The DMZ stage at Red Bull Music Academy’s recent soundclash

And do you feel DMZ has a clear identity to other people? Obviously you have an amazingly faithful core crowd of people who go to the club and buy the records – do you think they really get what you’re about.

“I think so, you know. Obviously you can’t speak for anybody else but over the years there’s been music, there’s been certain interviews, people speak to you in the dance personally. I think the fact that we’ve been very strict in our output in terms of only releasing the records we want to release when we want to release them and how we want to release them, and the fact we don’t really jump on this whole hype train and make sure that every magazine gets hit and every record gets reviewed helps keep what we’re saying clear. I mean the fact that you want to speak to us now, that FACT magazine are interested is great, and I feel privileged that that’s the situation, it feels honest; if it was the other way around and I was knocking on the door saying “we’ve got this coming, you’ve gotta review it”… I don’t know, I just feel that the way we’ve operated is just honest to who we are and what we’re about, and we’ll just keep operating in that way; it feels comfortable and I think people can see that’s just the way it is.”

A lot of dubstep is on that “hype train” now… I know you don’t define your music personally as dubstep, but a great number of the artists that play at DMZ definitely are – so your relationship to the dubstep scene as such must be quite complex…

“It’s simple, man, I just make music and play music! [laughs]”

But DMZ has a huge influence globally on the scene and sound and the way people set up and run clubs; do you feel the weight of that influence?

“Ah but that’s not necessarily dubstep! If somebody’s been influenced by someone’s mentality or attitude and it makes them go and set up a clubnight or label, maybe it’s house music they’re doing, or this or that music they’re doing. I’ve always been influenced by a lot of things, I might be influenced by a piece of art, but just because the art influences me and I apparently write dubstep music, does that mean art is related to dubstep?  You see what I’m saying?”

OK, so what would you say were the direct influences on you in creating the feel and style of DMZ then?

“I couldn’t really say in terms of DMZ because it’s a four person thing. If you’re talking about the DMZ vibe it’s always going to be me, Loefah, Coki and Pokes, and we’re always inspired by things in common but also by different things that are totally separate.”

Well what were the things in common?

“Jungle obviously. Everyone knows that, that our shared love of jungle means a lot in terms of DMZ, but for other things, wow, it’s hard because I have to roll back the years and it’s whole set of common experiences over time – and even that the things we have in common we always had in common and that’s why we became friends. So I’m not even sure I’m able to pinpoint them, because it’s about the things that you feel and understand in your close friends.”

“I feel a little bit uncomfortable promoting my music, saying that people need to listen to it – because they don’t! Does that make sense?”

And what about the things that are just yours – your own music and Deep Medi?

“Well those two things are really quite separate. For my own music, I don’t have to send it to anyone, I don’t have to do press releases, it’s just me making it, then I play it or I release it and that’s it. For this one, I’ve only given it to two people to listen to and one of them is you! But if it was a Deep Medi thing, I feel like a record label should support an artist to the best of their ability, and when you have the contacts I think it’s important that people are made aware to the best of your ability of what’s coming out on Deep Medi… But that’s very different to how I operate with my own stuff; it’s not that I’m against that personally, but just because I feel a little bit uncomfortable promoting my music, saying that people need to listen to it – because they don’t! Does that make sense? But the music I’ve invested in, this is people we’re talking about, people’s lives, they’ve committed themselves to it and they think and they hope and they dream and they have desires, and some of that is… well it’s not exactly in the hands of Deep Medi because what will be will be and I’m not controlling in that respect; Deep Medi is not about owning and controlling at all. But I guess what I’m saying is that they’ve put their trust in you to deal with their personal expression of who they are and what they’re about, and I believe that should be respected utmostly and not exploited. So I try and make the music as available and make people as aware of it as possible without actually selling it out or diluting what it is, but giving it the promotion and the… not hype, but the push that I think it deserves. With Quest’s music, say, he’s someone who I believe is saying something and is honest.”

Well it’s clear that doesn’t feel a lot of people in the wider industry respect that! [Quest recently made public feelings of disgust with the dubstep scene, threatening to quit it entirely]

“Well it’s not just his music, I think unfortunately when you get involved in any kind of industry you’re going to come up against stuff that you’d really rather not. I mean, I’m certainly not going to sit here and say everything’s great and everyone loves each other, because it’s not the case and there’s been shady shit that’s gone on, but that’s life: you accept it and you get on with it. It’s not like it’s only going to happen to you or it only happens in the dubstep scene: if you’re a builder it happens on a building site, it happens everywhere. It’s just life and sometimes you experience negative sides of life. But what Quest’s done, I wouldn’t really even have brought this up, but as you mention it I think it’s actually quite a brave thing to do, to come out and say what he has, and I take my hat off to his honesty.”

So would it be fair to say you’re not about trying to kick against the pricks and fight bad things that go on, but about trying to create a zone where there’s a minimum of that exploitation and bullshit?

“You can’t stop it. Even if you wanted to stop it you can’t and I think that’s a pointless battle to even entertain the thoughts of. But that’s not for me, and you don’t have to go down that route; I think in some strange way I’ve always hoped that that’s what this whole thing can show other people that are like-minded or just want to put out their music and not worry about all the nonsense that comes with it. Sometimes I just hope that through what’s done at DMZ or Deep Medi people can go “well they don’t do it, they don’t play along with it so I don’t have to do it, we can do it our own way…” We’ve all got the capacity to think, so think for yourself, it’s actually possible to think for yourself, that’s all it’s about!”

And the DMZ name: was the sense of “De-Militarised Zone”  deliberate or was it just a contraction of Digital Mystikz?

“No it wasn’t deliberate, but we did speak about it after we’d come up with it… We’d put on a couple of dances and they’d just been peaceful, man: people would strictly come down just to hear the music. So it did feel like a demilitarised zone for real, because you know people have madness going on outside of the dance, in their everyday lives because that’s what life brings especially when you’re living in a city like London, there is always a struggle in London, and it just felt like when people come for the few hours of DMZ they could leave all their madness outside and yeah, it was a demilitarised zone.”

This entry was posted on Monday, April 19th, 2010 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.