Interview with DDR

February 9th, 2006

 Robert at wftaw.com:  Back in the early nineties, you ran your own rig called Full-On sound system and later joined up with Bedlam SS.  Since this time, of course, you’ve made a 15 year career out of sound engineering and music composition/live PAs.  Not to mention your labels: HazChem, COSHH, and releases on Stay Up Forever, Smitten, Cluster… More recently, you’ve put out material on Superconductor, Yolk, Wah-Wah and Skankadelic… and you play live everywhere, which is great fun (to any who’ve witnessed)… but before all of this, I wanted to go back to your old soundsystem days.

How’d you initially get the money together to build Full-On and how’d you learn about Sound Engineering?

DDR: I had been involved in designing and constructing my own synths, FX, amps, etc since I was a teenager. In the late 80’s I attended a College in Manchester and studied Audio&Video Systems and moved to London in 1990 to do a post-grad in Music Information Technology. There are many music tech courses available these days, but back then they were in their infancy and hard to find. This gave me a good foundation in all things audio, which proved invaluable when I moved to London and discovered the underground party scene that was exploding at the time. I met Coost of the Full-On sound system because we were both working at the Notting Hill Music & Video Exchange, a used equipment and record emporium in the west of London. This provided a useful channel of cheap used equipment that we basically threw together to make a system. As the parties became more popular we could afford to add to the system and it basically grew with us as we became more active.

Robert at wftaw.com:  This led to you connecting with the Liberators.  I know Chris was in a few punk bands that played squat parties, etc.., in fact, I’ve got “Funnery in A Nunnery”  which is an old Hagar the Womb record featuring his bad self.  Were you ever in a rock band?

DDR: I played drums for years as a teenage punk rocker and later picked up the guitar as I found that it was no fun playing drums by yourself in your bedroom without the rest of the band!!! I played in many College bands but never had any releases. ( It was mostly just an excuse to get fucked-up with the gang….. )

Robert at wftaw.com:  So tell me about the time you all actually first met.  How’d you get to the squats?  Is this when you first started engineering for studios?

DDR: Full-On were based in a huge squatted home in Manor House, North London. In the early days (’90 / ‘91) we were throwing parties in the basement of the house and getting large crowds in attendance every weekend. One particular weekend, another crew were throwing a party in a squatted building a few hundred yards up the road. ( Ironically, it was a Deaf Centre - a state owned operation for the hard of hearing!! ) There was a stream of revelers traveling up and down the road between the two raves all night and eventually the two crews met to see what was going on. The other crew happened to be the newly formed Liberator DJ trio throwing one of their first parties and soon they were playing regularly at other Full-On events. I had a small studio set-up in the house and we would record our own stuff and also play live at the parties. The Liberator’s were becoming interested in starting a label so we started to collaborate on projects and I introduced them to the wonders of Cubase (version 1.0 on an Atari ST with 1 whole MB of RAM………)

Robert at wftaw.com: You also worked a lot with Choci back then.  You were the guy that helped him build the Chocolate Factory studios, right? Anyway, nobody seems to know what happened to him.  Do you still keep in touch? Where is Choci? Alive and well, I hope…

DDR: Choci had a very successful record store called Choci’s Chewns, the Chocolate Factory studio was in the back room of the store. We met because he had asked the Liberator’s to do a release for his red Choci’s Chewns label and they asked me to do the engineering for the session. At the end of the session Choci invited me back to record some stuff with him and this led to a long and fruitful stint as the man at the helm of the Chocolate Factory. We basically built theplace up over a couple of years as the record store was doing welland label sales were still good back then. Unfortunately the store closed a couple of years back and I have not seen him for some time.

Robert at wftaw.com: How did you meet Mark Kinetec?  Where is he now?

DDR: I first met Mark at a club that the Liberators run called Nuclear Free Zone, he was a fan of Acid Techno and could be found there every week. We got talking one day and he mentioned that he was going to open a record store. He wanted me to come and have a look and give him some advice, we talked some more and decided to start some labels ( which turned into Hazchem and COSHH ). As Kinetec grew ( including Infectious distribution ), we built a studio for the labels and later built a mastering suite for cutting vinyl. Unfortunately, as the vinyl market went into decline a few years back, Infectious was the first of many distribution companies to close it’s doors. Kinetec was sold to Bangin Tunes and Mark moved to Australia, where he still lives.

Kinetec was recently bought back by some of the original operators, James Kinetec and DJ Thermobee and it has returned to it’s roots once more. Check them out at http://www.kinetec.co.uk

Robert at wftaw.com: Enough of the MIAs…You’re still living in Vegas, right? With Sarah?  If its none of my business, say so… You seem to be doing a lot in England lately, so… we are a bit lost as to your current location.

DDR: Yeah, we are still desert rats. I try to get back to the UK at least a couple of times a year though.

Robert at wftaw.com:  Been to Burningman, right?

DDR: I think this year may be our first. There is a regional event here called Dark Skies that Sarah and Myself have been supporting by playing on the electronica stage. I’m trying to organize an electronic drum circle for the next event to show those hippies a thing or two!!!

Robert at wftaw.com: Virtually every cabbie I’ve ever met in Vegas claims to have been a dealer at one time or another…this is not healthy, because there is never a distinction of WHAT they dealt… could be anything in Vegas: cards, drugs, women… fire juggling midgets. Anyway, I know you are probably counting cards and bringing home leather bags full of cash everynight…

DDR: Just behind the Rio hotel there is a large building that says “Las Vegas School of Dealing” in 10 foot high letters. They don’t say exactly what they can teach you to deal………

Robert at wftaw.com: I think I saw some pics of you somewhere online, it looked like it was a live set you played during some sort of street rally in Vegas.  Are you active there, what are some of the issues?

DDR:  There is an event called “First Friday” in the arts district, downtown, that we have  on the first Friday of every month. The galleries are all open late and people are allowed to set up on the streets to display art ( and provide some musical entertainment while they are at it…. ). We play for a crew called Blank Canvas who also throw other events in Vegas. The underground scene here is pretty small but its getting better all the time.

Robert at wftaw.com: We know you release a lot of stuff, can you list some upcoming releases / anything special coming out soon?  When are you going to do more Pissed-Ups stuff, hee hee…

DDR: Most recent releases are a solo release on Skankadelic ( SKANK014 ) and a release with Ant on Yolk ( YOLK016 ) No Pissed-Up’s releases in the works though…….

Robert at wftaw.com:  Any travel plans?

DDR: Minneapolis, Madison, Winnipeg in the near future and European dates being lined up for July.

Robert at wftaw.com:  How’s the website, the triphazard website? 

DDR:  It has just been re-launched after many years of serious neglect with some new sets for download. Check it here.

Robert at wftaw.com:  Who is doing your bookings and how do we get a hold of you to come and play a live set in our area?

DDR: Bookings are dealt with by the SUF Collective agency in the UK ( bookings@sufcollective.co.uk ) or direct through info@triphazard.net

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