18 MusicWeek 25.05.12 DANCE SPECIAL BIG INTERVIEW: DJ FRESH
SIMPLY THE FRESH M
TALENT BY TINA HART
ost of today’s young dance-heads will equate DJ Fresh with his recent humungo-hits like Louder
and Hot Right Now. (They’re the ones you hear proudly blaring out of mobile phones on most nightbuses from London to Manchester and beyond.) But no one could accuse Fresh –
real name Daniel Stein – of being a flash in the pan. He’s worked his way up through the scene, setting up record label BC Recordings over a decade ago with collective Bad Company; credited as being one of the classiest drum & bass acts of all time. In 2003, he started releasing solo material
on his and Adam F’s collaborative label Breakbeat Kaos. And way before he got a sniff of a No.1 record, Fresh worked with artists from the Pet Shop Boys to DJ Shadow; not to mention discovering massive dance crossover act Pendulum, who he signed to Breakbeat Kaos in 2005. His first Top 40 hit arrived more than a decade
after he started out in this game: Gold Dust, featuring vocals from Ce’Cile, peaked at No.24 in the UK in August 2010. But it wasn’t until tracks from his forthcoming
third album emerged that things really started to take off, with two No.1 singles already banked – and an upcoming single with Dizzee Rascal, The Power, set to arrive next month. His career to date is a lesson in perseverance,
smart decision-making and striking the right relationships with people you respect along the way. Oh, and he can bang out a bit of a pop tune now
and again. Just ask label Ministry Of Sound, publisher Bucks – or those kids on the nightbus…
Louder was dubstep’s first ever No.1 single. Your next single The Power is out in early June – how would you sum up its sound? Some people have described it as electro, but it’s not really – it’s kind of a cross between dubstep and electro with a disco element to it. It’s been really exciting working with Dizzee
[Rascal]. I’m working with him on another track for his project at the moment as well. I’m a massive fan of his. He’s so talented; everything that he sends me is dynamite.
You sing on The Power. What inspired you to do that? I often start out singing on stuff but usually it gets re-vocalled by somebody else. Originally that was the plan but it just turned out that the original version sounded better than the new versions. It’s kind of cool because it means if I do that in a couple of tracks then it adds another signature to
“It’s been really exciting working with Dizzee. I’m working with him on another track for his project at the moment as well. I’m a massive fan of his. He’s so talented; everything that he sends me is dynamite” DJ FRESH
the sound… and on the publishing side, it certainly isn’t a bad thing to be singing on your own tracks. I don’t really have a particularly strong voice, I seem to be best at doing this weird Bee Gees- esque falsetto.
Louder was part of the Lucozade ad campaign and you’ve had some high-profile ad-slots since then. Have you got any other sync opportunities coming up with The Power at all? Not yet – I’m actually in talks about it being used for quite a big film sequel soundtrack. I’ve got a meeting with somebody in a couple of weeks, but I cant really say what it is yet.
On your upcoming album’s press release it says ‘with the support of Jay-Z’ – are you going to be collaborating with the man
himself at all? I wouldn’t rule it out but I’ve never actually met him. At the moment it’s not a foregone conclusion. We’re actually just about to sign a deal with Sony Columbia for the US and that kind of came through Roc Nation, they’ll be involved in that deal. In that sense I guess Jay-Z has been a supporter of the project and has pushed for it to get signed. So, you never know.
You’ve been conversing with Kelly Rowland on Twitter – can you confirm that she might be on your album? Yeah, I’m actually finishing that track soon. There might be another [featured artist] on the same track as well and that’s what I’m trying to work out at the moment, it’s 90% confirmed.
Do you think electronic music has reached a peak or do you think it’s only going to get bigger? It’s difficult to say. I hope that it’s going to continue to grow. The dubstep scene itself is changing a lot in terms of the sound – what’s really working on a dubstep dancefloor is changing. The way that dubstep’s getting used within pop music is maybe starting to fall slightly out of line of what’s cool within dubstep itself. I’ve been doing all kinds of stuff on my album
and it’s sort of influenced by all the things that have influenced me from rock music and the stuff I was into when I was a kid, to drum & bass and dubstep and electro house. I think there’s still a lot of legs for dubstep
influences to push mainstream music both inside and outside of the UK and it still feels like it’s growing and the support for it is still growing steadily all the time.
Are you still involved with your label Breakbeat Kaos, or have you stepped back a bit whilst you’re concentrating on the album?
He’s one of the most successful DJs/producers of the last year and a whole new generation love his chart-conquering music – but DJ Fresh has certainly earned his dues in the dance scene...
I’ve stepped back from it a bit recently. Adam F has been kind of front-running the label recently. I’ve been quite busy working on my album but I’m
obviously still involved in the label, still gunning away in the background.
Pete Tong has written for us about the electronic music scene and new acts being wary of big businesses waving chequebooks at them... I’d definitely say that you need to make sure you’re working with the right people and you need to be realistic about things. As has happened with drum & bass in the past, you get periods where the majors become interested in it and start spending a lot of money on acts. The way that majors tend to work is that more
things tend to slip percentage-wise through the net, whereas underground labels are a lot more careful about spending money on things. Obviously if something fails to break even it’s
more likely to get dropped and that’s a massive setback for somebody as an artist. So it’s important to be aware of what’s going on around you, to make sure that you have your own understanding; that you stay up-to-date and in touch with what’s going on outside of what you’re being told by a record label.
You spoke out about the Brit Awards 2012 not featuring a dance music category. Is dance music represented enough generally across music awards shows? There’s an argument that if dance music is taken as seriously as other forms of music that maybe it doesn’t need it’s own category. But I do think that it’s important enough in the UK and so much a part of UK music culture that it deserves and needs separate attention – it needs to be spearheaded more.
Do you think that applies to the industry as a whole? Does dance music get the recognition it deserves or do you still think it still flies a bit too much under the radar? I think that it’s improving. But when friends of mine that live in America or in other countries come here they’re always amazed at how much dance music there is everywhere – that in itself shows as a country we don’t spearhead it maybe as much as we should do. We should be proud of that and we should make it apparent that that’s part of our musical culture and push it.
Speaking of UK culture, are you doing anything for the Olympics at all? Not that I know of.
That’s interesting… I’ll be gunning away to make sure my music gets played somehow in the background! I’m sure there’ll be a couple of usages.
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