Skye Edwards on three decades with Morcheeba and Escape the Chaos: “It's like we've been through a divorce!”

Three decades in and with over 10 million albums sold, trip-hop duo Morcheeba are back with their eleventh album, Escape The Chaos. Singer Skye Edwards chats to Headliner about singing with Pavarotti, writing one of the band’s most cinematic albums yet, and how her back garden swimming pond helps her escape the chaos in her own life.

While Morcheeba have reached great heights in their career, the group, originally a trio, started from humble origins. Brothers Ross and Paul Godfrey had moved to London from Kent and met Edwards at a party in Greenwich. She was a backing singer in a funk band at the time, and the three quickly started writing songs and recording music at the Godfrey brothers’ bedroom studio in North London. Having produced music and sent demos to labels around London with no joy, it was the addition of Edwards that saw them signing to the China record label, and the release of their first EPs, Trigger Hippie and Music That We Hear.

Morcheeba released their debut album, Who Can You Trust? In 1996, and followed it up with Big Calm in 1998. A fitting title, as the single The Sea became a radio hit; the sumptuous trip-hop masterpiece combines Edwards’ velvet vocals with a lazy drum beat, opulent strings, and bluesy guitars. Like Massive Attack without the heart of darkness, the song is still the group’s signature song today, the kind of track you’re likely to hear in a café serving matcha lattes and hosting yoga classes. At the turn of the millennium, Morcheeba had another hit with the upbeat single Rome Wasn’t Built In A Day and its anthemic chorus.

Despite much of their music being so hazy and relaxing you can almost smell the incense thick in the air (the ‘cheeba’ in the band’s name is a reference to a slang term for marijuana), the band’s tenure hasn’t been without drama. After a period of personal and creative differences, Edwards received a call in 2003 from the group’s manager informing her she was out of the band.

After two failed attempts to replace her, the Godfrey brothers eventually spent the band’s next chapter working with guest vocalists. Edwards remained with the same management company as Morcheeba during her time as a solo artist, and the three would eventually cross paths again, and in 2010, NME reported that she had rejoined the group. A few years later, Paul Godfrey left the band, leaving Ross Godfrey and Edwards to briefly work under the name Skye & Ross before eventually reclaiming the Morcheeba name.

Regarding that fateful party in Greenwich, Edwards says, “I don't really remember much of the party as such. I didn't meet Paul that time. Apparently, he was DJing there. My friend had invited me and asked me to get there early because she didn’t know the guy well. So, like a dweeb, I got there at 11, super early, and the only other people that were there were Ross and his friend, Justin. We got chatting, and I think I might have borrowed some skins from him. I said I was trying to sell my drum kit, and I got Ross' number. Justin and I started dating, and he told them that I could sing. I was very cross with him at the time, because I didn't believe that I could sing – certainly wasn't front person material.”

When getting the chance to interview someone like Edwards, it would be remiss not to ask for a retrospective of some of her favourite memories across Morcheeba’s three years as a band, albeit on and off.

“When they first played Trigger Hippie on the radio at three in the morning on some random underground station, we thought we'd made it then,” she says. “And it's not until you're in the back of a cab in London, and you get chatting, and then the driver says, ‘Oh, yeah, I know Part of the Process. I heard that on the radio.’ If the cab drivers know who you are, then you know you're doing all right!”

Casting her mind back, she says, “It felt like we were in Italy every weekend. There was a TV show called Festival Bar, and it was a competition where people would phone in to vote for their band to come back. But I don't know how that worked, because we would already be booked to come back before the fans voted. So figure that one out. But it was always in a different town square around Italy, and we were treated really well. The food was amazing. Singing a duet with Pavarotti was pretty crazy as well. There was a seven-year break where I wasn't in the group. That certainly helped us to appreciate each other and move forward. And then, of course, Paul left. It seems to be working now, 30 years in!”

That casual Pavarotti name drop refers to Morcheeba’s performance at Pavarotti and Friends in 2001, in which Edwards fittingly performed Rome Wasn’t Built In A Day, while also joining the beloved tenor on stage for a duet of That’s Amore (not to mention contributing to a night that raised $3.3 million for people in Afghanistan).

Morcheeba’s new album title, Escape the Chaos, will resonate with a lot of people; 2025 being a chaotic year is putting it mildly. As will the lyrics and title of its opening track and single, Call for Love. It’s reassuring with that classic Morcheeba sound: opening with hints of eastern musical instruments, the trademark bluesy guitar riff and easy-tempo sampled beat await Edwards’ unmistakable vocals, sitting on a bed of Godfrey’s layered production.

Track four almost sounds like Morcheeba’s pitch for a James Bond theme song — you can easily visualise a title sequence and Daniel Craig pointing a gun around as you stick on We Live and Die, one of the album’s most cinematic moments. The strings, the track’s titles, Edwards’s darker lyrics, and the way it builds to a powerful close.

For Edwards, the song’s content is a combination between her relationship with her husband Steve, and her relationship with Ross. “Who I call my tour husband, because we've known each other all of this time. It's like we've been through a divorce; we fought over the kids, which was the studio back in the day. The song is an homage to the fact we're still here, still going strong, still loving it. I really do love creating music, creating lyrics and creating a dress that I'm going to wear on stage, to sticking my little lashes on and my high heels. I love travelling and getting on stage. I feel very, very lucky that this is my job. You know what I mean?”

It’s not only Morcheeba’s music that has a relaxing vibe, Edwards has something of an aura herself. With that in mind, it would be a missed opportunity to not ask her what rituals she has for escaping the chaos of the world herself and finding a bit of peace.

“I love being in my little sewing room,” she says. “I tell the kids, ‘Don't come in here without any shoes on!’ Because there are scissors and pins everywhere. And I like to get barefoot in the garden, and I’ve just planted some seeds. I've got what's called a swim pond. It looks like a pond with plants around the edge, and it's got a swim zone, which is like four by ten, and two metres deep, so you can dive in. So it's nice to be barefoot, you know, bare hands, yanking up the grass to see where the earth is, and planting wildflower seeds.”

Returning to the music, a really exhilarating moment on the new LP is the hip-hop collaboration with Tottenham emcee Oscar #Worldpeace, Peace of Me. Over a trip-hop meets grime bassline, the rapped verses go back to back with a soaring chorus from Edwards.

“Keeping up with the yute,” she says with a laugh. “Well, I say yute, he's probably in his 30s. He’s somebody that Ross found; he heard him on 6 Music. And him being called Oscar #Worldpeace, it all ties in with his name nicely and lyrically. And then the melody came, and I don't really know whether the chorus lyrics really match with what he's rapping about, but it just works, you know. It would be great if we could get him to join us for a show in London or in Brighton.”

Morcheeba may well be celebrating 30 years of making music together, but it’s still full speed ahead with this being another huge year for them. Edwards signs off with what’s coming up following the release of Escape the Chaos: “We're headlining at Crystal Palace Bowl for the South Facing Festival. And then we're just all over Europe, summer festivals, Bulgaria and Hungary and Spain, Italy, France, Estonia. It's full on. And then October is our own shows around Europe. We're looking into touring Australia next year. And it'd be lovely to get back to America and South America,” she smiles.

https://morcheeba.uk/

Image credits: Michelle Hayward