INTERVIEW NICK MUIR

have seen the faces of the rest of the band! The piano needed tuning big time the next day...”

As a session musician you've also worked with acts such as Take That and Gary Glitter. How did you get involved in the dance scene?
“In the late eighties I was living on a houseboat with the drummer from The Men They Couldn't Hang who I was playing with at the time. It was very basic - we didn't have electricity or running water when I moved in. It was the era of travellers and crusties and we were living that sort of lifestyle, so inevitably I came across the rave scene. We used to go up to Salisbury where the hippy convoy would put on open air events, they were really exciting times. At the same time Pat Collier who produced the band let me hang out at his studio and have use of this bunch of S1000 samplers he'd just bought. So I was getting my head around that during the day and going raving by night. It very soon became obvious to me that making records for DJ's was what I wanted to do - the gigs became a way of funding that.One tour would keep me going for 6 months.”

Many 'mainstream' DJ's seem unable to get away from the minimal sound that's been played for too long now. Why?

“I'm not sure how much I agree with that statement - the music changes all the time. The impact of what people called minimal is still being felt but what is interesting is the way that it's becoming interweaved with other styles. I think the minimal sound reminded a lot of DJ's that a lot of the power of modern electronic dance music comes from its underground nature. That's certainly what appealed to John (Digweed) about it; he managed very successfully to incorporate that sound into his sets without compromising what he does in any way. I'm really glad he did

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