Date: 16.09.07
Interviewer: Tom Golden

Hi Neil, hope you are well? To kick this interview off, where are you and what are you currently doing?

Hey Tom, Great thanks, im just relaxing in the house, trying to recover from the double header bank holiday weekend we've just had. Felt a little worse for wear yesterday but the bbq we had sorted me right out! Did a few hours in the studio today on a new remix followed by a quick round of golf ha ha - (got to make the most of he sunshine- Newcastles a bit of a stranger to it).

This will be your second time playing at Stylus in the past year (he drops us bungs in a George Graham style, you see.) How did you find the last time you played for us?

"I'd heard alot about Stylus for the past couple of years, heard some great reports on the underground house parties you were throwing, and was definalty a club i'd wanted to play for a while. I was over the moon that Tom and Les asked me to play. To play alongside a favorite producer of mine, Jimpster was also wicked and we all had a great laugh, it's a great little club The Attic with such a cool friendly atmosphere going on. Looking forward to playing again alot."

Your one of the residents at a North Eastern clubbing institution in Shindig, how did the residency come about?

"I've been a resident at Shindig for the past 5 years, and previous to that i'd be an avid young clubber there. I used to go every Saturday but was more interested in what was going on behind the decks... (djing wise obviously... :-). I Used to love watching the founders and residents Scott and Scooby play, and I can remember being amazed at how they used to warm up the crowd, changing the mood and the music as the club filled up. I met the Shindig pair through Jim Mawsdley who was then one of the promotors, who helped me get mixtapes through to them and pointed me in the right direction. I was asked to play in Shindig's pre club bar Stereo and do the warm up there, I loved playing in there where Shindig's regulars started their night off before the short walk up the bank to the club (Shindig was then held weekly at Foundation). It was definatly the first opportunity i'd had to play to a crowd that was really music orientated. Like most first breaks go, I got the chance to play the club as a fill in when one of the other residents couldn’t make it (never been so grateful that someone was ill!) In the weeks that followed I was slotted into the linups where possible and I tried to make everyset really, under the watchful eye of other resident Mark Lowry."

In that time you must have played alongside some fantastic jocks, who has been the best DJ you have spun alongside at the club?

"One of the great things about Shindig in my eyes is it's variety across the house music spectrum, definatly one of the reasons that its 15 years strong and counting. For this reason the residents have to be flexible and in the last few years i've played alongside DJs as varied as Danny Rampling, Switch, Jesse Rose, Derrick Carter, Roger Sanchez, DJ Heather, Inland Knights, FC Kahuna, Freeform Five, Tony Humphries, AudioFly, Hipp-e, Luke Solomon and Chris Duckenfield. It's a really hard question to pick one DJ, but certainly one of the most enjoyable and one that sticks in my head, is Danny Ramplings fairwell gig... he's one of the reasons I started listening to house music, and he's probally the first DJ i'd heard when he was on Radio 1. The atmosphere on the night was amazing being his last gig in Newcastle as part of the tour. Myself and Scooby played the main room before him and the place was jumping, but when he walked into the booth and the clubs lights came on the 1000+ crowd went mad. was a very nostalgic atmosphere that night."

Going off topic a bit here… can you explain what a Stottie and a Parmo are to us uneducated Mancunian types?

"Ha ha, well a parmo is actually a Middllebourgh thing; but a stottie is a round flat bread that's pretty thick with a filling. It's definatly a northern thing! Anything similar found south of Newcastle just isnt the real deal. You cant beat a ham and peaspudding stottie :-)"

Production wise, you have just finished a remix of JT Donaldson and Cpen, when can we expect that out, and what other projects are you currently working on?

"Yeah, really pleased with that remix, it should be out very soon on American label Bananza Music, ran by Marco Milatano I had wanted to do something for them for a while, but just had to wait for them to find a project that was suitable. The orginal is pretty deep and soulful so i've put a slight techy feel and my touch to it. At the moment I'm busing remixing a Harold Heath track for 3am Recordings, which will most likey be out around the same time as another track i've done for them called Nocturnal Strings. I have 4 new unsigned tracks that ive just recently finished, that ill be looking to get signed soon. So watch this space! There's also a few cheeky bootlegs flying about which i've done."

As an up and coming producer, have you found it hard starting your career in the current climate of mp3 downloads becoming big business, and vinyl being left at the wayside?

"I did used to buy a hell of alot of records about 5/6 years ago, but recently i've found myself slowly buying less and less. At the moment im playing 100% cd's just because its a format i really like - the majority of the music I either buy or recieve is in digital format. I definatly obtain alot more music overall at the moment which I see as a goood thing. I have my cd wallets organised in a much better way than my record box ever was, which helps, and from a space point of view I can have alot more music with me at any one point. I'm certainly not one of these DJs thats ditched vinyl, I still buy it, but tend to buy more albums or music for home listening. It's actually probably made me appeciate records more, and has taken away the "throw away" attitude of buying records week in week out. I only buy records that have longetivity. I think djing with cdj's really isnt any different to on turntables, but have a mixed opionion on djing with ableton unless its a live performance of your own music, in which case it a vital tool. Serato is certainly the way forward for digital djing combining both the ability to have an unlimited amount of music at your disposal, without losing any of the performace factors or technical ability required."

You ran a successful record store in Newcastle City centre, Air Records. What made you take the plunge into opening a record shop?

"I decided to open Air Records 4 years ago, as a way of emersing myself more in the music industry and in music in general. At the time I was working as vinyl buyer for HMV in Newcastle and had been for a few years. I recognised a gap in the market that a commercial shop like HMV wasnt dealing with. Newcastle was really needing a record shop since the famous Flying Records closed its doors 6 months previous and running a record shop was a great way of meeting new people and contacts. I really enjoyed building on my music knowledge both inside & outside of the house music I played. The shop quickly became a great social place to be about, and worked great alongside my Shindig residency. It was a big shame that we had to close the shop in January this year, due to the rent on the property which was right in the centre of Newcastle. Although successfull I couldnt really see any growth in the business over the forthcoming years so when we shut the shop we felt it was the right time to move on to other things, and as they say as one door closes... another door opens, giving me alot more freedom and time for other things."

Right, you’ve got a 2 room nightclub with unlimited budget for the night, what DJs and artists would you book to play and why?

"Well this the reason its taken me ages to do this interview (sorry Tom). I'm going to have to keep it to DJs that are alive! Room 1 - Derrick Carter / Daft Punk LIVE / H-Foundation with Scott Bradford & Scooby. In room 2, Masters at Work and Jimpster doing a downtempo set alongside The Bays LIVE. Probally also have Kerri Chandler & Danny Rampling playing B2B at the afterparty too :-)"

And finally, the big question… United or City? Don’t base your choice on current form, United are just a little tired after a long Summer break ;)

"I know nothing about football, so will leave this one to the masses." (Tom - That's Utd then).

Neil plays at Stylus on Saturday 8th December 2007

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