educationally, but when I won the Mercury I had a new sense of self belief. I had tunnel vision for what I wanted to do and I followed it through. Winning the Mercury was like my reward for all those years of never winning anything, so for me it was a great time. Yeah it was a lot of pressure, but it was good pressure; we wanted it and we took it. Now when I travel the world, a lot of people tell me the first time they became aware of this form of music was at the Mercury in 1997 so for me that’s a massive testament. How come you are touring again now and making new music? I was never going to be a pop star, although the style of music we make is reaching number one all over the place these days. I honestly think we peaked too early; twenty years ago we were bang on the money! We just had to wait for everyone else to catch up! I see people like Chase & Status, Sigma, DJ Fresh and Pendulum who are commanding stages of tens of thousands and I look back at my career, like when I played Glastonbury, and I want that again. I want to be out there smashing it as well. I feel as vibrant as I did when I first started and can’t wait for the new music to come out. You collaborated with people like Method Man and Zac de la Rocha back in 1999. What was that experience like? When you sign to a major record label you write a wish list of people to work with and you hope that it comes true. For me, it did come true, I worked with a lot of my favourites, like Method Man, Gangstarr, and Zac. Tere were some as well who wanted to work with me, which was great. Tere were some people along the way who I said no to, which I regret now, like Madonna. I was so committed to my genre that I didn’t feel that Madonna had a place in that music. But when I look back I think I could have opened the doors earlier. You’re playing at Latitude in June. How much of what we’ll see and hear be improvised on the night? Te live show is all live, it’s not
14 / July 2015/
outlineonline.co.uk
INFORMATION
“Tere were some people along the way who I said no to, which I regret now, like Madonna.”
improvised though, we go for ‘betterment’. So it’s a fully live band but we try to look at the performances and get better and better. It’s not programmed in, we don’t just press play and dance around a laptop, that’s not what we do. As a band I think we fill a valid gap; we bring an energy and a performance that no one else can bring. Number one we’re from Bristol and we’ve got this catalogue of music that we’ve built up over the past two decades, and number two, we also have our new music that we can just throw in there and give it a little bit of a brand new feeling. Can you tell me a bit about your new album due this year, Do It For Te Masses? What does the
title mean to you? When we talk about ‘the masses’, we’re talking about all those who come to all the festivals; they’re there at the front in the rain, no matter what and they know all the words to the songs. No disrespect to Te X Factor or Britain’s Got Talent and all that, ‘cos I appreciate that, but we’re not talking about the masses who’ll scream at anything and everything. I’m talking about the masses who by the end of the summer have like 600 festival wristbands on and they’re going to
Roni Size Reprazent: Live will be performing at Latitude Festival ‘15. Find out more at
latitudefestival.com.
keep them on. Tey bought their tickets early, they’ve mapped out who they’re seeing when. Tere are masses out there who just love the festival season, and they’re in it so hard. Tose are the masses we’re talking about. Tere are a lot of us out there! So what sort of material will there be on the new album? Has your sound developed? Absolutely, you can only progress with your sound, but it still has the Reprazent favour. First and foremost you have to be able to rave to the music and you should also be able to put it on in your lounge and listen to it. It’s not going to be like New Forms, because that was a different time. I can’t wait to hear the feedback for it! Are you going to play some new tracks at Latitude? Absolutely! Tere’ll be stuff from In the Mode…lots of new stuff and also old stuff. It’s pretty hard to dance to drum ‘n’ bass. What moves can you recommend we try out when we see you at Latitude? Ha ha! Te best way to dance to drum ‘n’ bass is with your partner, so you’ve got that memory; when the record comes on you can look at each other and say “Oh, I love this record!” and you have that moment together. I’ve always thought music is for sharing a moment or a memory which you can then take to your happy place! Lizz Page
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