Crazy P - Influential Disco

With one of the best live dance music shows on the planet, Crazy P have been leaving their mark on the landscape of British dance music for the last 15 years. To trace the origins of Crazy P we have to go all the way back to 1996. This was the year that brought together James Baron and Chris Todd. It was the era of Ataris, Akais and bedroom studios and, through their love of bending and reshaping old records from many different genres, a production partnership was born in the backstreets of Nottingham. After a couple of releases under various different monikers, the work attracted the ears of legendary deep house label Paper Recordings based in Manchester and the creature that is Crazy P was born. In short, the demand for live performance from Crazy P continued to grow and required the addition of extra musicians to produce the show. Now settled into the five piece format, with their recent release When We On out now on 2020 Recordings and a Sydney New Years Day headline announcement it's time Pulse caught up with them.

What was the reasoning behind the latest album, When We On, being written with just Chris & Jim (and Danielle) in the studio, as opposed to the entire band? Returning to your roots, perhaps? There was an element of that, certainly. We felt that, whilst making Stop, Space, Return with the guys was great fun and a new experience, we’d a lost a little bit of the quirk factor we used to get when it was just me and Toddy, trawling through samples, eating pies and getting jazzy. Also, the call for us to present something ‘live-sounding’ had been taken care of with the SSR album, and we always want to keep developing the Crazy P sound so it was a natural progression too some extent.

What were you listening to whilst writing the album? Did you get to delve into and reminisce through your music collection for inspiration? The music collections are never far away from our ears but I don’t think we take any conscious inspiration from anything specific. We love music made with care and feeling, whatever the genre so I guess broadly speaking that’s the main inspiration.



Much of your music is heavily influenced by the disco era. Did you listen to a lot of 70s & 80s disco growing up? I was always (and still am) into all sorts of music. Getting really into house music in the early 90’s was a turning point though. My interest led me to tracing back the roots of house to what came before and it became apparent how influential disco was to dance music and clubbing in general. 

Apart from anything though, I just loved the music. We found a second hand record shop on the pier in the small sea-side town I grew up in which was chocker full of Disco 12”s and albums for 25p a shot. That place was a hidden gem and we cleared it out, spending hours in there every weekend, the owner used to love us!

You’re returning to Australia again to perform in Sydney on New Years Day. How does it feel to be such firm favourites with crowds down here? We’ve always had a ball down under. We’ve done some of our biggest gigs there and made lots of friends over the years, so it always holds a special place and it’s always great to come back. Plus, we often end up coming out at the height of your summer when the weather is usually going really bad in the UK. Bonus.

A lot of bands seem to find that they’re more popular overseas than in their own home country. Do you find this is the case with Crazy P? I think a few years back that was definitely the case but I think it’s evened out a little over the last couple of albums, we’ve got a great, loyal fan base at home now which is important.

Does a lot of rehearsal have to go into preparing a Crazy P live show, particularly when you’ve just completed an album? Yep, it’s the best and worst of times getting the show together for a new tour. It’s great because you’re getting all the newies in the set which is an obvious buzz, it’s just a shame it has to come with the inevitable technological logistics headaches which can slow down the creativity and provoke long periods of chin stroking and head scratching. At this point we’ve already done some shows on the tour so it’s just a case of seeing how things work and constantly reviewing the performance and fine-tuning the set list. Then hey presto, You got a rock n roll show!

Having been a band for over 15 years now, how do you think the music game has changed for the better, and how for the worse? The goal posts have definitely moved over the years but that’s to be expected. Fundamentally, the advances of the digital age mean that music has never been so accessible to so many people which has got to be a big plus. The down side of that is of course that with that accessibility comes problems with sharing, ownership and copyright. It’s a difficult one. You have to weigh up the fact that your music is getting out there with the fact that you may not make any money.

Why did you drop the ‘penis’ from your name? Have you started to lose your balls as you’ve grown older? We went from being two blokes having a laugh with a sampler to five piece band. We weren’t really precious about the name anyway, It was a joke that kind of lost it’s edge after 10 years!



What do you guys do when you’re not being crazy penises? Do any of the band have day jobs? Any peculiar hobbies? Matt (drummer) is a masterchef, totally amazing, but Toddy and Danni are pretty handy on the hobs too.

Which bands are tickling your fancy at the moment? The Dels, Blackjoy, Crosby Stills and Nash.

Win tickets to High Flyers Little Secret New Years Day Party here

Listen to Crazy P on Pulse Radio