Joey Negro Interview:"You don’t have to be young to make something sound modern"

The UK’s soulful producer Dave Lee has worked under more than ten, and counting, aliases. It’s a list longer than our arm, though his main vehicle is most definitely Joey Negro.

Working on a number of different and often varied projects Lee uses his pseudonyms as dividers and he’s surprised more people don’t do it. Not content with producing tracks while peering eyes leaning over his shoulder, the 90s veteran launched Z Records, a platform through which he could release his own productions with an added side of old disco-funk compilations - sans the outside pressure.

Jasmine Phull talks to Dave Lee as he takes us back to a childhood of friends with records where listening sessions were an avid past-time and through a career spanning more than two decades and in which new generations of listeners have come and gone. Thankfully Lee is yet to be drowned out by any newcomers, namely Tinie Tempah.

Your real name is Dave Lee but you’ve got a hell of a lot of aliases. Are you primarily Joey Negro?
Primarily. Well it’s the most well known moniker. I’m not really that schizophrenic, I’ve just had a lot of records out over the years. The name changes have been for various reasons from being signed exclusively to one label or just because the record I’ve made at the time sounds different to other things I’ve done. I’m surprised more people don’t do it!

Will you continue adding to the already large list?
I did stop for a while. I don’t know but in some ways I think it makes it more interesting. I think music buyers can be quite snobby and when they get to know an artist they start to get bored and move on. And they probably haven’t bothered to check out the new stuff; people definitely pre-judge things sometimes. Youth is very important in the industry so when someone’s over a certain age it’s not as ‘new’ as some 19-year-old who’s bringing out stuff. I don’t think age is a good or a bad thing, but the whether the music is good should be the main focus. You don’t have to be young to make something sound modern and I’m not saying this because I’m over 40. (Laughs).

You founded the now-defunct Republic Records in the late 1980s and now you’re head of Z Records. Why did you decide to cease one and start another?
Republic Records was part of Rough Trade and I released my first few productions on that label but then Rough Trade went bankrupt at one point and that’s when it ended for Republic Records. I just started a label so I could put out my own stuff. It’s great because I’m the boss but the bad thing about it is there’s no one I can ask for advice. But I’d rather have this situation than someone asking me to change things and I’ve been in that situation. Outside forces piss me off to no end.

Don’t you also represent other artists?
Yea, a couple. We had an album out last year by a guy called JD73, who used to be in Morcheeba. He’s like a live jazz-funk sound. We also put out a lot of old-disco-funk soul compilations. I’m a collector of that sort of music and we’ve put out about 7-8 of those over the last 4-5 years.

Your music’s influenced on a global scale. What music were you into growing up? Was music a big part of your upbringing?
Yea though it was difficult to hear music then. I remember really liking songs and you could watch Top of the Pops at 7:30 on a Thursday evening to listen to music from the charts but there wasn’t much else. Now you can just go online and hear any record you wanna hear; so buying records back then was a tough decision. I remember I’d go around to other people’s house just because they had a certain record! When I was nine years old, there was a foreign exchange student living next door and she’d bought a lot of records with her so we used to go around there!

You began your producing career around 1990. Has the music industry noticeably changed since?
I suppose you have to evolve with the industry. I’ve never been somebody who’s had long-term plans and goals. What I’m aiming for is to make a living out of making music. No matter how well-established you are, things change. Maybe in the States you can have a loyal audience. Once you’ve had a bit of success there you can carry on touring for the next 30 years. Also I think dance music fans aren’t that loyal because it’s such a transient thing. People go to clubs when they’re in college and then they grow up get a career and have kids, so you have to constantly keep reminding whole new generations of people who you are.

Why do you think the US has more loyal music followers?
Maybe it’s because I think it’s a slightly more conservative country. In the UK I think people are a little bit more fashion-y. They’re more interested in the ‘new’ and people tend to, quite quickly, change their tastes. I think that’s why it’s a great breaking-ground. Even American bands can come and start off here; people are quite receptive but we’re also more forgetful and dismissive of things. All the reviews in the big publications seem to be negative and dismissive of things or on the other end of the spectrum overly praise-worthy. These sensational comments are more just to make the journalist look cool. You’re far more likely to read a dismissive article about the Rolling Stones here than in America. It’s just different societies; boasting is cool in the US whereas in the UK you’d be accused of ‘bragging’. But I prefer the sort of ‘putting yourself down’ mentality.

I think that’s always been in the British psyche.
Yea.

Do you try and cater for a particular demographic?
I’ve realised in the last few years that I’m not interested in appealing to 12-year-olds. I don’t make music to press their buttons I make it for me because that’s what I’m into. I’ve got nothing against people like Tinie Tempah but it’s not for me. But that’s probably what’s getting played in the student-type clubs and on the radio so I guess you have to be true to yourself but also be realistic. You’re not going to make records that no one’s going to buy but you don’t have to sell out.

You also do remixes. Can you describe the things you look for when decided on a song to remix?
The best tracks to remix are the ones where you really like the songs but you’re not so into the production. I recently remixed Empire of the Sun’s ‘Walking on a Dream’ because I really liked the song but I didn’t think there was a really good club mix of it. Club mixes tend to be too removed; they leave out half of the song or they’re just very noisy electro tracks. I like to just do a clubby version of the album version.
If harmonically the chords work well with the vocals it’s just about re-producing it for a club environment. Normally if I’m getting asked to do a remix they want a house mix, which is 125bpm, and the original is like 90bmp. That’s a long way to go up so I avoid things like that. I also avoid things with lots of harmonies because the harmonies dictate the chords you can use, which really limits what you can do with the song.

How would you hope your productions made your listeners feel? What do you hope to evoke?
Really bad diarrhea. (Laughs)

That would definitely clear the dance-floor!
I try to avoid playing purely forgettable club fodder. I hate it when you go to a club and all the songs they play are in one ear and out the other. I’d rather people remember what I played even if they didn’t like it. A little bit of the over-played songs are alright in between. I’m also trying to play my newer tracks and break things to test the waters and gauge people’s responses.

Interview by: Jasmine Phull

Joey Negro plays Audiotorium at The Westbury this Friday, 25th February. Ticket are available through Skiddle.

Tickets are no longer available for this event