Interviews
Here's where DJ legends spill the beans on their life, loves and record collections. These are the characters who've mattered most to the craft of DJing, and the new guns pushing things forward. Put the kettle on and settle down to some tall tales of music and dancing.
You might not know his name, but you’ll know his work. He was one of the men behind Bizarre Inc and Chicken Lips.
As well as Bizarre Inc and Chicken Lips, Andrew Meecham’s solo work includes the Sir Drew and Emperor Machine projects. He’s a remixer par excellence and a lover of analogue synths. We talked to him about all of it. And a bit more.
What was your earliest musical memory?
The Troggs’ ‘Wild Thing’. My mum and dad bought the album because apparently I kept singing it. Think they’re in a cave on the front cover. That was the first thing that really got me.
What was your...
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Vince Montana, who died on April 13th 2013, was an instrumental figure in the rise of Philly disco in the 1970s.
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Bruce Forest is the skinny straight, white guy, who replaced Tee Scott at Better Days, one of New York’s best black gay clubs in the disco and early house era. Having won over the hard-to-please crowd, he took it on to a new level, guiding it through the house era before becoming a full-time remixer and producer. He left the industry about 20 years ago to work in new media.
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Jay Strongman was arguably the first British superstar DJ. At one point he was simultaneously resident a London’s legendary Wag, Mud and Dirtbox clubs. The Face named him, “the hippest DJ in town”. He helped pioneer warehouse parties, played in communist Russia and sold clobber to Bowie and Adam Ant. In the 1980s, Jay was the DJ’s DJ. We talked to him about mods, rockers, punks, soulboys and peg trousers.
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The Furtive 50 is back, the votes have been cast, counted and announced and now we meet the main men behind the tracks that made more bums wiggle than the rest of this year's sonic solutions. All hail the kings of the DJhistory castle.
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London born Ralph Lawson is a northern legend. As resident at Back To Basics he played the first ever track at the seminal club and as one of the founders of 2020Vision was instrumental in introducing the fusion that eventually became known as tech-house. Ralph is a DJ’s DJ who, despite many years of travelling all over the world, is never happier than breaking records at his first love, Basics.
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Morgan Geist is a modern day house and disco legend. He grew up in suburban New Jersey but his music is clearly incfluenced by the purest sounds of Chicago but mostly New York and Detroit. As part of Metro Area he is responsible for a ton of amazing disco and house inspired dance music. He also owns Environ records and was the man behind our number one record of last year, Storm Queen's Look Right Through.
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Adrian Sherwood is a one-man UK reggae almanac. He began DJing and throwing parties while still at school and was selling reggae records to shops before he left school. He'd made his first album when he was still a teenager before going on to founding the influential On-U-Sound label.
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Dave Godin, who sadly passed away in 2004, was the writer who coined the phrase ‘northern soul’. Dave spent a lifetime championing the cause of African-American music in the UK and was instrumental in helping Berry Gordy gain a foothold in British market. He continued to write about soul for the rest of his life. Latterly, he was responsible for the brilliant Deep Soul Treasures compilations on Kent.
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Eddie Richards has been consistently one of the finest house DJs the UK has produced. He founded one of the – if not the – first DJ agencies in the world and still has the thirst for underground dance music even today.
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She was the queen of them all. For a time Loleatta Holloway ruled supreme over even Chaka, Aretha and Diana. She was the Queen of Disco and voiced the troubles and triumphs of gay men better than anyone.
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Dave Lee has had more pseudonyms than Howard Marks, including his mainstay alter ego Joey Negro, alongside Doug Willis, Sessomatto, Z Factor, Akabu and his live project, the Sunburst Band. Since he began his career in the late 1980s, he has been flavour of the month, remixer du jour, hitmaker and, lately, grande dame of disco.
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Voodoo Ray was the biggest independent selling record of 1988. Climbing as high as number twelve in the charts, being awarded a gold disc and becoming a certified house music anthem. During this time Gerald Simpson was living in a squat and doing interviews from a pay phone.
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Ewan Pearson is a Cambridge graduate that makes techno, has turned down remixes for Shakira and denies he is the world’s best educated DJ despite having a Masters. He is most proud of making people happy.
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Here they are, our mini interviews with those responsible for this year's three biggest bangers! If you ever wanted to know about Morgan Geist hanging out with a Queen, which hip hop track Space Dimension Controller wants to remix or whether TBD have ever played hide and seek with a celebrity you are in the right place.
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DJ, cultural critic and historian based at the University of California, Alice Echols is the author of Hot Stuff.
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DJ, Producer and Altern 8 inspiration, Chris Duckenfield has made some of the finest house tracks to come out of the UK.
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Richard Norris is one half of the Grid, one half of Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve and all of Time & Space Machine.
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If one man came to epitomise the sound of New York house in the late '80s and early '90s it was Todd Terry.
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Recently departed Gang Starr rapper Guru chats with hip hop legends Run DMC.
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One half of Was (Not Was), a man with several Detroit dance hits to his name, discusses Motown, Mojo and the motor city.
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