Luke Solomon – Interviewed by Ben Watt 

Luke Solomon has been a cornerstone figure of the UK house scene for the past 15 years, even since he launched the seminal London midweeker, Space at Bar Rumba, with Kenny Hawkes. In the 90′s he launched Classic Records with Derrick Carter, set up both the Music For Freaks and Little Creatures projects, and recently released a full-length album on Radioslave’s Rekids label. He continues to produce and DJ around the world.

In this month’s feature interview Buzzin’ Fly boss Ben Watt asks the questions to dig a little deeper. 

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Where and when were you born?

Bristol. 1970. 

Who did you want to be when you were growing up?

Tonto, Luke Skywalker, Paul Weller and then Prince. 

Did you always want to be a DJ, or were you in a band first? 

I think it was a part of my sub conscious. I collected music at a very young age. I lived in Cyprus and I used to go to a record shop where they would record 2 albums onto a C90 Cassette for 3 quid, so that’s what I spent my pocket money on. I enjoyed playing things I discovered to people, music that I guessed people hadn’t heard. It gave me great excitement, it still does. I was in a band once for about a month at the age of 17. I was then in a band for a day when I was 18. And we played a gig at Hounslow sports college – a Led Zep record if I remember rightly. 

What was the ‘light-bulb moment’ that made you want to become a DJ?

Watching a friend of mine DJ in his bedroom in Turnpike Lane. He had been a DJ for a while, and I was fascinated by it. I thought, I could do that. I want to do that. And that was it. I already had a record collection of sorts. Not a huge amount of dance music, but I elaborated and started buying 12 inches. 

What was your first DJ gig? 

Middlesex University around 1991/92. I moved up to London a year before to escape the drug madness of my home town in Weston-Super-Mare. All my friends left for University and I got left behind. I got caught up with the wrong crowd and fell into it deeply. I had to make a break for it, and ended up on the run from some shady characters. A friend threw me a life line, and I went to sleep on his couch in that there London. He was a student at Middlesex, and I guess I kind of blagged my way in and sort of fell into it. It’s where I met Justin Harris (Freaks) actually. It’s also where I met my wife, but that’s a whole other story. It did save my life though. 

What records did you play that night?

Who knows I was high as a kite. Anything from ‘Ain’t Nobody’ to Maceo to erm’ ‘The Whistle Song’. And Ce Ce Penniston through to house of various kinds. It was freestyle student night that involved drugs and alcohol. Middlesex was had a reputation for being rave University. We had an occupation there for a whole term. The students locked themselves in and pretty much lived there. We decorated the whole inside and pretty much had parties every night. It was fun time. I met most of my life long friends at that place. 

What was your first serious residency? 

Space at Bar Rumba in central London. We started in 1996/97 I think. Myself and Kenny Hawkes. We both met at a record store I was working at in Barnet with Ty Holden (he made a lot of records back in the day and is the son of the legendary Vince Taylor, the original Ziggy Stardust!). Kenny got us both a show on Girls FM, a pirate radio station. kenny and I got the opportunity to do Bar Rumba off of the back of that. I think we wound it up in 2000. 

How do you see the London nightclub scene these days, and what are some the keys changes from the days of you first residency compared with now?

We had a really strong and really influential mid week night. It was frequented by regulars and a lot of industry bods. It was a place to experiment, break all kinds of new music and really take people on a journey. It was free spirited and people didn’t care what was cool and what was not. Those kind of clubs don’t really exist in this city any more. Dance music has broken off into too many different factions. The drugs aren’t the same. I don’t know. It’s just different. Thats not to say it’s bad though. It’s just different. I don’t know if a club like that could exist in these times. I would still love to give it a whirl though. 

Some people say good club music is only as good as the current drug of choice. Would you agree? And if so, how has club music been influenced by this over the years?

I think drugs have a big influence over the general mood of a club, and in some respects, I do think they influence the sound of the music. I was part of an ecstasy generation, and I think that the music reflected that in some instances. But saying that, Bar Rumba was a free for all. I took every kind of drug there is in that club, and then some. It didn’t really matter. It was hedonism with a more care free attitude. We would get down to disco, techno, house, mid tempo weirdness, all kinds of music. London has always been affected by fads and drugs. It’s just how it is. 

Do you think the upsurge of ‘minimal’ was drug-driven, or that ‘soulful’ just got rinsed out?

I don’t know man. I’ll throw this out there. I didn’t have a problem with minimal. An amount of the music intrigued me, and I bought a fair bit. I just played it alongside house music and put it in a place where it translated. The problem arises when you have a lot of the same music played all night long. It gets boring. There are no surprises, no peaks and troughs, and NO vocals. That was the greatest issue I always had. When and how did vocals become unfashionable? I still feel I am fighting a battle now when I am playing a vocal record. But people are starting to come around again. 

The pendulum of musical influence swung away from American house music towards European techno a few years ago. Berlin became the new ‘New York’ for many clubbers. German DJs supplanted US DJs as the headliners of choice. Why do you think this happened?

I’m not sure. New generations influenced by their peers, taking their knowledge and moving forward with it. Adding something new to the mix and introducing it to a new generation, always keeps things fresh. As for location, well I just think that is down to all kinds of things. Politics, cost effectiveness, freedom, liberal governments. When they all fall together. Bingo. I used to play in Germany a lot in the mid 90′s. I remember being excited by the house movement over there. It was small but growing. I had a residency at Robert Johnson and remember meeting Ricardo Villalobos when he was just learning his trade. I played with Dixon at the WMF in the early days. I remember being inspired by this new wave of DJ’s coming from Germany, and I could see that something special was going to happen. I think Playhouse the record label, were very influential in the whole of that scene, and what it has become now. I still don’t think they get the props they deserve. 

People talk of the American legacy in house music, and the German legacy in techno. is there a British legacy in house and techno? And if so, what is it?

I think Britain has a legacy in music full stop. I think that has always been the case historically. We are an island. A melting pot of creativity, and a place where people are genuinely pretty open to all kinds of music. We embrace other cultures, both social and musical. It makes it a cool place to come visit, hang out, record an album, play a night club etc. Whether it has a legacy in a certain genre of dance music, that I don’t know. We had Nu Brit house for a minute, and progressive. Not sure that’s our legacy though. Let’s not forget that America has a legacy in techno, and Germany in House now. I think that there have been some great British DJs that have been very influential in joining the dots and making it an international thing. 

Is Acid House perhaps the British legacy? Not that the early tracks were by UK producers, but that UK crowds developed the appetite for it. Is it also not interesting that a music that began as an offshoot of US gay underground culture was taken up by British football fans?

I guess it yes. The British are great at taking something and running with it. We embrace things and they become our lives. Look at Northern Soul, Mod Culture, Rare Groove, Punk and then Acid House. I think our skill is turning it into a big old party with outfits and everything. Something I think we have lost a little in recent years. 

‘Warehouse’ parties, parties ‘in the woods’, ‘loft’ parties are back in vogue. Is it as lawless as it sounds?

I have played a few recently, and yes it is. I have been at parties that have been shut down by the police. I have seen all kinds of cr
azies attend the parties, and I have seen general wild abandonment. We are in a recession, and I think these parties are born out of lack of venues, money, and general necessity. 

Can the scene still develop through the established clubs such as Fabric and Cable?

Yes. But I think that the recession is having a massive effect on that. I think if you have a following, or an established night, then you are kind of safe as long as you keep it fresh. But I think we have to weather these times and adapt to what people can afford. This is just born out of necessity. 

Cheap production and digital distribution has led to a massive boom in the availability of paid-for dance music in the past few years with countless small labels sprouting up. For good or for bad?

Terrible. I am so tired of preset made music, mastered with a preset, and uploaded instantly. It has devalued the music, and made the internet almost like a cheap supermarket. Kind of like a pound shop. I think that the turn towards physical product being used in some form to give the music and the brand some substance is becoming more of a reality. It helps sales, it gives the music some substance, and makes music relevant again. 

What evidence is there in dance music that physical product is making a comeback?

I can just sense it. I have a knack for preempting boredom. I talk about these things on my travels. With colleagues, with promoters, with people that are part of my culture. I see DJ’s that insist on playing records or CD’s and I do believe that people share a fascination in that. I do believe that it is natural human instinct to want to move on and, in some cases be different. Going and buying music on Beatport does not make you different. It also doesn’t make you feel like you are a part of something. Wearing a T-Shirt, owning a badge, buying a LTD CD or piece of vinyl, or artwork, or tie even, makes you feel like you are in a special gang. I think labels like Ghostly are a real blue print for where it should be at right now. It makes it collectable and relevant again and gives dance music some much needed substance. 

What affect has the unstoppable advance of free music had on dance music?

It’s changed things, but I don’t think its just the free music, I think it is the internet as a whole. It has turned the whole business into this constant barrage of marketing one upmanship. People really abuse that, especially those in dance music. I think this has devalued the music and the way it is marketed and sold/ not sold. It needs to be done. But there are ways of doing it creatively, where the respect for the music remains intact. Labels need to stop sending digital promos to a 500 strong DJ list for a start. They really do themselves no favors. 

There is evidence that the ‘freemium’ model – where you give a little away free to attract would-be buyers who then buy more – works. I worry that this model cannot work in dance music where there is a glass ceiling on sales to start with. you can never sell enough to make the ‘free giveaways worth it, but if you don’t give away for free you are in danger of getting lost in an overcrowded market.

Again, I don’t think the internet is the answer to our problems. I think it can exist as a tool, but I think inventive marketing outside of the internet is where it is at. Releasing exclusive non-internet versions of records is a good starting point. I mean why have digital exclusives? What’s the point? It doesn’t make them special when everyone can get at it. Why not have vinyl exclusives? Make people talk about records again. Get people excited.

Beat-matching software and ‘Mixed In Key’ can make a bad DJ into a competent DJ, while products like Ableton can quickly dismantle a song into its component parts. The old skills of manipulating vinyl on belt-driven turntables seems like the past. What kind of DJs are being created by this new world and does the crowd care or even notice?

I guess it’s a different way of DJing, and it will just be another format. The advent of the electric guitar didn’t make the acoustic obsolete. Ultimately it’s down to what you do with it and how good you are. People will always hear that. I have always embraced modern technology, and I use all of these things at home. I just choose to use CDs when I DJ. I feel comfortable with them. I learnt to play on Denons at Bar Rumba, and it always made sense to me. But, I still buy records, and I still play records at home. That will never stop. Records are the perfect place to store memories. 

Is showmanship being lost?

Oh shit no. Showmanship is being taken to a new level of ridiculous. The modern day version of a DJ makes me feel uncomfortable mostly. I play other peoples’ music (sometimes my own) to the best of my ability. My job is to take people on a journey, evoke a feeling and make them dance. At least thats how I see it. Standing behind a laptop with my hands in the air is not what I got into this job for. This is the point where music has become secondary. People have found a new way to become famous, but instead of learning an instrument, they can just press ‘play’. 

I saw Roy Orbison, Ray Charles and Miles Davis all play live in their later years – all three put on amazing shows. Is there a place for the ‘elder statesmen’ of DJing, or is it ultimately a young person’s game?

I think that as long as you remain ambitious, and hungry, and in touch, you will always be relevant. There will be times when you feel you aren’t, but as long as you stick with it, it comes back around. 

Do you have a major regret?

No. 

Who would play you in the film of your life?

Charlie Chaplin. If he were still alive. 

Who remain the great unsung underground heroes to you?

Spencer Kincey, mostly. 

What song would you like played at your funeral?

Maggot Brain – Funkadelic. The whole album. 

What will clubland be dancing to in a year’s time?

Who knows. It moves so fast. 

What is the oldest record in your box that you still play regularly?

‘Dancing Machine’ by The Jackson 5

Luke Solomon & Derrick Carter’s Classic on DJMag’s most influencial labels list.

“A translantic venture between Derrick Carter and Luke Solomon (Freaks), the label lived up to its name by releasing must-have records from across the house spectrum including Isolee’s ‘Beau Mot Plage’ and DJ Sneak’s ‘You can’t Hide From Your Bud’. Their promise to shut down after 100 releases added to the mystique.”

DJMag March2010