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D.A.V.E. The Drummer: Acid Techno’s Mainstream Moment (interview)

“I think it all comes back to Julian Lib; he was saying once ‘I’m sick of people calling our music acid trance, it’s not acid f**king trance, is it? Why don’t we call it acid techno?’ We all agreed and the phrase was born then.”

Though Julian Liberator may have coined acid techno’s uncompromising name, Henry ‘D.A.V.E. the Drummer’ Cullen unquestionably defined it, writing, producing and engineering hundreds of the key tracks that became the soundtrack for London’s vast underground squat party scene of the 90s and early 00s. Though tens of thousands of inner London ravers regularly attended weekly warehouse raves throughout the city, the mainstream media rarely covered the scene, a state of affairs Henry admits suited him just fine at the time.

“It wasn’t that the mainstream ignored the free party scene, it was more that we ignored the mainstream,” he recalls, “Actually we regularly told the mainstream that we thought they were wankers and to go fuck themselves, so that probably has something to with it,” he laughs.

“But in truth we weren’t being ignored at all, and the punters going to club events were also going to free parties too,” he points out.  
“And there was one period when dance magazines covered the parties and the music, but they got bored of it in the end, and quite often the articles were just about the drugs, anyway. Crap really,” he sighs.

Still producing and DJing hard techno under his D.A.V.E. The Drummer guise, he’s increasingly using his real name Henry Cullen for tracks, though remains closely connected to the free party scene, both personally and musically, he says.

“Acid techno is still the backbone of my sound, but people misinterpret the sound of that scene and what music really gets played at the parties. People think it’s all shitty trance, or hardcore/ gabba, whatever,” he suggests.

“The thing is, it can be that, but it’s also likely to be techno, minimal, breakcore, wonky, Detroit, electro, house, disco, punk, dub and just about everything else in between. I’ve met such colourful people and knowledgeable DJ’s on that scene and learnt about so many styles of music through it, I would never want to take that back. So I’ll never walk away and say that it was just something I did when I was younger and foolish,” he stresses.

“I would still go to parties and play now, if I didn’t have family and regular gigs every weekend that keep me tied up. And I’m still in touch with many of the sound system people and DJs,” he points out.

Coming of age first on London’s inner city streets (where he survived a near fatal stabbing), he soon became a new age traveller, joining proto-anarchist musical collective Back to The Planet (the Planets) as the band’s drummer (hence his name).

“I was a traveller on the free festival scene in ‘89 so when the raves took over the festivals then I was pretty pissed off, “ he laughs, “Live bands all but disappeared and pilled up clubbers took over, which at first I didn’t like.”

“But the music got me in the end, and listening to bands like LFO and Orbital soon got me inspired. Other bands like Meat Beat Manifesto and the Ragga Twins were also really important to the Planets’ sound and to my drumming style, which was very loop based. I was already a total sample freak back then too, so once I bought my sampler I was off.”

20 years on, he continues to produce prolifically out of his home studio the Punishment Farm, via Ableton and Logic software and an impressive selection of old school analogue synths. Expanding into new collaborations (including production electro-techno tracks with me, Jonty Skrufff), he’s enthused and fired up, about the present and future.

“I’m really up to my neck in projects at the moment,” he smiles, “I’m making a track in the studio for my label Hydraulix which is hard techno, and I’ve just finished artwork and tracks for Mutate to Survive 06 which is my minimal label that I run with my mate Patrix.  
I’m also working on more tracks for Mutate and writing tracks with others, including you, Mark EG and Nils Hess and even a couple of guys over the internet.

“I’m running Hydraulix - Mutate Parties in London with the old chemical warfare crew, the next one is in October so I’m busy booking artists for that, we’ve got Eric Sneo and Calvertron confirmed so far.  
Plus rehearsing and playing with Back to the Planet. And finally, I’m doing a course in web design, which is going along fairly well but I’m a bit snowed under by all the other things at the moment. I’m going to start designing a site for my wife Justine who is making sliver jewellery. It’s really busy, but I’m enjoying it.”

Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): how do you feel about your DAVE the Drummer alter ego?  How much have you moved away from what he represented?

Henry Cullen: “I’ve never really changed to be honest, well at least not musically, I’ve always been really into a wide variety of music.  
You only have to have a scan through my record collection to see that techno and electronica and minimal have been my main loves since I started. The D.A.V.E The Drummer thing ended up being all about acid music because that just happened to be the scene I was in at the time.  
I felt unable to express my mellower/ deeper side musically, firstly because I didn’t know what to do with the music after making it and secondly because I was really busy back then, writing tracks for various hard acid techno labels every day. I was partying pretty hard too. I did various experiments in the studio late at night and I’m actually working on one now, funny how things go in a big circle innit?”

Skrufff: How do you feel about people calling you Dave?

Henry Cullen: “I'm not bothered any more, it used to annoy me but now I've realized that It's kind of nice and flattering. My memory for people has got so bad over the years that if anyone now calls me Henry, I know they know me properly and even if I can't remember them instantly, it'll soon come back.
I’m constantly visiting different countries and it's really hard to remember conversations I've had 6 months ago in Brasil at a party with some nutter on pills, speaking in Portuguese, for example.”

People who call me Dave are instantly marked in my mind as people I don't know so well, which means I don't have to worry about remembering where we last met, and their name and all that stuff. So it's like a sigh of relief, and a handy way to remain anonymous, and it means I can ask their name without them saying ‘Oh man, don't you remember my name? Last time I met you we talked for hours.’

It doesn't always work like that though.
Drunk guy 1: " You know, I was just talking to my friend Dave here . . . "
Cop: "             Who? I don't see anyone. "
Drunk guy 1: " Dave? Dave!?!?"

Maybe that sounds a bit mean, but I have to be truthful about it.  
Sorry to all the people who call me Dave, it's not your fault you're stupid, ha ha Now THAT'S mean!”

Skrufff: Going into your background: Back To The Planet formed while you were all squatting together in Peckham, south east London in 1989:  
what was the original vision of the group?

Henry Cullen: “We were really into Adrian Sherwood and the On-U-Sound System back then, and big fans of Lee (Scratch) Perry, African Headcharge and King Tubby amongst many others.The acid house scene was just starting and that sound started to work its way into our music through Guy ( The Geezer ) playing an old Korg Trident analogue synthesizer and the rest of the band playing grooves rather than traditional songs. All the songs came out of jam sessions at the Dole House squat in Peckham in around ‘89/90, which was a great place for musicians to rehearse and hang out. Happy days.”

Skrufff: Peckham has long been one of London’s roughest areas: how much was personal safety an issue then?

Henry Cullen: “I squatted all over South London and safety was always an issue. I got beaten up on a bus in Peckham once and threatened many times and as a squatter I was always on the alert for builders and police and sometimes even the neighbours. But I am a bit over- sensitive about personal safety generally because I was stabbed in the gut in Catford when I was 15 on new years eve. It put me in hospital for a couple of months, and the fear of that happening again has affected what I do ever since, for sure.”

Skrufff: Have you ever been arrested at any of the squat parties?

Henry Cullen: “I’ve been at many parties that have been busted, but I’ve never been arrested myself. I do remember one party in particular where I had headphones on and was crouched over my live-set sound checking. Suddenly the doors opened and when I looked up I discovered I was surrounded by police. But they just told me to “pack up and fuck off’, which I did very quickly.

Skrufff: why did BTTP stop in 1995?

Henry Cullen: “Arguments mainly, we were young and unprepared for the stress of touring and writing music for a major label (Pete Tong’s London Records). We didn’t have a band plan from the off (beginning) so that made it very difficult to agree on anything. We were such good mates but it was a trying time , we’re back together now and it’s great to hang out with the chaps, they’re lovely people all of them , so interesting and colourful.”

Skrufff: both you and Geezer went onto become big name producers on the London techno scene: how much did you set out to conquer the scene? How did you get started?

Henry Cullen: “Actually I got started through luck after I met a guy called John Liesk in 1994, at a pub called the Dew Drop Inn in New Cross, South London. John was known as DJ Deranged, and also coined the name of my studio ‘The Punishment Farm “. He said he had some studio gear, and I had a sampler and drum machine from the band, we got together, he taught me Cubase on the Atari and I just got on with it. John was very inspiring but he was busy as a property owner so he just used to run in and go ‘nice one, but try this’ and run out again, leaving me scratching my head. Guy was still in the Planets at that point and building up a small home studio to record with them, so it wasn’t long before we started meeting up and having secret techno sessions when the band weren’t around. I would show Guy what I had learnt and vice-versa. Good times. I learnt a lot in those days, and we’d enthuse about 303’s and 909’s unashamedly into the late night.  
Unfortunately John is no longer with us, so R.I.P. my man.”

Skrufff: How many tracks did you make in the 90s (splitting between your own productions- and collaborations with others?)

Henry Cullen: “Bloody loads. There’s the ones on Smitten, Stay Up Forever, Cluster, Hydraulix, Powertools. Routemaster, Eukatech, Techno Slut, Pattern play, Audio, Noom , Pounding Grooves, stuff with Choci, remixes for techno and commercial labels, stuff with Kris Needs for various labels, two albums with Chris Lib (Liberator) as Halo, sessions for Marco Lenzi Nils Hess John Truelove, Wayne G and many many others. I got a silver record for the track “Twisted” which I did in a day with Wayne G and Stewart Who? In the original Punishment Farm studio in Deptford 1995/6.They were fun to work with, and it was really cool of them to insist I got a producer’s silver disc- for 60,000 records, try selling that many these days!!!?”

I even had Primal Scream in the studio one day with Kris Needs and we joked about Kate Moss turning up. She was going out with Bobby Gillespie at the time. They never showed. A major disappointment.”

Skrufff: Many of the people on the squat scene were/ are anarchists:  
how much did you (do you) relate to anarchy?

Henry Cullen: “I’m bit of a hippy really. Though anarchy sounds nice in a way doesn’t it? But people are just too bloody mean-minded and selfish to allow it to work. If we got over that hill, would things finally settle down? I believe they would, but it would be a hell of a battle to get there. I guess that makes me a cynical anarchist.”

Skrufff: you remain a member of Stay Up Forever: what’s the longest you’ve ever stayed up for?

Henry Cullen: “Ha ha. I’m like the Duracell bunny, I go flat out for three days then BANG! It’s all over.”

Skrufff: How did you manage to avoid developing serious drug addictions?

Henry Cullen: “An uncanny sense of timing has kept me out of trouble so far.
That, and never having enough money to buy the bloody things. And the wife.”

http://www.myspace.com/davethedrummerhenrycullen



Article by Jonty Skrufff (Skrufff.com)

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