Having begun his career in Leeds back in 1996, MC Verse had built up a steady approachable and trying to have a good time. You’ve got the whole crowd in the
following on the circuit but it wasn’t until 2003 that things changed forever. palm of your hand when you’re MCing but it’s important that you use that correctly.
“When Pendulum fi rst came over to England they needed an MC for their DJ sets I try to just complement the music that is playing and not try to steal the show.”
and they wanted someone who could complement the music rather than take it
over,” he reminisces. “At that time, the tunes they were making were quite techy As for Crunch, having had the likes of Keaton, Phobia, D-Bridge, Prolifi c and SP:
and in a Renegade Hardware style and because I had been a regular at Hardware MC all release tunes on the imprint, Verse is now helping to oversee the production
nights they chose me. Since then, their music has evolved and the whole thing of the label’s fi rst-ever album ‘City of Lights’ from Dutch artists Martyn, Icicle,
has gone to another level.” Proxima, Nymfo and Mindmapper. “It’s 12 absolutely stinking rollers that’s a good
representation of Eindhoven drum & bass,” he explains. “The label is growing all
And then some. With releases like ‘The Vault’, ‘Another Planet’ and ‘Slam’ having
catapulted Rob, Paul and Gaz to the very pinnacle of drum & bass, Verse’s voice
became synonymous with their success as they toured the country to critical “I go into every show thinking
acclaim. Since then, the band have been working hard to develop their live format
to showcase the new album, with Verse playing an integral part as the main link that this could be my last one
between the crowd and the stage.
and as long as you try your best
“The band is completely different to what I had been used to,” he admits.
“It’s like hosting a live rock show so it’s been a real challenge to adapt my style and you can’t ask for any more”
learn how to stand in the right place at the right time! With a drum & bass crowd,
everyone is dancing anyway but with this it’s up to me to get them in the mood. the time – I set it up myself because I didn’t want to be accountable to anyone but
When we come on, we try and hit them really hard to get everyone moving and as soon as you have your own label and try to distribute tunes, you realise how
there are normally mosh pits and I’ve even been crowd-surfi ng! I go into every show little money there is to be made in drum & bass! But if you get a hit then it’s totally
thinking that this could be my last one and as long as you try your best you can’t possible – you just have to put your mind to it and try and develop the idea.”
ask for any more.”
It would be all so easy for Verse to sit back on his laurels and lap up the success
Scouring the band’s schedule for this summer, it’s hard to fi nd a major festival of his association with Pendulum but that just isn’t the man. He is still hungry
where Pendulum are not on the bill, a fact that is a testament to their widespread for success, although he is more than happy to maintain his association with
appeal that has gone beyond just drum & bass. But what is it about their music perhaps the scene’s most prolifi c artists of all time: “At the moment I’m happy
that has attracted so many new followers? Verse thinks he has the answer. “When with being Pendulum’s front man but it’s important for me to keep my label going
they arrived in the scene, it was the time that the music production was switching and remain involved with drum & bass. You can’t forget where you come from
from analogue to digital and they really made everyone think ‘what the fuck is otherwise you’d turn into a prick! I still do Renegade Hardware nights and work
that?’ Rob says that selling-out for him would be to carry on making tunes like they with producers like Icicle, SP and D-Bridge. I think the scene is really healthy,
made when they fi rst started so it’s important to keep moving forward and not rest there’s a lot more women about when you go to raves, which can only be helpful,
on their laurels. Bringing guitars into it has helped to attract more of the general and we are getting to grips with the whole switch to music downloads. It’s all
public into the scene and make them realise what drum & bass is. As it stands, about the parties at the moment so we have to look beyond just vinyl sales
there’s not even a sub-genre on iTunes for our music so it’s good that more people because there is more to it than that.”
can fi nd out about it and that can only be good for the scene in general.”
And as for the future, Verse is hoping that he can remain a major part of the
As for his own career, Verse still has to pinch himself sometimes. Not only has he future as Pendulum continue to make history. “The fi rst time I heard ‘The Vault’ I
performed on every continent with Pendulum during the last fi ve years but his sensed something was going to happen,” he concludes. “It was totally different
label Crunch Recordings is going from strength to strength and he is just about to anything before and when I met Rob, Paul and Gaz and started touring with
to launch his own hemp clothing range. It’s all a far cry from the days when he them it was special. It’s been an amazing few years – there’s been a lot of hard
struggled to make ends meet as an up-and-coming MC: work put in and thankfully it’s paying off at the moment. We’ve gone from only
50 people in the venue to thousands and thousands so I’ve seen the whole
“When I fi rst started, my fi rst goal was to MC in London for Renegade Hardware progression and it’s been great to be a part of seeing how Pendulum has evolved
and I achieved that so I set myself the goal of MCing abroad. Once that had and seeing the following it has created.”
been done, I kept setting new goals to try and push my career forward – right
now I’m trying to keep the link with Pendulum strong and using that to keep my Go to www.crunchrecordings.com for all the latest news and releases and to get
label funded and progressing. It’s great to experience the whole band life on the your hands on a limited edition T-shirt.
road rather than appearing at the same places every week. It’s all about being
VERSE & CHAPTER
WORDS | Ed Aarons
PHOTOGRAPHY | flickr.com/gkayacan
www.kmag.co.uk
|
43
K42-43_MCVerse-v1.indd 43 4/7/08 16:57:53
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