Fabio - Blue Note Sessions

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.