Fabio - BBC Radio 1 - London UK - Aug 2008

Biography of Fabio

Real Name : Fitzroy Heslop

My family aren't musical at all except in the sense that when I was growing up there was always music playing in the house. My parents were real party people who used to go out a lot. Brixton was a very musical place when I was younger as well, so I was influenced a lot. There were always parties around the corner from where I lived and a blues party ever Saturday night. Brixton's that kind of place, you cant escape music there.

My DJing came about through different things I was doing. I used to go out a lot - I mean I was the original party man. Monday, Tuesday we'd just find places to go. My raving partner was Colin Dale who plays techno now and used to be at Kiss FM. He was a DJ and used to play at a club called Tiffany's. I started to think this DJing thing doesn't look too bad and then a pirate radio station opened up near my house and Colin was supposed to be doing a show. He couldn't as he was already playing on Kiss (which was a pirate then) so he asked me to do it for him. I wasn't sure, I wasn't a DJ, but he said I had plenty of tunes so I could cover for him. I went up and did the show and that was really the start. I hadn't thought about it before and it was really frightening going there with loads of people in the studio watching. Once everyone left me to it and I was in the studio by myself I was like hey, this is alright and I was hooked. I thought, Yeah, this is me! I got a daytime show and did that for a couple of years which really sparked things off and I started to get a few gigs before acid house blew up. I was asked to play a small but notorious after-party for this club with Grooverider because we were the only people the promoter knew who played house music. It was a Tuesday night and we weren't really up for it - Groove had to go to work in the morning - and when we got there we were playing music to ourselves really. Then at about 3 o'clock hundreds of people turned up out of the blue as we were packing up to go home. After that, they asked us if we wanted to do it on a regular basis. That was great because not many people came to Brixton then. We'd just come out of the riots and everyone was still wary about the place, so to see all these people coming down partying, monged out of their brains, was a really funny experience! That's how the Fabio and Grooverider thing kicked off and how DJing started for me.

The studio is something I've never really done. I never got my head around it and I've never enjoyed myself in the studio any time I've been in there. It's one of those things like riding a bike or driving, as soon as you find out ways of doing things it becomes exciting so I need to get to that stage. I still think it's really boring but there's still time and I've a lot of ideas. It's something I've got to look forward to.

Colin Dale really helped me through the early stages. When I didn't have many records he would lend me some. He was the one who taught me how to mix so Colin was very important to me. Tim Westwood gave me my first break as a DJ at a big night and I had a fucking nose bleed on the decks! Grooverider was much more important in the acid house times. Our partnership was a really good bond and up 'til now we're still doing it out there, so it's all good. It's really freestyle, we play exactly what we want. If he gets on a roll then I'll leave him for an hour and then come back on. It's very important to give a DJ space, even if he is your partner. If he's blowing it out I let him get on with it and vice versa. There's no real set DJ thing between us, it's just whatever feels right. We play everywhere, all over Europe and the old Iron Curtain states where they have great scenes: Estonia is great. Australia is amazing too and they love breakbeat there; drum n bass is bigger than house. Canada has always been into drum n bass, America is quite a strange place to go to. They're bang into it but you go to certain places that are just really odd. It's nothing like England, totally different but amazing to go to places like New Mexico because they are so off key and weird. The great thing about America is that wherever you go people come up and say that they listen to us on the radio. It's great, I love touring and people who go to drum n bass clubs are actually into the music because it's such a weird sound.

When we started on Kiss they'd had their independent licence for about 4 years. They wanted to keep the pirate feel so it was anything goes really. It was a good time and the show was really popular, it was the height of the drum n bass thing in the early 90s and Kiss capitalised on that. We've been at Radio 1 for four years now. The reason we left Kiss was that it felt like they didn't give a toss about us. We won a lot of awards for the show and really raised the profile of Kiss but we never got a thank you, no one ever said, respect for what you're doing. Towards the end it just got a little bit shabby and when our producer went to Radio 1 he came and said there was an opening for a drum n bass show and asked us what we thought. Radio 1 is worldwide and we knew that drum n bass was going that way as well, so getting out to all those different places was what we wanted. We got feedback from places like Australia, America and Brazil. It's great to be able to express yourself to people worldwide through your DJing and the radio. The radio is a very personal thing, you play what you want to play but as a DJ you play half for yourself and half for the crowd.

I've been playing at FABRIC LIVE a couple of years now. Fabric put their money into drum n bass when no one else would in London. At the height of the garage thing, when everyone was acting like drum n bass was bollocks and no one was interested, Fabric always put on drum n bass. I don't think there's a better night than FABRICLIVE anywhere for what it is. FABRICLIVE is the best of it's kind. With the whole drum n bass and breaks thing I've got total respect for what they're doing. On the back of the housey superclubs, Fabric have turned around and done something totally different on a big night of the week. They've shied away from cheesy house and shit like that, the house night, fabric, is proper. You've got Terry Francis and guys like that: I used to play with them years ago when I played house. I know that these guys are proper house DJs and fabric's a proper club. I feel totally proud to be involved with it. And it's not arse licking on any kind of level, I just always really enjoy playing at FABRICLIVE. You can ask any of the big DJs and they'll tell you that Fabric has set the standard.

I'm doing my Swerve night and I'm probably going to get into production this year, 'cause I think it's about time. I'm going to South Korea soon, which will be interesting with world events and Japan, which has a great scene. Culturally it's so different and I'm really feeling it: crime free, the people are pleasant and the shopping is great. I'm also playing Sonar for Radio 1 this year, it's off the hook, then a festival in the desert in Spain that I do every year. Brazil will be great to visit as their drum n bass sound, particularly Marky and Patife, has really infused the scene with some great vibes.

Fabio started off in the scene playing on pirate radio, called 'Phase 1'. Here, he played a mixture of Soul, Jazz and Rare Groove. After this, Fabio got into acid house as it came along and he then hooked up with Grooverider and together, they would DJ as a team. They started getting booked for all the big rave parties, like Sunrise, Energy and Biology. After this, Fabio himself did not look back. Fabio has always steered towards the mellow and jazzy side of Drum and Bass and is well known for this style. Fabio has not done much in the way of producing although that looks set to change in the future with different projects lined up. Fabio does run a label called 'Creative Source' and acts as the A&R man for the label which keeps him busy spotting new talent. Fabio also plays with Grooverider on Radio 1 for the 'One In The Jungle' show, after Kiss FM failed to keep hold of them. With this type of exposure, Fabio is sure to remain on the Drum and Bass scene for many a year to come.

J Majik - BBC Radio 1 - London UK - Aug 2008

Biography of J Majik

According to Goldie “J Majik is the Luke Skywalker of drum & bass”. Brought up in a North London suburb by a family dedicated to the film industry. J Majik’s first track. Six Million Ways To Die, with its infamous break and ragga flavour, became a huge underground hit, and was released on Lemon D`s Planet Earth label. Impressed by this spectacular debut, Goldie followed the progress of the young producer and J Majik gifted him with Your Sound , an early and very influential Metalheadz single.

Setting up his own studio with advise from Photek, Lemon D and Dillinja and releasing the 12” single on Metalheadz thrust to the centre of the early scene. In 1994 with old friend Danny Jay he decided to create his own label and called it Infrared.

Infrared music released tracks by artists like Goldie, Peshay, Lemon D and 4 Hero’s Dego their contributions and Majik`s ambition broke new boundaries with each release. An album entitled, Slow Motion was released in 1997,from which the track, Mermaids was picked up on by Mo Wax head James Lavelle and released as a 12” and was also included on Goldie’s Headz compilation.

While J Majik`s confidence grew with every release, his talent did not go unnoticed. Everything But The Girl`s Ben Watt approached a very flattered Majik to collaborate on some tracks for their album. Blame. This successful collaboration between EBTG & J Majik appeared on the album, with a VIP mix appearing on the Infrared compilation album NightVision in 1999.

NightVision received critical acclaim and featured tracks by Goldie and Photek alongside some promising unknown young artists and J-Majik himself (under various guises). October 2000 saw Infrared became the first Drum & Bass label to offer the white labels direct to the record buyers via the internet.

2000 was a year of constant touring for J Majik and sidekicks Adam F and MCMC.It was also the year that saw Majik produce some film score’s with Goldie, collaborations with Jazz guitarist Ronnie Jordan, as well as an exciting meeting with US house diva Kathy Brown that would lead to the know Infamous Love Is Not A Game. Fabio (who was given the track on exclusive) called it “track of the year” on his Radio One show and predicted it would change the Drum and Bass scene, when considering the amount of vocal d&b available today this seems like a fair assertion.

With the likes of Optical, Andy C, Hype and Jumping Jack Frost firmly backing it, marked a significant shift in attitude within the drum & bass scene. The track was so well received that the highly successful house label Defected Records snapped it up and it went straight into UK`s Top 40.

August 2001 saw the release of J Majik`s hugely successful album project Infrastructure. Alongside fellow artists Optical, Dillinja, Accidental Heroes, Futurebound and Future Cut, the album had mouths watering all around the world. The album featured the massive hit Spaced Invader by Hatiras v J Majik.

August 2001 saw the signing of new artist Motion, his debut single has been well received. Motion aka James Heppel signed to Infrared after sending a demo to J Majik. Instantly recognising his talent offered him an exclusive deal with Infrared. Expect a lot more from this youngster in the future.

2002 is a becoming another great year for J Majik & Infrared, having recently released the massive Metrosound J Majik & Adam F have marked the latter’s return to drum & bass in style. While Adam F’s hip hop is signed to Def Jam, expect an follow up d&b track on Infrared soon.

April 2002 saw the first artist album Stars Our Destination from Infrared signings, Accidental Heroes. These guys have been compared to Ed Rush & Optical, and are considered the hottest new producers to break into the drum & bass scene recently. The album has been really well received by the likes of Goldie, Andy C, Bad Company, Hype Ed Rush & Optical to name a few.

In the pipeline at the moment is the highly anticipated New Generation LP, due out late 2002, it is an up to date compilation album based on the concept of developing and nurturing new talent. Thanks to the heavy dub plate rotation of Grooverider, Fabio Andy C, Bad Company, Ed Rush, DJ Marky, Adam F, Bryan Gee and Hype the New Generation is set to cause a storm when it is released in three parts between November 2002 and January 2003. Amongst the many dance floor hits provided on New Generation is the massive Share the Blame by J Majik featuring Kathy Brown, a really big track!.

J Majik recently signed another single to Defected in conjunction with Infrared, 24 hours is destined to become one of the year’s biggest anthems, supported by the main players the track features the unmistakable vocals of Loletta Holloway. This will be released at the end of 2002.

There are plans for a J Majik artist album, early 2003, and countless other projects in the pipeline, including tracks with the now infamous Terra Deva (of Shakedown and Defected fame), some new ventures into the house scene, including some great new tracks with Kathy Brown.

Infrared are currently on tour to promote the album over the coming months. J Majik has recently held the New Generation album launch party at Turnmills venue, and last month did a launch party at Fabric

J Majik has just remixed Groove Armada brand new single Final Shakedown. They heard his new track the phenomenal Capuera featuring Gil Felix and immediately asked him to do a track for them.

http://www.myspace.com/jmajikinfrared