Guest post by Jason Hopper
The Edinburgh scene has been on fire lately with particular attention being paid to the now fully established ‘edit’ genre…Ricky & cohort Craig Smith (6th Borough Project) have been at the epicentre of this whirling tornado of talent and prolific output alongside the likes of OOFT, The Revenge and the many other AKA’s circulating… but these guys go way back!
Ricky started DJ’ing and producing back in 95 and hasn’t stopped since… you can find his flavours on original Soul Renegade material favoured by the likes of Phil Asher & Masters at Work as well as providing the vocals for a track on the hotly anticipated 6th Borough Project album due out on Delusions of Grandeur.
It was my pleasure to catch up with Ricky before his gig at Newcastle’s TOKYO on May 1st alongside yours truly and Very Very’s Vinny, here’s what he had to say…
2011 looks set to be your year with the scene alive with the sounds of Scotland, how do you feel about the whole edit genre and it’s popularity, as a result of the work you and the Instruments of Rapture family have put into it?
I don’t really think in all honesty that the whole edit genre is anything new as we like many other producers have been doing it for years whether it be re -touching something or making it fit our needs to play out, what I can say is what the likes of the revenge, 6th borough project, mark E, Andy ash etc Bring to the table is exciting and refreshing where they take maybe not so well known diamonds from the past or even well known one's and turn them into there own new creations with heavy drum production or heaving basslines and knowing what parts and what works from these original beauties, remember its not all about obscurity all the time sometimes blatant more obvious works just as well , we as the soul renegades have never just been into chopping something up and throwing drums behind it as with the guys above do also, we like to see if we can add to it all with new keys & new elements to start the process of making it our own thing and if you put all of the above producers tracks together i feel you can hear that . All in all i think its a nice healthy progression of things that breathe new life into things some people may never have heard before and another chance for some of us to rediscover lost gems in a new light.
How do you feel about the scene in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK? Is there still room for a credible sound with a touch more longevity, or do you think we’re turning to a more disposable culture a musical style?
I think Scotland is probably like any other place in the UK at the moment, there are some pockets of interesting things going on and long running nights who in my opinion have always taken alot of care and attention with music policy and guest dj selection seem to be flourishing again, I think along the way after the many fractures of house music as we knew it back then the scene became diluted by Johnny five hair cuts and his 15 mates who in turn would jump on every new genre of music that we now see popping up every minute of the day and say " we only play 8bit weird wave sc fi now ! " With this you end up having half arsed nights set up over a city with half arsed music, half arsed sound systems and half arsed dj's ( thats alot of arses) taking the true clubbing experience away from the entry level listeners & clubbers alike by them thinking this is what a real club is like and this music must be cool, well in my opinion its not and i'd like to see where there at in 10 years with no pedigree behind them, moved on too 2bit folk tech and maybe just have the two haircuts going on.
The Soul Renegades sound is quite a bit different to that of partner Craig under his 6th Borough Guise, do you tend to gravitate towards a more classic sound?
We never set out with a concept on a track and say it has to sound like this or anything, it is what it is. The thing is with Craig’s craft of joining the dots across from early soul to house it's only a joy to work round all his drum programming and knowledge that allows us the freedom to create around this and I think that’s where we get that sound from that you talk about, musical similarities make that happen I suppose.
Phil Asher & L Vega have both cited Renegade tracks as being ‘front of the box’ material, does that put a lot of pressure on you from a production perspective?
You know what, we always think that if were not feeling it then how are the people listening or buying our tracks suppose to! It just stands to reason really. As for having Phil "who is one of the few genuine people left in the industry" and Louie play and really get what were doing feels nothing short of incredible, I say this as these guys get sent so much music everyday that it would be easy for our music like many others to be lost amongst it all, for this we feel blessed!
How did you get into recording vocals initially and were you nervous about providing lyrics for the new 6th Borough Project album?
Initially I started doing vocals on my early stuff because I couldn't afford to pay anyone to do it for me and I would tend to use my vocal as a guide to help me shape the track arrangement wise and some things stick and others don’t, Donny Hathaway I aint but some people seem to like the vocals that I’ve written for them or the way my voice sounds in our tracks. As regards to the vocal I did on the 6th borough album! That came about in the shape of a demo the guys sent me shortly after the album was announced to go into production. I put some keys & string parts on it, sent it back then that was that until they were short listing the tracks that would make the cut on the album and they asked me to see if i could come up with anything on it for them so I aptly came up with the back to me vocal on it for the guys and feel quite proud to be featured on such a great album that i'm sure people are going to be loving through the summer.
Do you ever think you’ll make the move to laptop DJ’ing?
Never say never but I’m still very much vinyl and cd. But you never know what’s round the corner and how we'll be listening to our favorite dj's playing music whatever media it's on.
Ahead of your gig at Tokyo… What can we expect to hear?
Pretty much what I’m into and lots of recent stuff we've been working on whether it be demo versions or finished masters, alot of soul for the renegade in you I guess. I’ve heard the people here are very open to everything so that suits me fine … Expect heavy grooves.
Download the exclusive Breaksof10 mix here.
Newcastle event info here.
