood is thicker
than water. After this period of reflection Barbarossa has broken the silence finally. He has been
touring the UK last Spring with his old friend Adam Ant. Adam has asked me to play for him again. It
was thirty years since we made his first album Dirk wears white Sox. So Barbe played in venues like
the Ritz in Manchester and Apollo Hammersmith in London. Very strange to go back in time and
revisit those songs. Very satisfying, too.
Own band
Currently the drummer is working hard on the success of his own band, Cauldronated. (Cauldron
is heksenketel in dutch, so here comes the explanation of the word). He couldnt
have come up with a more striking description for the music he makes together with the Italian
singer/poet Eva Menon and David Harman on syntheseizer. Ingredients he mixes in his cauldron?
Beats, Evas insane vocals and David Harmans super synth spice. The result is an uninhibited
drum/punk/techno exhibitionism, thus Barbarossa. In this band the Latin influence is there. In the
song I Bossa for example Barbe plays a 12/8 with bossa-feel over the toms.
Barbarossa is now touring with Cauldtronated. One of his gigs has been in Electrowerkz, anightclub
not far from Kings Cross where the London undergroundscene take good note of eachother. A hard,
spiritful gig with a perfect feeling for speed, futuristic sound and cooking rythms characterizes
Cauldronateds performance. With Cauldronated I want to make quality music that is not
mainstream. I want to make challenging and uncompromising music. The drummer is back on his
basis. Not obliging, but deviant and surveying frontiers. Cauldronated releases their first mini-album
Buy this thingat the end of this month. Buy this thingis the titelsong. Weve recorded three tracks
and three remixes at Hottwerk. Now we plan worlddomination.