As 15,000 people begin to converge on the quite town of Aldershot in Hampshire for the countries most innovative new festival ANTIWORLD, we caught up with resident FIREFLY DJ Max Cooper ahead of the big date. The Nottingham super club show will be hosting the very own live stage featuring James Holden, Green Velvet, Digitalism Live, Blackstrobe Live, Thomas Schumacher, Ben Simms and of course Max Cooper.
So Max, what have you been up to recently?
The last few months have been quite hectic actually. I moved from Nottingham to London early this year, and signed to a new label – evolved records. They’ve piled on the releases for me and I’ve basically had to write an album’s worth of material in the last 6 months. It’s been great for my production technique though, there was a point where I focused on nothing but writing tracks for a month or so, that was very productive. It’s not helped my PhD thesis though, which I have been trying to write at the same time.
Tell us more about the music you are releasing at the moment, your DJing style has covered a lot of genres over the years, so what have you settled on for your productions?
I try to write the same sort of music that I am playing, so at the moment that ranges from house to electro to techno and minimal. That sounds a little inconsistent but I really just take elements from each of those genres and combine them with my own techniques to make my sound.
Can you tell us about your musical evolution?
I went through a funk and hiphop stage early on, when I was heavily into scratching and juggling which I still use now. Then I think I got into drum and bass and breaks. Breaks became my staple for a couple of years when I first starting playing out a lot outside of Notts – some people are still surprised when I don’t play breaks now actually, although I still like to drop a cheeky one in here and there. Then it was techno, then minimal and then some electro influences came along. For me it’s all about constantly developing my sound to keep the music fresh and the punters excited.
Tell us about any interesting projects you have going at the moment?
I did a video for the BBC recently. It was a vodcast, which is a video download for ipods or computers I guess. I explained all the basic types of scratches, did demonstrations, and a bit of freestyling, keeping it as simple as possible. Then I had to do some cheesy “top tips” and lots of posing, it should be funny anyway. It is due out this summer along with “how to’s” for beatboxing, dancing and all sorts. It’s all part of a BBC project called blast.
Tell us about Maximal?
Maximal is the London based brainchild of James Clent. He’s branched it off into 3 separate types of event, each running every month or so. It goes from a bar style event at Medicine bar and Thirst, to big club events at the Key and more experimental events at the Cross and the Egg. I hold a residency for Maximal, mainly at the Cross events. And no, the name is nothing to do with mine!
Tell us about Firefly?
Firefly is a Nottingham based brand that started in 2000. I have been resident there since 2002. The parties have grown to the 1000 monthly slots in Notts at the legendary Marcus Garvey centre (aka the Ballroom), and now there are even bigger Firefly events going off in Bristol, Leeds, Sheffield and London. Things are looking good. There’s even a stage at 070707 festival, which should be fun!
Tell me more about 070707 festival?
070707 festival (on the 7th of July 07) is the biggest electronic music festival happening this summer. The line up is amazing. We have a Firefly stage there with Adam Beyer, James Holden, Green Velvet, Digitalism, Blackstrobe, Technasia, Josh Wink, Speedy J, Thomas Schumacher, Fergie, Plaid, Ben Sims, Jimmy Edgar, Thrash Jelly, Celtic Twinz, British Murder Boys etc etc. There’s plenty more stages with equally massive lineups over the 3 days.
What have you got in store for your set at 070707?
It’s going to have to be the first ever live 11 deck elbow scratching fried egg putting up a tent at the same time underwater upside down hands behind the back monkey suite fx and rapping grannies live show. I hope people respond well, it’s something I have been working hard on for some time now.
What advice could you give to someone who would like to launch him or herself in electronic music?
These days you really need to be a producer or a radio DJ to get the required coverage amongst the crowd. From then on it’s all about hard work. You have to get out there and meet the people that are running the nights and the labels, but there’s no point in meeting them if you haven’t got a good product to sell. Unless you’re some sort of super-talented freak of nature, the only way to get the product is work yer nuts (or equivalent if you’re not a bloke) off. I did the same thing for learning to scratch, and learning to produce, a few hours a day for a couple of years usually does it.
Will you be sticking round at antiworld 070707 after your set on Friday?
Definitely, there’s so much I want to go and see there, I’ll be making a proper weekend in a field out of it.
For dates / information / bookings see:
www.maxcooper.net
www.myspace.com/maxcoopermax
www.evolved-records.com
www.ilovefirefly.net
