Interview with Richard Lee  (DJ ROO, London) by Ana Bakalinova

ANA: When did you start DJingand what/who has been your influence?

DJ ROO: I started DJ-ing about 5 yearsago now, my main influence was Hip Hop music, I was into Hip Hop dancing before I was a DJ and I appeared on a couple of TV programs as well, when I stopped dancing I decided that the next thing for me was DJ-ing, I already had a pile of 12 inches sitting in a corner gathering dust
and I thought I might as well put them to use, I slowly got into the Hardcore scene which was massive at the time(91/92) this evolved into Jungle which was ok for a while but I slowly got more and more into Garage which is what I play now.

ANA: Where do you usually play- in which UK clubs?

DJ ROO: I play at the Chunnel Club, the Powerhouse, Garage City, Peach (Camden Palace), Beluga, Colloseum and Ministry Of Sound, I also run a local club in my home town called Luvism where we have most of the DJ's from London playing.

ANA:  Being a house/garage DJ, what makes you love this music and what is the 'crowd vibe' like at the clubs where you play?

DJ ROO: I just love putting on a wicked tune and seeing the clubs reaction, I like to keep the club grooving ratherthan go on a journey, there's nothing better than watching a crowd go crazy to the music you are playing, it's such a buzz!!

ANA: How would you describe your music style and who are your favorite artists in the house and garage scene?

DJ ROO: I play a mixture of US and UK Garage,I try and keep the beats bumpy and I don't go to deep, I like funky vibey music.  My favourite DJ is Gilles Peterson who is an eclectic DJ, I really like him because he'll play anything and has always stuck to his guns, as far as Garage goes it's got to be Grant Nelson because it's his style that got me into Garage in the first place, Grant's da man!!

ANA: The whole London Underground scene has contributed a big deal to the Garage music.  So, when a tune is dropped within the clubs in UK and in other club scenes, it usually meets mass approval. Is it
because of the combination of soulful garage with rough beats and faster rhythm so everybody is satisfied?

DJ ROO: Yes, in Britain they like the musica bit harder and faster so UK Garage is the perfect music for us as it mixes the hard with the soul.

ANA: There has been a debate whether the so-called Sunday Scene (known widely as Speed Garage) is betraying the pure Garage sound, or whether it is reaching more clubbers.  According to you, in which direction Speed Garage is moving to?

DJ ROO: Speed Garage is a dirty word forme, I prefer to call it UK Garage or just House music, it's basically now split up in two directions, the ruff Jungle influenced sound and the choppy more soulful Todd Edwards influ enced sound which I prefer to play, I think UK Garage has given the whole scene a kick up the arse and it's taken over cheesy House musicin London which in my books is a good thing.

ANA: It is known that the Garage music occupies the underground music scene, but as more and more  tunes are becoming widely popular over-ground, do you think the quality of the music is at risk?  (I am
not implying that the popularity can destroy the quality, but is it going to make it harder to distinguish between the good and the bad tunes?)

DJ ROO: Yes most definitely, there's already a lot of shitty tunes out there and a lot of people are just blatantly ripping Van Helden off but there's also a hell of a lot of good music being made so I guess it's up to the DJ's to weed out the good from the bad, withany scene you get bandwagons and there's a lot of people tr ying to jump on this one.

ANA: Have you been involved in any production project and who do you like to work with?

DJ ROO: I've been playing around in the studio a bit but I'm still learning, as far as  working with someone else I'd have to say Grant Nelson.

ANA: What kind of mixing techniques does your music style require?

DJ ROO: I go for smooth mixes if I'm playing US Garage and a lot of cutting up when I'm playing UK Garage, if I'm getting a good vibe from the crowd then I'll really mix it up and use a lot of Hip Hop style mixing .

ANA:  How does the crowd influence you when you play and how would you describe a great club night of deephouse and garage (Camden Palace for example)?

DJ ROO: The crowd influence me hugely, basically if I've got a good crowd then my DJ-ing will be better, I've had some nights where I've really had to work the crowd up and sometimes that's nice because you feel you've achieved something, whenever I play Chunnel Club they're up for it from the start, the Chunnel Club is definitely my favourite place to play.

ANA: Concerning the emergence of some European Garage artists: Mousse T, Boris Dlugosch, Shazz, ..who do you think best represents the European Garage scene?

DJ ROO: Personally for me it's Mousse T but there's a lot of good artists coming from Europe and now we've got people like Daft Punk who are doing it on an international scale.

ANA: It is nice to seemore and more people dancing to different styles of house and garage, and more and more DJs from other countries (like the South and East Europe) being influenced by the Garage spirit.  What is the best way for this music to spread in other countries?

DJ ROO: Obviously through the music, if it's good music then people are going to hear it, you can't hold good music back and once there's a buzz for something it spreads like wild fire, I mean here I am a DJ from Hertfordshire being interviewed by someone from Macedonia, that's got to be saying something about the popularity of House & Garage.

ANA: What are your future plans?

DJ ROO: To keep on keeping on, I'm just going to work hard at being the best at what I do, my ambition now is to get in the studio as much as I can and concentrate on that, it's basically a whole new thing to me and I love it already, I think my main thing though is to just enjoy myself and not be too ser ious about it, after all that's what music's about isn't it?