HE’S NOT DEAD The Rise Of The Vinyl Junkie…

Achieving some serious mileage and experience as a producer, DJ, promoter and being able to maintain integrity and keep things fresh and interesting is by no means an easy task for any artist competing to let their originality shine through against tough competition, especially one that has managed to do this and succeed for a number of decades like happy hardcore hero turned forward thinking future jungle pioneer Vinyl Junkie has.

From the free party explosion of the early 90′s of which he was a huge part, Vinyl Junkie’s contribution as a DJ, standing shoulder to shoulder with some of the scene’s biggest titans has led him, through a devoted passion for music to become a titan himself. Having played at all the major parties of the day such as Fantazia, Dreamscape, Uproar, Raindance, Tribal Gathering, Glastonbury Festival and then some, Vinyl Junkie has consistently provided a cross section of forward thinking music both in his DJ sets and upon his label, Warehouse Wax, which has had a number of best selling dance floor bangers since it’s inception.

Presently taking things in a new, fresh and exciting direction with the future jungle sound of which he has been praised for pioneering, Vinyl Junkie continues to smash the bar with innovative single releases, chart championing albums such as the ‘We’re Not Dead’ series, which has received global critical acclaim, a label which currently is the talk of the jungle rave scene and of course a legion of gigs across Europe, continuing to spread the good word of 140 bass music. We speak with him today to discuss his career and achievements and of course, the latest instalment of ‘We’re Not Dead’.

Now you Sir are a Gentleman that has achieved quite a lot. Shall we start at the beginning? How did one get to become the legendary Vinyl Junkie?

“Through being a raver that had an uncontrollable urge to be on the other side of the turntables. Starting out at small parties around Bristol and the free party scene of 1991, I gradually carved out a name for myself. The rest is history… I guess…”

Quite a history it is too, you have worked with a significant amount of promoters during your time in the scene, what is it, in your own opinion that you feel you bring to the scene both then, in the beginning and now to keep things fresh and of course, feel free to name some of those huge parties upon which you’ve featured…

“I hate questions like this as they force you into a position where you have to blow your own trumpet, which I don’t like doing. Back then I couldn’t tell you what I brought to the scene apart from my sheer passion for the music. I’d like to think my mixing skills were pretty good back then compared to some DJ’s that were around. Or maybe not?

Nowadays, I like to think that, especially with old skool sets, I bring a bit of ‘thinking outside the box’. I don’t like to bash the anthems out too much and prefer to try and work the crowd using tracks that are certified bangers, but don’t get dropped by all the other DJ’s.

And playing new music, to me it’s about keeping it fresh but also adding in an element of familiarity. It’s obviously important to drop tunes nobody has heard before because that can give you the edge over other DJ’s but it’s just as important to give them something that they know. As Paul Oakenfold once said: “Dj’ing is not about just playing the newest bunch of tunes you can get your hands on, it never has been…”

As for events, some of the highlights of my career have been my residency at Vibes Alive & Sutra in Bristol, which spanned 1992 to 1994. My residency at Sketch, which was at a place called Pawlett Manor near Bridgewater, that lasted from 1994 until 1996(ish). Kinetic was always awesome, two Tribal Gatherings, Bristol Exposure, Double Dipped at Bagley’s, Raindance at SE One, all the Illusion parties, all the Fantazia’s but in particular, headlining it alongside Phuture Assassin and Rachel Wallace. Bassline Circus and Energy 24 at Glastonbury Festival, Ashton Court Festival in Bristol in about 2002 I think, Saturday afternoon in the sunshine with about 3000 people out-front and absolutely loads of people I knew!”

That’s quite a list, very impressive indeed. As a man that has quite literally been there from the birth of rave culture, give us the highs and lows of the rave scene by your account, as it was in the beginning, through to now…

“Blimey, you want me to write a book? OK, 1989-1990 were the best years in my opinion. The parties were amazing, I kind of liked it when the party was in one room and all different styles of music got played in there. The E’s still actually worked back then as well. 1991-1992 produced some amazing music and also some amazing parties but by now I was a DJ so raving took a bit of a back seat as I became more focussed on that. I did still go to some of the big events of course, Fantazia at Matchams in Bournemouth being one that really stands out for me.

Towards the end of 1993 things started to get a bit darker, musically. I liked that from a musical perspective but it did change the mood at some of the events. After that until the end of the 90’s it was all about Happy Hardcore for me and this is where I really cemented my name as a DJ. The early noughties saw a massive old skool revival, which I was privileged to play quite a big part in. Things seem to have gone full circle now and from what I can see the really successful events are the ones where they vary the music in the main room a bit. People don’t want to go out these days and just listen to one thing all night.”

Agreed. Speaking of parties, you not only DJ’ed, but were also the mastermind behind a few parties during your time, want to tell us all about those and how you contributed to building Bristol’s rave scene?

“I don’t know about mastermind but yeah I have had a pop at promoting as well. Back in the day I used to put on a little night on the outskirts of Bristol at a club called Fairways, which could squeeze in about 450 people. These parties were epic and are kind of legendary now. How much that contributed to building the scene I’m not sure but everyone that attended the Fairways nights have fond memories of them. It used to shut at 2 though which was a pisser, but there was usually a free party going on after so we’d all go off to that.

Then in 2001 I think it was, me and Mike (who is now the manager at Lakota in Bristol), started a night called ‘Absolute Oldskool’ which we did on a regular basis over the next three years and they were hugely successful. This cemented my name as a DJ even more.”

There is of course more to your talents then promotion and some memorable DJ sets, a consistent producer, you’ve both studied, practised and successfully released many singles and albums and appeared upon compilations, let’s work through some of your career highlights including of course, the brilliant Warehouse Wax and the ‘We’re Not Dead’ series, name some of your musical achievements, if you please…

“OK, some of the musical achievements that really stand out for me are:

• Playing in the main arena at Universe’s first Tribal Gathering in 1993.
• Making my first track with Jody Wisternoff from Way Out West (then of SubLove) in 1994.
• Working in the studio with the legendary Austin Reynolds in 1995.
• John Peel playing my tune “Can’t Forget” on Radio 1 in his Top 50 tunes of that year and his wife said it was her favourite tune of the year.
• DJ Sy playing my tune “Tearing My Love Apart” as the last tune of the night at Dreamscape after they had just done a minutes silence for Murray (R.I.P).
• Winning 2 awards at the Nu-Rave Awards.
• Passing my degree in Music Tech with first class honours.
• Getting made resident in the ‘Old Skool Legends’ arena at Fantazia.

There’s probably more but I have bored you enough now.”

Don’t be silly! These are fine achievements you should definitely be proud of! I know you are not a huge fan of trumpet blowing or name dropping; however, I do need to ask the next question. You’ve worked with some phenomenal artists within your career and continue to do so on a daily basis, elaborate please on some of the legends you’ve worked with and why and also, some of the good folk you’re working with presently…

“OK Jody Wisternoff was the first person that gave me a taste of music production so I blame him for everything. Then Austin of Suburban Base fame. I was truly humbled when I was taken by Danny of Tech-Step Records to this studio in Brentwood to find that the engineer was none other than Austin Reynolds. I couldn’t believe it. Danny was like “Austin who?” he didn’t have half a clue about Austin’s history. Nebula 2 and Orca who featured on the first “We’re Not Dead” album. Backdraft, who are one of the pioneers of this whole 140 thing, although they are oblivious to that fact.

Billy ‘Daniel’ Bunter who is nothing short of a legend (or leg-end), King Yoof who is one of my favourite producer on the future jungle / 140 scene right now. More recently, Rachel Wallace who is another legend from the Suburban Base camp who is very under-rated… what an amazing voice she has.”

With regards to such wonderful collaborations and working relationships, there’s more to Vinyl Junkie than just Vinyl Junkie isn’t there? Is it true you have one or two alter egos for different sounds?

“Well, yeah me and Sanxion have been dabbling with some different genres. We started doing a thing called G.A.P.E, which originally was to be for anything we did that, did not fit into our “Vinyl Junkie & Sanxion” thing. We had one release on Future Followers, which had a trap tune and a few other bits, which were a bit experimental. Then we released a vocal track with another label called Filter. Then we signed another trap tune to an American label called Heavy Artillery which did really well. We’ve now decided to keep the G.A.P.E alias just for trap music and are working on another release for Heavy Artillery for next year.

We then set up another alias called Skuxx. We have just signed a vocal track we did with a singer from Bristol called Maria Milewska, to an Australian label called Komplex Sounds. This has a kinda housey vibe but its only 115 BPM. The tunes called “Thinking About” and the PR guys at the label have high hopes of some Radio 1 play, but we shall see. Finally, we have another Alias called ‘The Men With No Name’. We did a few bootleg bits that we never had any intention of releasing but then a label called Propaganda asked if he could release them. We didn’t want to release them under our own name so we made that name up. They are really just Vinyl Junkie & Sanxion remixes.”

The incredible ‘We’re Not Dead’ has had it’s third instalment released recently, what was the inspiration behind putting together this particular release, who and what went into it’s production and how this one is different from the previous editions…

“Well the inspiration was that I thought there was so many great new artists about doing this 140 thing that I wanted to showcase that. Billy Bunter and Sanxion had been talking about doing a similar thing for ages but it never materialised so I just stepped in and took the reins and Bunter was happy for me to do that, he actually said “You and Sanxion need to give the scene a kick up the arse” so that’s what we tried to do. Whether we have achieved it or not I’ll let you lot be the judge but the feedback so far from DJ’s and Blogs has been phenomenal.

It’s different from previous editions in that the music has more of a modern sound to it, whereas the previous two have been more focussed on the hardcore breaks sound and also carried a bigger nod towards the old skool.

What has gone into it? Blood, sweat and tears that’s what! It’s been a lot of work let me tell you, 50 tracks! Its been a real labour of love to be honest as myself and Sanxion have put a lot of effort into making it as good as we possibly can for the simple reason, we both love the music and believe in what we are doing and we want to push this music to the next level.

Other people that have played a big part in this album have been Jay Cunning and Terry Hooligan (and the rest of the team) at On The Rise Promotions, who have been great and have supported me and offered me advice on certain things from the outset and have done a great job with the PR Campaign. There’s a guy called Tariq Ziyad who writes for a few different blogs, he has helped a lot with promotion as he does with all our releases. A young lady called Caragh King who has put loads of effort and time into fine-tuning our social networking streams and while I’m here I should also thank Ritchie (Strange Rollers), Tony (RadiokillaZ) and Lucas (Top Drawer Digital) who have always helped and supported me and of course all the artists featured on the album. Finally, a massive thank you to a great network of people that I have built up on Facebook and Twitter who are continually helping me to get my message out there!”

We certainly hope it is the roaring success it deserves to be. How would you best describe your current style to someone who was new to the scene?

“Old skool for the new breed (laughs)! The thing about this whole 140 thing, as I see it, is that it incorporates so many different styles, more so than any other genre I think. You’ve got elements of dubstep, jungle, old skool, hardcore, reggae, electro and bass music. I’d say the lines that govern what bass music actually is, are a bit blurred; confuses the shit out of me anyway. But, the style of music I play sits in there somewhere I think.

But anyway as I was saying, there are all these different elements of what makes up the 140 jungle or future jungle or jungle breaks (or whatever else you want to call it) scene and I tend to play a cross section of the best from all of it. From 23 years of DJ’ing I think I know what is going to work on the dancefloor. Some of the music I get sent I really like but it’s just not what the people want on the dancefloor these days, which is a shame because some of it is really good. That’s why I have started this new Podcast with Sanxion, because it gives me a chance to play and showcase some of the stuff that I may not necessarily think is right for the dancefloor, as well as playing some dancefloor bangers as well of course!”

What comes next for you? In terms of releases, production, gigs and events, give us the rundown on what you have forthcoming and also how we can follow you online…

“Well already I have two more Fantazia events (thanks Alex and Stacey) in the diary for this year after a successful NYE set for them at Bowlers in Manchester where I had an opportunity to play back to back with one of my all time heroes DJ Sy. I do of course have lots of other gigs in the pipelines, in the UK and in fact further afield including a Universe reunion called Universe Reverse which is being held at the Volksfest in Newquay.

Release wise for the label, I think I will have a month (or maybe longer) off now to recover from the stress of doing this album (laughs), but the next release on Warehouse Wax is going to be an EP from myself and Sanxion. Then after that, it looks like myself and Sanxion will also be doing a release for the almighty Passenger Records.

We have remixes of 2 tracks by Bristol’s Laid Blak coming soon on Audio23. We have also done an official remix of “Sound Of Eden” for Shades Of Rhythm, which will see a release sometime this year. We have a remix coming out on Bassrock and we will be remixing another one of King Yoof’s tunes for Bass Selection Vol. 2 on Sub Slayers and we’ve just a remix for Backdraft of one of their album tracks and a remix of Tango & Ratty’s ‘Tales from the Darkside’. Sanxion is currently working on his first artist album, which will be released on Warehouse Wax, and I am also in talks with Ritchie (Strange Rollers) about releasing an artist album with him.

Just so you know as well, the album is also available in CD format. It’s a double CD and contains two lots of eighty minute mixes, one by myself and one by Sanxion. That is available now from www.warehousewax.co.uk/wnd3 . The digital bundle of 50 tracks is now available on iTunes for £5.99 (yes, that’s 50 tracks for a mere £5.99). The new Podcast is available on my Vinyl Junkie Soundcloud page. The link is as below.

Online, you can also find me here:

http://www.warehousewax.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/TheOriginalVinylJunkie

http://www.facebook.com/warehousewax

http://twitter.com/djvinyljunkie

http://twitter.com/warehousewax

http://soundcloud.com/djvinyljunkie

http://soundcloud.com/warehousewax

http://www.mixcloud.com/djvinyljunkie”

Thank you very much Sir for your time, best of luck with the album and the label and future projects! We’re Not Dead: The Third Chapter is available now from Warehouse Wax on limited edition CD or on digital via iTunes.

Words: Jon Brown

You can stream/download Vinyl Junkie’s guest mix from Billy Daniel Bunter’s Music Monday show on Kool FM here:

HE’S NOT DEAD The Rise Of The Vinyl Junkie…