Over the last 10 years K-Complex of Nu Energy has been a driving force in the hard dance scene. Producing tracks, Djing, performing live, teaching and running the website www.dancemidisamples.com are just some of the things what fill up his precious time. He’s very gratefuly taken five minutes from his hectic schedule to have a few words with Recreation about all things dance music. Enjoy!

What’s filling you’re time at the moment?

Almost entirely my website www.dancemidisamples.com (shameless plug!), in it’s first year it’s gone from being a small project to a full blown online music tech store and info site for producers, I’ve also moved my base of operation from Jamestown Studios in the East End to home, which has been a big transition!

What future projects have you got planned?

To make some more music!!! It’s been quite a while and my music itch needs a good scratching!

Favourite DJ? Favourite producer?

DJ: James Zabiela

Producer: Paul Janes – he engineered so many great hard house tracks!

Favourite tune of all time?

Olmec Heads ‘Alpha 5’ (John 00 Flemming mix)

As a DJ/Producer/websiteowner can the dance music business be relied upon as you’re sole income or do you have a day job to get by?

That used to be the case, I did for 10 years but not anymore. I made a living from running a studio engineering and producing, but the days of needing a swish central London studio and £15,000 worth of hardware and synths are long gone! Music’s moved firmly back to the bedroom zone, which is a good thing for creativity, kids are making more and more music which helps bring much needed new talent forward. I’m still self employed but instead of the studio now I teach music technology as well as an online store and Dj’ing.

Having been around the hard dance scene for some time now, what in you’re opinion are the major changes you have noticed?

Definitely the shift to CDJ’s and the impact of Mp3’s and filesharing – I’ve seen several big independent distributors and labels go bust over the last 5 years , the music industry has to change to keep up with developments like that and has been too slow to respond (with the exception of online mp3 stores of course!) – after all did magnetic tape kill the music industry as they said it would…no! The main problem is that many people now expect music to be free, this makes it incredibly hard for small artists to make a living from their music. In the live band sector this has meant artists taking on more gigs rather than relying on record sales, but hard dance in general is a different fish! I like sites like beatbiz.net where new artists can promote their tracks, and set their own price for them, the site just takes a flat fee.

What you love about the hard dance scene?

The sheer driving energy of the music – can’t beat it!

What you hate about the scene?

Censored!

Best moment of you’re career so far?

Playing sunrise set at Enchanted Forest in Australia a few years ago – 10,000 ravers in a desert as the sun came up – my hands were shaking so much I could hardly find the play button on the CDJs…

Most bizarre moment of you’re career so far?

An un-named but very well known Hard Trance star exposing himself to a member of the NEC in the upstairs rooms at Brixton Academy…

Death of vinyl, rise of digital. Good thing or bad thing?

Good thing generally, the amount of music out there has proliferated. Sadly mp3 is a poor quality format and most digital labels can’t afford the cost of the professional mastering that made a good vinyl cut so fat. Offering uncompressed WAV format downloads obviously helps here but again there’s no substitute for a professional mastering engineer’s experience to get a good sounding record.

What advice would you give to an aspiring DJ or producer?

Keep going! Plug away at it - it took me about 2 years to write a track that sounded any good, so never stop learning! Read as much as you can, watch youtube tutorials everything you can to learn as much as possible.

You’re K-Complex website is due for a re-launch soon, what’s new and how important do you think self promotion is for a DJ/Producer?

The K-Complex site was a way to get the news out there and release free mixes etc, but these days a DSI group is all you need to get yourself a fan base. The new site will for a start be far less green and yellow, I was never happy with the colour scheme or the look of the site so this is a general upgrade, I’ll also be releasing some free sample packs and new tracks with the re-launch too.

With so many big names moving away from hard dance and producing alternative music, most notably big names such as Nick Sentience and BK what drives you to keep producing hard dance?

Underground music has always been my passion, whether hard dance or hardcore, so changing my spots now after 10 years of making records would be far too much effort! (My fist vinyl release was June 1999, so this year is 10 years of K-Complex!).

The loss of these big names is definitely bad in the short term however what in you’re opinion could it mean in the long-term future of the hard dance scene?

In with what I said earlier it’ll hopefully push new talent to the front, as long as promoters start to book them, it’s all too easy to stick with the same old line up and keep those demo CD’s in a random pile somewhere moulding away!

You’re site DanceMidiSamples, How did it come about?

I’d actually wanted to start a site like that for a few years, but never quite got around to it, a studio customer of mine recently started his own web development firm, so the timing was right…

How was the response to the site?

Immense! We’ve had tons of good feedback from users and site traffic was so heavy we had to move servers in the first few months…version 2 has just gone live so I’m looking forward to taking a well earned break!

With sites such as dancemidisamples around would you say producing dance music is easier now than when you began?

Definitely! Pre-broadband era a sample CD cost around £60 and had around 3 samples on it you’d actually use, now there’s hundreds of free sample sites and plenty where you can get good quality sounds cheaply. The shift away from dedicated audio hardware has also helped here – all I use to produce now is a Mac, TC Powercore card, Access Virus and a valve pre-amp! Any home PC these days is enough to get you started at home…

New promotions, what advice would you give to a budding promoter looking
to build a new night?

Dare to be different! Nights like Glow Ball are a perfect example of this.

Apart from dance music what other genres of music do you enjoy?

Screamo, Gansta Rap and Industrial Bangra-Jazz

So folks if you want to catch K-Complex along side Phil Reynolds get yourself down to Recreation Meets Decade Of Dance vs HeadFunk 16th may @ Club Life!

Club Life, 65 Goding Street, Vauxhall, SE11 5AW

2200 - 0600


***MAIN ROOM HOSTED BY RECREATION***
(Hard Dance)

PHIL REYNOLDS

K-COMPLEX

DAN IDENTKAL
CHAZZ b2b RED DWARF
HOOVAGROVA b2b JUSTIN TIME
R2 b2b X-RAY
ALEX BURN b2b BANDERAS
ALLY BROWN


***FUNKY BAR HOSTED BY DECADE OF DANCE v HEAD FUNK***
(oldskool, electro classics)

JUMPING JACK FROST

HUCKELBERRY FINN

CHALKY WHITE
GARY H
RAPID
NEAL P
DJ HUGHSEY
ITCHY FINGERS
ANDY POLLARDS
KAOS KID
DEEP AUDIO
DOLLY MIXTURE


£10 advance tickets available from all DJs playing at the event. For cash sales or more info call Rob on 07535710069 or email RWalsh999@aol.com

Really cant wait for this on guys, hope to see you all down there for a great night!

Wicked interview mate....

Should be a top night...