What better way to discuss an ep entitled Tomorrow Now than by enthusiastically discussing the past?
Well, how else would we find out about Dominic Petrie’s copy of ‘Edtrafienical’?
To start off with, when did you catch the D&B bug sir?
The moment when I caught the D&B bug was when I bought Calibre’s Second Sun LP when it was released in 2005. I bought it on vinyl in a local record shop called One Up just because I liked the artwork on the front cover. I must have listened to it from start to finish about five or six times over that day, it completely changed my idea of what D&B was and the possibilities of the genre. I’ve seen Calibre DJing live a few times now and it’s always a special moment for me.
Scotland has a formidable rep when it comes to D&B and beats so what spots would you frequent?
In Aberdeen City places such as Jungle Nation. Places which got me more involved in DJing and writing music.
Overall, in Edinburgh and Aberdeen D&B has always been a popular choice for club goers, with nights like Xplicit and Jungle Nation putting on regular events for years. For the past five years or so I’ve been living in Glasgow, which is a completely different club scene altogether.
You are known for your diverse taste in music. Does your taste in music necessarily manifest in the music you make or is what you make simply spontaneous?
My interest in music changes all the time, one month I’ll listen to nothing but jungle from the 90s then a week later I’ll be listening to dub reggae or hip hop. The great thing about D&B is that it lends itself to that quite nicely.
All I can say is that D&B is like a blueprint or a blank canvas into which you can fit any kind of music you’re researching or listening to at the time.
On the ‘any type of music’ aspect you seem to have rock fragments in the titles: Sabbath, Led Zep, little hints here and there. Is that coincidence?
I used to listen to a lot of 60s/70s rock when I was younger, acts like King Crimson, Santana, Hendrix, The Doors, Velvet Underground, Cream, Grateful Dead etc.
In terms of individual song titles, I’ll let people find the references for themselves.
What sort of records lay in the crates? What gems?
I’m a record collector first and foremost before anything else. Collecting vinyl has always been the one constant thing over the years that inspires me to make music and DJ.
In D&B I’ve got a first pressing of ‘Fusion/Water Margin’ by Photek from 1995, which holds a very special place. There’s also a limited pressing of ‘Edtrafienical’ by Ed Rush, Trace, Fierce, Nico and Optical produced in the late 90s. It’s the only collaboration between all five of them and there’s only 150 copies in the world so that one rarely leaves the house!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhmsMOQr-BY
Lately I’ve just been buying up lots of old LPs, anything from 60s/70s jazz like Sun Ra and Alice Coltrane to 90s electronica like Autechre and Boards of Canada.
What’s the ep title mean? Tomorrow Now? Like that we should stop planning and start living, that we are dreamers or in the words of Sonic Youth, a Daydream Nation?
I guess I’d been thinking a lot about the disposable nature of music right now. There’s so much music available to everyone now that you can easily become overwhelmed by it. As soon as you’ve finish listening to one album, you’ve got another three to download and listen to tomorrow. It’s very difficult for people to truly listen to and absorb music when it’s being consumed at that rate.
An EP is a nice solution though, always think it’s a great look. A good format. What’s a track from this you’d talk us through?
My favourite off the EP if I had to choose one is a track called ‘Soho’. I’d been listening to a lot of LTJ Bukem live sets from the mid 90s at the time and I wanted to write a track which caught a little bit of that Speed era vibe. A Logical Progression kind of thing, but stripped back to the bare elements. I think that one was started and finished in about two days, my experience is that the best material always seems to be written the fastest for some reason.
I never spend any more than seven days on a track, after that amount of time I find it becomes laboured and you lose the initial idea or inspiration you had in the first place.
The EP drops via the mighty Ingredients: how did this come about?
I’d basically spent a whole year making about one or two tracks a week without sending any of it to labels or even friends. Eventually I sent off a batch of tracks to Ingredients and they signed up seven of them for a solo artist EP. I’ve been a fan and collector of Ingredients Records for many years so I was very excited about the opportunity.
What’s been on your personal playlist lately?
In terms of D&B, I’ve been loving the more experimental or conceptual side of the music. Felix K, Consequence and Stray are three guys that I really rate at the moment. When it comes to labels I’d have to go with Narratives, Ingredients, Samurai and of course Exit Records.
I have to ask considering your record collecting nature: what recording session of any genre would you have loved to have been present at?
Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow from 1962. Just so that I could say I met Sun Ra!
I find a lot of the avant garde jazz stuff from the 60s very interesting to listen to because those guys were always looking forward.
After all D&B has always been a naturally progressive musical form as well so there are a number of similarities there.
Tomorrow Now ep