When Vicious Circle take their massively successful I Love VC night to The Fridge in London for their first birthday on July 22nd, there'll be one name behind the decks that you might not recognise. He is however one of the driving forces in modern dance music, a star of the Hard House scene, a prolific producer and the tidy pin-up boy for thousands of clubbers around the world.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, meet Infidel, or as he's more commonly known, superstar DJ Paul Maddox
Why Infidel? I'm half expecting the man from the Turkish Delight advert to appear behind the decks at I Love VC swathed in a bed sheet!!
An infidel is someone who doesn't conform to an accepted set of beliefs or ideas, which I think sums up the project quite well, Unfortunately however, I was apparently not the only one to think of this as there's an act by the name of The Infidels already in existence, which means that the Infidel name is going to morph into the new moniker Brazn which I think still sums up the sound quite well.
How do you think your man Glazby is going to cope with his eight hour set extravaganza?
As long as he's got some empty water bottles or a couple of really long records for bog-breaks then I'm sure he'll cope admirably!
Are you going to catch some of it if you can?
I'd love to, but I'm playing in Newquay earlier on the same night, so it's going to be a bit of a mad dash along the south coast to get to Brixton in time to play.
What do you like about playing at an I Love VC party?
Always a great vibe from the crowd and a red-hot lineup.
The I Love VC birthday is where Infidel makes his London debut. What's the response been like so far when you've played elsewhere?
I've road tested a few of the tracks at some smaller nights and it seems to be going down really well - can't wait to see what happens!
You're certainly not the first DJ who feels it's necessary to have an alter ego for other projects. Why did you go under a different name when everyone knows you and respects you so much as Paul Maddox?
Everyone associates my own name with hard dance material, so it would be counter-productive on both fronts. People looking for house would assume that it was going to be hard stuff, and people after hard house would be disappointed that it was slower stuff.
Do you worry that your harder fans might think you're selling out to a more commercial sound?
Quite possibly, but I've never subscribed to the idea that making music that's more popular is necessarily selling out. I've always dabbled in other styles of music and am glad to be finding my feet with the Infidel/Brazn stuff.
What do you think it is about this filthy electro sound that's captured everyone's imagination?
I think it's mainly the freshness of it (although house music made with synths is hardly a new phenomenon) - there are a lot of new producers with new ideas coming through which makes for a lot of exciting music.
Breath On Skin is sex on wax, where is the sample from?
A film called The Hole - pretty wank film, but some lovely bits of dialogue and atmosphere.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
All over the place really, I listen to tonnes of music, old and new Including quite a lot of weird stuff, music that's on the boundaries often contains lots of innovative ideas that can be translated into more accessible, dancefloor stuff.
On your website, www.infidelaudio.co.uk, you say you're looking for interested parties to sign your tunes up. Why don't you follow in the footsteps of the Great Glazby and set up your own label?
Well, under the new name Brazn, the first clutch of tunes have just been signed to Firefly recordings, although starting up my own outlet for them is definitely an idea that I've been toying with.
You've been the tidy poster boy for years now. How has it helped your career having such a heavyweight name behind you?
I've got a lot to thank tidy for; in this industry its all about taking opportunities and capitalising on them, and most of the breaks that I've had have come in one way or another from tidy, so yeah, its helped me no end!
Minimal - everyone's got an opinion on it - what's yours?
Like any type of music, if it's well executed and not just done for the sake of it, it can be fantastic in the right setting. I've actually been working on another project with Leeds, Filthy Rich under the name Spektre, which is more on the minimal tip, more than just a kickdrum and a few bleeps though.
You said recently that you think hard dance has got a bit too evil. What did you mean by that? Are you advocating the return of bounce?
Please god no! I just think that a lot of hardhouse these days has lost sight of its original purpose, which was good, danceable party music and just become a technical exercise in how hard it can be. Bounce was the opposite end of the spectrum; I'd be happy with something in-between!
Is that what you had in mind with the Olive Grooves EP - still hard house but with more musical elements in it?
Yeah pretty much, its not even that musical really, just a bit more fun! Most of the tracks are about 10bpm slower than a lot of the stuff out there now, and I've been playing them out to great reactions. I just wanted to get back to the feel hardhouse used to have, but bringing in current production techniques so that it wasn't just taking a step backwards.
Right, God turns round to you and says that you can be either the number 1 producer in the world or the number 1 DJ in the world, but if you chose one you can't ever do the other ever again. Which one would you choose and why?
Producer at the drop of a hat. Much as I love DJing It has always been a spin-off from my studio work, which really is the thing I love doing the most.
If Mazaratti had tweaked your nipple and called you a dirty Infidel would you have head butted him? Or would he have been right?
He probably wouldn't have been far off the mark, but if I was about to retire I probably would've opted for the headbutt anyway - nothing to lose!
Your last supper - please write down your menu and entertainment requests.
- Food: Either really good Italian or Japanese
- Entertainment: A Parrot riding a tiny bike
Five guests, dead or alive, who and why?
- Brett Anderson (Lead singer from Suede/The Tears): Massive fan
- Boris Yeltsin: Bet he'd tell a good story and be up for a tear-up
- Kate Moss: Always comes across as being up for a laugh.
- Ronnie Barker: To inject a bit of humour into proceedings.
- Scarlett Johannsen: Fit
Perfect date?
9th of June: My birthday! :oP
Perfect soundtrack to your life?
- Mory Kante - Yeke Yeke (Hardfloor Remix)
- Suede - The Asphalt World
- The KLF - What Time Is Love
- This Mortal Coil - Song To The Siren
- The Cars - Just What I Needed
I think those 5 on a permanent loop could keep me happily oscillating between sitting thinking and jumping about like a nut for the rest of my days!
Perfect tune to remix and why?
Always a hard one, as tunes I love already would be difficult to improve on, but a real stripped down tech-house mix of FSOL Papau New Guinea would be cool, or a pumped up version of Altern8 Infiltrate 202, that's got me thinking actually..
Perfect DJ line-up (feel free to say the I Love VC First Birthday back ;D )?
- Steve Lawler
- Fergie
- Carl Cox
- Tony de Vit
That'd be a party and a half.
Where would you like to be five years from now?
Just doing more of the same really, I'd love for the Brazn and Spektre projects to get some recognition, and hopefully still be doing the harder stuff as well, it'll be interesting to see where the hardhouse scene goes in the coming years.
Who's your role-model/mentor?
No single person really, but I've absorbed plenty of useful knowledge about the music industry from working with Lee Haslam at Tidy and your very own Glazby.
EARLY BIRD TICKETS ARE NOW SOLD OUT!
LIMITED ADVANCED TICKETS AT £12 ARE STILL AVAILABLE
www.ticketweb.co.uk
www.ilovevc.com (free sticker with every order)
I LOVE VC - THE BIRTHDAY
SATURDAY 22nd JULY
10PM - 6AM
THE FRIDGE, BRIXTON
