Biography

   In a "front room in the dregs of the Earth" amidst drug dealers and gun runners is how Republica's vocalist Saffron describes the band's first working location in South London, as she joined Tim Dorney and Andy Todd in their quest to return clever lyrics, identifiable melodies, and relentless, driving upbeat music to London's stagnating club scene.
    "It had fragmented into the opposite of everything it was meant to stand for," says the fiery singer. "We were getting pissed off with all the music we heard. No lyrics, no proper melodies."
    Born in Nigeria with an exotic blend of Portuguese, Chinese and English ancestry, Saffron had done stints with N-Joi and The Shamen and worked with Jah Wobble and Mark Moore, before finding kindred spirits in the songwriting partnership of Dorney and Todd. As the primary songwriter with British media darlings Flowered Up, Dorney had achieved some success with a 12-inch record called "Weekender" and an accompanying 20 minute film. Todd's credits include producing songs from Bjork to Barbara Streisand.
     Republica's message came through loud and clear on the first track they finished, "Out of This World" (reworked on the album under the new title "Out of the Darkness") as the group was signed to the U.K. indie alternative/dance label, DeConstruction on the strength of that track alone. Saffron had previously worked with the label when she sang with N-Joi.
   With cynicism and a wry sense of humor, Republica has succeeded in turning the tables on the London club scene, with what Saffron describes as "techno-pop punk rock."
   Working long hours in their own studio now in a more desirable part of London, the anthemic "Ready to Go" is a good example of how Republica songs come together. "One day Johnny had the bright idea for the chorus," elaborates Saffron. "I filled in the gaps and we all got around to writing the rest of it. A lot of our songs get written over long periods of time."
"We all write all the songs together," Saffron explains. "The guys do most of the music. My role is lyrics and melody, but we all write the lyrics. It's a band consciousness. Nothing would get past if we didn't all like it."
    Audiences and critics were quick to respond. "Saffron converts tonight's 10,000 crowd to Republica's brand of euphoric, upbeat music with unnerving ease," reported Vox Magazine. Music Week praised Saffron's "vocals with real attitude" and said her delivery was "an inspiring backlash against the soaring house divas." "More guts than the rest of the charts put together" raved the Daily Record . NME is predicting sales in the millions and praised Republica's "simply excellent set," while Melody Maker calls them "simply fantastic."
With their debut self-titled album recorded, Republica is now ready to go to this side of the Atlantic.
                                                                           Concrete marketing , Inc 1995
    On the anthemic "Ready To Go," the first track on Republica's debut album, lead singer Saffron makes the following declaration: "I'm standing on the rooftop/Shout it out/Baby, I'm ready to go." And baby, she means it! Through eleven power-packed songs, Saffron ably struts her stuff, slyly shifting between coy boy toy and emancipated woman, all the while struttin' some major diva 'tude as if her life depended on it. And maybe it does. Quite frankly, if it weren't for her heavy-handed vocal delivery Republica would be just another British band striving for a sound that looks back in time as much as it looks ahead. But that voice. There ain't no denying its ferocity, its fearlessness, its fierceness.
   Like Annabella Lwin, Exene Cervenka, Poly Styrene, Chrissie Hynde, and Debbie Harry before her, Saffron prefers not to tag along for the ride, but to really feel the edgy rhythms, the angst of scorching guitars, the beat of the drum. And like these punk princesses, the Nigerian-born Saffron relies on energetic band members to keep the in-your-face pace free from stagnation. Trying to keep up with her, and coming mighty close in the process, are keyboardists Tim Dorney and Andy Todd, guitarist Johnny Male, and drummer Dave Barborossa. A quintet born of London's eclectic club scene, Republica revel in expansive soundscapes. That said, it should come as no surprise that incessant techno beats or hyped-up jungle break-beats get as worked over by scathing guitars as they are on "Bitch" and "Get Off." Or that punk trappings coolly co-opt poppier pleasures, like on "Ready To Go" and what better become the set's second single, "Don't You Ever." By not subscribing to any one singular sound sensation, the folks of Republica defiantly keep the listener guessing--which, in these times of genre-specific musicalities, is not a bad thing. In addition to its more obvious punk references, one can't help but wonder if the band wasn't also influenced by the electronic dance beats of Giorgio Moroder (Blondie's "Call Me" and Donna Summer's "Sunset People"). Perhaps the influence came indirectly, via British acts like the Grid, Orbital, N-Joi, and Peter Lazonby--who have all been seduced by Moroder's ahead-of-their-time trance beats, transforming them into the fashionable club sounds of today (and tomorrow). Everything old is new again? You bet! But whatever the cross-reference, there is no denying Republica's verve for hitting that perfect, danceable beat.
                                                                                                                  Michael Paoletta
                                                                                                                                  Deconstruction
   Speed Ballads then... The title of Republica's second album is a versatile thing. Speed - as in the heltering rush of celebrity, is something Republica have become very familiar with in the past 2 years. Ever since the epochally exuberant Ready To Go single went overground in America at the tail end 1996, Republica have found themselves at the centre of a tsunami of incident and achievement. Versace, MTV, Dennis Hopper, Conan O'Brien, The Fat Of The Land, Ian Broudie, Hot 100's, Top Of the Pops, top of the world.
     Frontwoman Saffron is the perfectly formed latter-day icon with the background in punk rock and 'The Rocky Horror Show'. Keyboardist and songwriter Tim Dorney, the arch technophiliac who once played in gloriously infamous dance-rock reprobates Flowered Up. Guitarist Jonny Male is the terminally louche guitarist who also writes tunes with St.Etienne.
And this trio is very much Republica in its entirety these days.
     Born in Nigeria to Portuguese / Chinese parentage and brought up in Britain's South coast, Saffron spent her teen years in the unlikely middle ground between greasepaint and the grunged-up musical underground. Immersion in acid culture saw her whole-heartedly entering the pop realm - first with an US tour supporting The Shamen and then fronting rave-pop ensemble N-Joi.
With a musical mindset that sits between the Sex Pistols and The Chemical Brothers, Saffron was the perfect choice for vocals on the Prodigy's cover of L7's Fuel My Fire on Fat of the Land.
     If Saffron is the public face of Republica, her co-conspirators Tim Dorney and Jonny Male are the potent, quietly enigmatic powers in the background. He may have been weaned off his rusks by The Clash and sundry invigorating chemicals, but Tim has an enviable ability to combine chaos and a clear head. So, while his bandmates in Flowered Up were proving they were London's answer to Happy Monday's not only with their groove-guitar interface, but also their exploration of drug culture's moredestructive fringes - Tim was staying relatively together.
     Guitar man Jonny lives in Ladbroke Grove and writes pop songs. He has written for Saint Etienne as well as the hugely under-rated Denim. He has had No1 hits with such songs in Australia, although he can't remember the name of the singer that took the tunes there - he thinks she might have been called Diane.
     Jonny explains how Republica's new album sees them maintaining their position at the cutting edge of the rock-technology interface.
     Recorded in London and produced by Ian Broudie, the venerable Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, Andy Gray and Ian Stanley (who once wrote hits with Tears For Fears and has recently produced The Aloof), Speed Ballads find the Republica sound going widescreen.:
      The album really sees us building the songwriting in Republica. It was great to work with people like Ian Broudie, people who weren't interested in genres, so much as just taking a song and making it sound brilliant. It's really us coming from what is basically a dance sound and becoming a band. Everyone else is indie-dance.
We're dance indie.'... J o n n y M a l e.
     The firm techno-rock bite of the first single From Rush Hour With Love finds them consciously building a bridge between their
self-titled debut album and Speed Ballads. But beyond that, the new album takes Republica to whole new visas.
     Much more song-based than their debut LP, Speed Ballads sees the esteemed production line-up building these songs into hugely ambitious Cinemascope productions. Luxury Cage and Try Everything are immense future-ballads, seemingly purpose-built to set the heart humming with the roof down and the wind in the hair.
     Nothing's Feeling New decks out stately anthemics with intimations of millennial ennui: 'Got CNN baby, got ISDN, oh baby...' Everything is useless. Pub Pusher is a pumped-up verite account of drug-world low life, replete with reference to Mortal Combat II, Haagen-Dazs and early Cure.
     Yet if Speed Ballads is about songs and proper instruments made out of wood, it also maintains Republica's position toward technology's cutting edge. Written on actual proper instruments, it was then recorded direct to state-of-the-art digital disc.
     At a time when the pure pop impulse is being ignored in favour of brooding impression, it's reassuring to hear Republica haven'tabandoned this noble goal.

S a f f r o n...
'I don't get it when people say "Just a pop band", I think being a brilliant pop band is the highest thing you can aspire to. Pop music is something that's both throwaway and something that changes your life. That's what we want to achieve - disposable brilliance".
from Official Website