The one and only ANDY C destroyed the dance floor at the UTR Valentines Rave, and after skanking out hard to a rowdy headline set UTR caught up with the undisputed king of drum and bass as he made his way out of Ministry's mixing booth.
And for a man responsible for one of the biggest labels and club night in the game, with millions of devoted fans in every country where the 170bpm bassline has left its mark, as well as the most fearsome reputation as a mixer going, he is nothing but a straight up geezer...
So Andy, having met you before at your label night Ram at matter me and my friends were surprised by how happy you were to natter away to punters making as little sense as we were. Do you really love us all that much?
At the end of the day I appreciate anyone who comes wanting to have a party and get down. Obviously you know that I started out raving myself many moons ago, and Ive been lucky enough to end up on the other side of things. I just enjoy it! I always get a vibe off the crowds when theyre enjoying themselves, when I see them dancing at a night like tonight Im buzzing.
You seemed like you were really enjoying yourself behind Ministry's decks tonight, what do you think of these events compared to raves you normally play?
I absolutely love playing for UTR! The crowd are into the music soo much, UTR nights are always jam-packed. What could be better than bringing in a new generation who are excited to be a part of the music weve loved for years. At events like tonight everyone is going crazy and thats what I love to see.
I read a recent interview by some fool who asked you when youre going to hang up your boots, why would you ever do such a thing??
Ha, I know man I'm fighting the cause! It's good to still be going because I love it... At a time when drum and bass is having such an incredible resurgence this is no time to think about getting out.
RAM has got some exciting new acts on the roster, it's obvious that you guys have been getting excited by the year of the dark side of drum and bass that was 2010?
Those dark flavours are coming through very strong and we've got a bunch of new artists signed who are smashing it in that area. It's very exciting because music goes in cycles and we've got a brand new form right here that is inspiring a lot of new work. We've got the likes of Wilkinson, Culture Shock, Delta Heavy, DC Breaks, Hamilton, Basha, theres a lot of people and theyre all making great music, it's looking strong and we've got a release coming out every two weeks for pretty much rest of the year.
How much do you worry about getting them releases out quickly before they get leaked to the file-sharing public?
We always like to get em out quick! But its more down to the artist and the process they go through when they're finishing tracks off. Theres no point in holding back the music for no reason so we put it out if its ready to go. We had Nightlife 5 out at the end of last year, which was a great opportunity to showcase some of our new artists' work.
People are very excited about the fundamentals of dnb at the moment. It's a unique energy thing... we did a night at Fabric a couple of weeks ago that was bigger than anything we could have envisaged, 4000 people all having it!
And how has the move to Fabric worked out for RAM?
When I get given the figures on a Monday after the gig I can't even believe that you can fit that many people inside fabric. I'm very conscious of the fact that people need some space to dance so I've asked them to put a limit on it!
What is it about your mixing style that has got you this serious nickname?
Well I just like the rotation of having three decks involved, it took me about four or five years to get to the point where I could bring in the double drop technique on the regular. Anyone who knows me knows I like my longer sets where I can really let loose, but events like this one are multi-genre so I can't really ask for the 3 hour set that I like, so here I'm just in, out and onto the next one.
WORDS BY ANNA HERBER
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