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Interview: Roni Size

Be open. It's gonna be good - By Alastair Sloan, Nov 13, 09

Coming out of Bristol in the UK, Roni Size is one of the world's most famous and influential Drum n Bass DJs/producers. Size rose to world fame in the late 90's as founder and leader of Reprazent, a live Drum n Bass collective that was awarded a Mercury Prize for the album New Forms. Their follow-up album, In The Mode, has guest appearance by Rahzel (Rah-rah-rah-rahzel), Zack de la Rocha, and Method Man. On top of that, Roni Size also holds one of the biggest selling independent Drum n Bass albums of all time, the solo album Touching Down, released in 2002.

The last few years have seen the resurgence of Roni and Reprazent, with the group releasing a deluxe version of the classic New Forms in 2008, and playing with an orchestra lead by William Goodchild in Bristol.

Sweatshop presents Roni Size tonight at The Shelter, along with fellow Reprezent collaborator, Dynamite MC. It's his first time in China, and with this booking, Phreaktion/Sweatshop has officially hosted all the world's biggest Drum n Bass innovators. Congrats to them.

***


Roni: Yeah I DJ'ed in Hong Kong, a while ago. I did a little thing for Calvin Klein -- it was about '97 or '98.


Roni: I don't really get nervous, but I do get excited about going to places that I don't get to so often. It'll be interesting because, you know, I'm not sure about the scene, or even if there's a scene, or if people are going to get what we do. I don't really know what to make of it. I'm excited by the fact I've got no preconception of what it's going to be like. Looking forward to it!




Roni: Well, it's quite unfair to ask someone like myself because I don't really do the circuit. But I DJ every weekend, five times a week sometimes, but all over the world. The scene has grown so much though. It's no longer brand new music, it's been around for a while now... people should know what it is, and if they don't know what it is, and they're still finding out about it, then I think they've been locked away for a little while...


Roni: Well yeah, I'm quite lucky that my name is pretty well traveled, so I've played in front of some amazing crowds over the past couple of years.


Roni: They're all a bit different, but I guess playing at Space [Ibiza], just because it's taken so long for the music to break in Ibiza, and to have Drum n Bass playing at Space, I guess that's quite a milestone.


Roni: Well, you know, because of DJing and live work, I don't get so much time to get into production. It takes quite a lot of man-hours to come up with something original. So I haven't had that much time recently, but I do have a few future projects, a couple of half-records to put back out there. Hopefully once I stop DJing and touring I can get back in there and make it happen.


Roni: We've just finished touring, and we are finishing that album, but like I said to get it right we're going to have to head back into the studio and do the mixes and choose the right tracks, so everything's kind of sitting in the wings and waiting to happen. But first and foremost, it's this DJing stuff. You have to play the underground and make people aware there is a second play going on...




Roni: Yes, that was Reprazent again, and that was actually one of the reasons why that album's taking a little bit longer because we've just finished scoring the whole album, so now we've scored it we have to go and record it. And in Bristol we did a show about six weeks ago, which was a collaboration with myself and William -- and it was a great marriage of the two genres. It did work and hopefully we'll do them again. You know working with a sixty piece orchestra and then the band, it's quite a lot of people involved so you have to manage quite a lot of people to be all in the right place at the right time. It sound's great though -- it's full on, it's big people's music.


Roni: Yeah, absolutely... when people come to see me DJ, they don't necessarily want to just see me roll out two hours worth of tunes they've never heard before. I've noticed now that there's a lot of people who will come just on the basis of the name, and sometimes they've never heard the music before so you play something they can relate to... so I play a lot of bootlegs. You know, I play stuff like The White Stripes.


Roni: No, you know sometimes I play the original, sometimes I play different parts. You know my DJ style has changed, because now, rather than me just going and playing a set, now I play the room. Doesn't matter where I go, I play the room. Because one set doesn't work everywhere, you know what I mean? You play to the vibe of the room -- so if the room will allow you to play some Dubstep, or play some Michael Jackson or play some Hip Hop, or a little bit of White Stripes, then you do. And it works for me, I'm not this "Dubplate, roll-out, brand new fresh, wannabe No.1 DJ" anymore. But that's how I used to be, I wanted to be the first to have a tune.


Roni: Yeah, I love it. I love to play to non-believers... a lot of people say, "I'm not really into Drum n Bass, but I like Roni."


Roni: Yeah I'd just treat it like a show, cos it's not just me, it's Dynamite as well. He's got great energy on stage, he draws people in, he's quite visual -- he's also very clear and got great pronunciation on his vocals. And he just draws people in, he's a great energy centre.

But yeah, tell them to be open, it's gonna be good!

**

Sweatshop pres. Roni Size Friday night at The Shelter. He's joined by Dynamite MC. Cover: 80rmb. Starts 10pm.

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