DANCETERIA presents MR.A THE BIG-4 BIRTHDAY BONANZA 08.10.2010
Tim Sheridan recent Interview for Magnet Club in Liverpool:
Who/what first inspired you to become a DJ?
There was never a 'moment' or really any inspiration 'cos I was doing it way before DJing became a 'thing'. In the 80's I was a sort of engineer/producer and came from a classical music background. Played in a lot of bands like most of us did on the dole in the Thatcher years hahaha! DJing was something we did for a laugh... and for free... after or before gigs. At it's earliest we used Revox tape machines and physically cut and spliced tracks together. I was in bands and DJing while the Acid House years came along and got bang into that but I sort of never consciously was a DJ it kind of just happened. One day we were playing live, suddenly it was cheaper (for the promoters) to have us represented as a DJ. Our manager and agent started it. Without telling me actually hahaha! eventually I was just DJing. To be truthful we used to look down on DJing a bit, I since learned it's like anything that appears simple... like anyone can run but not everyone is Linford Christie innit? I went through quite a long bad period of really not taking DJing seriously but I've learned my lesson now hahaha! In what? about 27 years of doing it I think the last 15 I did it 'professionally' and maybe the last 5 years I've sort of found my voice. A DJ can either be a sort of crowd pleasing jukebox of commercial stuff or even a jukebox of the latest Beatport top ten.... or they can have a distinct and unique sound. That can also go too far up the devils bumhole too though hahaha! You can be too obscure for the sake of it. I think you find your voice when you are doing your own thing AND everyone likes it. It takes a longer time than you might think. Or maybe I'm just a slow learner hahaha!
What made you start the label VVWI?
Necessity is the mother of all fuckups haha! Sorry, er... seriously? When CD technology properly spread to everyone and getting acetates died out I used to get handed CDs at nearly every gig. I listen to everything... eventually, Christ there is loads... and some of the stuff I was being handed was just amazing. I mean I am an old Punk at heart...and a raving Socialist. So I like the idea of the means of production being in the hands of the people. So you get kids who have basically never really listened to anything but electronic music making outstanding stuff. It's extra interesting because they don't know any or much musical 'rules'... I mean fuck the rulebook anyway... ask Jimmy Hendrix's ghost hahaha! but yeah... Weird and wonderful stuff coming straight out of bedrooms and into my bag. So I started VVWI for two reasons. The first was obvious... let's get this stuff out! The second was at the time... what? 7 years ago.... I was very deep into the free parties we were doing in Ibiza and London and was more into Afterhours than Saturday nights and was getting a definite sound... an Afterhours sound. So VVWI started also as an offshoot of VVWI the Afterhours. To release the music that was being played at my events. The wobbly shit at 11am Sunday morning. If I'm brutally honest as well it's not me being some sort of missionary... it's selfish too... I always try to sound different and it was a way for me to get well mastered copies of stuff to DJ with that nobody else could have til I'd done with it hahaha!.
Where do you take influence for your own productions?
Phew I dunno. Influence is everything you experience innit? Everything you see and hear. I come from quite a... dunno how to put it... formal studio background. Old school studios that cost a lot to hire. Pre-computer I guess. So to me the recording bit is a job of work. I have been in the position of having the gear at home... shit even on a laptop... but if it's blank canvas I just arse around making a jazz mess. Fiddling with a single snare drum for two weeks. So I write what I'm going to do at home or you know... best you can manage wherever you are... and go into the studio with it already written. The studio is there to physically build from the model sort of thing. Of course things happen in the studio, new ideas and polish... but unless the clock is ticking and there is a timetable I'm no good. A mix is never finished it's abandoned. Sorry I'm not answering am I? Going about it arse over tit. The ideas? I am a drummer and a very bad piano player so sometimes it's a groove, sometimes a melody first. I usually span out what key it is and the chords and work backwards, editing out all the guff until there is something resembling House Music hahaha! It's really hard... maybe just for me... but difficult in the extreme to make something engaging but very simple. It's the same for say... designing a chair. Really. If I'm vague I apologies. It's easier to say what I don't take influence from. I never read magazines or watch telly and really hate genres. I've lived on my own for most of my life and usually in fairly remote places. It's very easy to get influenced... when I lived in Soho I didn't realise at all I was being influenced and making copies of other music until I left. So at risk of sounding a twat I'd say the absence of influence is best. Then stuff comes out of you... instead of in.
How much does your experience as a DJ help when in the studio?
I was going to kneejerk there and say I am a producer first but that's not true really. It's vital of course. I have a natural tendency to overwork things... make them a bit er... baroque and complicated and being a DJ reminds me that basically it's supposed to make you dance hahaha! Sounds daft and obvious but it's easier to forget than you think. In the old days handling a lot of vinyl really helped because you understood a good and bad mastering, how the bass physically makes the grooves in the track wider and the stylus can literally slip out... things like that were a lesson. I always work with an engineer nowadays too and I watch them very closely. These guys are exposed to music every waking hour and some of them have little 'tells' like Poker and if you can get a reaction out of them you are on the right track. A tapping foot. A nod. One of them used to raise up off his chair a tiny bit if he liked it, sort of levitate hahaha! You can't forget it's for an audience of people as well as yourself and being a DJ is knowing when to pop your head out of your arsehole and remember the people on the dancefloor too I suppose. I swear every time I hear that clockwork DJ interview response of "I just make music for myself and if anyone else likes it it's a bonus" I want to kill hahaha! It's total codshit. I make music for myself that I hope everyone likes too. If I made music for myself it'd be some sort of Aphex Twin versus Frank Zappa bollocks. You are talking to someone who used to sit at home banging things to see what sound they made and listening to BBC sound effects record end to end. I think there's a balance. Maybe when I'm in the DJ retirement home...next year hahaha!... I'll make some of that unlistenable jazz noodle wank... for myself. And if anyone else likes it.... shoot me haha.
How’s it going and what is its outlook?
Well summer is high gardening season for me. When I was a lad I did some landscaping labouring and a bit of tree surgery... we prefer the term 'arborist' actually haha! so I go at it like a dervish in my free time. I'm chronically hyper and a bit anal so.... great at jobs, shit at relationships hahaha! I've got a lovely stripe on the lawn, given it a bit of forced perspective and winning with the wort and weeds. It's all about the edging with the lawn though. The gravel is a bastard. Been bothering aggregates for a month like a Navvy. The outlook is very good.... until the next few weeks when all the bastard leaves come down.
Do you think there will ever come a time when you’ve had enough and you leave electronic music behind?
I know a few who wish I would hahaha! I'll never leave it. It's in the blood now. I have had loooong periods where I've either stopped DJing or stopped producing but never both. I would love to get to a place where I only play my few fave clubs and make a record when I feel like it. Not far off as it happens. On the other hand I may have to stop. Who knows? it may all disappear. If you have dependents it's not always a matter of choice really.
What’s the most wrong thing you’ve ever seen in your time as a DJ?
If I told you I'd be even stupider than I look. They are just wrong and a bit unpleasant really hahaha!
As someone who’s been involved in the UK scene for a long time, what do you make of the state of t today? Have the internet and digital music been good or bad?
To be a pedant I'd say living in Ibiza for 7 years took me out of being involved in the UK scene a bit. Most other countries consider me "an Ibiza DJ" these days and a lot don't think I am from the UK at all because I am a bit swarthy hahaha. I am Irish by birth anyway. The UK scene is where I am from though! and it really matters to me. I could sit here and moan all day but things move and change and actually always have. If we got into the internet or digital discussion now I bet I could find you an interview from ages ago where I answered the same but replace the words 'digital' with 'CD' or 'The Internet' with 'Acid Teds' and you'd have the same old bitch about change.
The UK? It's the same as it ever was. Interesting, forward thinking...sometimes haha!... at the sharp end, a bit self conscious, a bit aloof, a bit ace, a bit poncey.... being involved in anything a long time I think you end up seeing the similarities not the differences. England has always been a creative and industrial hub. It's the music not the medium. The message not the carrier. It's still the best place to be if you are serious about the creative arts.
How do you approach gigs – do you ever plan a set or do you just turn up and play?
I've never planned a set in my life and I don't own any decks. Nobody believes me! I listen to and make music all day every day... the DJing bit is just instinctive. And the fun part. It is supposed to be enjoyable apparently haha! It's even more instinctive when you mainly play your own tunes or those off your own label which is how it goes these days. I take it very seriously up to a point... preparation... but I think you have to flex with the party when you get there. I can't stand DJs who have a SET and it's just so clear no-one is into it and they never look up and... well... you know what I mean. The only thing that will stop us being replaced by a computer completely is the ability to survey a scene and match it or even move it. I mean I'm no superstar.... I get gigs in places where they think Electro is the hottest thing since sliced bread and all the other DJs on the bill are pretty commercial.... I might not have that music with me exactly but I can go very uptempo and energetic... or totally techno... or deep as you like... or downright odd. That's our job I always think isn't it? To read the room and make everyone dance? I like to think a good DJ can play anywhere. I mean anywhere. I bet you Danny Tenaglia or Derrick Carter could make a load of old ladies at a wedding dance if they had to, know what I mean ?hahahaha! Like I said before, if you are really lucky and do it long enough you play your style and it works almost anywhere. There will always be places just too chavvy to take it, or too poncey and cool for school. Extremes. Luckily those are usually full of tossers and I manage to avoid them hahaha! just kidding.