 |
ESSENTIAL MIX WITH TODD TERRY Broadcast 18/04/99 : 02:00 - 04:00 |
For over a decade Todd Terry’s
name has been associated with four to the floor house beats, Martha Wash vocals, and that
Everything But The Girl remix. His recent switch to drum and bass caught the dance
industry by surprise and delighted the likes of Grooverider and Roni Size who span a
mysterious drum and bass white label to death before realising it was Todd himself. As one
of the first American jocks to make regular transatlantic DJ jaunts he became infamous for
his high fee and was criticised by certain sectors of the British press for it. This,
however, did nothing to tarnish his heavenly nickname ‘Todd The God’ and his
remix of Everything But The Girl’s ‘Missing’ made him the scene’s most
sought after remixers.
Critics are usually sceptical about
DJs/producers crossing musical styles however your album has received great reviews. Did
your expect a panning?
Not really, I made the album for me and I hope that everyone likes it but I felt as though
it was something that I had to do. I didn’t want to break away; I just wanted to feel
that I had done something different throughout the years.
Were you going through a musical mid-life
crisis?
Not really, I’d been listening to drum and bass for a while and I felt I didn’t
quite understand it. It wasn’t like I didn’t know what it was about, I just
thought if I put out a record I’d understand it more.
Were there any particular DJs or tracks
that attracted you to drum and bass?
There were a lot of the early tracks but I don’t know who they were by. Then there
was the stuff by the newer guys like Roni Size, Grooverider and Goldie. It was after
hearing them that I thought it was really interesting and I started to look closer at it.
Do you plan to develop the drum and bass thing any further and perhaps add a few more vocals? Not at the moment. I wanted this project to be very instrumental. I want to keep the Resolutions project as it is. As far as getting really songy I think I may try some r’n’b stuff, but I’m not sure yet about that.
When people book you to play a gig what can
they expect to hear?
Well I’m doing a few gigs at the moment to promote the album. I’ve done about
two or three gigs playing drum and bass but I was I hired specifically to play that stuff.
It is a different world for me, playing drum and bass doesn’t knock my house thing
and it gives me another outlook on things.
How does playing a drum and bass gig differ
from playing a house gig?
I feel that the people at drum and bass gigs are more open than people at any house gig I
have ever played. When you play drum and bass you can throw in some hip hop or some
breakbeat. It is more like travelling with music. With house you are travelling with the
music but you are staying with the same beat.
When you first started playing in the UK
people criticised you for charging such a high fee, do you think you were unduly
criticised?
The reason I charge so much is because I see every day as a remix. If I have to go over to
England and play and it takes up so many days then I am going to add it up like I was
charging to do a remix during that time. If I were at home I’d be making the same
amount of money mixing so why not. Sometimes I have to cut my remixes in half to go DJing.
Everyday I go on a trip I lose five days of my life and I can’t get back into the
motion of making really great records for a few days. I’m not great at travelling,
some people can do it without a problem but being in a club environment makes me sick, all
the smoke makes me cough and all the late nights take it out of me.
What do you charge for a remix these days?
It can be anything between $20,000 to $30,000 a remix.
It all depends on the record. If your record is great and I really love it then I will
slack off on the price because a great record will make me more money in the long run.
What is your favourite Todd Terry remix?
A record for the Junksters called ‘Slide’. A Meredith Brooks record I did was
good. I don’t really have a favourite. A lot of the time A&R men will ask me to
remix a record and make it sound like a particular record and that becomes a problem.
Were you being asked to duplicate
‘Missing’ for years after?
Yeah, at first I thought it would be cool to have a few records out that would sound like
‘Missing’ but then when it started hitting ten and twenty it got silly. It
happened all over again when I did the Corrs record. I just don’t know what A&R
means anymore.
What is your Favourite club to play at?
I played Bar Rumba recently and that was great. I still like to play at the Ministry. I
also like to play the Nynex arena type of places. It is hard to pick a favourite when you
play so many venues.
When you play live gigs you play a lot of
Todd Terry records. Do you think people expect this from you now?
My consideration is not for the industry or the
talkative people, my consideration is for the people, I play for the people. If they wanna
hear ‘Bango’ and Can U Party’ then I’m gonna play them. I don’t
play for reporters who criticise me for playing all my own records. I’m playing for
the people who have hired me for my sound. A lot of the people who go to the gigs
don’t even know what those records are anyway.
The Track Listings....
Sorry for the inconvenience.