Mickey Finn - Live at Fantazia - 1993

Biography of Mickey Finn

Mickey Finn

A year has passed since our last feature on Mickey Finn. Since then his reputation as a producer has been boosted thanks in part to a deluge of remix work. More often than not teaming up with sidekick L Double in the lab, the two have remixed most recently Pharoahe Monch’s ‘Last Dayz’ for Adam F’s ‘Drum and Bass Warfare LP’, ‘When The Morning Comes’ for Urban Takeover and an assortment of hip hop rewritings too. Within the last year the Urban Takeover group has fulfilled its desire to create two new record labels, Shakedown and Dramatix. We thought it would be impossible for things to get any busier than the last time we spoke but with Mickey and L’s first album looming, and Mickey’s DMC compilation just released we couldn’t be more wrong.
If you’ve encountered Mr Finn deejaying at a party recently you will have noticed a big difference and we’re not talking about his selection of fine upfront dubs either. Mickey has now followed suit of record label partner Gavin King (Aphro) in giving that legendary flowing mane the snip. Both ravers and fellow artists have had to come to terms with the fact that it’s not Mickey’s younger brother meandering through the sweaty crowds with his record box. Lexicon sets the dictaphone to record mode to catch all the latest on Mickey, Urban Takeover and forthcoming projects.
The Urban Shakedown years were a pinnacle moment for both Mickey and Gavin. For establishing a new record label, Shakedown was a perfect name to set the mood and continue the legacy and success that the name had endured. With crazy amounts of good demos flooding their Docklands office it was only a matter of time before such a label would have to be put into action. “At Urban Takeover we were going to run into a backlog of telling people their stuff wouldn’t be out for eighteen months, which is way to long. We’re getting a good reaction and we’re happy so far.” As for judging which release should be deemed suitable for Shakedown or Dramatix, it’s purely down to the reaction and feedback from the players and ravers alike. If a track carries mass appeal then it will be released with Urban Takeover. There are no set formulas or instructions about the vibe of a tune and whether it will be chosen for either of the new labels.
Urban Takeover has always been known for bringing new artists to the fore, often regardless of where they are based. Mulder made his name on the imprint, as did Muffler from Norway, Rascal & Klone have sure upped their profile since releasing on Urban Takeover, as have Ascend & Skope. Now it’s the turn of Jez Q and Shere Khan & Dimensions who have notched up releases on new label Dramatix. “As a deejay, I play something because I like it, not because Andy C made it, not because Dillinja made it, but because I like it. I don’t care if it came from Timbuktu or from the deepest corner of Kent. It doesn’t matter to me, because you should want that record for what it is. We’re getting caught in a day and age where there’s almost a fashion statement that goes with it.
I always remember as a deejay, hearing records in a shop and liking it because I liked it. Down at Urban Takeover it’s always been about if we like it, we’ll sign it.” True to his word both Mickey and Gavin have signed artists from places such as Norway and Canada at a time when others might not have been prepared to take risks in being linked with artists from outside of the UK. “Look at ‘Superman’ a lot of people didn’t like it but there was also a lot of people who did so we’re not a fashion label you know. We take risks, not all of our artists are well known but we believe in them, we believe in their music. We license it and we release it.”
And on to the work that Mickey and L Double have been doing (L is busy at the controls in Mickey’s loft studio as we speak). “Nine times out of ten, I’m in the studio with L at the moment. We’re working right now on a Jaheim remix. I’ve done a little disco thing with Gavin (You Better Run), we’ve got to finish off the b-side as we haven’t done anything together for quite a while and we want to. I’ve been concentrating on working on this album with L, more than anything.”
Expect an equal blend of both vocal and instrumental tracks for the forthcoming LP. Whilst not letting off too much information Mickey does divulge a mystery American songstress has been brought in for two tracks; a link up with Deadly Hunta of the Coalition (who appeared on Aphro’s ‘Ganja Man’ during the summer) has been made; Rawhill Crew frontman MC Navigator has been given a call and the vocals of Iggy Pop will even feature in the mix too. At this stage it already sounds like a diverse project. “With this album we’ve had to take into consideration that there’s going to be a lot of listening going on, maybe in the car, maybe at home. I don’t just want to make an album where people just bang out to it. I want to be able to listen to it in the car at all different times of day.”

But if you can’t wait for that then you will have to check Mickey’s foray into compilation land, courtesy of DMC, aptly named ‘The Takeover Bid 2’. Both Mickey and Gavin are no strangers to the concept and have both done mixes for Mixmag, the previous owners of the series. “I try and lay down a set of music in maybe the way someone makes a record. It’s got an intro, you kick it in, have a little breather, kick it in again and then roll it out, or whatever, people have got different ways of working. I try to take people on a journey. You’ve got to take into consideration every angle and also the fact that people will listen to it again and again and again. So I have to get it as right as possible.”
As he locks on to the strength of a tune before flicking for artist credentials Mickey must have carefully selected the tunes for ‘The Takeover Bid 2’. He stresses that he plays a record for what it is and not who it’s made by. “If people are dancing to music does it make them get into that record more if they know who that artist is or do they just dance to that record because they like it?” Mickey questions whether you judge a record on the radio in the same way, or whether will you wait for the deejays to reveal the artist before making up your mind.
Having now branched out into other aspects of the music and entertainment industry, including buying the rights for the Innovation parties a couple of years ago, forming the Urban (artist) agency and supporting a new record distribution company what can be next in the global domination plans of Mickey Finn? Our subject approaches this one with caution as it’s clear that not everyone is over zealous about Finn’s expanding empire. Mickey has even heard of comparisons made about him being the jungle / drum and bass version of Suge Knight, he rebukes ridiculous comparisons of course. He also challenges absurd similarities, plain and simply, by asking why is it so wrong to be a hard grafter?
“Two of the things that me and Gavin have got involved with have been babies turning into monsters. We never intended them to get were they have today, but they have through various reasons. The agency has done quite well, we have quite a few people over here now. The distribution company has done really well too. We took the risk, we put our time into it and it paid off.” It’s a similar story with the Innovation parties, recently Innovation held their first drum and bass weekender at Camber Sands. “The Innovation weekender worked out brilliant for the whole drum and bass scene, not for me. It showed that we can pull off things like that, that we can fill up venues, that we are a force to be taken seriously. I think it’s about time people started looking at this scene and thinking of us as major contenders within this dance umbrella in England.”
It seems to be that the punters agreed going by the word on the street and it seems the organisers, who also staged house and garage arenas would agree. They’ve already called Innovation back for a re-match next May. With a more hands on approach next year it’s something that Mickey is clearly relishing the prospect of. Ideas being toyed with at the moment include more daytime entertainment such as a deejays versus emcees football match. Also twenty four hour television, already billed as the ‘Innovation Challenge’, is being proposed.
If you happen to be staying in a chalet for the next one, just listen out for that ominous knock on the door, you have been warned! “We’re just going to have a laugh, because that’s what people want to do. I think in the last few years the fun element has gone a little bit, it’s got a bit serious. It’s like ‘hold on, what do we go out for?’. I thought it was all about having fun? That’s what I used to go out for. So with Innovation we try and put the fun back into it and don’t take it so seriously.”
Mickey concludes that being involved with all these activities have helped lift him up and away from a more sinister route in life. “Believe me I don’t want to go back to the life I used to lead, I really don’t want to lead that life anymore. I’m trying to do my little bit, to put back into something that took me away from a shity life.” A stern warning to those who have nothing better to do than denounce Mickey’s moves: “I should get you in a car one day and show you the kind of life I used to live. Maybe then you would start understanding why I do what I do. I am just trying to keep my head above water and do things that are good for the scene.”
Now living in his rural retreat of Kent (a total and deliberate contradiction to the hustle and bustle of the scene) Mickey further declares his love and input to the scene. Whilst on his global trotting travels, he’s always on the look out to help newly conquered drum and bass territories. “I give people Unique’s number or UMC’s number, because I understand that I can’t go back to Taiwan every other month and that the scene will die without other people going there. I’m not one of these people that are like ‘I’ll just keep it to myself’. That’s rubbish, the scene won’t stay alive by you keeping it to yourself. I represent the scene. It really gets to me that that’s the way things work sometimes and that certain individuals want to be like that.”
‘The Takeover Bid 2’ is out now on DMC. Peshay’s take of ‘When The Morning Comes’ on Urban Takeover, is in stores now, followed by Special K and Ray Keith’s remix of ‘Twist’. Out now on Dramatix is Shere Khan and Dimension’s ‘Brazil’ & ‘Time 2 See’ (DRAMA 001 - Jez Q’s ‘Voices’ b/w ‘Psychotic’).