Ahead of their live show at The Medicine Bar, opening One Live In Birmingham this year, we caught up with Radio 1's resident drum & bass dons, Fabio and Grooverider, sat them down in front of a computer, and put your questions to them. Want to know what kind of underwear Grooverider prefers, which Radio 1 DJs he'd like to take on in a fight, and how the work on his new album's going (with guest collaborations from Bjork and Cypress Hill)? Or perhaps you're interested in Fabio's take on the Brazilian drum & bass scene and his thoughts about the MOBOs? Read on...
Samuel King: Who would you most like to see get a show on Radio 1? Grooverider: We want another one! James Brown! I would like to hear him speak because I still can't understand a word he says. Fabio: We've got a great spot on Radio 1 at the moment. If we got another show, that would be ideal. I don't think we could give up the Friday show now.
Metal Mickey: What would you say if you were offered to stand in on the Breakfast Show on Radio 1? Do you think Sara Cox is doing a good job? Fabio: We don't get up in time. I'd do it for a laugh - if we could pre-record it! Grooverider: We'd just do our thing, if people are into it then good, but if they're not, they're not. Fabio: I don't think we'd do a show where we had to conform with the standards of mainstream music.
Polly: Are you going to be involved in this new black music station that the BBC are said to be launching? Fabio: We don't really know yet. I think it's still in the early stages of development. We'd like to be involved. Anything to do with Radio 1, as long as they don't take liberties!
Lady: What have you got planned for us in Birmingham? Grooverider: We've no idea yet! Fabio: One of the first places we played outside London was Birmingham. Really good crowd there. They're always up for it in Birmingham, I think they're a bit starved of drum & bass. There's a few things starting to happen again up there now. Grooverider: It will be good. It's a different angle to our radio show. We are club DJs so when we do the live shows, it shows who we really are, as performers. Fabio: The Radio 1 thing is cool, but we're not Radio 1 DJs as such. We've been DJing a long time and we're all about the live performances. The shows always sound good live as well.
Fabio: "One of the first places we played outside London was Birmingham. Really good crowd there. They're always up for it in Birmingham"
Alf: How old are you really?
Grooverider: There's not enough candles in the shop for our cakes!
Smiths: Have you had any nightmare club nights or do most nights go as planned? Fabio: Most nights go as planned. These days everything is much more professional. Grooverider: I did go to Milton Keynes a few weeks ago and I left my records at home! Fabio: You do get things that happen once in a while where you mess things up. No nightmares recently though.
Jamie Wales: What does it feel like to be part of the pioneering group of Drum and Bass DJs, and has a set ever brought a tear to your eye? Fabio: No, never brought tears to our eyes! Unless it's tears of laughter! I don't know if there's any others [pioneering DJs] apart from us you know!!
Raymond Hillier: When did you two start DJing together, and how did you meet? Grooverider: About 1986, that's a while. Fabio: We started DJing together on a pirate radio station then hooked up together. Most places we started getting booked together playing back to back sets, but we didn't really take it seriously at the time. Grooverider: One of us used to collect the money while the other one was playing. Fabio: That really got us into it and formed a real bond. Ever since that, we've remained best friends. We don't DJ back to back sets much any more but we do DJ a lot together. Fabio: It's cool. Never had an arguement, seriously, that's the truth.
Red: Which of you would win in a fight? Fabio: Groove definitely. Groove's a bit bigger than me, younger than me, faster than me. Grooverider: I'll take on anybody! I'll take on Spoony, I'll take on all three of them! Tongy as well!
Grooverider: "I'll take on anybody! I'll take on Spoony, I'll take on all three of them! Tongy as well!"
MCH: Do you ever get bored of DJing? When will you stop? Fabio: We don't get bored. Grooverider: It's all about the music. If that goes downhill then we'd maybe think about it! Fabio: As soon as you go up on stage, you'll never feel bored. As soon as you put your first record on, you're in another world and you get such a buzz from doing it. Grooverider: It's the best job in the world by a long long way. I can't compare it to anything. Fabio: You DJ for about 2 hours and people think you're great for it, you can't get better than this. I don't think it's hard enough to get bored with it. It keeps you on your toes. We're really professional about it because we're really into it. Grooverider is the most dedicated person I know. He will go anywhere, any time and show complete dedication. You go to places like Hungary and you see 6,000 people, places you'd never dream would ever know about drum & bass, it makes you feel really good about everything. Grooverider: There are a lot of people miles older than me so I'm not worrying too much yet. Fabio: A lot of the DJs now are of similar ages, you can't really put an age on it. As long as you keep learning, you're always going to get better.
Matt: Why do tunes get held back for so long, because I feel this is killing the scene for lots of DJs who need the latest tunes..? Grooverider: People make tunes and they send them to the DJs but that doesn't mean it has to come straight out, they have to grow. Fabio: When they give us the tunes, it's testers. It has to go through loads of processes before it comes out on the street. We get tracks 2 days after the artist has finished it. It could take up to a year and a half. We're priviledged that we can get tracks early. We went through that when we started. It's not always about having the newest and latest stuff, that's what kills things. Grooverider: I haven't been to a record shop in about six months. Fabio: I go to record shops to buy stuff like house music, the stuff I don't get sent. We get sent all our stuff we use. We often get stuff passed to us when we're DJing. You never know what it's going to be like, we have to listen to it all.
Michael: How do you feel about how Garage has usurped Jungle/Drum and Bass as the sound of urban U.K.? Do you think the Garage scence as a whole has dealt with its sudden rise to fame better than jungle did back in 94/95? Grooverider: I haven't got a clue. I don't follow that scene too much, but good luck to them. Fabio: There's no comparison really. I don't really have time to sit down and analyse everything. The drum & bass thing isn't really about TOTP and things like that. It's not really accessible on that level and we prefer it like that. We could have made cheesy stuff when the jungle thing came out but we didn't want that to happen. Underground boy bands could happen but Westlife couldn't do a drum & bass track. It's just not going to work. Grooverider: At the end of the day, we're underground - we want to sell music, but we want to keep to what we are. Fabio: It feels good because people like Goldie have broken the rules and rose through, and you feel proud about it. Grooverider picked up on what he was doing before anyone else. We've got artists that we've brought through. Within a few tunes you can tell where they're going to go.
Podrick: What do you think of Goldie's acting career? Is he going to get you a part in Eastenders or the next James Bond film?
Grooverider: I act every day of my life! It's one big drama. You can never say never about acting, it's all about the dollars isn't it!
Ahead of their live show at The Medicine Bar, opening One Live In Birmingham this year, we caught up with Radio 1's resident drum & bass dons, Fabio and Grooverider, sat them down in front of a computer, and put your questions to them. Want to know what kind of underwear Grooverider prefers, which Radio 1 DJs he'd like to take on in a fight, and how the work on his new album's going (with guest collaborations from Bjork and Cypress Hill)? Or perhaps you're interested in Fabio's take on the Brazilian drum & bass scene and his thoughts about the MOBOs? Read on...
Alf: How old are you really?
Matt: Why do tunes get held back for so long, because I feel this is killing the scene for lots of DJs who need the latest tunes..?