Interview by Nicky Trax
This is your first time at Deep Into Soul, what are you looking forward to during most this bubbling party and what can clubbers expect from your set?
It is indeed my first time! Looking forward to popping my cherry and it’s one hell of a line up too. It’ll be an honour to be on the same bill as Terry Hunter! As for my set, I tend to freestyle and am more of a ‘feel the vibe and read the room’ type of deejay, but, I’d say I always try and be soulful with it, even if not all the tracks are ‘soulful’ y’know? I’ve been doing this for a while, and my influences stem from many different aspects of House and club music, so, expect Afro, Techno, Disco and a lot of things in between to be represented, as long as I consider them soulful….
What kind of DJ set up to you use? Do you play vinyl or have your moved entirely into the digital arena?
When I started I carried milk crates to bar gigsso nowadays carrying USB sticks feels like a hard earned luxury! As much as I’m still a mad vinyl lover and collector, the technology has changed so much that it would seem foolish not to utilise it, and I get so much music that is not ‘available’ on wax, so these new mediums are really useful and important to what I do. Though I am, and always will be, a vinyl lover, I’m certainly not into the scene snobbery regarding it, and a lot of the ‘sound quality’ myths that people purport to believing in (so even though I’ll often carry and play vinyl, you’ll never catch me doing a ‘vinyl only set’ or any of that elitist, divisive stuff. If the sound quality is good, and the vibe is good, the music itself is the medium, not the format.
How have technological advances helped in your DJ sets?
They’ve certainly helped my back out! As we’ve just covered, it’s great to able to play unreleased edits, and new material, and unreleased stuff from friends, that were all a lot harder to come by back in the day. Also, the functions and frills on new equipment give you greater control over everything, and more mix possibilities as a deejay too. That said, there’s still something ultimately special about two decks (whatever medium) and a mixer, and a red light and a crowd.
thatmanmonkz…is there something behind the name and how did you come upon it?
Well, I’m an old school hip hop fan, so it links to that. Simply because my nickname has always been Monkz due to my surname, so it stemmed from that. I started my music making career as Monkz, and always ended up on photo lists next to Monki DJ, which was pretty intimidating, so I added the ‘thatman’….
For someone that’s never heard your music, how would you describe your sound and what you play?
As I just mentioned, I was an old school/Golden era hip hop fan which led me to the breaks and disco, and into house and club music from there. My first house loves were probably people like Kenny Dope and Pal Joey due to the obvious hip hop links, and then I heard music from Chicago and Detroit, and once I was exposed to Kenny Dixon and Theo Parrish it was pretty much all over for me. In terms of deejaying I always try and connect to the birthplace and origins of this music when I play, as I think we should all recognise and praise our master teachers in this far more than we do, but, I also like to go off with new records, or explore a little afro and disco, sometimes even the more soulful side of techno, depending on the vibe, the room, and the crowd.
2014 was a big year for you with some major releases, did you know these tracks were going to blow up for you?
Yeah, I guess that was the year that things really took of for me, so I look back at it really fondly. Doing an EP for Delusions Of Grandeur was a real honour, as I’d been buying them for a long time, and loved their output. I think it was working with them that brought me to the attention of the crew at Kolour LTD too really, and when they come calling, you just say yes. Mike and Justin are two of the nicest guys I’ve met in the game, we speak regularly, and J put me up in Detroit recently! Regarding the tracks themselves, I mean, you feel like you know when you’ve got a hot one happening, but, in my experience it’s better to labels and music buyers decide, I have a special relationship with all of them, and it’s certainly not the case that I know which ones are going to blow up, or which won’t! It’s way easier A&R-ing other people’s music for my label, Shadeleaf, than it is A&R-ing my own as I make it, though I think that’s a skill that an artist develops and gets better with over time….
How did you come to connect with Jimpster, you released your debut album ‘Columbusing’ on his Delusions Of Grandeur label earlier this year to great reviews? Can you also tell us about some of the ideas and tracks on the album and are there any particular faves?
Jimpster was on the promo list for Tone Control where I released my first couple of EP’s with in 2013 or so, we connected from there really and sent him out promo’s for Shadeleaf when I started that. When he asked if I had demo’s I nearly bit his hand off! After doing the couple of EP’s with them, they enquired about an album, and I’d always wanted to do one, and to show that I could be more stylistically diverse as a producer. Then my father passed away, and after dealing with that I pretty much locked myself in the studio, which is very much a healing process and coping mechanism for me. As the album started to come together, it became an homage to my love of sampling, and american black music, so, to call it ‘Columbusing’, and reference my awareness and discomfort at my own cultural appropriation gave it a thread for me to follow through. As for my favourites, well, at different times, and in their own ways, they are all my favourites I guess. I’d have to say that the real pleasure in it was getting to collaborate with some of the amazing vocalists and musicians that I did, and that they definitely made the album what it is!
Now an integral part of Sheffield’s house music scene, are you influenced by the city’s rich musical legacy and does it show in the music you make?
Sheffield is an unusual place! There’s a real sense of history within music here, and an amazing amount of creatives in comparison to its size. The house scene goes through phases, and, we’ve always had a strong warehouse and underground scene, though long gone are the days where we have superclubs catering to thousands of people, well, at least within musical genres that interest me! I’d honestly have to say that i’m not directly influenced by Sheffield’s musical history, despite my respect for it, and that the music of Detroit and Chicago have played a far more overtly important role in my own artistic development, but working regularly over the years with people like Pete Simpson, Ross Orton, and Chris Duckenfield has played a massive part in the technical, business, and artistic side of what I do, so the stamp of the Steel City is definitely there upon me and my work!
Can you tell us how you first got into music?
From as early on as I can remember I was into music, making pause-button mixes from the radio and the like. Old school Hip Hop and early house and acid caught my ear when I was really young, and I’d always been a nerd, and inclined to digging a little deeper than what was obvious. My family thought I was weird for my musical tastes and vinyl buying obsession really, and still do, so, not a lot of help there! I had a great friend at school that would bunk off and go import vinyl shopping with me in our teens, but, we weren’t considered cool at all! We’d listen to Jeff Young and Pete Tong on Radio One, and get the occasional Westwood cassette falling into our hands, you know the one…. I grew up in a place called Melton Mowbray, near Leicester and Nottingham but quite small, that had one local record shop. I basically became the ‘Saturday lad’ there, and was able to order and buy what I wanted for myself at trade price, just around the time bootleg tapes of DJ sets were blowing up, and I’d be drawn to the ones from the likes of Kenny Carpenter and similar DJs. For a small shop in a small town we actually had a really forward thinking dance section! Happy days… When I moved to Sheffield in my late teens the club scene here was booming, so, I was like a kid in a candy store.
Was there a special moment when you thought this is a career I can go into now?
This is actually my second go round. I’d originally started producing under the name Small Arms Fiya with Toddla Tee in about 2005. We had a couple of EP’s and a few remixes back then, but, we were probably at the back end of a scene/sound, and the landscape seemed to quickly shift just as we’d got going, and in a direction I didn’t really get (Indie and Electroclash blew up, vinyl stopped selling etc.). I stepped away and started a business with a friend, running a small venue, focused on the things we loved, then the recession hit. I had few options other than to resume and re-learn music production, which I’d been missing, then, my friend Okie (his face is the Shadeleaf logo) passed away. It was devastating to me personally, and to the Sheffield scene as a whole really. At that point I could think of nothing else to do than throw myself into the music as a means of recovering from that, which led directly to getting the opportunity to start Shadeleaf, which led to me having the leverage to work with bigger labels than my own. I’ve not really thought of it as a choice in the last few years, or that there has been a point where I ‘made it’, I’m still striving to improve all the time. I’m lucky enough that it seems to come quite naturally, and that I enjoy the grind of it all, and don’t really see it as ‘work’!
Definitely not work shy, you’re starting to amass a strong catalogue of tracks and your own Shadeleaf label goes from strength to strength. Do you have any releases you’re especially proud of and what’s coming up on the label?
Thanks! I’m definitely happier trying to be prolific, rather than just dipping in and out at random. Whatever works for the individual in my opinion, though I would say that quality control gets better, faster, and easier the longer you’re doing this. As for Shadeleaf, I love them all, I must do to sign them and put them out! I’m obviously a huge Mannmademusic fan, as we’ve put out two EP’s by him and I think SImba is going to be an amazing producer. It was a real buzz to get Kai Alce and Byron The Aquarius to do remixes for us… As I said though, I love them all really, and I’m hoping we get to continue building up a diverse and interesting back catalogue. Next up we have an amazing EP from D^Bo (Damon Bell) and Khalil Anthony, with a remix from Afrikan Sciences, and, I promise you, it’s a killer of a record!
You also collaborate with different artists, how did you first connect with them?
The very first original release I was ever involved in was collaborative (Small Arms Fiya “So Easy” with Pete Simpson on vocals, and two or three live musicians), so it’s always felt natural to me as a producer to work that way. Though I can play a few instruments a little, my main thing is making beats, and having ideas for them to develop. Sometimes that doesn’t require any collaboration, but, more often than not it does (you really don’t want to hear me sing!). I’m amazingly lucky that I have an array of really talented friends, and that they introduce me to their really talented friends, and things spread from there…. Also, social media is a great help with that. As my own work has become more known, the opportunities to work with people that I’ve always been a fan of becomes more possible, mainly due to connecting with like minded people via social media.
Running a label, producing, remixing and DJ-ing – how do you balance all this?
I’m not always sure I do balance it! Jokes aside, it can be really difficult, but, with the ever changing nature of the music industry, and society itself, I like to have control over as many aspects of my working life as I can, and I think it’s important to know them all as well as i can. I enjoy them all, but, the highlights are usually sharing great music in a basement with a group of like minded people, or coming up with that loop, or that riff that you know is going to turn into something special….
Are there any producers you’re particularly tipping right now and why?
Right, I could go on and on here so I’ll try to keep it reasonably concise. Currently, anything by Byron The Aquarius, or Henry Wu is a must have. Damon Bell is killing it. I’ve already mentioned to watch out for my man Simba. Oh, and Pontchartrain and Private Panther have some incoming heat too.
10 trax rocking your world
1. ‘Your Love’ Kai Alce Unreleased Mix – Chez Damier (NDATL)
Kai’s NBA Jam like fire/run of form continues!
2. ‘You Can’t Hide’ – Nicholas ft. Nikki O (X Masters)
The whole EP is ridiculously good.
3. ‘Phantom’ – A Band Called Flash (Future Vision)
Proper boogie tackle here.
4. ‘L/F’ Mix 1 – DJ Nature (SWAT)
Rough and ready real house music for the club.
5. ‘Final Credits’ – Midland (Regraded)
Gonna be up there in my year end list.
6. ‘Anniversary’ – Khalil Anthony and Damon Bell (Shadeleaf)
Deeper than atlantis vocal cut.
7. ‘Nature’s Force’ – Joe Claussell (Sacred Rhythm)
Great reboot of a fave vocal track of mine.
8. ‘Nobu’ The Munk Machine Redo – Herbie Hancock (Unknown)
Secret weaponry.
9. ‘Work It Out’ – Karizma (Lumberjacks In Hell)
Gospel vibes from a fave producer on a fave label.
10. ‘Claudia’s Trip’ – Dan Shake (Shake)
Down n dirty acid from Dan.
And lastly before we leave to head out to Deep Into Soul, what should we be listening to?
I’m going to go with the Yussef Kamaal album or the Nx Worries album. See you on the floor!
thatmonmonkz headlines Deep Into Soul alongside Terry Hunter, Rhemi Music’s Neil Pierce and Ziggy Funk and Q Narongwate on Saturday November 19th at the Prince of Wales Brixton. With Residents DJs Shaun Ashby and Fiddla joined by Mr Silk in Room 2, all info at… www.facebook.com/deepintosoul
