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Interview with Fish Go Deep by Ollie Brooke

Fish Go Deep are Greg Dowling and Shane Johnson. In the early 80s they setup and ran "Sweat" at Sir Henry's in Cork - Ireland. It went on to become the longest running club night in EWurope and exposed a whole generation of Irish DJs and clubber to the sounds of US Deep House. Having played host to some of the legends of house over it's 14 year history it closed doors in the latter part of the last century. House is not something one falls out of love with easily however and Greg & Shane took the next logical step and began producing as Fish Go Deep, not content with that they also launched 2 labels, Ork and Go Deep. Better known globally today as the brains behind some of the depest house you'll find I thought it time I interviewed my fellow Corkmen and here's what they had to say...

You're well known in house circles globally as Fish Go Deep yet in your homeland you're far better know as Greg & Shane from Sweat, how hard have you found to go from Sweat to Fish Go Deep, what links did you establish at Sweat that have helped pave the road for FGD?

Going from playing to producing was a pretty natural progression. Experience as DJs has helped but the club and the studio are very different environments and, for us, quite separate.

Staying with Sweat, at it's demise it was the longest running club in Europe, what was it about Sweat that lead it to be one of the most successful club nights in Europe?

Cork caught on to house at a pretty early stage. When we started playing in the late 80s, house was just starting to make an impact in Europe and people in Cork were just getting into it. The combination of an atmospheric, underground venue like Sir Henrys and a crowd who were excited about this wild new American music was pretty strong. And it laid down a solid foundation for house in the city.

As you gather momentum on the production front big names like Dennis Ferrer and more continue to increase your exposure, what's the 10 year plan for Fish Go Deep?

Dunno about ten years time but, for the moment, were looking to establish our labels, Go Deep and Ork Recordings. Both have started well and we want to build on that over the next few years.

Over the years you've been witness to many major developments and changes in the way the whole scene works, what are your thoughts on the digital movement at the moment, both in terms of music distribution and DJing?

Vinyl and traditional record shops have been on the slide for years and its hard to see that changing. The appeal of digital downloading is obvious and its accessible to a much wider audience. MP3 sound quality is a problem though and its something you really hear on a good club sound system, but some of the sites are already offering full CD quality downloads so that wont be an issue for much longer. Generally, the laptop DJ sets Ive heard have left me cold.

Fads come and go but most leave their mark on the sound which they invaded, tribal, tech, electro, piano, italian, the list goes on, what are your thoughts on the state of the current electro house vibe and how do you compare it to previous meldings?

We've never been bothered about genres. If it sounds good well play it. House has always been an electronic music so a lot of people getting excited about a new sound just don't remember it from the first time round.

Deep House as a genre has pretty much always remained on a steady course and has rarely faltered in terms of it's sound or style, what is it about Deep House that affords it this rare attribute?

House is a basic, open music and it can incorporate elements from other styles easily and credibly. I think thats why its still around and why it can still have a wide appeal.

You continue to DJ and live in Cork, what do you think of the Irish scene at the moment, not just the house side but across the board, what are the pros and cons of it in comparison with the much more saturated UK scene?

The club scene here has mostly been absorbed into the mainstream. There are pockets around Ireland where people are throwing good parties but, like most other countries outside the UK, it's still an underground thing.

It is now almost impossible for a DJ to make it with just great DJing skills alone, most breakthroughs have got extensive production catalogues behind them, what are your thoughts on this standard?

All of my favourite DJs are DJs first and foremost, not producers making money by playing records. I guess your studio work can be a calling card for your club work but it doesnt follow that a great producer will be a great DJ.

Would you ever consider releasing an anthology mix to celebrate the 13 or 14 years Sweat ran for?

An anthology? Maybe for the 20th anniversary.

In a recent interview with DJ Sneak he claimed that "the scene is dying" and cited massive drops in vinyl sales as evidence, this is hardly a new claim but when it comes from someone of his calibre one tends to take it a bit more seriously, what are your thoughts?

There are so many more releases now that its hard to tell if the overall sales are down. Ten years ago, a big underground record might have sold twenty thousand copies. These days, five thousand is a result.
Vinyl sales are definitely down but there are other ways to get your music out to an audience.

Have you been touring much recently? Any plans to come to Australia?

This year weve been busy in the studio so have cut back on the travelling. Well be out and about in the clubs more over the second half of 2006.
Australia is top of our to-do list although its not the sort of trip you can make in a weekend, or even a week. We have a great Go Deep party in Cork every Saturday that we dont like to miss too often. Once we can get a free two or three weeks well be there.

What can we expect from FGD over the coming months production wise?

Our second release on Go Deep is out this summer. Its a vocal with Mary Cigarettes called Chemical God. Our Ork label is onto ep number four this month with a Mark O'Sullivan collaboration called Wurk.
Defected are about to re-release The Cure and the Cause with new mixes by Charles Webster and Balearic Soul and well be putting out a follow-up single with Tracey K in the autumn.

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