- Joined
- Mar 27, 2007
Over the years you have been responsible for some of drum and bass’ most defining tracks. Do you feel that this puts pressure on you to keep up the high standard that people have come to expect from you?
There’s no pressure at all. I’m making music out of love and the enjoyment of making music. I can’t sit there and go ‘will this track be better than the last one’, I make stuff because I enjoy making it you now?
There are no tracks from yourself in the mix that you have just done for Fabric; are you still producing yourself?
Bloody hell, I wish! I’ve just been too busy with djing and running the label. If I was just an artist sitting in my studio writing tracks for a label to release then I'd be on my sixth album by now, but the fact that I run a label and A & R for that label means that something has to give somewhere along the line - there are only so many hours in the day and music production is that thing. I’m hopefully going to get ahead with the label in terms of the promotion, releases and what I’m doing so that the guys can then get on with that and I can actually spend some time writing music next year.
Will it still be drum and bass that you are writing?
I’m a lover of all music. I think an album would be predominantly drum and bass but I can’t help it if there has to be some soul bits or some jazzier bits or some downbeat breaky bits; I enjoy all forms of music so why not make them?
So are you continuing to release music from other genres as well?
Yeah, definitely. We’ve started the label up again now and obviously I’m concentrating on d’n’b, but of course, why not do another Earth album or something else – I’m definitely into doing all that kind of stuff.
How would you describe the sound that you are currently trying to push with Good Looking and how has it changed over the years?
Over the eighteen years that Good Looking has been going the sound has obviously changed but the feeling hasn’t. I still think exactly the same thoughts and get the same vibes from the music that I’m releasing now to when I was releasing Apollo back in 93. I’ve just got a feeling for all my music, be it house, hip hop, jazz, soul, reggae or whatever. I like a certain groove, I like a certain feeling from my music, so I think that will never change you know?
The amen break has always featured heavily in both your productions and dj sets, although you seem to be moving away from it slightly of late. Do you continue to see it as having creative potential or do you feel that it has now been over used?
If you look at the Fabric mix, you’ve got three or four tracks with the amen break on there. I just think it’s such a complete break beat, it does so much on the dance floor if used correctly. I think it will always be used in that way and so it should be. Breakbeats can reoccur over and over again, ultimately it’s the music that you put around it that sets off that tune to make it a great track. I love that breakbeat, it will always feature in what I do.
Do you think it is possible to define what makes it so special?
I think it just fills up so much space, just as a drum break - you can almost just put an amen on. Take a tune like ‘Drum Tools’ by Conrad and Furney that came out on Good Looking a year or so ago - that tune is just the amen break with a couple of bleeps in it, yet it fills up so much space in a club. When you play it, it just works and I think that’s why the amen break has been used so much, it fills up every frequency and space in a sound system.
The influence of jazz on your music is obvious. Which are the elements of jazz that particularly excite you?
I think it’s the freedom of expression if that makes sense? Those guys just seemed to be so free to express themselves in what they did and they weren’t actually worrying about how things should sound, they just did what they did and thought, ‘this sounds great, this is from the heart and this is what I want to produce’. That same ethos is what I’ve based my whole career on. I think all those guys just did stuff that made them feel good about who they are and their expression in music. That will never die for me.
You speak about these great artists from the past; if you could collaborate with any musician you liked then who would it be and why?
Oh, there are too many people. An obvious one would be Lonnie Liston Smith but there’s so many. James Brown – imagine being in the studio with that guy and vibing off what he did. Mandrill and Kool & The Gang have been big influences, The Mighty Ryeders, even going back as far as guys like Rare Earth. There’s a whole wealth of people; I could sit there all year writing a track everyday with someone else and still not have completed all of my list.
It would be a good year though…
It would be a fantastic year - one to remember for sure!
You’ve been part of the music industry for a long time now and must have learnt many things. What would you do differently if you were starting out again?
That’s a deep question you know… As strange as it may sound, for a whole number of reasons in my life, at various stages, I don’t think I’ve had enough belief in who I am and what I’m capable of doing, which sounds really weird because of what has actually happened in the past. So one thing I would change is having more belief about what I’m doing and who I am as an individual. It’s only really changed over the last four or five years and maybe you have to go through that path of fifteen / twenty years to arrive at somewhere where you can be chuffed with who you are and what you’ve done.
Do you think the self belief that you have now is based upon your past achievements?
I think it’s based on a lot of things, definitely achievements of the past, for instance what we’ve achieved with Good Looking. There was a time when people criticised Good Looking for things that we did, said or felt. Now I think ‘bloody hell, that’s sort of laughable now’. We did something with Good Looking, myself and my business partner Tony, which maybe no one will ever do again in life, musically speaking. Picking unknown artists and turning people from nothing into somebody.
So half of it is based on what I’ve done and half of it is based on my background. I’m an adopted kid from birth, a kid who didn’t know his mother and didn’t know his real family. That kind of brings its own sort of self belief that I now understand fully as a forty two year old guy. In the last few years I’ve met my real mum and it’s been a magical journey of self realisation and self finding. Some things you can’t change but you have to go through. Now I know though, I wish I had more conviction in what I was doing back in the day.
What else would I change… when someone offered me £10 million for the label I should have taken it!
Seriously?!
Well I was offered money at a certain stage but we were all fully involved in the label and thought, ‘no we can’t take the money, that would be a sell out’. But looking back I think why not take the money, maybe I could have done something even bigger and taken the music even further you know? So there are a few things like that but ultimately your path is your path and I think you should be happy with who you are and what you did.
You mixed the Fabric CD live rather than use a computer. Is this physical element of djing important to you?
It is… If it was so easy that I didn’t have to do anything with my brain apart from pick tunes and then let them mix themselves, I think I would get bored. I like to be constantly busy behind the turntables, concentrating on a mix, trying to get something in time, trying to make my set better each time I go out. I’m at home sometimes and I’ll get two tunes and I’ll mix them and think, ‘I can’t wait to attempt that mix when I play out at the weekend’. That whole ethos keeps me doing what I’m doing. The actual sound of playing dubplates as well, it’s amazing.
You can't have anything but respect for a man who turns down an offer like that. I know that had I been in his position I'd now be writing this from my own island whilst being served drinks by a dozen sexy waitresses
There’s no pressure at all. I’m making music out of love and the enjoyment of making music. I can’t sit there and go ‘will this track be better than the last one’, I make stuff because I enjoy making it you now?
There are no tracks from yourself in the mix that you have just done for Fabric; are you still producing yourself?
Bloody hell, I wish! I’ve just been too busy with djing and running the label. If I was just an artist sitting in my studio writing tracks for a label to release then I'd be on my sixth album by now, but the fact that I run a label and A & R for that label means that something has to give somewhere along the line - there are only so many hours in the day and music production is that thing. I’m hopefully going to get ahead with the label in terms of the promotion, releases and what I’m doing so that the guys can then get on with that and I can actually spend some time writing music next year.
Will it still be drum and bass that you are writing?
I’m a lover of all music. I think an album would be predominantly drum and bass but I can’t help it if there has to be some soul bits or some jazzier bits or some downbeat breaky bits; I enjoy all forms of music so why not make them?
So are you continuing to release music from other genres as well?
Yeah, definitely. We’ve started the label up again now and obviously I’m concentrating on d’n’b, but of course, why not do another Earth album or something else – I’m definitely into doing all that kind of stuff.
How would you describe the sound that you are currently trying to push with Good Looking and how has it changed over the years?
Over the eighteen years that Good Looking has been going the sound has obviously changed but the feeling hasn’t. I still think exactly the same thoughts and get the same vibes from the music that I’m releasing now to when I was releasing Apollo back in 93. I’ve just got a feeling for all my music, be it house, hip hop, jazz, soul, reggae or whatever. I like a certain groove, I like a certain feeling from my music, so I think that will never change you know?
The amen break has always featured heavily in both your productions and dj sets, although you seem to be moving away from it slightly of late. Do you continue to see it as having creative potential or do you feel that it has now been over used?
If you look at the Fabric mix, you’ve got three or four tracks with the amen break on there. I just think it’s such a complete break beat, it does so much on the dance floor if used correctly. I think it will always be used in that way and so it should be. Breakbeats can reoccur over and over again, ultimately it’s the music that you put around it that sets off that tune to make it a great track. I love that breakbeat, it will always feature in what I do.
Do you think it is possible to define what makes it so special?
I think it just fills up so much space, just as a drum break - you can almost just put an amen on. Take a tune like ‘Drum Tools’ by Conrad and Furney that came out on Good Looking a year or so ago - that tune is just the amen break with a couple of bleeps in it, yet it fills up so much space in a club. When you play it, it just works and I think that’s why the amen break has been used so much, it fills up every frequency and space in a sound system.
The influence of jazz on your music is obvious. Which are the elements of jazz that particularly excite you?
I think it’s the freedom of expression if that makes sense? Those guys just seemed to be so free to express themselves in what they did and they weren’t actually worrying about how things should sound, they just did what they did and thought, ‘this sounds great, this is from the heart and this is what I want to produce’. That same ethos is what I’ve based my whole career on. I think all those guys just did stuff that made them feel good about who they are and their expression in music. That will never die for me.
You speak about these great artists from the past; if you could collaborate with any musician you liked then who would it be and why?
Oh, there are too many people. An obvious one would be Lonnie Liston Smith but there’s so many. James Brown – imagine being in the studio with that guy and vibing off what he did. Mandrill and Kool & The Gang have been big influences, The Mighty Ryeders, even going back as far as guys like Rare Earth. There’s a whole wealth of people; I could sit there all year writing a track everyday with someone else and still not have completed all of my list.
It would be a good year though…
It would be a fantastic year - one to remember for sure!
You’ve been part of the music industry for a long time now and must have learnt many things. What would you do differently if you were starting out again?
That’s a deep question you know… As strange as it may sound, for a whole number of reasons in my life, at various stages, I don’t think I’ve had enough belief in who I am and what I’m capable of doing, which sounds really weird because of what has actually happened in the past. So one thing I would change is having more belief about what I’m doing and who I am as an individual. It’s only really changed over the last four or five years and maybe you have to go through that path of fifteen / twenty years to arrive at somewhere where you can be chuffed with who you are and what you’ve done.
Do you think the self belief that you have now is based upon your past achievements?
I think it’s based on a lot of things, definitely achievements of the past, for instance what we’ve achieved with Good Looking. There was a time when people criticised Good Looking for things that we did, said or felt. Now I think ‘bloody hell, that’s sort of laughable now’. We did something with Good Looking, myself and my business partner Tony, which maybe no one will ever do again in life, musically speaking. Picking unknown artists and turning people from nothing into somebody.
So half of it is based on what I’ve done and half of it is based on my background. I’m an adopted kid from birth, a kid who didn’t know his mother and didn’t know his real family. That kind of brings its own sort of self belief that I now understand fully as a forty two year old guy. In the last few years I’ve met my real mum and it’s been a magical journey of self realisation and self finding. Some things you can’t change but you have to go through. Now I know though, I wish I had more conviction in what I was doing back in the day.
What else would I change… when someone offered me £10 million for the label I should have taken it!
Seriously?!
Well I was offered money at a certain stage but we were all fully involved in the label and thought, ‘no we can’t take the money, that would be a sell out’. But looking back I think why not take the money, maybe I could have done something even bigger and taken the music even further you know? So there are a few things like that but ultimately your path is your path and I think you should be happy with who you are and what you did.
You mixed the Fabric CD live rather than use a computer. Is this physical element of djing important to you?
It is… If it was so easy that I didn’t have to do anything with my brain apart from pick tunes and then let them mix themselves, I think I would get bored. I like to be constantly busy behind the turntables, concentrating on a mix, trying to get something in time, trying to make my set better each time I go out. I’m at home sometimes and I’ll get two tunes and I’ll mix them and think, ‘I can’t wait to attempt that mix when I play out at the weekend’. That whole ethos keeps me doing what I’m doing. The actual sound of playing dubplates as well, it’s amazing.
You can't have anything but respect for a man who turns down an offer like that. I know that had I been in his position I'd now be writing this from my own island whilst being served drinks by a dozen sexy waitresses