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 It’s not often that Hong Kong is graced with drum and bass legends! Master of the decks and the daddy of club drum and bass Fabio, talks to hkclubbing about drum and bass heads keeping the music real and why myspace is nothing but a site full of naked men!
Nilly: Fabio, tell us a little about how that name came about from Fitzroy Heslop. Tell us a little about yourself before the Fabio days.
Fabio: One Sunday slot came up and a guy called Mendoza phoned me saying, “I want you to come and do the show.” I said, “Listen, I'm not a DJ”, and he continued, “Look, you don't have to talk, just come down and do the show for me.” So I agreed and went down there, and he said to me five minutes before I was gonna go on, “You're gonna have to give yourself a name.” So I said “Just call me Fitzroy,”and he said, “No, you can't do that; for one show just call yourself a name.” So I was thinking what I could call myself, and I remembered a girlfriend of mine - one that was a serious relationship at the time -saying if we had a kid, a boy, she would call him Fabio. I felt it was a strange name, but thinking about it, I thought it was really nice. So I said, 'Fabio', and he went, 'What?'. So when I went on now, he introduces me as Pablo, and I thought, 'Alright, leave it'. Then thinking about it, I turned around and said, 'No - say Fabio, just call me Fabio', and he tried to convince me that it was really silly name. That is the God's honest truth, and it had stuck to this day. It's funny 'cause everything's like connected up. In Italy I had a really big thing going years ago when the House thing really started over there and my name was massive. Everyone was going, 'How come your name is Fabio? It is proper Italian name, and you are black', 'cause they all thought I was gonna be white. So I think it was fate really, and that's how the DJing started, from that night when I thought, ' This is a laugh'." Nilly: Do you go by any other names? Fabio: Like I said, it stuck. It’s hard to get away from a DJ name or a nickname if it catches on. After a while, you take on your own persona in that name. Nilly: You got into DJ-ing haphazardly through friends. Who or what was the major influence in your DJ career? Fabio: Colin Dale was a big inspiration for me. He was a Soul DJ, came from the same background as me, he’s from Brixton in South London which is like England’s equivalent of Detroit really, very ghetto, very black, and Colin was always into electronic music from very early, like late 70’s, early 80’s. And he used to be into a lot of Hi- NRG, early Hi-NRG stuff. He taught me about the whole Techno thing, he brought me to see Derrick May, Juan Atkins and Blake Baxter in 1987 at a place called ‘Legends’. The problem with Colin, Colin never believed in himself enough as a DJ. I think he was a great inspiration to people but he didn’t believe in himself enough and when the whole rave thing took off in ’88 he kind of missed the boat a little bit but he is probably my biggest inspiration." Nilly: What was the first tune you ever played and what were the thoughts going though your head? Fabio: The first House track I ever bought was called 'Mysteries of Love.' I'll never forget that, because that was the same day I bought 'My Melody' by Derek B and Rakim - that's when the Hip Hop thing really started to chart and get mainstream as well. At the time the whole Soul warehouse thing had started up, and you knew something big was going to happen, but you really didn't know in what way. So I had to make a choice as to whether I was going to play House or Hip Hop. Nilly: Now that you are seen as a drum and bass legend and a godfather in the genre, what happens when you are in front of thousands of people DJ-ing? What is the best kick for you then? Fabio: Watching the people go off. There is a real thrill when people are in to the music and they are having it. But it doesn’t matter if it’s a small little venue or a festival with thousands of people, if people are feeling the music then there is a nice vibe in the place. That’s what music is all about. Nilly: You started off being into soul in the early days, did reggae have a major influence in your transition towards jungle/ drum and bass?
Fabio: I felt reggae and soul music. I was kind of divided. In them days as well, you couldn’t really be both. You had to be one or the other. I remember they used to say if you like soul music you were gay. What happened a cousin of mine used to go to soul clubs, and she used to sneak me in and I never used to tell any body. Then at the weekend I used to go to the blues dances.
Then I got caught up in the whole soul club thing, so when I was 15, 16, I kind of ventured more into going to Crackers and a place called 100 club, and just getting into the whole soul movement. Jungle was very aggressive and quite abrasive. Buju Banton sampled over break beats. It was a real ghetto thing and that’s how this ridiculous urban thing started, with everybody as well. “Oh it’s black music, we love black music, we love this, it’s the new punk but it’s like black punk. So much bullshit going on! The whole tag jungle took on a real sinister... It just got so smashed in the press. We were like If we’re going to carry on we’re gonna have to change the name here, cos we’re getting slaughtered here. And then drum and bass, the ragga thing kind of went, and it turned into drum and bass. It all fell apart in ’98. We were getting totally slagged off for the music, everyone was like drum and bass has died, which was the headline for 18 months. And then garage came along: the death knell for drum and bass. It was the new drum and bass. It was the biggest kick in the teeth for us ever. Nilly: Tell us a little about one of your most striking memories of DJ -ing at a rave. Fabio: My favourite rave? I think it would have to be the first Energy at the Westway Studios in Shephard's Bush. That showed me the power of it. Everyone had been in clubs up until then, and that was like my first warehousey thing. That was the day that everyone from all backgrounds came together - rich and poor, black and white. And everyone knew then that something was going on. That was the most magical night I had, and I don't think I'll ever have a bigger buzz than that. I actually played the last set. Everyone had played so well up until that time, and the crowd was really up for it. I was so nervous because I hadn't played to a crowd that big before, but it went down really well and I got the best response I'll ever get, which was just magical. It was like everyone was on the same buzz, and because it was a really hot day, everyone went over to Clapham Common for this party afterwards. The police came down there and they really didn't know what was going on, seeing all these people of all nations, black and white, together. One of the guys who organised the party, called Russell, went up to them, smoking a spliff, and said, 'Everything's gonna be alright mate, we're all peace loving people'. And the policemen were so bewildered that his guy was openly smoking his spliff, and was standing there skinning up another one that, d'you know, they just walked off and left us. That was a really good day." Nilly: How do you feel now DJ-ing at clubs over the whole rave scene where you started out? In the same vein, what are your thoughts on doing commercial radio over pirate sessions on 'Phase One' with Mendoza? Fabio: In the UK, pirate radio is still all over the airwaves. It’s a cat and mouse game with the police. All the Big DJs have at one time or another had a slot on pirate radio somewhere. It’s a cultural thing in the UK. Eventually, BBC just decided to hire the top DJs in all the respective areas to bring focus to the legitimate station. We had some exciting days back in pirate radio, but ultimately, we are exposing a wider audience to Drum N Bass now and we aren’t having to compromise on our music. Nilly: Tell us a little about your relationship with Grooverider. What id the chemistry between you two that works and what ticks you both off about each other? Fabio: When we first met, we didn’t get on. He was flash, and I was quiet. We were just two different kind of guys. After a while, we started playing together and those differences kind of disappeared. In the mid 90's we ended up at London’s Kiss Fm, our Wednesday night Drum and Bass show won some radio awards and was one of Kiss's biggest underground shows. We made the move to Radio 1 in late 1999 and have been there to since then. We’ve won awards for our Radio 1 show, and recently won the Drum and Bass award for best radio show at Raveology in Birmingham. Radio 1 has been a major part of our continued success and our show was moved to a 12-2am slot every Friday. We alternate shows, Grooverider takes one Friday and then I take the next. Our styles complement each other as well. Grooverider plays a harder side of Drum N Bass and I play the liquid funk side. Since we are on both ends of the spectrum of Drum N Bass, the show stays fresh… and we overlap occasionally, because it’s all good music. Nilly: What are your thoughts on drum and bass now? How do you think it's evolved? Do you think it's evolved into something elitist and fashionable? Fabio: Drum’n Bass gets tagged with this thing of not being trendy enough and it’s this odd music that nobody gets, which I really like. Because in London you’ve got this crazy, VIP, celebrity bullshit thing where you go to clubs and there’s footballers and you play silly music. That VIP thing was never like that in the 80’s, it was always about music. Now it’s not so much about music. Drum’n Bass is quite grimy, you wear whatever you want, it’s not about Gucci or Prada/ it’s quite freestyle. I love that. It has it’s phases but that’s because it gets trendy all of a sudden and everyone thinks, ‘Oh yeah, Drum’n Bass, really trendy let’s go and check it out’. Nilly: What do you think preserves the real essence of jungle/ drum and bass? Do you think technology is good for drum and bass? Fabio: I only got my first computer a few years ago, my first mobile phone four years ago. I’m a bit scared of technology, there’s something quite scary about it. The speed of it I don’t like. I don’t like that you can just get in contact with people so quickly and get things done so quickly. I think it takes away a lot of brain power. I do feel a bit like that. Even just having a Mac. I bought my first Mac last week, I had a PC that got ravaged by viruses. Everyone was like: “What you doing with a fucking PC, get a Mac.” And I was like: “Listen, I don’t give a shit.” As long as I can get online and send an email. But now I’ve got into the Mac thing I see what everyone’s talking about. And that’s what happens with technology. You get into something you don’t want to and then you get drawn into it so much and before you know it you’re some techno freak, man. It scares me slightly. But even MySpace. Everyone was like: “Fabio, you need to get on MySpace, it’s what’s happening, you need it.” And I’m still not on MySpace because I hate it. All I see on MySpace is naked people trying to fucking get off with each other. And then it’s under this banner that, oh yeah it’s so cool, we want to get our music across to people, it’s bullshit. My girlfriend and I had a big problem because I looked in her MySpace page and saw all these naked men. I was like: “What the f**k are you doing? Who the f**k’s this?” And she’s like: “Oh they’re my friends.” And I was like: “Do you need naked friends?” Six months time I’ll probably be half naked on MySpace as well.
Nilly: Any artists you respect and feel are steering the music in the right way?
Fabio: Right now, some of the newer producers on my label are Atlantic Connection, Alix Perez, and Red Eyes. Drum N Bass just keeps getting better and better every year with new talent like these guys coming in. Nilly: What are your thoughts on DJ -ing in Hong Kong? Fabio: This will be my first time in Hong Kong. I am always interested to play for new crowds with a fresh buzz about them. The locations outside of Europe/UK are often times the best crowds to play for because they are starving for it. A couple of my mates have played for Magnetic Soul out there and said that it went off.
Interview By: Nilly Chaudhuri
Catch Fabio and MC Joker D courtesy of Magnetic Soul’s 10 year Hand over party Friday: July 6th 2007
Venue: Heat
Address: 54-62 Lockhart Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Time: 11PM-Late
Entrance: $200 w/drink
Support: Blood Dunza, Teem, Fat Demon, Kay C, and Cookie
Visuals: Mr. Piksi, Sembei VJ |
