Interview With DJ Greg Evans (Bristol, UK) by Ana Bakalinova ANA: When did you start DJing and what/who has been your influence?  GREG: I remember when I was 12 and I heard Planet Rock/Planet Patrol 12" by Afrikka Bambatta and the Soul Sonic Force.  This was something NEW to me and it changed my view of what music could be.  I threw myself into the Funk and Hip Hop club scene in London and Birmingham as soon as I could get past the door staff (1984 onwards).  My scene shifted when I was spending a lot of time in London in 1987.  The cause was Acid House.  Nights like Schoom and the Trip, Amnesia and Energy and all the freshness that hit London that summer as a new culture emerged. This continued in the North of England (88/89) relishing the early UK Techno scene - with DJ's like Nightmares on Wax and LFO at the Leeds Warehouse and Jon Da Silva and Mike Pickering at the Hacienda in Manchester.  I really started to love Deep House and Garage in 1991 and it was then that I became interested in DJing as opposed to just dancing in clubs and collecting records.  As I have matured and my musical tastes with me, it is this music that has had the most impact upon me.  I guess the DJ that opened my eyes to it was Graeme Park. Graeme's Saturday residency at the Hacienda(89-96 now shut down) had a huge impact on myself and all our friends.  His style has always been eclectic and often shunned by the more pretentious posses. I believe Park had taken up the torch from the likes of Larry Levan and Frankie Knuckles by playing seamless mixes of music, from a wide range of influences: Deep Italian trax, Jazzy New Jersey cuts, Detroit Techno to 80's disco divas, Hip Hop, Funk, and even Opera, but all within forward thinking, House oriented sets.  Scratching, double beat mixing, acid bleeps, deep basslines rocking from the EV sound system, it had it  all - and with no pretense, no ego, just aural truth.

ANA:  How would you describe your style and who are your favorite music artists? 
 

GREG: Apart from Levan, Knuckles and Park - I love Masters at Work, Derrick May, DJ Pierre, Mousse T, Ron Trent, Chez Damier, Danny Tenaglia, De La Soul, Pharoah Saunders, Wu Tang Clan, John Coltrane, Elliot & Miles from HardTimes, Todd Terry....the list goes on and on I guess the emphasis of my style is a blend of strong rhythms - not played to fast, weaved using disco tracks, deep dub Plates, harder edged US cuts, vocal dubs and often quite trancey passages, but never straying from the concept of the body in motion.  It is the human in motion, dancing, meditating on the space in the rhythm, following the loops, being lifted by the vocals, getting lost in a place beyond words. 

ANA:  Being a house DJ, what is your primary interest and are you involved in other projects of the underground dance scene? 

GREG: I do not see the underground dance fraternity as something I want to be part of.  I feel that the scene seems to be more about one-up-manship than real, pure musical love.  I am not saying certain   people don’t love the music, but I am saying they like to be part of the politics as well, and it is this part that I want nothing to do with.  The primary interest for me is my own love of good music.  I DJ less than I used to, I think the scene out there has changed - for the worse.  I know its a cliché to say it used to be better, but it is true.  Now you can buy it all on a plate and it seems somehow to have less value - here in the UK.  Its all so safe. 

ANA:  Where have you played, in which UK clubs or abroad? 

GREG: I have played: Club UK [SW London] a few times (US Techno sets), The Lakota [Bristol] many times, alongside: DJ Pierre, Danny Rampling, Marshall Jefferson, Todd Terry, etc  I held a residency  
with Sutra [Bristol] for five years and played alongside: Graeme Park, Frankie Knuckles, David Morales, Danny Rampling, Rocky and Diesel, Jon of the Pleased Women, Paul Oakenfold, Carl Cox, Darren Emerson, Laurent Garnier, etc on various occasions The Flow [London] my own private parties *Front [Bristol] 94-96 run by myself and my DJ partner Hooker Alex aimed at the quiet storm out there. 

ANA:  It seems like there is a need of labeling music styles nowadays. Is it because there are really so many different styles in house and garage, or is it just a trend? 

GREG: I think there are a lot of styles of music put into the "House"/"Techno" or "Garage" categories, which then need extra descriptions to separate them from others, but I think the impetus to do this comes from magazines and promoters, not from producers or DJ's.  It is those who are interested in carving out a commercial identity that are so interested in labeling music. 

ANA: For example, why is the  Sunday Scene called  Speed Garage  and vice versa and is that a proper name for a style like that?  What are your thoughts about the development of Speed Garage? 

GREG: I think the new label "Speed Garage" is a little misleading.  I think the Speed Garage scene has developed from "jungle" fans that have moved on to something a little more mature and some DJ's and promoters have picked up on the market and provided what is required. There is a definite link to Ragga through the lyrical content and "toasted” style - also the basslines have a Ragga emphasis.  This style is nothing new - it has been part of the wider Deep House/House and Garage scene for years, from the likes of Todd Terry, Wildchild, Armand Van Helden etc.  However, to a lot of the Jungle heads who have mellowed a little, it is something new, that they want to have for their very own, so it gets separated from the wider scene.  I think it is a shame, but it seems inevitable. 

ANA: The black community in the United States developed the garage sound, what about the UK black community?  Do they have the biggest influence on developing of the new garage sound? 

GREG: It is ironic that although individuals from the Black community in the US had the genius to create the Garage sound, in the UK, the Garage scene has been very mixed race, both in terms of producers,  
the pure garage scene.  There are a clutch of DJ's and producers that have moved from the original Garage scene, and there are plenty of DJ's that have come from the Jungle scene.  I would hesitate to call this change a "new" garage sound though.  It is really just a new crowd that like garage in a different way. I believe that garage is really about eclecticism. I don’t subscribe to the idea that "garage"  
must have a certain type of drum programming or have a certain time signature, or that it must originate in the US or that the producer should have a certain skin colour. I believe garage is a feeling; an  
atmosphere.  A garage night should be built on foundations of rhythm and depth, but could have a range of tracks set upon that foundation, if they are placed with skill and knowledge. 

ANA: What do you think about the European/UK house scene as opposed to the US house scene? 

GREG: If you mean the tracks produced in these places, I tend to prefer the US stuff, but there is not really a US house scene, in the US.  I also rate the UK and European producers - e.g. Boris Dlugosch  
and Mousse T in Germany.  In Bristol there is a big hard techno/euro scene, which I don’t like too much, this is one of the styles that dominate parts of the UK and Europe and that is not my kind of music.  
 It is like anything else though, we live in pluralistic times, so it is difficult to say exactly what the UK, Euro or US scenes are - they are a lots of things at the same time. 

ANA: Artists from Germany, France, UK are widely popular in the house music production.  What do you think is essential for a producer to emphasize on since there are so many house tunes being  
produced today and how can DJs distinguish the good from the bad tunes? 

GREG: This is a difficult question - It is easier as a DJ, as long as you listen to plenty of different kinds of music and don’t take promo mail outs too seriously.  To distinguish a good tune from a bad one -  
I think instinct has a lot to do with it.  It is probably a bad idea to only listen and buy tunes that fall into one category.  By doing this, you may end up being closed minded.  Regarding standing out as  
a producer - if you try to make your music fit with a particular style, there is a danger that you will simply copy other producers and end up not standing out at all.  I would say never produce music for the recognition, the money or the status.  House music and Garage is about honesty, subtlety and truth - if you are good you will get played, but you will only make a fortune if you are commercial and predictable. 

ANA:  When a new tune is dropped within the popular UK clubs, it usually meets mass approval.  Is there something within the new style that brings together a wider audience? 

GREG: In the past in the UK, house music seemed to bring all sorts of people together both physically and to some extent spiritually. These days, there is a lot of prejudice and narrow mindedness.  I  think fashion has encroached on some of the good things in the various scenes.  It is hard to find a crowd or a club that has stayed true to the original concept (as I see it anyway) and avoided the hype and the ego taking over (not to mention the money).  There is a wider audience if you consider the whole dance orientated scene, I guess the average punter has a more refined belief in music than ten years ago. 

ANA:  Clubbing has become an expensive trend, a competition among popular clubs, a weekend fashion...  Do you think that the real underground essence of the dance culture is at danger? 

GREG: I think many promoters that started with good intentions have  lost their way.  The way clubs compete for customers reflects the amount of clubs being promoted.  A good quality underground club  
cannot expect to be full unless it panders to the punters and packages itself carefully.  In the end this process of competing reduces the purity. This is only my opinion of course. It comes down to money and image ruining a good club - in the end the punters are rich, boring and tasteless - long live the King....and so on! 

ANA:  If a greater emphasis is put on residents and less reliance on guests, this is a welcome approach as it will mean reduced door prices and greater concentration on the music rather than pandering to the egos of popular promoters and DJ stars.  But, is this what we know as underground clubland ? 

GREG: The massive emphasis upon guest DJ's over the last several  years has changed the face of clubs and music.  To me the ideal club = low door prices, good sound system, unknown DJ's being allowed to develop a regular crowd and to explore their musical ideas, without being hassled by the promoter.  This kind of scenario is what allowed the innovation in the first place.  I think as the house and garage scene has changed, the innovation in music has been witnessed elsewhere. The problem is, a lot of DJ's and producers have got a little hooked on being well known and well paid.  I don’t think it is possible to have an underground scene populated with well paid DJ's and promoters bugling coke all the time - it just doesn’t work. 

ANA:  How does the crowd influence you when you play and what's the formula you use for your set?  Describe a great club night of deep house music for example... 

GREG: The crowd holds a level of influence over my set.  I never turn up to a club to play a pre-arranged set, so most decisions are made during the night.  Sure there are certain mixes that I will aim to recreate, but I am confident of my mixing ability and I feel comfortable trying out new ideas in public. Sometimes you really have to step away from your normal style in order to capture the attention  
of the crowd, so I always arrive prepared for a problem crowd - just in case. My view of a great night of deep house from a DJ's perspective is what I would want as a punter - peaks and troughs of  
disco and dub plates, passages of grinding hard edged beats opening into looped vocals, ethereal dark tones contrasted with pure garage vocals, some extended mixes, allowing some tracks plenty of space to breathe,... it is hard to apply a formula.  I think instinct plays a very important part. 
 
ANA:  Have you been involved in any production project and if not,  do you plan to do that? 

GREG: Many of my friends produce, and I have created several tracks on acetate, but I have no desire to get them pressed, or to try to distribute them.  I am very personal about my own ideas and am fulfilled just to play them in my own sets amongst other wax. 

ANA:  I read somewhere that a DJ can experience the real essence of the music only when he/she starts producing music.  How important is that in the world of DJing? 

GREG: I would almost argue the reverse.  In my experience, DJ's who produce, very often lose touch with the atmosphere of the complete product as a result of concentrating too closely on the detail in  
their productions or those from other. That is not to say they lose the love of the music, but that their interest takes another step from the dance floor.  Even DJing can have a similar result.  In a way it is the dancer that is the closest to the essence of the music. Maybe whoever said this line did not enjoy dancing.  For me - it was the love of dancing that sparked my interest in DJing. 

ANA:  And for the end, any plans about the future? 

GREG: To stay true and quiet with my ears open.  To enjoy watching my little girl grow up, and to read more!  (and to get more familiar with Java) 

Thank you Greg!