My UK Psy myth frustration. The one thing that’s always bugged me about my home country is that many people think that I play nothing but Psy Trance? I often hear the words ‘I used to like him before he switched to Psy Trance’. If these same people took a little time to research, theyd hear on my radio show, Essential mixes etc that Psy is only a small part of my sets and has been this way for the past 20 years. I reach for my Psy playlist when I head to the harder faster parts of my sets, thus here lies the problem. We’re not so blessed with the wonderful weekly clubs we used to have here in the UK, nor monthly come to think of it. So when we get a club show, it becomes an ‘event’ usually with a large line up. I want to continue to play in my home country and make sure I play on these events as not to let down my loyal fans, but it seems to come at a price. Today’s UK crowds seem to have a short attention span on the dance floor , they want to be bombarded with all the hits by the superstar entertainment DJ’s. If I was to play primetime, I’d honestly struggle as my deeper music would get lost, so the promoters put me on at the end of the night when the BPM will be a lot higher and only the true dedicated clubbers will be left once the celebrities have left the building. So herewith lies the problem, the crowd has been battered with powerful uplifting anthems and by 5am the BPM has risen to full power, the only tools that I can use to keep this energy will be Psy Trance, anything else will be far to deep and clear the room. I’m doing my professional job as a DJ holding the crowd with the correct musical tools for the job, but the downfall is people will only hear me play Psy Trance. It would be easy for me to ignore the UK and head abroad every weekend to the countries that understand me and give me the freedom to express myself musically, but the UK is my home and this is the country where it started for me. I haven’t changed my sound, I’ve always played deep and dark underground Trance, it’s actually the others around me that have switched their sounds to a more commercial sound. If we turn the clocks back over a decade ago, I played alongside all the stars of today comfortably because we all played a similar vibe and energy level, it was a perfect fit. It’s a struggle today, because they are the polar opposite due to their musical shift. Though Trance is in my blood, my life and my roots, I actually have a lot more common with the Techno scene these days. Go listen to ‘Melodic Techno’, it will take you back to those wonderful HOOJ Choons days, to me it sounds like Trance and is Trance in my eyes, but here comes that genre argument from the next generation. It’s all confusion as the meaning of genres shift. I’m doing many things to address this so that people can hear the deeper more progressive side of me, we’re focusing on my JOOF Editions events, especially in Brighton. I’m asking clubs like Ministry of Sound, Gallery, Gods Kitchen to play me earlier so that I can express myself more freely musically, and its working. I’m not a DJ that tries to force education on people, I’m a DJ that’s stuck to my musical roots and you can be reassured that will never change. It’s been a very hard journey swimming against the tide of commercialism but I never gave up and stuck with it, hence why JOOF Editions was born.
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 11:23:54 +0000
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