THE GUESTLIST NETWORK | FEBRUARY 2011 MR C
HOUSE//ELECTRO//TECHNO 27
The Techno DJ and former Shaman front man is regarded as an icon in the world of House music. With his monthly nights Superfreq and Quarterly getting bigger and better, we caught up with him before his Fabric debut...
How are you doing? I’m doing great. A little bit jet lagged but other than that I’m fine.
You have flown back to do your gig at Fabric tonight… That’s right, its my debut gig at Fabric. Very exciting indeed. I’m looking forward to it.
A lot of people will be asking why is it your debut now rather than before in your career… Well obviously, being one of the owners of The End, there was big competition between The End and Fabric before. Once we closed The End two years ago, obviously it freed me up to play wherever I wanted but also I’ve been doing Superfreq and I’ve been doing that on a monthly basis in London. It wouldn’t be too much value in booking me at Fabric because they like a space at either side of their gig, which I couldn’t give. I did the last Superfreq here in London on the first weekend of December and the next ones not until our 9th anniversary on March 5th. So it left a three month gap and the middle of January is perfectly placed in
between that. I spoke to Fabric and I asked if they wanted to get it on and they were right on it. So my debut appearance tonight at Fabric it shall be.
I wanted to ask you about your influences as a child. What and who did you listen to? I’ve always been into some sort of dance music or black music. As a really young kid, I used to like Elvis Presley and then ABBA. I was a big ABBA fan, I still am, it’s sort of my guilty pleasure. But from 13 onwards, I was into Soul, Funk, Disco, Ska, Reggae… generally black music. Then House music for me is an evolution of Electro and Disco, which I was into. I was into the whole robot dancing and then body popping after that.
You are apparently working on a new album called Smell the Coffee. Can you tell us what the concepts were behind this as it’s not your first album? No it’s not my first album, it’s actually only my second Mr C album. I was signed to the Shamen as Mr C for many years
and couldn’t do work as Mr C. So I didn’t actually release my first Mr C single until 98. My last album was 8 years ago which was called Change. So I thought it was time for another Mr C album. I’ve gone for something that’s so sure, it’s political and it’s spiritual. The title Smell the Coffee comes from the attitude behind the album. It’s a sense of come on, wake up, 2012 is around the corner, we’ve got to spiritually evolve, politically the raver’s are stuck in a bubble and don’t even vote and do not even know what’s going on. If we don’t voice our opinions and point of view, we are not going to be able to change anything.
What other production work have you got in the pipeline? I hear you have been pretty busy? Yeah I’ve been pretty busy. I’ve got a track coming out with Indepen- dic Shuffle which is called Some- thing Strange. It’s a pretty deep melancholic track with me doing a vocal about weird and strange things that happen in clubs, it’s quite funny. Also, I’m working on
another EP, it’s the Sick a Fans Slags with Adult Napper. Hope- fully that will be out late Spring. I’m doing a bit of re-mixing. I’m doing a re-mix with Omidge 16B of a track off the Adult Napper album. So quite busy. Doing other production stuff as well as the album.
A lot of people don’t know that you studied method acting. Can you tell us a bit more of that? Yes I studied method acting. It’s very hardcore as well, it’s called the psychology of acting with a company called Miracle Tree Pro- ductions. The guy there is called Giles Bourne Hughes and he’s a genius! I did six years of study on a weekly basis, so it’s quite hardcore what I’ve done and its pretty much psychology. It’s also been like self therapy and it has helped me deal with my ego issues because I have an ego the size of a bus.
You generally do not touch CD’s unless you have to be- cause you’re a vinyl man. What are your views? Well I still play Vinyl. I do play my
own tracks on CD and I squeeze in a couple of Adult Nappers tracks. Or one of my best friends, if they have something I’ll try and squeeze it into my set. 95% of my set will be vinyl, there’s two reasons for it. One is the interaction you get with the crowd from it. That hands on thing where you’re not standing there looking into a laptop, looking like you’re doing your emails. There is also something sexy about waking a slab of vinyl from your record box and throwing it on your turntable and mixing it in. Sitting in front on a laptop doesn’t look hot. Secondly is sound. A lot of people argue with these sound issues but the needle is a microphone and when the needle touches that piece of material which we call vinyl, it gives a certain feedback and gives a certain warmth to the sound that you just can’t duplicate through digitally.
What’s happening with your Superfreq party that you’ve been pushing globally? I’ve been sort of pushing it around Europe for a while. We celebrate our 9th anniversary on March 5th
and yeah, its going global. I did five seasons in Ibiza already. I did a couple of seasons at DC 10 and I did three seasons at Club Underground. I have been doing France now for over three years in Calais with Low. I’ve already done four tours in South America and now I’ve been working doing regular parties in Ecuador for the Global Uni movement. Now I’m in America, I’ve started Super Disco Freq which I do on a school night on a Tuesday. We just play a lot of old Disco, which is a lot of fun. I’m doing Superfreq monthly in L.A. as well as monthly in London and monthly in Calais. Quarterly in San Fransico starts in March, Quarterly in New York, Washington DC and Chicago. I’m doing Quarterly in England in Southampton at the Junk Club and I’ve started a new by monthly in Moscow at Soyanka. I’m negotiating Quarterly in Paris and Italy now. So lots going on!
CATCH MR C LIVE AT SUPERFREQ’S 9TH ANNIVERSARRY ON THE 5TH OF MARCH.
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