Music talk
We asked two UK DJs/producers about their experiences of making and playing music here in Barcelona
KID SUDA: At the age of 10 I was cutting up tapes and recording with a Casio keyboard onto my dads old TASCAM 4-track, I never thought of it as producing, it was just fun playing around with sound. It's something that's always fascinated me and I've slowly become more and more obsessed over the years.
I started off Djing at warehouse parties 12 years ago in East London - Shoreditch, where I founded the Decknology DJ crew and began to promote underground hip-hop and scratch events. That became quite a platform and within a short period of time I was playing headline sets in clubs. In 2004 I landed a European Tour with Neneh Cherry and that was around the time I decided to get out of the UK for a bit.
- London and Barcelona are two very different stories. I have a lot more time here to write music and that’s the most important thing for me.
- DJing in Barcelona? They’ve pretty much banned it, haven’t they? At least most bars have a limiter that’s set by the Ajuntament and they don’t like people playing music from turntables anymore, so there’s a slight air of oppression regarding the whole DJ culture.
- I still play in London quite regularly, there's more going on there in fact there´s more of everything including stress so I always enjoy it more knowing that I´m coming back to Barcelona.
- Being in Barcelona has definitely opened me up to different styles. I hear more reggae in my sounds, more afrobeat, bailefunk, electronic influences, Latin flavours. There are also less egos involved in music here compared to London so there’s a certain honesty about the other musicians I’ve met. I also think the weather is very influential in the music. It's all about them sun rays!
- Mad Session is a collaborative effort between my label Raw Format, Global Soundz Agency and Genome Records. We basically play dubstep, 2-step, breakbeat, drum‘n’bass and everything else in between. We’ve had some excellent local guests playing and so far the night has incorporated many styles and nationalities.
- B-Low, Plat Du Jour & Jungle Jungle are doing good parties. There's too much minimal house, not enough good hip-hop and there's always room for more good dubstep.
- Producing music can be a very personal and inward experience whereas DJing is the exact opposite! I've been getting most my kicks from the studio recently, although saying that I really enjoy playing out so I think they both go hand in hand for me.
- I'm not tied exclusively to any label although I had a few web releases last year with different net labels. Raw Format is developing as an umbrella for a small collective of us and we´re looking to soon start putting some releases out under that banner.
Mad Sessions, every Tuesday, 11pm-3am.Sala Cream, C/ Balmes 83. www.myspace.com/kidsuda
FLUID MOTION: I’ve been DJing since 1997. I started playing in Manchester from 1998 onwards, concentrating on the soulful side of drum‘n’bass. I also played at a few illegal raves in the late Nineties in Manchester. I moved to London for three years in 2003, and set up a small night there called First Floor Funk.
- I think that the opportunities for DJing are generally better here and the music scene is less saturated than in the UK. I ran The Liquid Sessions night for over a year here. However, the money is not good at all and there is a lack of locations to play at now, since the police closed down or put noise restrictions on many places in the city.
- I think that the DJs are the best promoters in Barcelona. Unlike the UK, there isn't much money available for quality promotion, which can be a good thing and a bad thing. The best nights here are put on purely out of passion for the music. I think if club owners and club goers both paid more, then we would see an improvement in the quality of music in the city and the people who come here to play.
- Unlike the UK, there isn’t much money available for quality promotion, which can be seen as a good thing and a bad thing. The best nights here are put on purely out of passion for the music.
- I think you have to keep your ear to the ground, but there are some great little nights happening all over the city at the moment if you look hard enough. The best three nights I've been to since living here were Tom Middleton at Moog, Todd Terry at Catwalk and Seiji at Marula Cafe.
- I changed from playing drum‘n’bass to deep house over the last two years. The reason was for the quality of the music. Not because it’s fashionable or anything like that, but because it is the best music out there, in my opinion.
- I think that liquid drum 'n' bass and deep house are under-represented and minimal techno is over-represented here.
- I run Binary Soul Records from here and work closely with Soul Industries Recordings, a quality deep and tech house label.
Fluid Motion plays March 4th at Underground Club, C/ Granada del Penedes 19, 10pm. www.myspace.com/fluidmotionhouse
http://soundcloud.com/fluidmotion
http://www.myspace.com/binarysoulrecs
http://www.myspace.com/soul-industries