Skye Edwards and Ross Godfrey, along with his brother Paul, have been offering up trip hop and electronic sounds as Morcheeba since the '90s. However, as they grew up so did their sound. And while longtime fans of the UK group have been waiting patiently for their follow-up to 2013's Head Up High, the members decided to give something else a try. And Skye & Ross was born. Going back to the heart and soul of musicianship and songwriting, the songs on their self-titled debut might not be what you expect from them. But it has the same masterfully crafted music that we love from them.

We had the chance to chat with Ross about why they decided to work on the new project, how their families got involved and what OG Morcheeba fans think of their sound now.

You and Skye have been playing together for a really long time. But how did Skye & Ross come about?

We've been touring, just the two of us, for about the last 10 years. We've formed a close bond musically. And when Morcheeba made records, Paul Godfrey, my brother, would stay home and do video stuff. And it kind of felt disconnected, and I didn't enjoy the last record. I didn't feel creatively satisfied on the last Morcheeba record. We just wanted to do something more organic and more natural. We wanted to do something that felt more alive and didn't have as much programming. We actually wanted to have drums and play with the band in the studio.

So we first set about doing acoustic kind of tracks, and it was all going to be quite humble. It was going to be quite a small setup. And as we went on, it got bigger and bigger with a full band and orchestra on stuff. So it naturally grew from humble beginnings.

Although it's been a while since a new Morcheeba record has come out, was it still hard to get into this new musical direction?

No, it was quite easy, and it's what we do naturally. We wanted to feature the musicianship a little bit more. I think that a lot of new records rely on studio trickery, and they're so edited to death and so auto-tuned. They start to lose the soul of the music. We're very conscious about keeping the soul of the music and keeping it natural and spontaneous. So I would say this record was easier to make than any other Morcheeba record I ever made, and it was also much more fun.

Not only did you two record in your own homes, but you and Skye also made it a family affair. So can you talk about home recording process and how did the families get involved on this album?

In a weird way, it was true laziness. Whoever lived in our house got to play on the record. [Laughs] We literally have, in our families, all of the musicians we need. In Skye's family, her son plays drums. He's fantastic, and he's a great drummer. Her husband plays the bass, and my wife, Amanda, she's a fantastic singer. So I got her to do some things on the record. We did have to get a keyboard player to come in, and he had been playing live with us for a while. Aside from him, it was all done by members of our family. And that's nice. It had a really good feel to it.

And I've got a good home studio. I had a big professional studio, but I got rid of it because it's kind of a dinosaur thing to have. We don't use studios really anymore. I got a setup at home with the guitars and the keyboards and recorded most of the stuff there. Then when we needed to record drums. We went into a studio around the corner and did a few days to get the basic rhythm tracks done. When the music was recorded and did all the songs, I would just send an audio file to Skye. She's got a great vocal studio in her house, which she calls her "sewing room," where she also makes all her costumes and clothes for stage. Basically, she set up a microphone in there and sang all the songs. Then she would send me one take of each, and they were all great. It was easy, and we did it very naturally. And the thing is we both have kids. So it takes a lot of organize childcare and going into the studio. Whereas, if you do it home, you can wait till they go off to bed, open a bottle of whiskey and start recording.

You want to be comfortable while recording. So do you think that being in your home added a little something extra to the album?

The thing about recording at home is that you do it when you feel like it. And when you don't, you can do something else. There's none of that pressure of being in a studio where you try to channel that creativity. Then when you don't feel it, it's costing you $500 a day. I think recording at home lets you get things done when you want and feel like recording.

Since your family plays on the album, does this mean that they will also be joining you and Skye on tour?

Yeah, I think Skye's son and husband will be playing drums and bass. My wife's not going to tour with us, but she might come to the odd show I think. Otherwise, the tour bus because a crash with all the kids. It's a fun thing, but I would imagine I'm the only one in my family who will be on tour. But I'm like an adopted member of Skye's family anyway.

What song was the most memorable to work on?

 I really liked "The Point of No Return," which is the last song on the record. It's just a seven-minute long, psychedelic, swampy blues kind of number, and I really love that kind of feel. It's kind of got a late '60s, early '70s Dr. John kind of feel. It's really [Rolling] Stones and really slow, and the vocals are like a gospel choir. And that was really fun to because we didn't really have an arrangement about whether or not the song made sense.  We just did what we wanted to do, and it felt very freeing. It was the first time we were able to do that like the early days of Morcheeba where it was more trip hop, where you can just jam anything over blunt beat for 10 minutes, and it would sound good.

The other song I liked recording was "Clear My Mind" because it was the opposite. It was just the acoustic guitar and Skye's voice. We didn't add anything to it. We did it in one take, and it sounded great. [Recording the song] was over in about half an hour, and it sounds really beautiful. I'm really happy with that song.

How have Morcheeba fans been responding to your songs?

It's been great. I haven't really seen much of a change in the transition. We're pretty much the same band that has been touring with Morcheeba anyway. And the new song have been going down great. We've gotten everyone to sing along to the chorus of "Light of Gold," and everything been going down better than the old stuff. It's incredible. The new material has been really coming to life onstage, and I'm really happy with how the audiences have been reacting to our new music.