Label Profile – INSIDE DNB MUSIC (UK)
It's not everyday that you get the chance to interview yourself, but when I offered myself the opportunity yesterday, I jumped at it. In fact, you could almost say I was beside myself!
Like most people, my story starts way back when I was born. But why conduct this interview now? Well there’s a brand new venture on the horizon and it’s called INSIDE DNB MUSIC, so in a bid to shamelessly promote myself and the label, I talked myself into an interview!
Read on for more mind bending facts!
So me, welcome IN!!!!!! Tell us, how are you doing right now?
Well that’s a daft question! You only saw me a millisecond ago!
That’s true, but just play along for the sake of the interview will you?
Okay. Fine. Let’s get this thing started before people die of boredom!
As you will know by now, we usually start these interviews off by asking how the subject got involved in the rave scene and enquire about their musical heritage, so what’s yours?
Well, I was born in the mid 70s to two people who were very much into music. My mum was into a wide range of artists like Gerry Rafferty, Billy Joel, Tubeway Army and Gary Numan, Tangerine Dream and Fleetwood Mac among many others.
My dad came from more of a rock background, but also ran a mobile disco (as was popular back in the 70s and 80s). It was an immense rig, with almost every aspect of the sound and lighting equipment hand made from scratch, as both him and his disco partner were electronics engineers.
Way before starting school even (5 years old here in the UK), I have incredibly vivid memories of rifling through my mums LP collection and asking her what she’d like me to play her while she pottered around doing housework. She taught me how to put a record on the turntable and use the tone arm facility properly, and I spent hours studying the covers and linking the story in them to the music that we were hearing.
On top of this, the radio was ALWAYS on if there were no LPs playing, and back in the late 70s and early 80s of course, there were DJs like Dave Lee Travis, Steve Wright and the best ever to do it, the inimitable Kenny Everett (who is still one of my all time heroes even to this day) playing the Golden Oldies, which at that point in time was full of artists like The Beatles, Elvis and a lot of the rock ‘n’ roll and 60s artists.
And then on many occasions my dads singles collection (which was easily in the 1000s) was also in the house along with his twin deck console, which I also used. He must have taught me how to use it, though I can’t recall that exact moment.
So music was a staple part of your existence from day one basically?
That’s right! And I still listen to a lot of those artists whose LPs I selected from my mums collection, and I’m a disco music fanatic as well, so those early moments run deep.
It wasn’t uncommon for me to sleep in a carry cot at the back of the speakers in my very early years, and I have very vivid memories of running around community centres and village halls while the system was set up, and then folding cables and packing bread baskets full of extension cables and god knows what at the end of the night. It was a pretty mad way to grow up, and a world apart from the upbringing our kids have had, but it was exciting.
So what about when you became old enough to really discover music in your own right?
Good question me! Nice one!
Ah, thanks!
Well, when I was about eleven or twelve I was at a family friends house and there was an LP on constant repeat. It was U2’s Joshua Tree album and it just got me. They were the first band I ‘got into’ and it was the first LP I became truly obsessed with. That was the start.
My mum and dad separated when I was 11. It pretty much destroyed me, and I hopped between houses for a bit, but music was the thread that kept me going during all of the turbulence, and when I was 13 maybe, or 14, my dad bought a handful of old LPs home that a customer had given him. Mixed in with that collection was a copy of the Jimi Hendrix Experience LP ‘Smash Hits’. That was pretty much the start of my own musical journey.
There was a guy who lived next door to one of my Nanas we called big Martin. My uncle being small Martin. He was a tape trader and massive 60s psyche bootleg tape enthusiast, and every time I went to visit I’d come back home with shoe boxes full of TDK 90s and Memorex tapes with rare recordings, studio out takes and live recordings by The Doors, Hendrix, all of the big 60s psyche bands really, and a hugely fascinating genre called 60s garage punk, which I just adored.
And then midway through 1989 something extraordinary happened that changed my life for ever. I was back living with my dad at this point and he picked up some work at a roller rink called Hot Skate Rollers. There he met two young fellas called Nik Fox and Matty Wilson. These two, probably both about 18 at this point, were totally into the hardcore rave scene, which was flourishing in the Lincolnshire fens where we lived.
Being someone that was ALWAYS looking for the next challenge, my dad also fell in love it, and I didn’t really get a lot of choice! He bought some 1210s, got on some mailing lists, and before you know it Postman Pat was bringing the baddest and best hardcore rave tracks direct to the front door. In late 89 and early 90 this would have been labels like D-Zone, Ibiza, Network, SUAD, Kickin’, Reinforced…..some really scene defining output.
Not long after this, the three of them got involved with Champs nightclub in King’s Lynn and in February 1991 the Pulse raves were born. This soon morphed into Hyperbolic, which celebrated its 30th birthday last year. My dad became Stevie K, or Mr K, and went on to become one of the east coasts best hardcore DJs.
My Bios generally state that I’ve been raving since 1990, and I have! During the early part of the 90s I was at the club most Friday nights and by the time the middle of the decade had rolled around I was driving and up and down the country going to various raves, as well as visiting the club as often as possible. I was young right at the beginning, but about as knee deep as you could be. I was very, very, very fortunate. I think I share this moment in time with maybe a small handful of DJ offspring that were around at the same time. It was a time unlike no other.
I watched every single one of the UK’s best DJs roll through that club week in, week out, from Trevor Fung to Ray Keith, from Ellis Dee to Matthew B. You name them, I saw them, and I was lucky in that I had backstage access. Watching those DJs do their thing from the comfort of the DJ booth was amazing, and I could often be found thrusting hastily written poems into the palms of DJs as they left the building.
Around about the same time I was also discovering Iron Maiden, all of the major classic rock bands, lots of NWBHM bands, Bay Area thrash metal and skateboarding, with which came my passion for hardcore and straight edge punk. My dad bought me a cheap bass (thanks dad) and I joined a punk band. It was epic.
Well, that’s a pretty mad story!
It is! And to top it all off, I met my soon to be wife in 1992 and we raved together once we were old enough. And we’re still raving together now.
Not only all of this, but there was a big emphasis on the emerging happy hardcore scene too, and in 1994 and 1995 that scene was undeniably at it’s peak. So I saw all of those DJs coming through too, not to mention the incredible hard house, hard trance and techno being played in the back room. It was incredible. Very special. I feel very priviliged.
So tell me a bit about the writing side of things? You did some work with Eternity Magazine in the 90s, which was the hardcore bible back then.
English and the written word was always my strongpoint at school. I realise now that my autism helped me tremendously with that. It turned it into a lifelong passion that has remained with me. I struggle with maths, but that’s just the way it is.
By 1994 I was riding the wave of the jungle scene. It was at its peak in that year. Still fresh. Still pushing sonic boundaries. Still encompassing the core values of PLUR and still a mixed crowd of everybody and anybody. It was beautiful.
I remember it well!
Well you would wouldn’t you? You’re me!
But we never answered the question about the writing bit?
Ah yes! Well, I was pretty intrepid back then, and I wrote Eternity Magazine a letter telling them know how much I loved the rave scene, and the magazine, and to see if they needed any writers. About two weeks later I got a letter back (remember those!) saying yes, they were looking for contributors, and could we go to some raves and do a bit of reviewing. I mean, it took a few seconds to come up with an answer, and of course, we bit their hand off.
Who wouldn’t want to get into raves for free with a VIP pass and then go home and do the thing they loved doing most, which was writing? It was a dream come true. We did that up until they went bust, which was around 1998 I think.
We’d jump on a train, get picked up by promotors and on occasion would find ourselves back at their house before the rave. It was a lot of fun.
By 1999 the rave scene had changed beyond all recognition and it was time to move on and settle down. At the age of just 24 I’d had enough, and so had Mrs Inside. We spent a few years going out to some fantastic house events, and then jacked it in to think about retraining and children.
So, what happened then?
Well, I kept my ear to the ground a little bit, still listened to the radio a bit, still bought the odd DNB CD. Having gone through a few major personal moves through the 00s, around 2011 I re-discovered Knowledge Magazine, this time online, and after listening to quite a lot of the DNB around at that time, I found myself getting back into it.
I had started an old skool focussed website by then named Old Skool Review, and was having a lot of fun with it. My main target since the age of 16 was writing a top quality, historically accurate book on the development of the early rave scene, but I’d underestimated just how much work would need to go into it. I decided running a website would be easier. It was a clunky, wix type of affair, but I enjoyed it.
Being my normal intrepid self, I sent Colin at KMag an email expressing my wish to join the contributors team, and suddenly found myself back in it, albeit this time from a distance. It was very different place to the one I remebered with Eternity. We didn’t have a computer back then. And the music itself was very firmly 174, and had been for some time. That took a bit of getting used to, and while a lot of the DJs we raved to previously were still on the circuit, many of the artists had moved on, but on the whole I loved it.
The fundamentals of the music were still there then, but progression cannot be stopped!
Exactly that. I did that for a couple of years and had another break then until lockdown really. We all know what a crazy time that was, but I was looking on YouTube for some DJ Phantasy material. Some sets, or videos, or whatever really (He’s been my favourite DJ since 1992 when I first heard him play), and that led me to TC and his now legendary lockdown YouTube videos. I connected instantly with what he was doing. Around about this time (I can’t remember the specifics, and neither can you), I also noticed that KMag was doing some bits after what appeared to be a bit of a hiatus.
I think you might have been doing a bit with KMag before lockdown innit?
Maybe? It all seems like a bit of a blur really, that period in time. Anyway, those TC videos then led me to John B, and subsequently, TWITCH!
Ah yes! What a platform!
I’m actually not joking when I say that Twitch DNB saved me from myself during lockdown. Like many, I struggled with anxiety, a lack of routine, having time to really study myself and my idiosyncrasies, and coming to terms with things that happened to me in my youth that I didn’t even realise I needed healing. It was tough, but also crucial to my self development.
Every Friday night the whole family, that is my wife and all three of my kids would settle down for John B and whoever followed and it was an incredible time for family bonding and meeting and making new friends. I owe both TC and John B more than they could possibly imagine. I’m grateful to you both.
We met friends in that moment that we still consider friends now though isn’t it?
Oh yeah! Definitely! And while I seem to find myself with less and less free time to spend on Twitch, I want the whole community I am a part of on their to know that I have much love and gratitude for them and what they do.
In fact, they were one of the main reasons that INSIDE DNB came into existence isn’t it?
Yes! That’s right. There were a couple of reasons actually. The first was that KMag was shelved. I was having at that point, finding out how the modern industry worked, getting new music sent through the digital postal system, really getting massively back into contemporary DNB, and I wasn’t ready to give in yet. I was just getting started. So I bought a domain name, spent a few quid on a cheap logo, and decided to have a go myself.
My ADHD was running wild at this point (and it’s something I’ve learned to tame over the last few years), but I was going all in, and I was so bewildered that Twitch DNB was completely unheard of outside of itself. And still is to a degree. There was no solid database of DJs, no links to stream teams and no proper promotion outside of Discord, which you had to be deep inside of to get any info. It was throttling itself, and still throttles itself because there’s no solid place to go to find out.
You’ve made several attempts to sort that out though, by doing it yourself at first and then by trying to recruit people from within the community to help promote the scene?
I have, but life is busy and it’s been difficult trying to find the right person to do it, but we have that in hand now, and in the next few months we’ll have the most comprehensive list of Twitch DNB DJs with links, interviews, guest mixes and whatever else our intrepid features writer can conjure up. More on that soon.
But there was another factor in the start of the website too wasn’t there?
There was, and that factor goes by the name of DJ Krust. During lockdown he was running some truly inspirational lives on Facebook that actually transformed my whole way of thinking. Being neurodiverse has many fantastic benefits, including creativity, drive, passion and thinking outside of the box, but it can also create inner chaos, procrastination and complete and utter overwhelm. I suffer with all of these from time to time, but those lives and the awesome little community that was a part of that process at the time really helped me say to myself “don’t be afraid. You have what it takes. You just need to harness the passion”. And that’s what I did.
What I do isn’t the greatest. But I enjoy it, and it gives me purpose when I get up in the morning. It keeps me connected to the music I love, and the scene that I love, and it makes me feel like I’m doing my bit to help keep it thriving. I’m no tech wizard, and I’m definitely no web developer, but I have no desire to be. There are other more commercial brands out there that can do all of that. I’m old skool, and I’m hardcore, and that is where my roots lie.
Hardcore, you know the score!
Exactly!
Where did the INSIDE DNB name come from though?
Well, my initial idea was to do a Red Top style website, full of snippets and soundbites and titbits, and the main logo and website banner was going to represent a UK Red Top, like The Sun, or The Sport, or one of those crappy magazines like TV Quick or what have you. But trying to create a logo like a red top on a budget of minus zero was hard work. I liked the name though, which is still very red toppy. So I kept it.
I don’t blame you. I mean me. I mean………….
