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You were there at the start of breakbeat. How have you seen the scene develop over the years?
Well first of all I'll say we are talking about "breakbeat" in a certain context right? Trust me there is always at least one person who will point out that it started with James Brown or Afrika Bambaata etc etc.... so anyway... since we all started our little thing years ago, the music has changed immeasurably. First of all the scene actually became a scene, cos it was a collection of DJs, the odd label and lots of hype to start with - me, Freeland and Ali B all started out as press officers and spun a lot of shit to get attention for our Friction and Air nights as I remember... back then there was Breaking Point, then Chew The Fat, ourselves at Friction, Air and Beats and Bobs as I recall... Now there are breakbeat nights all over the world, the festivals are still full for the acts like the Plumps, Krafty, Stantons and the rest of the top boys so on paper there should be no complaints.. but as it has got bigger, things have got more fragmented and also a lot less varied than when we started. But hey its all progress so excuse me if I don't go into a back in the day rant...
Your recent Fabric mix took in elements of breakbeat, dubstep and minimal. What sort of sound draws your attention when listening to tunes?
Bass for a start is a deciding factor I love a breakbeat, from hip hop days to drum and bass raving, and I like hearing that in the music I play also.. but bass vibes, an organic flow, and a b boy flavour are important to me in the tunes I make, play and listen to.
Are there any other music genres that heavily influence you?
Dub of course. If I was gonna only listen to one thing for the rest o my life it would be this for the bass, and the deep meditation it brings me... but all music really - I started with hip hop, got heavily into drum and bass and on discovering the miracle raving pill have a deep love for house music. These days as far as far as making and playing music goes, Im influenced by dubstep, b more club, drum and bass and UK garage...
Being a producer/DJ/label boss, what's a standard day for you?
Well Im not a label boss at the moment -Im always reminding people I left Mob about 5 year ago... but I am starting a new label called Cool & Deadly with Lloyd Seymour from Supercharged / Against The Grain so let me mention that while you're here..
A standard day starts around 7 with coffee, checking who said what about Arsenal in all the papers that I read online, and a check of all the music blogs, myspace pages and mp3s in my inbox. Then I fire off excited emails to Sick Rick telling him who I have just discovered or what Im into that morning, to which the general response is "I told you about him last week / month / year" or "yeah that one's good but have you heard THIS one..." then I generally call him a wanker for trying to get one up on me (when I taught him everything he knows) then I get over it and head for gym / football / squash depending on what day it is, then studio business.
The end of the day is like the beginning - checking music blogs, myspace,, and tunes, but swapping the coffee for a joint. Ive left out the constant Facebook checking, the pointless phone conversations about football and doing the crossword in the Guardian cos it doesn't make me sound as cool.
In terms of your production, do you approach it in the same way that you approach your DJing?
Never thought of it that way before but maybe yeah..When Im djing I play the records that I like and hope that other people like them too.. that's why I maybe jump around between genres so much... and in the studio I shoe horn the sounds I like into whatever tune Im trying to make... I tend to make music and play music for myself first then the audience. Which is probably why Im not as popular as some of my crowd pleasing colleagues I guess. And that isn't a criticism.
Are there any production techniques you use that might surprise people?
Not really... the set up we have now in the studio has me on logic and my engineer Max on Pro Tools. He's a stubborn fucker who wont learn Logic cos he's so brilliant on Pro Tools, which means I have to do my homework before we get to the studio, making samples and writing beats, then it all goes into audio where we stick it all into Pro Tools. The plus side is that once we are at the studio I have more time to fetch the biscuits and the coffee.
Do you find some crowds are more responsive to the Tayo sound than others?
Maybe once upon a time, but as I have got more established I get to play to good crowds wherever I go... and the Tayo Sound as you so politely call it, is a broad enough church for me to adapt to wherever I go - I played a Dubstep set at Tuesday Club in Sheffield, a 4/4 set in Loughborough at a night called Shivoo, more straight ahead breaks at Spectrum in Nottingham, and whatever I damn please at Fabric and it went off at all of them...
You were nominated for best DJ at this years Breakpoll Awards. Were you surprised by that?
It was totally unexpected but nice I guess, seeming as I don't play straightforward breaks really these days its nice that the people who voted for it have been feeling what I have been doing. Plus I have never sent out an email asking anyone to vote for me in all the years of Breakspoll... I was surprised when the Fabric CD won best mix album in the DJ awards last year. Im not really a great one for awards to be honest, which will surprise anyone who knows me well enough to be aware of my rampant ego.
What tunes are currently big in your sets?
Not telling you... oh ok then - none of them have come out anyway so here we go...
Todays top 8 is
TRG - Everything West and For
Tayo - March Of The Soundbwoyz
Tayo - 91 was Fun
Dubchild - Go Wid Jah
Dubstitutes - 2 Faced Rasta (Reso remix) (Dubstitutes - this is released actually)
Curses - What I Need (Drop The Lime Remix) -( ps - this one is out also)
Rusko - Cockney Thug (Buraka Som Systema remix)
Tayo meets Baobinga - Choppa Riddim (Soul Jazz - this one is out - buy it!)
When you were young, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Either a stuntman or an actor. Then I went to University, got into djing and wanted to be involved in the music industry....
If train A leaves Chicago traveling 100MPH and train B leaves New York traveling 150MPH and the distance between the two cites is 600 miles how far from New York will it be when the two trains meet?
Who says they are going in the same direction? Ha x
How have you found this interview?
Better than most! you didn't ask me "what's your take on the state of breakbeat & where is it going?" or "how's Mob Records doing". Oh and you didn't say "you play dubstep now don't you" which is another standard. Im in the studio as I do it so its taken me longer than it would have done, and I haven't checked my spelling... that's my excuse for not working out the puzzle above by the way.
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