railway raver
by oysterova
very short bio, please :]
http://www.d2b.org/EAR/the_railway_raver.php
what software or hardware do you use to create your cool acid music?
My first two records were done with some old Roland analog kit ( MC202, SH09, TR808, TR707, TR606 ), a Yamaha DX11 synth, and a Korg synth ( MS10 ). On my most recent record ( You'll Never Get Anywhere......), I also used a sampler ( CASIO FZ10 ) and a software sequencer called FastTracker 2.
tell me a bit about your early days: what you used to do at weekends, have you organised parties or something.
I grew up in Chelmsford which is about an hour from London. Theres not much going on in Chelmsford so we used to go to a derilict barn outside the town. My friend Tom used to write loads of music so we used to listen to that and get off our faces.
tell me about the band with matthew yee-king. what was that?
It was called Tonkatopia. I played guitare and Yeeking played drums. (Two other friends, James (bass) and Gaz (vocals)). We used to rehearse at Yeeking's dads house, and play gigs at the YMCA in Chelmsford. Later on Tom played keyboards as well.
how would you describe your sound?
I don't know really ><>?!"£*
what do you like most in making tracks. is it your vocation or laugh origin?
Well, mainly for a laugh. I think people in general write their best music when they are relaxed and just writing stuff they believe in and want to hear. That can become a hard thing to do when you are writing music specifically for a record.
are there any cool places in bristol to do raves? name the cooles one, you had.
To be honest, I never go out raving in Bristol. I've only lived here for a year. I used to go out raving in London years ago, a techno club called 'Lost', and another one called 'Deep Space', and to Rephlex raves.
what was your first record you bought?
ER.....my Dad bought me 'All Night Dancing' by the Jacksons. Apart from that maybe a Duran Duran record ??
what do you like more: vodka or wine?
VODKA. My Dads side of the family were from Russia, ( well thats my excuse ). Red wine makes me go weird. Vodka is the best drug.
your favourite track is ..
Thats an incredibly hard question. The first few that spring to mind:
Unfunky UFO - Parliament
Box Energy - DJ Pierre
Caz By Close Up Over - Black Dog Productions
Tha - Aphex Twin.
have you ever used any cool exclusive knobs. very old maybe? synths or drum machines...
Not really, I suppose all my kit is very old, infact all my synths are at least 15 years old. But its all the standard stuff that oldschool house was made with. As time goes by there's less and less of it around that actually works.......
how do you started creating acid house music?
In 1996 when i was still at college i bought my first drum machine and synth. I started writing loads of trax straight away. At first i did loads of hard acid trax. After a while when i had more equipment I suddenly found myself writing more 'house sounding' stuff, and thats what Rephlex released.
from where do you know rephlex and why did you send the demos to them, not to another labels?
I used to live near Richard in London. Also i got to know Grant because he was around alot and I used to see him at gigs and Rephlex parties. I gave Grant some tapes and he came to a gig I did and then that was that. I never sent tapes to anyone else as I was happy to release records on Rephlex, because I grew up listening to alot of Rephlex records, eg Aphex, Cylob, Bochum Welt, Universal Indicator. At the time I doubted anyone else would take a chance on releasing those 'old' sounding house trax anyway.
what are your main influences creating music?
For the house stuff Larry Heard (Mr Fingers), Phuture (DJ Pierre) early stuff (eg. Slam, We Are Future, Box Energy), Reggie Burrel (NY Housing Authority), Derrick May...to name just a few. But eveything that I listen to inspires me not only to make music but to live .......
what other artists/groups do you like?
Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Kraftwerk, early Plus 8 Detroit techno (eg Richie Hawtin), Funkadelic, Parliament, Jimmy Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Can, Plaid / Black Dog, King Tubby, Augustus Pablo, Dilinger, Pink Floyd, James Brown, Herbi Hancock, Carl Craig, Kool Keith, LFO, Tortoise, Cylob..
can you tell us a bit more about that early days group with yeeking, tom squarepusher and you...
erm.....Well me and Yeeking were in a band with a couple of our friends from school ( not Tom ), rehearsing in Yeeking's Dads house after school, and doing gigs in the town where we lived ( Chelmsford, in Essex ). Later we became a marujuana fuelled psychedelic band and Tom played acid keyboards. Somewhere, someone has a video of the last gig we ever did, I don't know where that is but I would love to see it.