Ahead of the massive Valve Sound System event in Sheffield’s Octagon Centre on Saturday September 28, The Tuesday Club’s James Drain had a chat with the system’s creators Dillinja & Lemonde…
When did you both start taking an interest in sound system culture?
Lemonde: For years really but it was Karl (Dillinja) whose head was fully into it.
Dillinja: I was like 14 and building mini sound systems and doing small parties in my home town. Building the ultimate custom-designed sound system was always my dream.
How involved are you both with the actual logistics of transporting the sound system? Do you still do much of the heavy lifting and driving around yourselves, or have you got a team who do the ‘dirty work’?
We still have a crew that help us in London then we take a few guys with us to the venue / destination in other cities. We normally arrange crew provided by the promoter this helps with the costings of a show. To transport say 6-8 guys in vehicles, fuel and hotels is not cheap! We still get involved with set up and loading. We have to. There’s so much work involved. We are up normally around 6am on the day of the event and have to load an articulated lorry which then will travel an average of 150+ miles depending on destination. Once we get there we unload, set up, wire it all up, sound test, do the show then at the end of the event do it all again and back to London. We normally don’t finish till around 4pm the next day!
Do you still stand back and adoringly listen to your Sound System when it’s at an event, or has the novelty worn off somewhat?
We still get blown away, because you just don’t get anything like this most times. Venues don’t cater for full low end bass. They have ‘bass’, but it will roll off on low ended frequencies. On many systems, musical notes a producer may incorporate into a production don’t get played out and are lost audibly.
Custom bass music sound systems such as RC1 in London and Electrikal in Edinburgh are popping up all over the country at the moment. Have you been to see any of them?
Nope, sorry! I’m afraid we just don’t have that luxury of time to go check out other sound systems. We don’t watch anyone else really; we only do what we do. By being in our own little bubble we tend to throw ideas to the table and create things that seem out of the box. We did this with production in that ‘golden era’ of jungle / drum & bass pushing the limits of the AKAI s950 sampler. The Valve Sound System came from that way of thinking – by doing something no one else was doing at that time.
Any forthcoming Valve Recordings releases in the pipeline?
Dillinja: Yes. We’ve been focusing on the label for last four years and not throwing out tons of material simply to keep up to speed with what other labels are doing. We’ve just gone back and taken time to do the things that we are into and getting things to a happy medium before putting music out. We have been developing some new artists over the last 36 months with music right across the genres.
Lemonde: This will also be the last DJ set for me under the Lemonde psuedynom. It’s a perfect ending because I’ve been working on a project on and off for nearly four and a half years and I’m ready to start dropping the music in the next few months with releases on Valve and other labels.
A lot of the music will be limited downloads from my website www.k-aze.com and the Valve website also. To do the final set as Lemonde in Sheffield is great as Sheffield is our favourite spot for Valve shows, it’s a great space and sounds tremendous in there! Olly and TheTuesday Club crew definitely do Sheffield proud.
Valve Sound System featuring Andy C, Wilkinson, S.P.Y, Dub Phizix & Strategy, Dillinja, Lemonde, Marcus Intalex, Jubei, OM Unit and more rolls into Sheffield on Saturday September 28.
Grab your tickets right here
More info: Valve / Tuesday Club