Mr G Talks

Music

Mr G is a true veteran of UK Techno, with his consistently high quality output reaching back over two decades, a great live set and a singlular, crunchy sound all of his own. With a new retrospective compilation out on Monday, we caught up with the man himself for a chat taking in MPCs, the 1970s, Asparagus related releases and uber-ballards….

From your website I glean your youth was spent being a box boy for a sound-system. What was the sound-system and how did you get involved?

Lifting and guarding the speaker boxes, just for a free fix of a heavy system,it was heaven. Then my friend Devon started running DC Connection and I had a chance to be a selectorthe great ole daze.

Growing up in Derby, in the 60s/70s was there much of a local scene in terms of sound-systems?

There were loads a young sounds wanting top spot, Tarzan, Enforcer, Misai, Rema, Foundation to name a few. the scene was on fire ..so many good systems to challenge .

How much of an influence was the disco and boogie stuff of the early 80s/late 70s on your developing musical mind?

what! 70’s all day longthe productions were phat, music was happy the strings the songs the energy philly .ahhh man i could go on and on.

still listen to mostly 70’s stuff to this very day and always crate dig for the 70’s – BADD ERA

Is your production setup still based around the MPC? Do you record onto tape?

my girl the MPC is the mistress and every thing else is her slave..LOL. yes i often record to tape cassette,it’s fun a very different compression.it’s all about what you hear, whether in the red or not.

Youve had a few aliases over the years: Mango Boy, The Reaver, Halcyon Days, Tommy Atkins – what was the thinking behind releasing music under different monikers and do you plan on revisiting any of them in the future?

the day when you had to do different aliases has long gone it’s hard enough trying to get one name out there.lol

i would love to go back to them as they have different sounds ole tommy/mango boy is always around – anything with mango in the title is him, rough sound buoy from yard.LOL

You had a track on one of the Spargel Trax releases earlier this year, howd that come about?

i know Benji after what happened at the boiler room B has a special place, as i’ve wanted to do something for him, loved the concept the year before, thought record store day would be a fun thing to be a part of as i make so much wax.Was really surprised by the strength of the whole thing.

Watching your boiler room live set was a breath of fresh air, its clear you enjoyed it as much as the enthusiastic crowd. Do you often play live, and do you always use the MPC/mixer setup?

yeah most weeks, yep i’m on the road live, Mr G’s skool a hard funk comes to town me my MPC and Mixer.and 52 years of knowledge to play with in some way shape or form and it keep me on my toes..? Also help keep me fit!

Your new release Retrospective looks back on your career, featuring a selection of tracks from across the last 14 years, both released and unreleased. How did you go about selecting the tracks that feature?

Easy. These all are moments in my life, every title has a meaning and history

or was a turning point for my sound or label..all i had to do was relax with a glass a rum and remember what the story or place or feeling was,and enjoy that moment again ,those that touched me were in.

How do you feel about house and techno music at the moment, it seems like a more analogue sound is becoming prevalent again, along with a rise in vinyl sales and more people using tape to record. Being a committed analogue head, does this warm your heart?

No not really, I’m just doing my own thang here and analogue is the way i like it ,but thats not to say it’s the only way, each to their own as long as the the music is heavy i don’t care how it was madeno time for negatives just gotta keep moving on!

What have you got lined up for the rest of 2013, be it releases/gigs etc?

new releases on: contemporary scarecrow, bass culture, holic’s,remixes for cocoon,this is music, audiojack, and on the road through asia and europe ..just keeping my head down working hard having fun.

Finally, I hear you love a good ballad, as do I. If you had to pick one, an uber-ballad that gave you everything you wanted from the form, what would it be?

George Benson “Nature Boy” never fails to take me to a special place in my childhood.The strings the bass the soul – the overall picture is amazing to me.go checkplease…