The Dangers Ahead

The likes of the Charlatans, Ocean Colour Scene and Goldie Looking Chain, though worthy in their own right, may not be enough to draw Scottish clubbers to the Wickerman Festival. The promise of a “Bass Camp” however, surely is.
When Fabio, one of the original drum and bass pushers and the mind behind the Creative Source record label, was confirmed, bassheads must have been queuing round the block for a ticket.

Fabio is looking forward to getting out of the dark clubs and taking in the festival air, and he tells us he has a soft spot for the smaller, less commercial festivals.
“It's always nice playing at festivals,” he says. “I started off in raves which were outdoors so you get that rave feeling. On a nice sunny day you cannot beat a good festival. I like the smaller festivals because they attract a lot more families and older people. Sometimes atmosphere won’t be as good at the bigger festivals, especially if they’re not full to capacity.”

The extensive list of DJs billed for the Skiddle Arena means the program is going to be tight, with a rapid turnaround and not a huge amount of room for manoeuvre; a bonus for the crowd, but a source of lament for the seasoned DJ.

“I don’t think an hour’s long enough for me anymore. I would love to go to the Wickerman Festival and play two hours and take people on a journey. In an hour it's more about impact and you’ve really just got to keep them hyped. It’s a different art to a degree.”

He says he is now using CD decks in his live shows, and though puritans might raise their eyebrows, Fabio is not prone to nostalgia.

“I was a vinyl purist, I was like 'you know what, I’m never going to stop playing vinyl' but there comes a time when, well everyone likes to make their lives easier.”
He seems to be bucking a trend for D'n'B DJs moving towards dubstep. I discover that the question he is most frequently asked is, naturally, “What do you think of the dubstep thing?” but I go ahead and ask it anyway.

“I don’t play dubstep simply because I don’t like it enough. I respect the genre, I’ve heard dubstep tracks that I like, but it’s not really me.” With almost two decades of experience behind him, he can offer some wisdom on the subject, as well as some juicy gossip.

“Garage is now a dead genre because their big stars got taken away and moulded into R&B stars: So Solid Crew, Miss Dynamite, Artful Dodger, Craig David, all their shining lights basically got raped by record companies and they sold the whole genre. It happened with drum and bass but we survived it. Now dubstep is going to have to survive it.

“I heard that Britney Spears’ next album is going to be half dubstep, Madonna’s asking for dubstep producers. Its credibility is going to be questioned when that happens. But I never rule anything out in music, in two years time who knows where we’re going to be at?”

At present Fabio is working on an Influences mix with Grooverider and Ministry of Sound, and hints at a possible Liquid Funk Volume 3 (yes please!), but does he plan to do any of his own production?

“I ain’t going to lie, I turn around to journalists the whole time and say I’ll be in the studio by the end of the year but I don’t think the studio is me really. I wouldn’t hold your breath.”

As our conversation draws to a close I mention the World Cup, not knowing what a nerve I would hit. “There are a few things which England supporters are deluded about. England have never been good in possession. England’s strengths are their passion not their technical ability, and Capello is a very technical manager, and I don’t think that suits England at all. Forget this: 'Oh this is the strongest team we’ve ever had.' This is not the strongest team we’ve ever had, 1990 was the strongest team we ever had, this side are naïve. There’s no subtlety in England’s play either, there’s no guile.”

About quarter of an hour later Fabio says: “I could go on about this all day but I won’t.” Which is lucky because I really believe he can.