Hi,
here's a little something I got from the latest NME (7 January 1995).
Before you read it, let's just say that the opinions herein are Dave
Clarke's, and don't all necessarily present my own... Just thought
this might be of interest to some.
ER
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BLIPS AND PIECES
by Bethan Cole
Every weekend, Brighton's DAVE CLARKE jets around Germany, France
and Switzerland, spreading his gospel of hard, quality techno. Yet
like Luke Slater, Electric Indigo and DJ Hell he's hardly recognised
on these shores.
His own records - most notably 'Red 1' and 'Red 2' - and the extreme
output of his anarchic Magnetic North label have established him as an
underground hero, but that's about to change. Having signed a two-album
deal with high-profile dance label deConstruction (through subsidiary
Bush), 1995 should be the year he's established as a major worldwide
artist.
With Clarke's penchant for controversy he's already attracted a reputation
as one of the dance scene's most outspoken artists, so _Vibes_ gave him
the opportunity to sound off about money, drugs, clubs and much, much
more...
CLARKE ON: SELLING OUT
"I'm never going to sell out, am I? It's not in my blood. I think it (the
deal) will actually enable me to be more underground - the money from
deCon will fund more underground project. Now I can do the things for
Chicago and Detroit labels I've always wanted to. I hate the way you're
not allowed to do well in England. Just because I'm earning more than
journalists and editors, I'm accused of selling out. All I can say is,
judge my music, not my bank balance."
CREAM
"Yeah, it's a handbag club; driving round Liverpool beforehand I thought,
yeah, this is handbag city. I think they were a little bit worried about
what I was going to play but it went down so well, there was sweat dripping
off the walls, it was incredible. It was one of the better nights I've had
in this country.
"I played everything I wanted to play; some of the stuff I can't get away
with in Europe and some old-school house as well. I was playing some really
fucking hard stuff and everyone was flipping. I blew the sound system up.
James Barton (who runs Cream) came up to me and said: 'You fucking blew the
sound system up!' and I said, 'Yeah, great way to end the evening, isn't
it?'"
CLUBS
"I love Sativa in Scotland and I enjoy playing in America; Milwaukee was
fucking crazy. It's the home of Miller beer, which is an instant spiritual
home for me. I like playing at Munich at the Ultrascholl - I have a twice-
monthly residency there. Caffeine in New York's good, although I find it
quite weird in America that they still breakdance."
LONDON
"I'm getting really fucked off with London. You play up north and you get
really good people, all they want to do is get down, enjoy themselves, not
look at each other's Daniel Poole underwear and just do the do."
DRUGS
"I've Never taken an E and it's never interested me. People taking E's
should look at themselves and ask, 'What's missing in my life, why do I
need to take this?' I don't feel as bad about waccy baccy - it's
probably a good deal more natural than drinking beer to get the same
effect - although I think if you do it too often it destroys your short-
term memory. I know how rebellious the current press thinks it is to go,
'Oh, wow, waccy baccy, that's brilliant yeah, let's talk about how you got
into music through your smoking expeditions.' I mean, for fuck's sake!"
_(Er, what magazines do you read - Ed.)_
JUNGLE
"I've done breakbeat tracks in the past, my second record for XL was
breakbeat. I've got nothing against jungle. The only thing I have against
anything is commercial crap, because it's made for money and not for love
of music."
AMBIENT
"Is there an ambient scene? The ambient scene exists with the druggies
really, doesn't it? The people that can't be fucked to stand up against
the politics of this country. Pathetic, pathetic people. Of course there
is good ambient music but the majority of it is going to be looked back
in history as crap, basically."
WARP
"I don't feel Warp are representative of British techno as a whole. They
do their ambient stuff but I don't actually see any 'unknown' artists
filtering through their label. They've released a good single by K Hand
and people are going, 'Oh my God, it's a woman and she makes good techno
tracks.' It just goes to show the male chauvinistic bollocks that goes on
in this industry. Who gives a fuck if it's a woman?"
HAWTIN
"I think the whole Plus 8 thing is a fucking hypermobile - bring out a
logo, put it on pants and then sell it. Plus 8 in its early days was a
very good and very influential label, particularly stuff by Dan Bell,
Vortex by Joey Beltram, V-Room and Speedy J. But Richie hasn't made
anything that's turned me onto him sonically for a while now. If it was
by some bod from Essex or Lower Middlebottom or Bremen in Germany, it
wouldn't have got the same exposure even if it was the same kind of music.
Richie has made some very good records but Plus 8 at the moment sucks."