His rose-tinted enjoyment of an otherwise awkward season could have something to do with his recent relocation. Sometime around 2008, he packed his bags and made the passage across the Tasman, which he’s happy to say was a “sweet move.” He explains his journey, saying “basically, I whittled myself down to a backpack and jumped on the plane to Australia. I was lucky enough to have some friends living here so they let me take over the couch for a bit until I got a place of my own. Melbourne is so cool, I love it here.” No arguments there.
With drum and bass one of his great loves, he describes some of the rumbling in the background of the industry at the moment. “I have some interest from a label in New Zealand called Dubpride Recordings, they are looking to get some of my older music released in May this year. I have some other projects that need finishing so there’s no concrete date yet, but I just need to attack the studio a couple more times. As the name suggests they release music on the more dub and jungle styles of drum and bass.”
“Otherwise,” he says, “I’m making more minimal drum and sub type stuff at the moment, with a few bells and whistles. I’m really enjoying cutting up reggae accapellas and messing about with delays and time stretching, with some interesting results. I’ve had a few studio sessions with DJs Complicit and Rubix which has been great too; it’s always good to watch how others work and come up with something as a group.”
But his next aim, and dream, would be to nail a vinyl release on one of the big labels. “I need maybe a few more man hours in the cave to come up with something great. But yeah, a release on something like Dread Recordings would be the best thing ever. For now I am happy with getting some out there on Beatport with Dubpride, I think they are going to do well.” And on the rest, he’s happy to take a wait and see approach.
Musically, his current sets are a mix of old and new. He’s busting out some arcane records from the likes of Kemal and Cause 4 Concern, along with recent jams by SPY, which he says he’s really digging. “I’ve written a whole bunch of dubstep stuff as well which I have played whole sets of; I like messing about with that stuff too – just not as much as the drums and bass.”
And over the years, very little has changed. “Man, when I first started playing in clubs in 2002 we ran a Thursday night in Christchurch called Project Mayhem with Vex and Meltdown. They were some of the best little shindigs ever and I hold them dear. More recently, we’re doing constant gigs with Twisted Audio which is a real pleasure; the local nights have a reputation as being some of the best in the city. So I’m going to bring all of that together and be performing a couple of gigs around the place in April. I will have my co-pilot the MC Harzee on the mic toasting the events – we have been doing gigs together of late with great results. I’ll be running a Kontrol S4 with my Mac and a few time code CDs. Usually I will have a couple of old records to smack in there as well, just for good measure.”
In the interim, check his mixes on Soundcloud and a podcast he completed for Twistedaudio, just in case you weren’t yet in the mood. See you on the dance floor. DJ – bring the rewind!
BY RK
