Bringing the feel good factor back to dance music
Mr McGregor, welcome to DMC towers. Great remix of ‘Together Again’ which we will come to later. But let’s pour a cup of tea and roll back the years to when you first caught the dance music bug. A Middlesbrough lad who got into hip hop, breakdancing – maybe a bit of graffiti? How did you get into this scene?
“I don’t really consider myself part of any scene as such, I find them stifling. It’s cool that it creates a furtive ground for artists to develop, but as soon as a scene crystallizes, it’s over. There’s too many rules, like you’re a dick if you use the wrong kind of kick drum? Music is way to much of a precious commodity to be restricted by style, leave all that to the kids cos vanity comes easy when your young and if it becomes about anything other than the party, I’m out. I’ve always dipped in and out of dance music but I guess I only really got turned in around 2005 when I caught wind of the whole Dubsided/Switch/Sinden thing. Before that, dance music seemed a bit po-faced, blokes in clubs stroking their goatees and banging on about Marshall Jefferson (yawn). It just seemed refreshing and a bit irreverent, picking and choosing from the past to create something new, lots of samples too. So when commissioning mixes for the first album we got Herve, Detboi and Jack Beats who all delivered amazing mixes that did well in the clubs internationally. I started getting bookings and the first time playing in Brighton, friends were like ‘Ste’s playing house?’ as up until that point I was all about hip hop, funk and soul. I was really excited by it all at the time and still continue to be, that scenes moved on and seems to be going back to garage and deep house which is cool, but all that really remains are the nice people I met and worked with and the music they continue to make. Fuck a scene, be a scene.”
Love that last line Ste. What artists and records do you look back from that time and still love?
“Herve’s remix of Under The Sun was everywhere in 2008 and just always makes me bristle when I hear it. It took Josh to pull out the piano break in that which just distilled it into pure dancefloor joy. ‘Mars’ by Fake Blood changed it all again, he brought proper break beats back into it (and not just the ‘Think’ and ‘Amen Brother’ break) and I’ve not heard a bass line since that sounded so much like the end of the world. Still awesome. I loved the LFO tweakin of Jack Beats and Crookers releases were always mental too.”
You are a very creative dude, making music, painting, drawing etc. – what is your earliest memory of music and where did you get your creativity from in your family?
“Probably listening to Beatles and Wings tapes in my dads Datsun, he always had the more psychedelic stuff on like St Peppers and Magical Mystery Tour. I occasionally go back to those records cos they’re so rich in terms of production, song writing and concept. Looking back it was a subliminal music lesson, mad ideas and melodies seeping into an untainted mind through the smoggy streets of ‘Boro (or summat). My gran used to paint and draw, but it was out of necessity that I followed a creative path as I was academically shite. I only ever got a pat on the head for my drawing and a smacked arse for everything else. While I’m not making a great living out of any of it, I survived and have friends and family. This is all you really need.”
Not a lot of people know this, but the north eastern UK town of Middlesbrough has for a long time had a real love of proper house music. What clubs did you learn your disco ropes at?
“I was a lowly sixth former in the summer of ’88, I read that jumbo Face magazine issue that summer with envy as my own North Eastern enclave was still about football and violence and football-violence. Having said that, there was always an underground, from the kids that attended the massive Breakdance comps that soon after got into jazz-funk, then house slowly trickled in. They opened the Havana on Linthorpe Road in 1988, Ecstasy arrived and there was a version of the ‘Summer of Love’. I couldn’t afford the drugs and the clubs at the weekend and by all accounts, ‘Boro wasn’t quite ready to put down its broken bottles in the name of love, so I avoided it, saving my pennies for a weekend in London at a Saturday night out at The Wag. The club ran a few organised raves (‘Butterloggie’ – I know, WTF?) which were OK, but spending £40 to watch dock workers gurn to Guru Josh miming ‘Infinity’ with his fucking saxomophone was a lifetime away from Andy Weatherall playing Shoom. It was a scene of itself and people would travel from all over the country to come to the Havana (and Philmores in neighbouring Saltburn) for the vibe but then like everywhere else it got monetized and violent again. Undeniably, the drugs made people nicer and less likely to fight and probably saved a few faces in the process, but creatively ‘Boro was just about ravers. Nobody from that scene really made tunes, which is a big shame.(n.b. Big up MC Lee and Colin Patterson the resident MC/DJ Havana crew who made a bit of an impact in the early 90’s as Hooligan X ). After that I moved to Nottingham in ’91 where Venus had a bit of a heyday but that was all ‘dress code’ bullshit. Yeah, you have to be wearing Destroy and proper shoes to get in before queuing for the bogs to neck your pills and speed. Nonsense. Anyhow, by this point I was mincing about thinking I was cross between Posdenous, Mick Jones and Ice Cube and pretty much ditched it. (Still found time to do my first pill in the Hacienda though. Aces).”
DMC are the crew behind the World DJ Championships – with a love of hip hop, did you ever fancy a pop at entering?
“I’d need to learn how to do it first. Turntablism, being one of the four corners of hip hop, has always been a huge inspiration. From Q-Bert to A-Trak and JFB, it’s as much about style as it is technique and I just don’t know what I would bring to the game?…but never say never.”
After a re-location the midlands you moved back to Teeside to do an animation course with music videos at the back of your mind. Dance videos were really taking off at this point, can you remember some of the big ones that grabbed you?
“It was Hype Williams’ promos that blew me away. The first Missy Elliot videos and Busta Rhymes, just so over the top and surreal. Big beat was on a roll so there was Fatboys ‘Praise You’ obviously, in fact the majority of the videos from ‘You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby’ were a big deal (thanks to commissioner John Hassey, who had the good sense to let me have a go at producing for Skints roster, but more of that later).”
What is the current top 10 you are spinning…
“Not spinning at the moment, more into running where I listen to a mixed bag of stuff from Action Bronson to Toro Y Moi…see the ‘Back To Mine’ Chart below…”
You music has been used on many an advert, tell us some of the brands you have endorsed with your sounds…
“It’s more out of necessity to recoup on the deal than ‘endorse’ a product as such, but as long as it’s not the Coalition party or some other scurrilous bunch of twats wanting to use my tune, I’m pretty happy to get paid for them to use it. Bacardi was the biggest one, the international ‘Mojito’ ad that ran for a couple of years used ‘Under The Sun’ followed by Warner Hotels who used ‘Strong Together’, which also got used on the BBC to advertise the Chelsea Flower Show. Recently I’ve had a few spots on the box like ‘Made In Chelsea’ which used a few tracks from ‘Hotel Radio’ throughout the second series and ‘Total Wipeout’ too.”
After the north east, you then moved to Brighton, and went along to the Skint offices to show them your reel after your flatmate Danielsan, a Skint recording artist, asked you to make a video for him. What came out of that meeting?
“I had a meeting with John Hassey (Skint’s in-house commissioner at the time and responsible for the whole ‘Youve Come A Long Way Baby’ promos) who gave me the opportunity to make the Danielsan video, I knew nothing of the promo world , so it was all a bit of a steep learning curve. They liked it, so I got paid and cracked on with a promo for Midfield Generals ‘Midfielding’ which featured (a younger) Noel Fielding delivering one of his surreal monologues about a bunch of lesser known British woodland animals that took the fight for recognition to the plains of Africa against the lions and tigers we’re all so familiar with. Following that, I delivered more animated promos for Lo Fidelity Allstars, Phil Kieran, XPress 2 and FC Kahuna, it got me noticed enough to get with a London agency and move into TV commercials and that… The woodland creatures won, by the way.”
What’s the best and worst thing about living in Brighton?
“The sea, the running and the fact that you can walk round it, plus there’s more of a sense of community here than anywhere else I’ve been. I don’t know if this is just a Brighton thing, but is there anywhere else in the country where folks leave stuff they don’t use any more out the front of their houses with a sign asking you to take it if you like? Lemme know. There’s not much I don’t like about Brighton, it’s a bit of a dumping ground for middle-class-liberal-ex-capital-bullshiters with their overpriced pushchairs and coffee mornings but this, as I have come to realise, is a national phenomenon and much to do with my own intolerance than their social inadequacies. I’ve taken up yoga in the last year, so I’m slowly becoming all I used to despise. Namaste.”
Best live gig you have ever been to?
“The Beastie Boys and Henry Rollins at The Riverside, Newcastle in ’91. They’d just dropped ‘Check Your Head’ and after ‘Paul’s Boutique’ got so heavily slept on before that, no one really cared what they were upto, but that record and that gig changed my whole perspective of where you could go with hip hop. It was a double bill and I knew little of Rollins who was equal parts enthralling and terrifying, all sweat, tats, muscles and visceral monologues. Amazing, not to be fucked with. Then the Beasties arrived, first playing the old stuff then they brought the instruments out, it felt like they had a lot to prove and they did, playing for around 2 hours, swapping from old to the new, punk to funk to rap…they were dope. I saw them again when I lived in Brixton in ’94 which was good but they were on a major tour by that point and the vibe had changed. I saved someone’s life that night too, but that’s a different story…”
It’s not good for my image, but I really love…
“My new red trousers. Just look at my fucking red trousers!”
Down at the DMC offices we think you’d be perfect for a Back To Mine release. With that in mind, if we came back to yours after the club – what would your Back To Mine 10 be?
DJ Format – Spaceship Earth (feat Edan)
Action Bronson – Shiraz
Unknown Mortal Orchestra – How Can You Love Me?
Toro Y Moi – Still Sound
Kidda – The Whistler
Tennis – My Bitter Self
Kisses – Bermuda
Cashier No9 – Lost At Sea
The Antlers – Burst Apart
Washed Out – Eyes Be Closed
“…yeah man.”
Are you happy how your album Hotel Radio has been received?
“Not really, I mean nobody knows it’s out at the moment, but the folks who have heard it, love it. We had a tiny amount of money in the budget for promo, so it’s only on it’s own musical merits that it’s going to get anywhere. It’s signed to Germany Austria and Switzerland and the label over there have committed to promo and got ‘The Whistler’ all over the video channels, MTV and taking it to radio as we speak. The same tune has been number one on a big station in the Philippines for a month and looks like it’s climbing more charts over there now. Fuck know’s how this stuff happens and I don’t really know what it means? As far as I can work out, all this stuff supposed to mean things are ‘happening’ but day to day, I’m here still looking for work and writing new tunes that I’m not sure anybody’s ever going to hear. I’ve become a sorry industry cliché, but that won’t fucking stop me. It’s still very dusty round here.”
You went through a ‘DJ hiatus’ last year, fed up of turning up at gigs where people had no idea what your whole sound was – was there a particular night when you thought sod this for a game of soldiers? And are you back on track now with the DJing now…?
“There was a series of events and just the general DJ grinds that are familiar to many that conspired to fuck up my DJing career. In short, I got deported from Japan, went toe to toe with Aldo Zilli cos I didn’t have any Abba, got pulled early in Canberra cos what I was playing was ‘too hard’ (oh yeah someone called me ‘n*gga’ that night too – awesome). Jetlag, loneliness, airport tedium. Punters, arms folded, shaking their heads asking for Deadmaus. Punters, arms folded, shaking their heads asking for dubstep. Being told to “just play the Herve remix mate”. Being told I shouldn’t play the Herve remix as ‘it’s not really your tune’ (aside from the fact I wrote the original, commissioned and paid for the remix? gotcha), the bullshit politics of promoters, the bullshit politics of agents, the bullshit politics of the ‘scene’ and all that wasted sunshine being blown up the wrong arseholes, the shit hotels, the average hotels, the insomnia and the hangovers. Obviously, I had some amazing times, played some awesome gigs and met some nice folks but the bad out weighed the good and it all started to erode my love of the music. I got a live show together last year which is expensive to make work but closer to where I want to be when in front of an audience. We’ll see how it goes.”
So a massive remix of ‘Together’ Again’ how did that come about?
“Des (Detboi) remixed ‘Smile’ for me in 2008, we stayed in touch and this time around, it made sense to ask him to do another. He actually delivered 3 remixes, I liked them all but the label stumped for this one. I like it a lot, it runs deep.”
Looking back at the big beat era – what tunes still stand out for you?
“Fatboy Slim – ‘Everybody Needs A Filter’ I used to drop this into my sets a couple of years back, it still stands up, that and ‘Santa Cruz’, Lo Fidelity Allstars – ‘Kasparovs Revenge’ – Swag. Midfield General – ‘Devil In Sports Casual’.”
Those boys could party harder than anyone I ever seen. Who was always the last man standing?
“I was a bit late to that particular party but let it be known, I have the constitution of an Ox and a liver to match, and while this may well be the death of me, I have been known to make the trip to the 24 hour shop at 8am to pick up more vodka and fags. Not so much now, but given the opportunity…”
What is your guilty pleasure tune?
“I think it’s written in the ancient Sanskrit teachings of the Bhagavad Gita that “the path of a musician should be littered with neither guilt nor regret, aural enlightenment is bestowed upon those who truely don’t give a fuck’ or summat.”
You know the industry inside out, what advice can you give to thousands of aspiring producers/designers/DJs out there wanting to follow in your footsteps?
“Don’t get into it for the money, there isn’t any. You’re probably not that special, but longevity will out. Instinct is everything and you can only really carve your own route in what ever you do. It’s gonna be easier if you went to private school. Try to be amazing (I’m still working on this).”
Favourite DJ gig of all time?
“Brisbane on the Stereosonic tour in 2009. I played early, my set was good but spent the rest of the day at the Outrage stage with Crookers, Drop the Lime (Luca), Surkin, Hudson Mohawke, Renaissance Man and Acid Jack. The sun shone, drinks were drunk, the music played and we danced till the sun went down. Best day ever.”
Finest record you have ever played to a dancefloor?
“Candi Staton – ‘Young Hearts Run Free’.”
And finally, what is coming next from the Kidda studio?
“Been busy writing new stuff since finishing Hotel Radio last year, got lots of songs to develop, and lots of ideas kicking around to be excited about.”
www.kiddamusic.com
Free music…
Hangin’ Around (Destruction remix)
http://soundcloud.com/skintrecords/hangin-around-destruction-1
Destruction was a DMC UK finalist http://thetrashsociety.com/index.php/interviews
Kidda’s minimix for Annie Mac in 2009. Old but gold and illustrates Ste’s musical tastes perfectly.
http://soundcloud.com/iamkidda/kidda-annie-mac-minimix
