TYPEWRITER TRASHER

Interview: DJ History on the record player revolutionaries

2010-08-17T22:48:16Z

It's John Peel, of course

You can get the abridged version of this interview in Time Out this week, but to read it in full, check it after the jump.

DJ History on the record player revolutionaries

Some DJs are more than just nerdy looking blokes flipping records on and off some decks. Or, these days, should we say: more than just over-gelled sunnies-clad types with fluorescent teeth who look like they’ve been duct-taped to the Playa d’en Bossa sands. Anyone may be able to DJ, but few are real musical revolutionaries of their time. Few are those responsible for the type of spaces we call nightclubs, the reason we groan when one BPM doesn’t flow seamlessly into the next during a set and why it’s perfectly acceptable to her hip hop jumbled up with electronic music. And fewer are worth interviewing about it.

According to this new book ‘The Record Players: DJ Revolutionaries’ from DJ History, some, like Danny Rampling, are even responsible for the way that we dance to dance music. It’s the latest compendium from dance music historians Frank Broughton and Bill Brewster, authors of ‘Last Night A DJ Saved My Life’. You can download a sampler here.

They’ve picked through some 250 interviews from the past decade to present the world’s most important selectors, among them John Peel, Fabio, Francis Grasso and, well, Jimmy Savile. It’s the kind of book that you imagine will sit on coffee tables in record label lobbies, but you hope will inspire mp3-hopping new jocks, as well as make similarly serious record collectors and dance nerds dribble.

Ahead its release into bookshops nationwide, we find out exactly who is on that list, from the technological innovators to the forgotten radicals.

How did you whittle down the list of influential DJs for the book?
Frank: “It was really hard! Our rule of thumb was that it’s not just a great interview or a great DJ, it has to be someone who’s played a part in the history or represents something so that it’s not just a collection of interviews.”

What’s your favourite anecdote from the book?
Frank: “[New York DJ innovator] Francis Grasso’s, about him DJing in a club when Jimi Hendrix he walks in, walks into the men’s room and is completely dazed. And he’s forgot to put his dick back in his trousers. [Francis is] just standing there and he doesn’t really know what to do. I’m not sure that he tucked it back in for him, but I think he maybe said, you know, ‘Aren’t you forgetting something there Jim?’”

Bill: “Francis Grasso had loads of great stories about getting blown in the DJ booth while he was playing. He dated Liza Minnelli, he lived with Jimi Hendrix – he was the original superstar DJ in New York a long time before we’d ever heard of superstar DJs and a very important person in terms of being the first person to mix records in a way that we recognise today.”

Who is the most unexpected entry?
Frank: “People are always surprised when we write about Jimmy Savile, as most people know him as a TV personality. But he is there because, more than anyone, he took the world from bands to DJs.”

Bill: “When we were interviewing the early mod and ’50s DJs, a lot of them kept saying to us: “You’ve really got to talk to Jimmy Saville. He’s the person that started all of this.” And we were like, “Really? Are you sure?” but so many people said it that we had to take it seriously. He was certainly the first guy in the UK to do all of this. What he was doing with DJing was so popular that he used to pay bands not to play so that he could DJ because the musicians ruled in those days and there had to be a live band at a Mecca ballroom He introduced the idea of playing recorded music to an audience as, not an inferior alternative to hearing a live band, but [as] its own entity.”

Why are there no women on the list?
Frank: “It’s really just a matter of history. If only the DJs that have made a significant contribution to the craft of DJing or to club culture are going to make the cut, I don’t think there are any women. When dance music and club culture was being formed, a lot of it was in gay clubs in New York or in the Northern Soul clubs in Britain, which were very, very male[-dominated].”

Will the list surprise a lot of people?
Bill: “I hope so. We’ve got everyone from Tiesto to Jimmy Saville – that’s a pretty broad range of people by anyone’s estimations.”

Does the book reflect how clubbing has changed as well as DJing?
Bill: “A little bit. I think the story of clubbing over the past 20 years has been more about marketing than it has about innovation. There have been a lot of technological innovations over the last 20 years but there are no fundamental differences between how people danced to records in 1971 in a New York disco to how they do now.”

Why is the art of DJing still so important?
Frank: “We’ll always need DJs because we’ll always need someone who knows more about music than us. The amount of work that people put in, in terms of sifting through crap records to find the good ones: that’s the real work of a DJ. It’s listening to a load of shit so everyone else doesn’t have to.”

Bill: “It’s more important now in a lot of ways than it was 20 or 30 years ago, because these days, everybody has got access to so much music. When I was a kid, you had one crappy little record shop that you went to and they sold the Top 40 in Boots and that was it. Now, we’re saturated by media, so the role of the DJ is to really filter out all of that crap and present you with the five per cent of really good records.”

What makes a truly legendary DJ?
Bill: ‘Someone who has a unique and distinct path of their own. A really great example of that these days is Andrew Weatherall. He’ll play boshing techno to a load of Germans one day and then a load of rockabilly to some people in a pub in the East End the next night. He’s just a real polymath when it comes to music, like Larry Levan, Ron Hardy, Grandmaster Flash, who, not only was a great DJ, but changed music fundamentally with what he did with creating breaks and stitching them together. A really great DJ is someone who changes things, whether it’s Tom Moulton creating the 7-inch single and pioneering the remix or Frankie Knuckles, who was instrumental in creating house music.”

Do DJs still have the power to change popular music?
Bill: ‘They do, but when DJing and dance music was in the popular press a lot and [when it became] very big and very fashionable to be into it, a lot of people got it completely wrong and spent a lot of time going on about superclubs and superstar DJs. And that really wasn’t what it was about. That’s kind of like saying that Robbie Williams and N-Dubz are changing music. I think the people who change music aren’t necessarily massively in the public eye – a lot of them are forgotten figures and get left behind. Francis Grasso and Kool Herc, who started the idea of just playing breaks, are really good examples of that. Most people wouldn’t have a clue who they were.”

‘The Record Players: DJ Revolutionaries’ by DJ History is £16.95 via www.djhistory.com and all good bookshops nationwide from Monday August 30. Catch their night Secret Weapons at Horse & Groom on Aug 20.

Download a sampler of the book here

DJ History’s Top Five Revolutionaries

Francis Grasso: The groundbreaker
‘He was the first modern DJ, the first guy to realise that it was his [about] performance, his set, his sequencing, and not just the records. He dated Liza Minelli, spent more than his rent on drugs and went on three-day benders with Jimi Hendrix.’

David Mancus: Party messiah
‘Mancuso did more than anyone to create the kind of club environment we take for granted: where the music is central, where the dancefloor is the focus, where the soundsystem is loud and clear. Before him, nightclubbing was mostly society chit-chat.’

Grandmaster Flash: Scientist of the mix
‘Hip hop could not have existed without him. Before samplers, he worked out a way to be a <human> sampler, to loop up a break from two copies of the same record without losing the beat. It took him a year to get right.’

Danny Rampling: Acid house evangelist
‘Acid house was the most revolutionary thing to happen to British culture since the war. When house and ecstasy combined, the way we partied changed overnight forever. Danny understood it right away and led from the front. Even the way you dance comes from Danny.’

Jimmy Savile: Dance hall disrupter
‘He’s never owned a record, he didn’t really care about the music he played, he just knew that a disc jockey could deliver better music than a band for less money.’

London’s best tattoo shops

2010-08-17T22:46:33Z

Nikole Lowe at Good Times

I’ve been saying since I was 15 that I was going to get a tattoo. Taunted my mum with it. Tacked up pictures of lovely swirly tats all over my bedroom walls (OK, so it was just Brandon Boyd’s, whatever). So writing this feature on London’s best tattoo shops and tattooists, including Into You, Frith Street and Flamin’ Eight, was a real treat. It was body art PORN.

Maggie, the current fashion intern at Time Out has also kindly just updated it ahead of the sixth International London Tattoo Convention, which returns to its fabulous new venue, Tobacco Dock, from Sep 24-26 2010. I went last year and it was the perfect rock ’n’ roll exhibition space.

My favourite studio of the moment is the recently opened (last year) Good Times in Shoreditch’s Curtain Road. It has mainly female artists, including the uber talented Saira Hunjan, who has inked Kate Moss and Sadie Frost, and the most beautiful décor. Check out the Good Times girls’ multicultural shrine below.

Oh, and READ MY TIME OUT ARTICLE ON LONDON’S BEST TATTOO SHOPS HERE.

The studio shrine at Good Times

Interview: Armin Van Buuren at South West Four Festival

2010-08-17T21:55:46Z

Aww, in't he nice?

I interviewed trance’s answer to Matt Damon, Armin van Buuren, ahead of his headlining set at the South West Four Weekender and the release of his new album, ‘Mirage’. But it’s not a mirage though, is it? He’s so nice and clean cut and media trained… But he does say some interesting schtuffs about vintage pianos, how he likes to sleep a lot and, erm, Owl City. Bugger all about Sophie Ellis Bextor, though.

Armin Van Buuren gets set for the South West Four Weekender

Are you a festival fan, Armin?
“Yes, really a lot. In July and August I’m playing something like 60 gigs nonstop and I think half of them are festivals. But I’m a punter first and foremost. I buy all the CDs of all my colleagues, because I’m a fan – I think you have to be a fan first otherwise you can’t be a convincing DJ.”

How do you prepare for festival season?
“I always try and have different ammunition. That’s really where I load up my gun, because I’m the type of DJ who doesn’t know exactly what he’s going to play before a show. I have hopes for what I will play, but I mainly look at my crowd and decide where I’ll go with my set. It depends on how long I play, what crowd I’m playing for, whether there many women on the dance floor, what time of night I’m playing and what DJ I’m after. Sometimes at a festival you have to play almost the opposite of a set in a club because you don’t have much time to build it up as you would do at a night. I might start off with my hardest and best record of that moment at a festival just because I’m after a DJ who really rocked the crowd and I want to keep that atmosphere going.”

So your shows are still quite organic?
“Yeah, that’s the reason we’re DJs and not artists. The cool thing about being a DJ is that you can play any sound that’s ever been recorded and try to entertain a crowd with it. But if you’re an artist, usually you have a band, and usually your band has rehearsed a couple of tracks and usually the set list is pretty much decided before they go on. As a DJ, what I’m doing isn’t confirmed at all, except that what begins and ends in my show is decided by the crowd’s reactions and nothing else.”

How do you stay so focused?
“I’m very lucky to have a great team of people around me who keep me down to earth: so no drinking, no alcohol. I try to go the gym as much as I can and to sleep eight hours a night. I usually play three to four hour sets, so I like to stay as fresh after the third hour as I was when I started. I feel a responsibility there: if people pay for a ticket to come and see you, you should treat it as professionally as you can.

“I really prepared for the [tour] experience because I took three weeks off with June and we had, you know, a holiday with family and friends. Becauswe now its peak season for all the DJs: when everyone else is on holiday, all the DJs go into work mode!”

Do you have any pre-show warm up rituals?
“One of my pre-show rituals has become a DJ nap. I always want to sleep, even if it’s just for half an hour. It clears my mind. Usually I take a hot shower and then I read my email, and I investigate a little bit about the club that I’m going to. It’s good to know what music lives with the clubbers. I don’t drink a drop of alcohol before I go on stage because I want to be fresh and I skip all the wine at dinner. But I do get very, very nervous. I put my earplugs in – I DJ through earplugs – and I do always want to have my CD players updated with the latest software and be there on time. I want everything to be perfect.”

This year you’re headlining South West Four on the Saturday again. Why do you keep going back?
“What I find particularly special about South West Four is that there’s this kind of ‘picnic [boutique] atmosphere’: a really positive vibe from all the people who come to the festival. It’s something I haven’t found at some of the other festivals in the UK, which were all on a much bigger scale. South West Four is a big festival, but it’s humongous like Glastonbury, which gives it that intimacy that really suits London.

“The main reason, though, is that I love London. It has always been one of my first stops [on tour] and I have a close connection with The Gallery crowd, especially when it was back in Turnmills, because I was DJing there every three months at the beginning of my career. It feels like my second home in a way. In London especially there’s this close atmosphere that I have with The Gallery’s crowd. They really do appreciate trance music in the fullest and it has such a great loyal following here that you don’t see anywhere [else] around the world.”

You’ve obviously had a great relationship with The Gallery over the years?
“I’m really proud that they’ve done so well. If you look at it [in] worldwide [terms] it’s an achievement for a clubbing brand to be alive for such a long time. It’s really remarkable that the guys from The Gallery are still so popular with a huge following. And they don’t stick to just one style of music, you know: it’s not purely trance or purely techno or whatever.

“It’s really all about the crowd and the euphoria. I did a cover CD for Mixmag a few years ago, which was live from The Gallery, and you can just hear the crowd roar; it’s just insane.”

How are London clubbers different to their European cousins?
“Well, they’re really up for new music. I remember when Motorcycle’s “As the Rush Comes” was sent to me as a demo and that night, by coincidence, I played Turnmills and they could immediately appreciate the track when it wasn’t a hit, or nobody had even heard it. That’s what’s so great about them: they don’t come just for the popular DJ names, they come for the music, which, for a DJ, is most rewarding.”

And at South West Four, they can get all those big DJs and new talent all in one place. It’s like a mini Ibiza.
“Absolutely and that’s the fun thing about festivals in general: you get [ro see] any DJ you want. There’s plenty of time to go and see some new names that might inspire you or give you something fresh. There’s so many great talents that they’ve put on South West Four and a lot of new names as well, so I really hope I get some time to listen to some of them.”

Is there anyone in particular whose set you can’t miss?
“I wish I could see Fat Boy Slim’s set because that’s always something special, but that’s on Sunday. But on Saturday, one of the names I really admire, a really up-and-coming producer from Munich in Germany, is Jerome Isma Ae. He’s doing some excellent productions, made some really big remixes and some of them are really huge in my sets. I really recommend going and seeing him because he’s really talented.”

What’s particularly unique about him?
“His DJ wiggle is pretty unique! Go and see him and you’ll see what I mean.”

Do you have a DJ wiggle?
“I have a DJ wiggle with a kick, which is really embarrassing. I can’t stand still with the music. But the reason I became a DJ actually was so that I don’t have to dance, I can let other people do that: I’m a terrible dancer! So if I stand behind my decks, I can do my wiggle and it doesn’t look so stupid because you can’t see my legs.”

Some trance DJs don’t like being called trance anymore because it’s a ‘dirty word’. How do you feel about it?
“You can call me trance DJ with a capital T! I think I’m the only trance DJ who actually admits he plays trance – and I’m proud of it. Something went wrong with the word ‘trance’, with the genre of trance. I think some dude in a suit in an office somewhere started calling really commercial [dance] music trance and started releasing CDs with really crap music [on them] and calling it trance. So, in my opinion, trance had a different definition from what it has now with the main crowd. At the moment, house is more commercially successful than trance, which is good for the genre because it brings it back more to where it came from. But call my music whatever you want, I don’t care, as long as you come and see me.”

Have you discovered any new sounds this year that we might hear in your South West Four set?
“Well, I’m actually releasing my new artists album [on Fri Sep 10] called ‘Mirage’ and I worked on it with some really unexpected names, perhaps, for a trance DJ. For example, I did a track with Sophie Ellis Bextor called ‘Not Giving Up on Love’ and I’ve also got Adam Young from Owl City’s voice on a track. Then there’s one I did with my brother’s grungy rock band, BaggaBownz, which is on the title track ‘Mirage’. It’s a trance track, but it was a breakdown with guitars and it uses a classical orchestra. I think my brother might be the only guitarist in the world who’s not against trance music. I don’t know if I’m going to play that at the festival yet but I’m ready for anything!”

So you and your brother support rather than rival each other?
“Absolutely. He gave me some of the guitar parts for some of the songs on the album. Sometimes we have a melody idea and it just sounds better when it’s played on the guitar and he’s really great at it. Or, other times he just comes into the studio and jams with us and then we get a new demo.”

It seems that quite a lot of big house producers and now your trance contemporaries like Tiësto are crossing over into the pop world.
“I’m happy you asked this question, because I want to stress that half of my album is instrumental trance music, my roots. There’s not much I can tell about them; you just have to hear them.”

How did you meet Sophie Ellis Bextor?
“It was through the Nervo Sisters [who co-wrote David Guetta’s track featuring Kelly Rowland, “When Love Takes Over”] who I met in Ibiza. I was already trying to work with them before they had success with Guetta and they never forgot that. I think they’re really the next big thing, you know, and they also write with some underground dance names, and I worked with them on three tracks on this album, one being the Sophie Ellis Bextor one.”

Owl City is quite an interesting choice for you too…
“Oh yeah, definitely. We tend to put music into genres, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a good idea. I think music is music and if people want to label my music and put it in a genre then that’s fine. But I like to think outside that genre: I like to make music that excites me because if it doesn’t excite me, it definitely won’t excite you. A lot of people expected that I would do another “Communication” or another “Blue Fear”. I could easily do another album with the same settings as ‘Communication’, but that wouldn’t be very exciting now, would it?

“I buy all kinds of music, I bought the Owl City album, I have the whole Beatles collection, I buy Lenny Kravitz, I’ll listen to classical music. I’m a human being: I like to listen to all kinds of music and I like to understand why people like that kind of music. And I think I use that [mindset] in the studio when I produce. The most important thing is to have fun yourself in the studio and come out having had an amazing day.”

Have you learnt anything new about yourself or your work from making this album?
“Very much so. I worked with a classical orchestra, for example, which was really, really exciting. And what I’ve really learned is that working with real instruments really gives so much soul to your album. On another track for the album, “Virtual Friend”, I flew to London to work with Guy Chambers, who has worked mainly with Robbie Williams, and he opened up a whole new world for me.”

What was that experience like?
“It was so inspiring. He had all this vintage gear so I was completely in love with his studio when I walked in. And one of the most exciting things about that was that he had an old Steinway in his studio from 1926, which I think was from Hollywood. He flew the piano all the way to London because it has this really characteristic sound. He had mic’ed it up so beautifully because he was working with someone else on the piano the day before, so we started playing on it and got so inspired by it that that’s how we wrote a song. So, rather than starting with an eight-bar loop, which you would normally start a dance track with, we started with a piece of paper and a piano. It was a completely different approach to making music for me and it really fired my creativity.”

How does it feel to be a trance pin-up?
“I don’t know, I still feel very much the same guy even though I might not be. I still feel like this 20-year-old nerd who finished his law degree from Holland and started DJing in the UK and being paid £300 a gig and travelling all up and down the M6 and the M1. It’s really hard to explain for someone who doesn’t DJ but it’s so rewarding to play for a crowd and to get a reaction. There are no money or awards or anything else that you can swap for that. I realise that I’m a very lucky guy to be in this position, to be headlining South West Four: my god, it’s the festival of London! It’s just really, really lucky and you can get superstitious. You know, being voted by the DJ Mag as “the most popular DJ in the world” is just insane when you think about it. There are so many great DJs out there, it just makes me humble.”

You started DJing at a really young age. Do you have any advice for your young fans?
“I would say: try to look at the DJs you admire, but don’t copy them. I don’t think anyone’s waiting for another Armin Van Buuren or another Deadmau5. Secondly, make your own style and try to entertain people with that. Try and add something to the scene that’s not just blatantly copying someone. The quickest way to get to the top is to make records, definitely, make good records that really are groundbreaking. That is the easiest way to go to the top or, like Eddie Halliwell does, make your performance so special that it’s a reason for people to come out of their houses and to pay money to come and see you. Think about it yourselves: why would I, instead of watching a DVD with a pizza at home on my couch, go and see this and this DJ? At the end of the day, whether you like it or not, you’re an entertainer. You have to think of something that excites: it can be your productions, or it can be a goofy mouse hat.”

I’m intrigued about your radio show – A State of Trance – is it true that it’s one of the biggest and most listened to radio shows in the world?
“Apparently. It’s sold around the world and I think we’re on, like, 42 FM radio stations now, including Kiss FM in London. It’s a big responsibility – kinda scary in a way, because it’s easy to fall into the trap of playing records that you don’t actually want to play just to please people. I try to stay true to the original formula of the show and give people the latest in trance and progressive house music.”

Is that why you keep doing it?
“Everything begins and ends with me with the radio show. I have to go through the new records every week anyway and doing a radio show pushes me to look through new material. So, I’m more on top of things, I’m in touch with producers and I’m always in touch with the latest music. If I do a new track, I premiere it on the show or if I have a new record released on Armada, my label, then I premiere it on the show. Sometimes I do DJ sets live from Ibiza for it too.”

You don’t really come across a self-obsessed superstar DJ…
“I am who I am. In a way, I’m a nerd. I love everything about computers and electronic music; I’m passionate about it. It’s just the way I am. I like to see it as a professional thing and I like to approach it professionally but I’m very passionate about it even though some people around me say I shouldn’t be, which would be better for my health and my social life! That’s why I also do the Armin Only shows, the nine-hour sets which are absolutely crazy to do. I don’t even make money on them, I don’t think, because they’re so expensive, but it’s just so great to do and so rewarding for the crowd.”

What’s the difference between an Armin Only set and a South West Four set?
“It’s completely the opposite in every aspect. If I do a DJ set with South West Four, I play all the best high energy tracks I can find, try to interact with the crowd, give the people the best time of their lives, and really bring an energetic booming show to London. When I do an Armin Only show, it’s a club gig, where I play for nine hours and I can really build up the set, really play progressive and really slow music that I like and then build up the whole night towards an absolute climax. I see it as a Christmas dinner: when you have Christmas dinner, you normally have more than one course, you have four or five, maybe even nine courses. that’s how I see Armin Only: people dress up nicely, you have a main course with some really nice turkey and then you have some something sweet as dessert.”

Would you consider yourself when you’re doing those kind of shows?
“No, I consider myself more a DJ still. Maybe when I play my own stuff I’m more of an artist, but I’m still playing from CD, I’m not singing.”

Can you sing?
“I do sometimes sing to make the vocalists feel more comfortable about themselves.”

What award or accolade are you most proud of? You’ve won so many!

“That’s really difficult because every award in its own respect is an appreciation from the fans, so no matter how small or how big, every award is special. I mean if one person sends you an email saying ‘I want to thank you so much, you changed my life’ then that to me is an award. That’s really hard. Well, I must say I liked winning DJ Mag’s best DJ three years in a row, of course. It’s like winning an Oscar three times.”

What have you got coming up in the future?
“My single, “Full Focus” is out now; my new website has just been relaunched; my second single with Sophie Ellis Bextor will come out soon; my album will be released on September 10th; my Armin Only tour will start in October with the big gig in the Netherlands on November 13th. You can check out Arminonly.com to see a trailer of that and tickets are on sale now. We’re probably going to go to probably 14 or 15 big cities and there’s a big chance we might do London as well, so I’m really excited about that. Next year will also be the 10-year celebration of my ‘State of Trance’ show with episode 500. Oh, and I’ve got a Nintendo Wii game coming out called ‘Armin Van Buuren in the Mix.’ You can mix with your Wii remote and it’s really exciting.”

“Mirage” is out on Armand Recs on Sep 10, South West Four Weekender is on Aug 29 & 30 on Clapham Common.

Feature: Lovebox goes gay (kinda) for the day

2010-07-09T16:33:05Z

The NYC Downlow at night

This piece on Lovebox is coming out in my Clubbing section in Time Out next Tuesday. But here’s your sneak preview right here!

Lovebox goes gay (kinda) for the day

Anyone who’s been to Lovebox – or Glastonbury, The Big Chill or any other musical mecca that’s been lucky enough to have a small army of trannies wearing seven-inch stilettos staggering through its swamps – will know that the NYC Downlow stage is the be-sequinned crown jewel of any festival.

NYC Downlow is a mix of fabulous set design (you party inside a bombed-out downtown late-’70s New York gay disco) and a battalion of the East End’s most alternative bearded ladies led by Jonny Woo, all shimmying to a vintage house and classic disco soundtrack. NYC Downlow has been taking over the UK’s summer festivals one false eyelash at a time for the last four years and has captured the spirit of London’s happening gender-bending east.

Lovebox returns to Victoria Park this weekend with a new look for Sunday: it’ll be painted pink. Dubbed ‘the gay day’, festival bosses Groove Armada and co have enlisted local club promoter James Bailie to give Sunday a cool, fashion-forward gay makeover. Cue a headline set from disco banshee Grace Jones, supported by Hot Chip, Peaches and Hercules & Love Affair, as well as the edgiest of electro-techno-disco DJs across a further five stages, including, of course, neo-re-edit titans Horse Meat Disco and Disco Bloodbath.

Jonny Woo © Ralf Obergfell

‘I think [a gay presence at festivals] is part of a much bigger trend,’ says Jonny Woo, who has been promoted to host the Lovebox main stage with a variety of dance and cabaret spectacles between the acts. ‘It’s definitely a culmination of the last five years of the alternative drag cabaret trend and how that scene has been embraced by fashion.’

Moreover, it’s the only entirely gay-orientated festival date in London this year, though sadly The Eagle pub-operated Milk in the Park in Vauxhall isn’t happening due to a lack of sponsorship (it will be back next summer). Consequently, it’s leading many to hail Lovebox Sunday as the new Pride. ‘That’s the word on the street,’ explains Bailie. ‘There are more than half a million gay people living in the capital and Sunday is a big day for them to go out, but no one was really doing anything good. I wanted to give the gay community something good – but, really, it’s for all genders.’

Clubbers at the NYC Downlow © Lovebox Official

The shortage of gay-friendly outdoor music events is bemoaned by gay music lovers. ‘There’s been a lack of funds [for such events], but I think that the Downlow has definitely helped to push gay cool on to the agenda,’ says Gideon Berger, co-founder of the Downlow. ‘There had never been a gay space before at UK festivals: I remember walking around Glastonbury aged 14 and thinking: Shit, am I the only one?.’
Lovebox Sunday, like Pride, is a party with a purpose. Organisers are partnering with Stonewall to raise awareness of their campaigns – in particular, ‘Education for All’, which tackles homophobic bullying in schools; Stonewall supporter Alan Carr will be outlining the campaign on stage.

Says Stonewall representative Gary Nunn: ‘London Pride is very much a march and then a rally, which is important because it reminds us of the political side of things. But festivals such as Lovebox are a chance for people to let their hair down and celebrate how far we’ve come. Sometimes, even if a festival feels safe, gay people never know who might protest. Lovebox is an opportunity for gay people to go into a very safe space and feel like they can really party.’

Becoming the new Pride wasn’t Lovebox’s intention, and it’s a festival for anyone of any gender who has a sense of fun and glittery hedonism. But it is a much better looking alternative. ‘It was just a natural extension of what we’ve been doing for the last five years,’ says Groove’s Tom Findlay,’ but I’m really proud that Lovebox has properly come out – the line-up is arguably the best we have ever had. I’ll be working the Downlow’s bar in full drag and a ’tache!’

So, it seems that the trannies – certainly the alternative kind – really do work festivals the best. ‘Of course we do it better!’ Woo exclaims. ‘We’re better dressed, we’ve got more staying power and we’re always up for a shag at the end of it. Even if you haven’t washed.’

Lovebox is at Victoria Park from Fri-Sun. Tickets from £45-£99 available in adv via timeout.com/tickets.

lovebox.net

Glasgow’s Numbers at Fabric on Friday

2010-07-09T15:54:57Z

Glasgow's Numbers crew © Sam Robinson

By Kate Hutchinson

Like its name suggests, there are numerous complex elements that add up to create Glaswegian collective Numbers‘ scene-defining and widely-aped parties and quality record releases.

The hipster hook-up between the city’s edgiest electronic club nights, musicians and labels has six people at its core (from left to right, Bobby Cleaver, Goodhand, Spencer, aka Calum Morton, Jackmaster, Richard and Nelson) but includes countless more coolsters who DJ their parties or release on their new label.

The latter was born out of three of their original imprints, Stuffrecords, Dress 2 Sweat and Wireblock, and is now home to such underground names as Deadboy, Lazer Sword and one of my local favourite DJs (‘the new Diplo!’) Offshore.

So, to celebrate being so freakin’ awesome and to cheer on seven years of shaking up the UK’s clubbing soundtrack, Numbers are kicking off a marathon week at Fabric tonight.

It’s their third party at the clubbing mecca on a weekend that includes Herculean bash Fabric ON from Saturday to Sunday afternoon, Wet Yourself! on Sunday night and Benji B’s Deviation on Wednesday.

It’s more that just a birthday celebration for Fabric, however, who were recently pulled out of administration (hurrah!), helped by private investor Gary Kilbey, and continues business as usual with musical direction intact.

Here’s seven (well, it is their seventh birthday) reasons why you should like them a lot after the jump.

1 They’re not genre-driven
‘We’re not a house club or a techno club or a hip hop club or a dubstep club. It’s generally all electronic and really good for dancing to. That sounds like it could be a just a student night, but we have more of a sonic effect,’ says Numbers member Spencer (né Calum Morton), one that is created by their ‘rich and colourful’ journey through Detroit techno, Chicago house, UK garage, hip hop, R&B, boogie, funk and beyond. At its core? ‘I think it’s somewhere between hip hop and techno,’ says Spencer. ‘We’ve all been massively into hip hop, and then discovered Chicago house and Detroit techno a couple of years later.’ You can find its Los Angeles equivalent in the Low End Theory club nights and its London counterpart, Patchwork Pirates, one of whom coincidentally helps programme Fridays at Fabric.

2 But they are design-led.

The production values for their flyers and record releases are incredibly high – so far they’ve produced laser-etched vinyl, origami flyers and screen-printed sleeves. ‘Everything stems from our love of records; it has always been a sort of vinyl thing,’ says Spencer, ‘and sleeve art has been a really important part of our upbringing. I’m not even sure what a kids would do now – they would probably just have a wallpaper [on their phones]. I think one of the best fliers we’ve done was for a recent gig in Glasgow called ‘Pyramid of Doom’ with Flying Lotus and Rustie. We did a tetrahedron on the flier and you could fold it up to make a little pyramid. It took me about three-and-a-half minutes to make one, though!’

3 They’ve thrown some ridiculous parties
In October 2006, the 450-capacity Sub Club in Glasgow was rammed out when hip hop legend and Wu Tang Clan member Ghostface Killah came to perform at a Numbers show there. ‘It was organised with a week to go and it was the craziest atmosphere I’d ever seen – the owner of the club was even standing on top of the bar taking photos with his kids,’ remembers Spencer.

4 Their success has been in great bookings – and taking risks
Says Spencer: ‘We were doing clubs in very small, 100-capacity venues for a good three years, just booking people that we liked. When we booked Modeselektor, it was their second UK show and it was in a basement to about 80 people. Now they play shows for us to 600. The people who we’ve booked’s careers have grown naturally alongside ours. We’ve built our reputation through a lot of hard work and a lot of connections.’

4.5 They’re not too ‘blokey’
‘We put on the minimal techno producer Robert Hood in Glasgow recently and the club was full of guys, so sometimes we do a bunch of “girls go free” nights too. The idea is just to try and take away some of that staleness you often find inside some techno clubs, when all you really need is just girls dancing,’ says Spencer. ‘It’s like something you’d hear on pirate radio – “no hats, no hood, girls go free” – but we make a joke out of it. At our fifth birthday party, we made a pink poster!’

5 They launched Rustie and Hudson Mohawke
Mohawke, along with Rusie, are considered Glasgow’s finest musical exports of recent years – Numbers’ former labels released their debut tracks (Hudson’s was a collaboration with his own collective, LuckyMe). In fact, Spencer was the one to give both of their demos to Warp boss Steve Beckett, where they are now signed.

6 Glasgow is on fire!
Numbers are the beating heart of Glasgow’s thriving electronic club music. ‘The Glaswegian scene has been going off for five years now and there’s exciting new stuff all the time,’ says Spencer. ‘We are regulars at club nights like Fortified and Ballers Social, both of which push amazing new music and always put on excellent guests like [dubstep pioneer] Mala or [queen of UK funky] Cooly G. Our frequent club collaborators Monox push the harder side of techno, while [nightspot Nice & Sleazy’s party] Wrong Island is always a great laugh. And if you are still standing on the Sunday then Optimo’s new night Hung Up is well worth a visit.’

7 They’re playing at Fabric on Friday – which is staying open!
‘It’s really nice that everything is back to business and back to normal [there]. The first thing I was thinking [when I heard the news of its administration] was not “Is the club night still going to happen?”, it was, “Are all my mates still going to have jobs?”. Their party on Friday stars UK Baltimore house old gun Karizma, who, they say, you can’t just see every weekend in London.

7.5. They’re freakin’ cool. Oh, we already said that.

nmbrs.net
fabriclondon.com

Interview: Riva Starr headlines Nite Sessions on Friday

2010-07-02T15:46:42Z

Riva Starr interview with Kate Hutchinson in Time Out, July 2010

I’m not having the best of days: angry emails from jumped-up and ungrateful promoters; listings system crashing on deadline day, that sort of thing. But I’m really looking forward to sinking some serious Mojito-age at East Village tonight.

I’ve picked some DJs. We’ve put them on. And I think they’re rather ruddy brilliant. So I hope that you all come and jiggle with me.

I interviewed headliner Riva Starr for the magazine this week, talking about his single rerelease on Postiva/Virgin, ‘I Was Drunk’, in August and being a smash in Ibiza. He makes quirky squelchy beats that make me want to do the Cotton Eyed Joe around the dancefloor.

Batty Bass mistress Hannah Holland is jetting in from Berlin to join him, as is bemasked dubstep voodooist SBTRKT. He’s very scary – and so is his music. Upstairs, one of my fave ladies of ’lectro, Captain Magic, who runs Peanut Butter Jelly Time, will be guiding the bassy house ship with a host of guests and live acts, including recent Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs collaborator, Lulu and the Lampshades.

I hope I’m not dancing on my ownsome.

Radio tings: I’m interviewed on BBC Radio London

2010-06-28T18:51:58Z

Birds of a feather

I’ve been superwank (like supergeil, but superwank) at updating my blog recently. I went to Sonar in Barcelona, which was a great trip, but I’d only recommend going for the Friday night 30,000-people-heavy rave-up. On Thursday things are only warming up and come Saturday, everyone is too knackered from the night before. But Friday, in a ma-hoo-sive aircraft hanger the size of Kanye West’s ego, was sweet. And I was somewhere in-between thousands of sweaty Spaniards to watch LCD Soundsystem punk the funk, which was a pretty awesome place to be. (Some pics to come, I imagine). Other than that I’ve just been lying on my sofa sweating and sweating hard at the amazing heatwave I’ve returned to.

But on Sunday morning (yes, at 9am) I went on Lesley Joseph (best known for her role as Dorian from ‘Birds of a Feather’)'s BBC Radio London show to chat about the pick of the week’s cultural events. And I think it might become a regular fixture if I don’t babble too much and I don’t talk about Time Out events in such a geeky vernacular.

Still, you can listen to it if you wanna.

The green DJs, they take over Landan!

2010-06-07T22:11:05Z

A species of DJs often found on hot days with headphones in parks

This is a rubbish scan. I blame Jimi Mistry wot scanned it. But I wrote a piece on different DJs doing different nice green things for the environment in a recent issue of Time Out. We called them: eco DJs (oooooh, aaaah). It was up the front of the magazine, where real people can see it and everything. What will they think of next – pedal powered decks? Oh, wait: you can already get those.

For links to what they’re all up to, if you can’t read the text (which I can’t):

Last Night A DJ Saved My Life (Jimi Mistry, Danny Rampling, who missed the shoot, Nancy Noise and Mark Wilkinson)

10:10 (Tom Middleton, red cap)

Shellac Sisters (vintage ladies with things on their heads)

Feature: African House

2010-06-24T22:19:19Z

The Secousse Soundsystem © Dave Swindells

I don’t really ‘do’ football. I mean, I love to play and run around and kick people, but not many other people like it when I try. And so, in light of the World Cup starting this week, I thought I’d do a li’l swot up on something not-really-football-related in Time Out, but definitely related to its host: South Africa. The biggest scene there are the moment is African house, which sounds happy and driving (shove that in your tech-hole Hawtin) and some of my favourite LDN DJs, Radioclit and Sinden, told me all about it. Ah, in’t that nice?

The whole darn thing is right on this link. And all Secousse pics have been taken by the fabulous snapper and writer Dave Swindells.

An edited version of this article appeared in Time Out, June 10-16 (Issue 2077)

As all eyes turn to South Africa this week for the football festivities, for many it’s the continuing aural delights of its township music scenes, buzzing with vibrant urban club beats, that are the main attraction.

Countless African styles have found an adopted home in hipster Western indie bands and electro acts, but this summer some of London’s savviest DJs are looking instead to South Africa’s exploding house movement for inspiration.

The one official compilation here that represents the sound, the recently released ‘Ayobaness! The Sound of South African House’, gives an overview (in that scene-defining Soul Jazz-led tradition) of just how enormous the music is there, having soaked up the domineering township club genre of the ’90s, kwaito.
‘The local house beat is a modern symbol for a country that has reinvented itself,’ says compiler George Milz in the introduction, while further down the sleeve notes, one of the biggest SA house names, DJ Cleo, talks of how you’ll hear African house at ‘election campaigns and government functions’.

In London, the genre is nowhere near as popular – we can’t see David Cameron entering a conference to the sound of Zulu rapping just yet – but it’s there and bubbling. You may remember DJ Mujava’s kwaito-infused track, ‘Township Funk’, which became a massive club hit in 2008 and is still the only real African house track to have a widespread release in the UK (he hasn’t had another single here since).

However, DJs like French-Swedish duo Radioclit (aka Etienne Tron and Johan Karlberg) and Kiss FM host Sinden – both of whom, coincidentally, remixed ‘Township Funk’ – are certainly bringing African house music to wider attention. Radioclit have been throwing monthly club night Secousse since 2008 and it’s still one of the only places in the capital to dance to the African house beat. Since then, though, some of the other parties at its home, Notting Hill Arts Club, such as Future World Funk, have also started to welcome the sound. What’s more, a few of the more well-known African house producers, such as Cleo and Black Coffee, are now visiting London sporadically too.

Likewise for Sinden, African house has been infiltrating his sets for some time and, although his latest (World Cup) mix for Nike and Fader focuses on European talent, previous efforts have seen him mash-up tracks from African house producers like DJ Sdunkero.

So, if this is your first encounter with this exciting strain of house music, here’s our (and Radioclit and Sinden’s) guide. Post-World Cup, we hope you’ll be hearing it on the dancefloor a lot more.

What it sounds like

Sinden ‘African house takes US dance music like Chicago house, but puts its own traditional African influences on it, from its rhythms to the vocals, and comes up with something quite different. It’s [mostly] about sunshine and good times and it’s very uplifting – the chords progressions can be euphoric.’

Etienne, Radioclit ‘It’s the warmest of house music – they really love deep house – and so refreshing because it’s usually quite happy, like a lot of African music. It’s interesting because, 15 years ago, African house was very influenced by European music and now the opposite is happening: European house is badly in need of new influences and they’re looking to Africa. The biggest house music scene is definitely in South Africa in terms of audience and energy, but there are lots of dance music scenes in a lot of other places: Ivory Coast, Congo and Sierra Leone are all very lively.’

How you can hear it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpt0Nvq_hfY

Etienne, Radioclit ‘I found my first DJ Cleo record in Sterns Music [which used to be on Warren Street], which is only a website now. I am quite grateful to those guys, because it’s really hard to get African house mp3s or CDs. You can find a few videos on YouTube, but that’s about it. There aren’t any proper music blogs in Africa, because they used to have a really shit internet connection. But, as I understand, that’s going to be massively improved over the next two years, which is going to help the music invade America and Europe and, for DJs like me, it will be way easier to find a lot of the music.’

Sinden ‘The best place to get these mp3s legally is from one African music site, Afrodesia, but you have to trawl through it as they have all kinds of African music styles on it.’

Where to dance to it

Etienne, Radioclit ‘We do a party called Secousse in London, which we have also started to do in Paris. We are also doing a series of compilations called “The Sound of Secousse”, the first volume of which I’m working on right now and it’s dedicated to African dance music. As far as I know, there is no [club] properly dedicated like Secousse [in London]. We realised that if you’re African, you most likely go to an African club night in your area, so the challenge with Secousse is to try to being people together, because nobody really mixes it up anymore.’
Other places to check out include deep Afro and house night Tribe and Afro-influenced venue Passing Clouds in Dalston.

The African DJs

Etienne, Radioclit ‘DJ Cleo is the biggest; he’s very famous. But one of my favourite producers is Mujava. He’s is probably seen as a one-hit wonder, but he’s just done an amazing remix of Rye Rye’s track “Bang” for MIA’s label. I’m trying to get it for my compilation.’

Sinden ‘In the last six months I’ve really gotten into a DJ called Sdunkero, who did an amazing track called “Tops Off”. It’s very stabby, like a Euro-house track, but the video is total “cruise style”, where they are just laying by a pool with girls in bikinis.’

The London DJs

Etienne, Radioclit ‘Our newest Secousse residents, DJ Mo-Laudi and DJ Mo, are both from South Africa and they’ve been pushing those sounds to us a lot. The UK funky scene in England has a really big African sound to it too; a lot of it has the same vibe.’

Sinden ‘A lot of new underground dance music at clubs like Night Slugs, especially funky, has those African patterns. It fits in really well with the new UK funky/post-dubstep-y/garage-y stuff. There’s a group called Deep Teknologi, who have tracks like “Afrik”, which are like British versions of kwaito, but on that cold, rolling, dark funky dance tip.’

Radioclit’s ‘The Sound of Secousse: African Dance Music Anthems’ is out in September on Crammed. The next Secousse is July 2 at Notting Hill Arts Club. ‘Ayobaness! The Sound of South African House’ is out now on Out Here. Sinden’s Nike x Fader mix is available now and he plays at Get Me! x Nike (RED) at The Camp on Thur June 10. The next Tribe is at Corsica Studios on June 25.

www.timeout.com/clubs

Interview: Sinden on Grizzly Recs and, erm, ‘Hutchface Sounds’

2010-05-28T17:41:34Z

Sinden is usually much cheerier than this

I’ve got lots and lots of time for (Graeme) Sinden. An illuminating DJ and genre-mangler, he’s got a regular show on Kiss Fm; he ran a successful dubwise house night with Sinden, Get Familiar, at Fabric; he got some of that chart and mainstream success with pal Hervé as The Count & BEEPER BEEPER BEEPER Sinden; and now, not content with all of the above and with being generally awesome, he’s only gone and launched his own label.

Grizzly Records is the name. And it’s Grizzly by nature too, chopping up a variety of electronic-edged tropical, bass, global and native London sounds (2step, jungle, dubstep and other hippity hoppity club sounds).

Check out Sinden’s taster of what it’s all about via this lovely Fader mix and this mash-up for FACT.

But you can read a mahOOOsive interview with him and me and him if you click the link below. Go on; it’s well good.

Hello Sinden. this the first label that you’ve set up yourself?
“Yeah, it is. I did start a label a while ago with Switch, called Counterfeet, where we were putting out clips of our early releases. But that slowly petered out and I ended up setting up Grizzly at the beginning of the year. It’s really just because I have access to good music – and there’s a lot of good music coming my way. And, also, I want to branch out and do solo productions as well. Having your own label as a modern DJ/producer is kinda a natural route.”

It used to be, if you were a DJ, that you maybe had your own party. And then you started to make your own music, or get a radio show. And now it seems to be that having your own label is the next step after that?
“I guess it is. If you look at most DJs that also produce, they have their own label for their own productions. I just think it’s the right way to go about things; being able to control the music. We also come across lots of good stuff on our travels and can get bombarded with demos and that sort of stuff.”

Does it cement your position as a musical curator as well?
“It does in a way. People look to us to bring them fresh music and having a label is just an extension of that. And having my radio show as well, means that I’m always trying to seek out new music. It’s just the way that it naturally fits. And also, having the infrastructure to do it now: having a really good team around me to make it happen is really important, so that everything runs smoothly. I’ve learned from my mistakes, and before was a little bit shambolic at times. But now [the label] definitely feels like a well-oiled machine.”

What’s the overall concept behind Grizzly? What kinda of music does it represent?
“It’s really just about new music, which isn’t restricted by any genre. Just good club music, with a sense of humour as well. Genre-wise, it’s going to be a bit sporadic, definitely reflecting my tastes as a DJ and what I play out. A lot of the tracks that I’ve been signing have a light-heartedness about them. Like the Brodinski release, ‘Arnold Classics’, is based around a sample of a burp, and DJ Sega’s release is what I’d call like a bastard Italo track with a Nintendo bassline. The tracks on the label are just kind of fun, but the important thing is that they work in a club.”

Is that fun element something that you feel has been lost in dance music lately? Or is it something that’s coming back?
“It’s really hard to sum up trends in music. But I definitely think that music has gone back to being more serious, in a way. That’s generalising, but I think that fun and entertainment needs to be central [to music]. You can’t just be playing for minorities, for just a few people in a room. You’ve gotta cast the net out a little further – obviously without dumbing down music or anything and without losing your integrity. It’s about just not being too exclusive. And just believing in the music that you sign and put out there.

What can we expect from Grizzly’s overall output? You’ve got SBTRKT and Brodinski – are there any others on your roster?
“There’s a release out now, ‘Arnold Classics’, is by Brodinki. I think it’s going to be a one-off release because he likes to release tracks on different labels, which I think is really cool because [that way] he taps into lots of different sounds. Then the next one after that is from a guy called Wafa, who is a debutante. The track’s called ‘Ewid Disco’, which is doing really well. They haven’t really started promo-ing yet but it’s just come out on the Crookers compiation for Mixmag. I’m really hoping that that one – that one’s the really ‘banger’ track and I wouldn’t say that all tracks that I’m releasing were ‘bangers’.”

How do you select what to release?
“That’s the one thing I’ve learnt over the last two months: the selection process of the tracks and not being too hasty about committing to certain things. It’s really difficult: you get all this music and you say, ‘I’ll have that, have that, have that’, and you get a bit carried away. So you have to hold back and almost play it a bit cooler and ask yourself all these questions, like: ‘Is it good enough?’; ‘Does it stand out enough?’; ‘Is that really something I wanna release?’. With lots of tracks that I get sent, I’d play them in a club but I wouldn’t release them. They’re fun club tracks, but I want a bit more longevity with the stuff I release. All of a sudden, everything you release now is scrutinised and, you know, you can put tracks out that will work in clubs, but they’re a bit more disposable and don’t have so much character. I think the sort of stuff I’ve picked has definitely got something to it – like a quirk, or something about it. I can’t put my finger on it…”

What format are you releasing on?
“I’m doing digital and vinyl. I think it’s important to do vinyl. From the start, I said I wanted to release vinyl, just because I’m old school like that. I grew up buying vinyl. For me, a record label is records, you know? Not that I look down on digital-only labels, but I think that having vinyl as well is nice for the artist: they have a tangible product at the end of it, some wax.”

Have you been inspired by any other labels in particular?
“When you set up a label people usually have a reference point or a model, like, they know what they want like their label to be like. And I don’t know if I do… If there’s one label in particular that I can compare it to, it would be Diplo’s label Mad Decent, I guess.

With those kind of labels, like Ed Banger too, it seems that the label roster becomes more like a family unit. They all play together and create a soundsystem for parties. Is that what it’s about having a label is about these days? About cultivating a family?
“I think so, yeah. Some labels are lucky to be able to have their artists exclusively to them and these labels are really clever with the branding and about it being more than just an outlet for releasing music. It is more, like you say, a family unit. The way that your label gets out there is the solidarity that the people in it have; it’s a strength in numbers thing. And it’s good for people who go out as well: you know that if you’re going to a show where there’s 10 DJs on the same label, that you can get involved and really get an idea of what that label’s about.”

It’s also that cross-pollination thing. I suppose my reference point is your mates’ former label Dubsided, where you and Switch (aka Solid Groove) and Jesse Rose and Hervé etc were all doing separate things and recording together under different aliases and it all feeds off each other as other people get more popular.
“Yeah, I reckon. We definitely had a really strong unit back then with Dubsided. People kinda get into it, don’t they? It’s like when I first got into the Wu Tang Clan and there were all these members and characters, who were all doing offshoots and solo projects and collaborating with each other and it was really fun. I mean, I can only think about short term, but I’d like to get the artists that I do have working with each other and trying to promote that more.”

I know we touched on this earlier, but it’s quite interesting how, well, you don’t exactly get hordes of indie bands starting up their own labels. But with DJs, it definitely feels that way. And particularly at the moment there’s seems to be a lot of big DJs, influential DJs, such as yourself, Erol, Kissy Sellout and Simian Mobile Disco, all setting up imprints. Do you see this as kinda greater trend too?
“I’m just trying to think who hasn’t got a label now. I think everybody has. I can’t think who hasn’t. Fake Blood has got a label as well, but that’s just word on the grapevine. I just think that with the way that the music industry is, people realise that being independent is the way to go. I mean, who else is going to take care as much as you are with your own music; who understands this world better than we do? I don’t think any other major labels do, so I think it’s about taking control and you know, doing justice to the music that there is.”

Are there any downsides to releasing on your own label?
“You do end up scrutinising it and paying [your music] a lot more attention than you should. And definitely in the last few months there have been so many questions, and I’m quite indecisive, so I’m uhm-ing and err-ing a lot, which is never good. I think only time will tell really; the first six to eight months are a learning curve. I don’t even know how these tracks will sell, or if they have an audience somewhere! I just hope people will enjoy them as much as I do. But the feedback has been really good so far.”

Brilliant. What’s the most important thing that you’ve learnt since starting Grizzly?
“I think the selection process has been quite important, filtering out what’s good and what isn’t. And also: scheduling. I’ve never really been that organised and now I have to think about six to eight months ahead!”

It sounds like it’s been quite a large learning curve, then!
“Yeah, it has. And I think I’m just going to learn more and more in the next year as well. And probably make a few errors along the way, but hey, that’s what it’s all about.”

Do you have any plans to do any Grizzly parties or anything?
“Yeah, there will be. I want to get some releases out there first, and then think about parties here in about eight months. I think in the future, especially because I’ve got such an international roster – especially a lot of French producers coming on the label – there’ll be a lot of collaboration in Paris too.”

Starting a label certainly seems like the hip cool thing to do. I might just start one!
“Yeah, you should! What would you call it?

Hutchface Sounds.
“It should definitely be a pun on Hutch.”

If you’ve got any ideas, let me know.
“I will, yeah. Coming up with label names is not easy.”

Not your favourite thing to do?
“Nahh. The thing is, I was trying to choose between Grizzly and Cowabunga Dude. I told my management about the second one and they weren’t that into it. They were like, ‘Cowabuga Dude’s rubbish. It conjures up all these awful surfer and stoner-dude images’. I just wanted to have a big slice of pizza as a logo.”"

I do agree that Grizzly much better.
“It’s got a good attitude.”

It’s more pun-friendly too. You can work loads with that!
“I think the tagline should be ‘Bear Attitude’.”

I like it.
“That would only work in the UK, though, wouldn’t it?”

You’d be introducing all the French kids to London’s street lingo.
“They love it over there in France. I found like a whole new scene – like kids who are actually into Rinse Fm. One of the French DJs I was just talking to makes funky garage stuff, so I think that could work.”

From France?
“Yeah, it’s amazing. I found quite a few kids over there who are really, really influenced by the new post-dubsteppy and garage kinda stuff.”

That’s so interesting. You don’t tend to think of stuff like that, but obviously the Internet speads these sounds so far and wide. “That’s the weird thing! Especially in Scandinavia and places like that, you get these pockets of kids that just love southern rap and music ike that.”

It’d be like really interesting to map out the most unexpected music scenes across the globe.
“Yeah yeah yeah! Curveball countries!”

You’re gonna help me write that then.

To be continued…

Brodinski’s ‘Arnold Classics’ and Sinden & SBTRKT’s ‘Midnight Marauder’ are out now on Grizzly
www.onmygrizzly.tv