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Interview with Tony Thomas by Ollie Brooke

Your "trying to conquer the download market", how are you going about it?

I started up 10 digital labels covering the whole range of underground dance music & chilled and eclectic too.
Thanks to sites like Beatport and DJ download and the rest, pretty much anybody can set up their own digital label and sell what tunes they want, when they want, for as long as they want with very minimal costs. No manufacturing needed and no distributors necessary. You have full control over the whole thing. Perfect!!

The whole digital thing has two main streams, music distribution and music performance. The latter seems to be the hottest cause for debate, I personally don't feel comfortable enough to mess with other producers music and to not do this defeats the point of software like Ableton etc. what are your thoughts on the implementation of such software and methods?

I love all the new ways of manipulating sounds & video that are being invented – I think creativity should never be stifled or hampered and the more ways we have of messing stuff up to make something new the better. Who cares who made a track or who it belongs to, once you’ve made something, too late, it’s not yours anymore is it really? We all pretend to have ownership of things we’ve made so we can get money for them, but that’s nothing to do with actual reality.
All the new technologies allow us to take stuff that’s already been worked, and work it some more. You’ll also find that most dance producers use many complex layered sounds that have already been made by a whole chain of people going back to the first samplers 25 years ago. Most samples have a whole history of creators. So most dance music producers and DJ’s are messing with other producers music all the time whether they want to or not !! It’s an integral part of the whole sound/scene – I see it as sharing.
Moral issues aside, if you get good at messing with the new kit ( Ableton etc ) then I’m sure you would feel comfortable messing with other producers music.

As the new technology has developed we are currently seeing a lot of DJs migrate to the new digital format. however, it may be the next generation that really take it to new levels, having grown up knowing nothing else, do you worry that the next wave of digital DJs will be wiping the floor with the old-skool 2 decks and a mixer types?

I never worry – waste of brain time ! I always look forward to seeing new fresh talent shitting on the old stuck in a groove can’t move forward non learners that this industry is full of. Bring ‘em on !!!! The new technologies will bring new ways of performing ( and giving people a good time ) like we have never dreamed of.
The old school 2 decks & mixer thing is like the real old school drums and 3 guitars “band” thing that is still boring us to this day.
These standardised “acceptable” safe performance formats go on for so long then something new always comes along thankfully.

You plan to put out 90 releases this year, how do you ensure the quality remains up to scratch?

For starters they are under 16 different aliases and in many different styles.
Most of these releases are tunes I’ve been making over the last 10 years that I’ve been saving to release on my labels, which is something I had planned a long time ago. I can only make tunes well when I am really in the mood, which isn’t all of the time. So when I’m feeling right I just keep producing until the steam runs out, which means that the quality is maintained. I never produce if I’m not feeling it - the tunes will suck for sure. Waste of time.

What ones are your favourites?

I don’t have any favourites really as I go off my own stuff very quickly.
But I do have 24 other artists on my labels that aren’t me, and some of their tunes are my favourites.
At the moment my faves are: Alan Barratt – Give It To Me ( Cubic Digital ) and MG Project & DJ Double D – EXCESS ( Progress Recordings )

Having played in over 30 different countries where have been your stand out gigs? Where do you think the people are most up for it?

I’ve played in 36 countries in my life, I play around 30 gigs a year, often returning to some of the countries regularly as I have residencies there. Best places I play – Bulgaria & Greece without a doubt – they are the MOST up for it lovely cool happy positive people that I know and I have many very lovely brothers and sisters there. Coincidentally they are next to each other !!! Must be the soil or something !!!

Dubby tech-house may be a good description for your pruduction style, how would you describe it?

That probably best describes about 10% of the styles I make. I also make vocal/soulful house, electro-house, deep & funky house, techno ( I have over 100 techno releases ) progressive, trance ( about 50 trance releases during the 90’s ), breakbeat, chilled & atmospheric, reggae, jazz & a touch of hip hop, r&b & drum & bass too!!! I love music and I love to produce whatever takes my fancy.

Last gig you played, what was the track of the night?

The cheering and whistling of the crowd was my favourite track of the night !!! But I think theirs was “Untight” by the Groove Rebels – it is a stupid silly piece of mashed up insane electro house and sometimes I have to play it twice and they ALWAYS love it.

House music has been around for a long time, it has had two major roots in it's evolutionary tree, the US sound and the Acid House sound in the UK, as lines become blurred and styles fuse what are the elements from each that remain top of the check list when sorting great tracks from mediocre?

I don’t really use those criteria to choose my tunes. Instead I listen for strong distinctive beats with a good funk and groove, with sounds and melodies that are in some way deep and rich and descriptive laid over the top. Usually the simplest and most expressive things work best with a crowd.
I imagine what a crowd would do to it when choosing the right tunes for a particular situation. And each situation is always different, so you have to take the many varying factors of a party into account. Location, size, people etc. these are more important points I think than whether they contain US or Acid House elements.

Specifically on the labels you work with who are the standout producers that are doing it for you, who are the ones you think we'll be hearing a lot more about in the coming months and years?

My favourite producers on my labels are Alan Barratt, DJ Mouse, DJ Memet, Jak Jaxon, Mastik Soul and up & coming talent Robert Vadney who we will most definitely will be hearing a lot more of.

The UK scene is pretty saturated, John Larner said in a recent interview that it is kind of a bad thing because when the music is that accessible people don't get as excited to see a DJ play, what do you think about this?

All the gigs I’ve had in the UK over the last 5 years have been awesome so it can’t be that bad, but I do prefer the scene in eastern Europe right now.
They definitely go for it more, and for longer. I regularly have 6+ hour sets in Europe, but never in the UK.
I suppose it’s all a bit normal now in the UK as it’s been nearly 30 years of mass partying on drugs, but it’s still fresh for the eastern European countries and they are loving it for sure !!! When it becomes normal there, then it will most probably be Asia and Africa’s turn for the pilled up underground madness !!!

What do you see as being the next musical "fad", after the electro and minimal thing where will the "next big thing" come from?

Most probably a return to natural sounds and complexity again as has happened many times over already.

How is your dominance of the download scene going? Are you finding it a profitable/worthwhile venture, why have you got such confidence in it?

Sales are still nowhere near comparable to what vinyl was, so if you have only one or two underground labels it’s not that profitable. But with 10 labels and lots of releases it’s not so bad !
In a couple of years time I think it will be very good for underground dance music in the download scene. Sales are going up about a third each quarter, and this is not going to plateau out for a while yet. It’s still hard trying to get the old elitist dinosaurs into the new format and away from vinyl because of certain image & inability to mix digital/CD’s problems they have !!!! But they will turn on eventually and realise how silly they were being !!!!
Then underground dance music sales will be as high as the old days of vinyl and white labels and all that malarky !!
It is inevitable and it is totally the way things are going. Most people will be listening ( and probably mixing ) most of their music on their mobile phones soon, not on a technics record deck. Get on the tip early and you won’t be sorry !!!! I love the future – it’s always much more interesting than now !!!!

Tony Thomas tracks @ Clickgroove.com
Tony Thomas tracks @ Stompy.com

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