Listeners 253, Plays: 2.061, Listening Time: 427 h
Biography: Tayo
BORN
August 1975, South London, Lambeth.
FAMILY/MUSICAL ROOTS
My family were into music, My Mum loves Opera so I grew up listening to Opera. My Dad had loads of Nigerian records. My brother and I both started playing the piano but stupidly gave it up. I was being made to play extremely classical stuff and also I wanted to play football and chase girls so I ended up giving up the piano, which I do regret now. My brother was a pirate... Read moreBiography: Tayo
BORN
August 1975, South London, Lambeth.
FAMILY/MUSICAL ROOTS
My family were into music, My Mum loves Opera so I grew up listening to Opera. My Dad had loads of Nigerian records. My brother and I both started playing the piano but stupidly gave it up. I was being made to play extremely classical stuff and also I wanted to play football and chase girls so I ended up giving up the piano, which I do regret now. My brother was a pirate radio head, rare groove, so because of him I got listening to Norman Jay, Jasper the Vinyl Junkie, Westwood, Trevor Nelson when it was the mad hatter sound system and that was my musical basis. There was always music around and I was always making tapes but when my brother got heavy into pirate radio and that influenced me. So he got me into Public Enemy, Prince (who as well is my all time hero), George Clinton, Parliament, so that`s where all that stuff came in.
FIRST PROJECTS
I studied English and Drama at Goldsmiths University and started DJing at parties there called Exposure that my friends organized. They had people like Billy Nasty, Andrew Weatherall, Alex Knight, Charlie Hall - I did the downstairs bit playing drum n bass. It sounds cliché but everything`s breakbeat culture, be it hip hop, drum and bass, even house. It`s all about the syncopation for me – it`s about the breaks and the bass line and that`s what drum and bass is about for me. I used to be a music journalist at Touch, I interviewed Roni Size and met all the Drum and Bass people. I was completely obsessed with it, then Movement came along. But then Drum n Bass was getting really techy and heavy metal and that wasn`t what I was really into. A real seminal mix album came along - `At The Heavenly Social,` Jon Carter mix album, just as Wall of Sound and Skint were starting up. Stuff from the States like the Bassbin Twins and the good DJ IC records. That`s how I got into the whole breakbeat thing - I just wanted that bit of roughness. That`s when I also met Adam Freeland and Rennie Pilgrim. I met Rennie as he came into Soul Jazz (where I was working) one day with one of his tunes and no one liked it apart from me. While he was talking to someone, I started mixing it into a Bomb The Base tune that I had. So we got talking and he said “There`s this guy you should meet called Adam.” About a week before someone else had said “You really remind me of this guy called Adam Freeland.” So after that, the three of us all sat down in Rennie`s studio and decided to start a club – that`s when we started Friction at Bar Rumba. I like techno, I like drum and bass, I just wanted something a bit more edgy so that`s what we started the club for. At the time we had Freq Nasty, Freestylers, Soul of Man, Plump DJs and Hybrid. Everyone just kind of came down for a bit of a meeting place. Because of Friction, people started booking me for breakbeat gigs, then all of a sudden the whole breaks things started kicking off and me, Adam and Rennie were playing out a lot and ended up starting labels.
[list][/list:u]
LABELS & PRODUCTION
I wanted to set up my own label because, being in music PR, I was always recommending people to go and sign for other people`s labels. I`ve always liked a posse mentality behind a label – getting together a crew of people that all believe in the same kind of thing - which is what I really wanted to do when I started Mobb. Rennie Pilgrim gave me a track for the first release. I set Mobb up through this company that I was working for but I was A&R`ing it, doing all the leg work for it, trying to find new artists for it. The Stanton Warriors were making UK Garage at this time but just starting messing around with breaks stuff, so we gave the Stanton`s an outlet to do their break beat, and it kicked things off quite a lot for them. They put out `The Virus & The Antidote` with us, so we started off with a real roll. After that they did the Stanton Sessions and put our tunes on there and it kind of reflected back on us. They definitely helped us, Rennie definitely helped. We had remixes and new tracks from Lee Coombs, an artist album Beber and Tamra, a guy called Kev Biba (who was working with Adam Freeland at the time), the first Plump DJs mix album calledUrban Underground came out on Mobb and so did the Australian guys Nu Breed. When Mobb started, Finger Lickin`, Marine Parade, TCR and Botchit & Scarper were already going. I think it is fair to say that, for quite a while, we were up there as one of the labels for this new scene. At that time it was really exciting to be putting out those records. You think that you`re just doing this for you and your friends - but then all of a sudden, other people on the other side of the world are going nuts for what you`re doing and you don`t even realise it. That`s how though I felt about Skint, Wall of Sound, Metalheadz, the way I felt about Trevor Nelson or how I felt listening to Wilbur Wilberforce or going to see Brian Gee, or obsessing over Giles Peterson...the same way I got obsessed about their labels, their radio shows, their DJing...if you can take a little bit of that and impart it on new people, then that`s the key; that`s the most satisfying thing. It`s a bit cliché to say, but that`s why you start a label - because you`re leaving a footprint somewhere.
Since leaving the label, I`ve worked with some really cool people - been doing some tracks with a guy called Acid Rockers from Preston, we released stuff for Skint and do remixes together. At the moment I`m working with a guy called Undersound in the studio (who also releases stuff as Care In The Community) and we`ve been working on really twisty beats, rather than the musical breaks genre, which is kind of where my head`s at now. I`m into my dub, I`m into my breaks and I try and fuse the two together like my complete hero, Smith and Mighty. I`ve got to mention Rob Smith because if it wasn`t for Smith and Mighty I wouldn`t be doing any of this. Production-wise now I release for Skint, Chew the Fat, Mantra Breaks and Functional.
THE MIX
An artist album or a mix album is a kind of statement where you are there and then. This is going to be my fifth mix album. You reserve the right to change your mind at anytime; you reserve the right to change your music, what you`re into and you don`t have to apologise to anyone for that. Get it done for that time and move onto the next thing.
I`m into breakbeat culture. This mix is gonna try and well, I`ve been known for playing a specific kind of breakbeat, as it were it`s all words and labels isn`t it? But I`ve been known for a certain type of sound; for instance, my breaks sound when you hear me play at fabric is very dubby. So there`s that side of it, but I`ve also been going out to (dubstep nights like) DMZ and FWD all year and I`ve always been into sort of mid-tempo breaks stuff as well. If it`s bass-led, then I`m feeling it. Basically what I`m trying to do with this album is show that the breaks that you hear in Room One of Fabric would also fit with the stuff that you might hear down at FWD or a Hollertronix night – there`s records that straddle the borders. So this mix is a celebration of breakbeat culture and bass culture. It`s me being into everything and trying to make it make sense over 70 minutes. You open yourself up to flack from the genre police, but I`m doing what I like and so be it. I`m happy with the music I listen to and my route into it. That`s what I`m hoping will come across in this mix.
[list][/list:u]
FABRIC
Doing the mix for Fabric is perfect because, as everyone says, it`s the one place you can play underground music to a massive audience. You can do precisely what you want. From the very beginning, I`ve been coming here and playing here. Steve (Blonde, who used to work there) and Shaun (Roberts) are two really good mates of mine, and I`ve kicked lumps out of Cameron playing football - or probably the other way round, Cameron being twice my size has kicked lumps out of me. So from doing that to really being welcomed in on the door by Chris, to being made to feel part of the Fabric family, to seeing Keith down at Fabric, to flirting with Pearl...I`ve done it all. I`ve been coming here from the start, so it`s great doing this now, all being whatever the circumstances I`ve always wanted to do a Fabric mix. It`s the kind of mix when you can put on what you`re feeling - and everyone`s been really positive about the tracks that are on there. So its that kind of open mindedness which you don`t kind of get anywhere else and that make it a pleasure to work with.
RADIO
Radio is kind of like Fabric - you get to play pretty much whatever you want. With radio, you don`t have to get anyone to dance; you just have to get them to listen. It`s like saying “well, I like this and you might too.” Radio`s a really direct media for that. I got turned on to Jazz Funk and Rare Groove listening to various people. For me, radio`s even purer than playing in a club. It really is my favourite thing to do. You can do precisely what you want and your listeners end up trusting you with your taste. It`s also good creeping around the halls of Radio 1, if you`re going to do it anywhere. It`s especially good because my Dad also worked for the BBC doing the news for the world service, and I`m there now - he likes that. Not that he understands the music but he stays up and gives it a go. Some of my relatives in Nigeria also rang up my Mum saying that they`d been Googling me saying “we don`t know what the music is he plays but he`s famous!”
THE FUTURE
The future will involve more radio & and podcasts, which I`m really excited about at the moment. It will also involve an artist album, which is slowly creeping into shape. I want to carry on enjoying playing records to people all around the world, and discovering new music. Enjoying this life and the opportunities that come my way.Show less
[/list:u]
[/list:u]
loading data...
COMMENTS [0]