Far too loud? You betcha…
Funkatech Records is a leading, multi award-winning, London based independent label pushing quality electronic music. First established as a small breakbeat label in 2002, Funkatech has since grown into an all encompassing, multi-genre stable launching and developing award-winning artists including Far Too Loud, NAPT, Specimen A, PYRAMID, Ctrl-Z and more. We check in with owners Asad Raja and Guy Ashley celebrating their 50th release…
Asad and Guy, welcome to the DMC world. A real ‘rags to riches story’ for you two, starting your operation in a bedroom and now celebrating your 50th release. How did all this begin…?
Guy: “We both grew up in London listening to pirate radio. I started out collecting vinyl and DJing and Asad was into his MCing. We met around 1999 and by 2001 we had our own pirate radio show playing a mashup of garage, breakstep and nu skool breaks. At the same time we’d made links with a lot of producers in the scene pushing the bassline breaks sound, people like DJ Mutiny, Deekline, Quest and it all just fell into place from there really.”
Your label has been smashing our dancefloors with the a cool selection of electro, dubstep, jungle breaks, drum & bass and drumstep – but what was the sort of dance artists and tunes that first got you two locked in growing up?
Asad: “The Prodigy’s ‘Experience’ album had a mass impact with it’s raw sounds but mainstream accessibility. Frankie Knuckles ‘Tears’ – that soul and house combination gave us the ear for song based dance music that was accessible to the ladies on the dancefloor too. Adam F ‘Circles’ showed that Drum & Bass had serious musical depth and showed this music was going to be around for a long time. Acen ‘Trip To The Moon Pt’s 1-3’ – classic hardcore with James Bond samples that got smashed by everyone! Lennie De Ice ‘We are E’ was a serious game changer.. some say the beginning of jungle!”
Guy: “Todd Edwards – I was fascinated with his sound and sampling. His earlier stuff was just genius.
Ed Rush – his old school jungle stuff through to Virus and the whole tech step thing was a big influence.
LTJ Bukem – A class DJ and producer. Logical Progression… enough said! EZ was leagues ahead of everyone with his mixing, selection and dubplates. He’s influenced everyone making bassline music today whether they know it or not! Kerri Chandler – The god of house music. DJ Abstract – bit of an unsung hero for me. He nailed that fusion of 2step garage and dark breakbeat so well. Then disappeared!”
What were the early clubs and who were the early DJs that excited you then?
Guy: “In terms of clubs there was Bagleys, Turnmills and The End mainly. We definitely both spent more time listening to the pirates than we did in the clubs though. I used to listen to DJs like EZ, Andy C, Ed Rush, Deekline, Kaliber, Charlie Brown, Merlin, Masters At Work, John Digweed…too many to mention really but I guess those were the main ones.”
Tell us about the youth projects you have set up in Brighton and London?
Asad: “Culture Move was the name of the project headed by our good friend Sukant Chandan. We came together to supply music and art workshops for young people from working class areas in Brighton and London. Using our experience and contacts we created solid MCing, DJing and drama workshops that taught the kids lots of practical skills. The aim was to deliver a positive message and wider understanding for those young people’s environment and daily lives using arts and media as the tool. It was a great success and inspired us to keep in touch with these kind of invaluable projects as we grow.”
Not content with the UK, you have been smashing Spain with some huge one off’s – what’s the story there?
Asad: “When we were growing through the breaks scene, the south of Spain had a huge fan base for the music with raves reaching up to 15,000 capacities. It was the youth music for that generation. We collaborated with Spanish label Ibreaks to put on a few 3000 capacity raves of our own out there which worked really well. Then we had the idea of taking Breakspoll – the yearly award ceremony and rave held at Fabric – out to Spain. I licenced the brand and we hired out the basketball stadium of Seville (10,000 cap) and resurfaced it, craned in two large stages and booked 46 artists from around the world including six fully live acts. We had Radio 1 and Kiss FM with us as well as DJ Mag and IDJ. It was one of the biggest things we have done to date.”
What are the all time Top 10 Funkatech releases? (with a line describing each one)
Guy: In no particular order…
01 Far Too Loud ‘Play It Loud’ for it’s sheer mass impact and genius!
02 PYRAMID ‘Trouble’ from ‘The 140 EP’ kicked off their whole journey into the 140 BPM jungle breaks sound in a big way. That raw PYRAMID energy always goes off.
03 Specimen A feat. Miss Trouble ‘Freak In Us’ is nearly five years old and still such a well written, catchy song. Miss T’s vocals and lyrics with Spec A’s production and writing skills makes for a deadly combo!
04 NAPT feat. Skibadee ‘The Rollers’ was a big turning point for them. This was their second collab with Skibba and it went in, hard, straight to the top of the Beatport breaks chart.
05 PYRAMID feat. Julie Thompson ‘Cruel (SkisM Remix)’ got smashed in the clubs by all the top dubstep jocks. Julie’s lyrical class plus Skism’s quality production equals a winning anthem.
06 Far Too Loud ‘Bass Association’ – I call it crack breaks! Love the clever sample. And that bassline…no other word than filth!
07 Specimen A ‘Jaws’ for using the best film sample of all time and being so horrifically brilliant.
08 PYRAMID vs Wizard ‘War Of The Worlds’ they nailed the fusion of dubstep and breaks on that one. It was fresh and forward thinking with this high voltage energy. Makes me feel like I’m in my armoured robot suit gunning down alien craft!
09 NAPT ‘Work This Out’ was really ahead of the game. I love the fusion of that garagey bounce with the 8bit electro house vibe and tight breakbeat drums. I still haven’t really heard another track like it.
10 Far Too Loud’s ‘Ready To Stomp EP’ just smashes it on so many levels. I couldn’t have wished for a better way to mark our milestone 50th release!
What one artist would you love to sign to your label at the moment?
Asad: “Wiley. For his work rate, understanding of the music scene and the fact he is a songwriter, rapper and producer who can fit in to so many genres never fails to impress me.”
Guy: “Skrillex…who wouldn’t?!”
You have wide spread support from a huge amount of DJs out there both on the radio and in the leading clubs – who when you heard was spinning your record has meant the most?
Guy: “God that’s hard, there have been so many. I guess when I heard that Mix Master Mike from the Beastie Boys had played Far Too Loud’s ‘Bass Association’ at a gig a friend of ours was at, well that was pretty memorable!”
Your new EP ‘Ready To Stomp’ by Far Too Loud is out now. Talk us through the EP
Guy: “Far Too Loud’s sound has been diversifying the last couple years and this EP was just an extension of that. Oli needed to write something that would really allow him to flex those muscles fully and showcase his skills as a producer across the board. So that’s what we got, in spades! It’s been doing really well and blowing people away. The drumstep track ‘Moneymaker’ was the biggest surprise being his first track at that tempo. We loved it and knew it was massive but it’s always a risk doing something new, so it was fantastic for us to see it go straight into Beatport’s D&B Top 10.”
As a partnership, what are your best qualities that you both bring to the table?
Asad: “I bring my management and training experience which works perfectly with artist development and being proactive in the business. I’m also very structured in my approach so I act like the rock in the team.”
Guy: “Being a bit of a vinyl junkie, my knowledge of underground music goes pretty deep. My main strengths generally are on the creative side of things, dealing with design, writing, presentation, that sort of thing. I’d say we’re also both very analytical though and that’s where we cross over.”
What’s been the best club and festival you’ve been to in 2011?
Asad: “Funny you should ask, we haven’t been to any! We’ve been so focused on projects this year we’ve left the raving to the artists who’ve been all over the world from Canada to Russia and Australia; tearing up Gatecrasher, Glastonbury and Shambala to name a few. It’s alright for some!”
What are your thoughts on Sony announcing the stopping of the manufacture of CDs in a few years?
Asad: “It’s where the industry is going. I think there will always be demand for a physical product for at least the next 15 years. After that, the generations to come will probably never even have heard of a physical product so the demand will diminish I’m sure. Fortunately we still sell vinyl at the moment as there is a demand for it. There will always be the collectors out there to keep things going.”
What do you think of the current state of the music industry?
Asad: “Very healthy for dance music, so good for us, our artists and our peers. It’s an exciting time where genres are being blurred and the underground has become the overground.”
Guy: “Music itself is better than ever, no question, there’s so much fantastic stuff out there at the moment. The industry itself is a different matter. It’s all still pretty uncertain how this digital realm is gonna pan out but I think there’s great opportunities out there for those with the know how. It’s all to play for.”
As we mentioned earlier, the whole operation started in a bedroom just for the love of it, has it been plain sailing or has there been points where you have thought it wasn’t going to work out?
Asad: “It’s never plain sailing, you gotta take the rough with the smooth in this game but be clear on your end plan and always turn issues in to challenges. No matter how many things have been thrown at us we have never thought it was not going to work out.”
Who in the record industry have been supportive to the cause?
Asad: “We have been getting some great support from all round. Specialists at Radio 1 and 1xtra to Drum & Bass brand Viper Recs; Dubstep’s big boys Dub Police and urban label and management teams GGI Enterprises and Myish. We work with Polydor and Universal on a regular basis amd also have great support from some of the big guns in breakbeat Jay Cunning, Stanton Warriors and Deekline. There are many out there and we wish to thank them all!”
You recently organized the tribute night for Smiley Culture in Brixton. You must have been very proud. What happened on the night?
Asad: “It was a great evening of discussion, remembrance and music held in conjunction with Sons Of Malcolm at the Fridge Bar in Brixton and was a free event. It was totally full of young black youth from the area and we had speakers including Akala and Smiley’s nephew Merlin. Discussions were had around the suspicious circumstances of Smiley’s death in police custody. Also issues related to young people in the local area. Then we all had a great shuck out with live performances from Swiss (So Solid), Roxxxan, Durrty Goodz, Akala and Miss Trouble…”
Some big releases coming up…
Asad: “It’s all pretty hush hush at the moment, but be sure that we’ll continue to deliver the best in electronic dance music that we can and always with that Funkatech edge. The lads are all working on some great tracks and collabs right now. Also, watch out for a London club night in association with Viper Records and Cable coming very soon!”