Keep On Groovin': Groove Armada Interviewed

More than any other British dance music outfit of their era, in the late 90s Groove Armada successfully realised both critical and commercial acclaim. With hits like At The River, I See You Baby (Shaking That Ass) and Superstylin’, Andy Cato and Tom Findlay secured their big room dancefloor credibility while maintaining their diverse production approaches. The duo’s releases first aired in 1997; by 2004, they had a greatest hits album, The Best of Groove Armada. The wealth of years has also honed the renowned Groove Armada live performance, which culminated in the 2010’s Black Light tour.

Following their acclaimed Fabriclive 87 release in May this year, September saw the British dance music legends return to Edinburgh for their first club show in almost eight years and headline Annie Mac's All Day Rave in Leeds, and this month they’ll also take to the turntables for a special Bonfire Night DJ performance in Glasgow’s SWG3 TV Studio. In December, they take to the decks for a special show at the Warehouse Project in Manchester. On the day that The Skinny calls Findlay for this interview, Riva Starr's remix of Superstylin' had held the top spot on Beatport for three weeks running. Surely, we ask, it’s just further proof of Groove Armada’s enduring influence?

“He’s done an amazing job with it really,” Findlay states modestly. “Keeping it really simple, letting the vocal do the work… it’s lovely. It’s been rooted to the top of the Beatport chart! There’s something magic about that vocal – which is obviously nothing to do with me – but it sort of takes any kind of groove really well.

“I think that’s what he’s done really cleverly; he’s sort of not over-egged it, you know? It’s got a couple of great breakdowns, he’s put the vocal to the forefront of the mix… yeah, he’s just done a lovely job. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how successful it’s been. We’ve been playing the original version for about 17 years, so it’s nice to have somebody else play it for a change!”

Findlay certainly puts into perspective the length of the duo’s career; next year marks the 20th anniversary of Groove Armada proper, with the aforementioned At The River released as a single in 1997 and limited to just 500 copies (it also appeared on their debut LP Northern Star). You could forgive the pair if, in the intervening years, inspiration had began to run dry. But a run of EPs on Hypercolour, Moda Black, Defected, and Danse Club later, plus a new single – Tune 101 – out on Steve Lawler's VIVa Warriors, only underscores Groove Armada’s vitality.

“We’ve got a new tune coming out in the New Year,” Findlay reveals, “which is great – not unlike Superstylin’, in some ways. It’s a tune we’ve been playing out a lot and it’s been doing really well.

“It’s kind of the 20^th anniversary of us,” he explains. “I don’t know when you’d say the first moment is, but we recorded in 1997, so 2017 is twenty years! I’m not one of these people that’s massively into nostalgia, but when you’ve got a landmark like that, you do kind of think back.”

With a massive summer of touring behind them, including sets at Eastern Electrics and Parklife festivals and the Elrow opener at Space in Ibiza, Findlay also reflects on Groove Armada's longevity as a live act.

“It’s a change of pace with everything, we’re not as intense about it.  I see some DJ schedules now and they just kind of make me wince. I guess we just don’t want to do that anymore.

“But I just came back from DJing in Colombia and Chile, and playing places there and generally feeling really enthused about what I’ve got in my record box. We maybe do things a little bit differently to how we did 10, 15 years ago, probably pace ourselves a bit better.”

Groove Armada on Fabric

Recounting the earlier days of Groove Armada’s career inevitably leads us to a discussion of the controversial closure of London’s Fabric nightclub. With the duo’s Room 3 residency back in the club's early days still the stuff of legends, Findlay’s affection for the venue where their career took off is obvious. “Fabric is the one that’s kind of interesting, because we played the first weekend that it opened in 1999. It's is an amazingly well-run place. There are people who are really making an effort there and that’s great.

“I think you’ve got to be careful, you know. You can see what’s happening in places like Berlin, we need to hold on to these places. We want to keep our position. We need to cherish these types of places, you know – it’s not galleries and restaurants in Mayfair, it’s nightclubs in the East End of London that are actually essential to the health of the city.”

Having been active in the campaign to stop Fabric’s closure, we ask Findlay what he believes is the best course of action for the many club goers currently feeling powerless to forestall the club's fate.

“There seem to be a lot of events taking place, people making noise; that needs to happen. And I guess there is an appeal process which I think is underway. Hopefully Fabric are in a position to get some decent legal minds involved and turn it around. Hopefully common sense will prevail there. I think everyone is optimistic that might be the case. I get the feeling that people are wanting to do more, but I think they’ve actually done a lot already.”

On Groove Armada's 20th Anniversary

From their roots in raw house music and 90s raves, there's little that Groove Armada haven't turned their hand to over the course of their two decade career. Aside from their own instantly recognisable productions, Cato and Findlay have clocked up a famed Late Night Tales compilation; played a key part in establishing one of London’s biggest music festivals, Lovebox; played iconic live shows at some of the world's best venues, and released eight studio albums which collectively have sold millions of copies and garnered both Grammy and Brit nominations. As their 20th anniversary looms, is there anything that remains for Groove Armada to accomplish?

"For the 20th anniversary there’s maybe an idea, a chance of doing some live shows again, which would be really lovely. We stopped doing the band in 2010, and that felt like the right thing to do at the time. Treading those boards one more time with a band would be an amazing thing to do. I’ll see if we get any offers first!" Findlay laughs.

"For me, I’ve got my kids, my son’s 14 and my daughter’s 10, and they never really saw us play with a band. That would be a really nice thing, to do that one more time. There’d be a sense of closure I think, if we could do that.

 “Sometimes we’ll be playing together and something will work great, there’ll be a combination of three records that’s brilliant, and we be like ‘remember that’. But we never do,” Findlay explains. “But that’s the joy of DJing live, just trying different things out and trying to find a connection with people. And once you do, then trying to stay on that peak for a while.”