Ever wondered how life would be if you were blind? If so, London Without Limits, a new festival of sensory and sociable blindfolds events taking place from September to November 2014, might give you an insight into how people with sight loss experience some of London’s top pastimes. Working with the like of fashion designer Giles Deacon, musicians Felix Buxton from Basement Jaxx and beatboxing phenomenon Shlomo, and taking places in venues such as Novikov, Dans Le Noir and Gordon’s Gin Bar, the festival aims to raise awareness of the challenges blind young people face and to raise money for the Royal London Society for Blind People. Here, Felix Buxton, one half of electronic dance music chart topper Basement Jaxx, talks to Chic-Londres about his involvement in the charity.
How and why did you get involved with London Without Limits? I’m always up for doing some charity stuff and was quite excited at the prospect of being on stage with London Contemporary Voices. I like the idea of shifting people’s perspective and while it’s very difficult to understand how life can be for someone who’s blind, I think it’s important to take a moment to do so. Its’ a very creative process in itself and a radically different experience, which adds to the attraction.
You’ve collaborated with many different artists, including Yoko Ono, Justin Timberlake, Cindy Lauper, Kelis, Siouxsie, etc. Any interesting anecdote you can share? I can tell you about Cindy Lauper smoking a bong through an apple, as it apparently cleans the smoke, which made her even more neurotic, in her own New York style. Or Yoko Ono, who I imagined to be her very own person as an artist, but who was actually quite compliant and just asked us what and how we wanted her to sing- I was very surprised…
What can we expect from your performance next at London Without Limits? I wrote a piece of music for the concert called Low Frequency, which is based on the acoustic waves emitted by the sun. The show will be the product of the rehearsals we’ll have with the choir and Shlomo, and should be quite experimental as I like pushing boundaries. The other piece of music we’ll play is Power to the People, from our latest album Junto. The audience won’t be able to see anything, so I might do a little dance as well, maybe flamenco…
