RE:WIND interviews FRICTION - Star Warz Gent 06-03-2010

Saturday night, me and ‘partner-in-Re:wind’ Pukaz, sitting backstage at the Vooruit in Ghent. Nice on time for our interview with the boss of Shogun Audio, who were hosting this edition of Star Warz. As time flew by, so did the cigarettes. Not sponsored, just nervous.

Killing time: a technical check up. Outcome? A new friendship was born!

I’m still on my knees for this gentleman, a guardian angel, a hero: the sound engineer onstage who provided us with cables and microphones to overcome the technical troubles we suddenly suffered backstage. Boys and toys? I say: men and machines! Or in this case: MAN!

Fashionably late artists, you’ve got to love ‘m (when you’re having unexpected problems)!

Meanwhile the clock didn’t stop ticking and our deadline, as well as my birthday and most of the Shogun crew, entered the room. Waiting, cigarettes. Minutes, seconds.

25 minutes before the start of his set, the time finally had come: the chair between me and Pukaz enjoyed, as well as we did, the presence of FRICTION!

Swiftly we fired our questions…

RE:WIND: Can you give us an idea how it all started for you?

FRICTION: Probably at the age of 16? As soon I kind of went out and started to see other people deejay and all that stuff. When I was younger the biggest names for me were Dj Randall, Carl Cox, Doc Scott, euhm… Goldie for the music he was making. People like that really, they were very big to me. So yeah man, just got into deejaying from there and managed to work my way up. But I’ve always loved it!

RE:WIND: Definitely working your way up: promoting your own parties and all that! You were quite a ‘busy bee’, as they say here in Belgium.

FRICTION: Yeah, non-stop! But you’ve got to be if you want to get anywhere in this game.

RE:WIND: Do you think your first releases on Underfire opened doors you never could have opened as a deejay?

FRICTION: Definitely! Some of the releases I had out really helped me to get people to hear who I am, to get me through. I started to deejay first and I’ve kind of started making tunes, and learning how to do it, probably around 1998… No, 1997! And just learn, and learn, and learn, really… I had to learn my way through the studio and stuff like that.

RE:WIND: With Stakka by your side…

FRICTION: You know, the Underfire thing was brilliant. I’ve learned a lot of those guys. Stakka was, and still is, a very talented producer. A brilliant person to learn from. I was just the young kid who used to hassle them all the time asking them “What’s this, how do you do that, how do you do this…” and in the end it worked, it was good!

Yeah, I had good people around me. K-Tee is still a good friend of mine, he has taught me a lot. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve been lucky, you know. I was around Renegade Hardware, Trouble On Vinyl, … And there were always a lot of people around there that were very good producers. Dillinja has helped me a lot over the years as well. I’ve learned from the best!

RE:WIND: Talking about those labels, the mix-albums you did for those labels are close to legendary: ‘Here Comes Trouble’ and ‘The Four Elements’. Did they gave a big boost to your career and when did you think “this is it, my career as an artists is settled”?

FRICTION: Yeah, I’ve think they’ve helped as well! I mean: anything that gets your name out and pushes you is going to help you. If you do it well, that’s going to help to get your name out! But I think around the time I’ve won my first awards for deejaying: I won a Knowledge award and another award…

RE:WIND: You’ve won almost at every big award show: Knowledge Magazine, Raveology, Accelerated Culture, Drum & Bass Arena, …

FRICTION : Yeah, Drum & Bass Arena… I think that helped people to get to know who I was, and I had some tunes out around then like ‘Robocop’ and stuff like that… Yeah, that’s when I think things started to properly happen.

I always wanted to make music as well, you know. And I just started to make music again now, recently. I didn’t have the chance to make as many tunes since my deejay career kind of blew up. But lately I try to make more time: take less gigs… And it’s going really well!

RE:WIND: So you’re talking about releasing some new Friction-stuff, an album maybe?

FRICTION: Yeah, I’m very busy! It’s hard with the deejay schedule that I’ve got, trying to get into the studio is a hard thing but I’m just about managing it at the moment. And eventually maybe an album, but at the moment I’m just writing tunes and I’ll see what happens.

RE:WIND: And what’s in the pipeline for Shogun Audio?

FRICTION: The next release is the ‘Evolution EP’ with a Spectrasoul remix of ‘Over Time’ by myself and K-Tee. Icicles ‘Minimal Funk’ which is getting a lot of love. A Spectrasoul track which is called ‘Bygones’, my personal favorite. I love that tune. And a Phace tune called ‘Strange Science’.

So it’s all going really well, we’re pleased! We have a lot to come: a Total Science and SPY 12” called ‘Gangsta’ which is doing really well. Myself, Andy C, Marky, Goldie, … everyone is playing that, it’s getting a lot of love.

RE:WIND: Getting back to that deejaying: what is your opinion on the digital evolution?

FRICTION: I think we’re moving into a digital world, obviously, we have done for a while. I personally love playing vinyl, it’s what I do and I always loved doing it. I’ll play vinyl as long as I can physically do it, as long as it is able to do so because I love playing vinyl. Zinc is a good friend of mine and he switched to Serato and I actually heard him deejaying the other day and he’s still like the old Zinc. He plays house now but brilliant set and still loads of skill. I’m not too into the guys that kind of stand there, clap behind the decks and aren’t actually doing anything. It makes me crinch a little bit, it’s a bit sad. Because I know a lot of guys, deejays, that are very good and they don’t get a break. So for me it’s frustrating for them. But that’s the way things are, you know, you can’t really complain.

RE:WIND: So before we let you go enjoy the crowd: what can we expect from your set in a couple of minutes?

FRICTION: Well, tonight it’s a Shogun night with all the Shogun artists so I think what I’ll do tonight is slightly different to what I do in England: more Shogun-style, some harder stuff... but not so much jump-up, play a bit a more thoughtful set. Hopefully they’ll like it.

RE:WIND: Sounds like music in our ears man! Enjoy your set and loads of success with what is to come for the label and the future of Friction!

FRICTION: Thanks!