Mr Scruff interview: Back to basics

Image Credit: Shaun Bloodworth

In an era which could be seen as being saturated by DJs, there don't seem to be many around like Mr Scruff. But after a career of over 20 years, playing sold out solo gigs and being granted the long set times he insists on at the major festivals he plays, you'd be forgiven for questioning why there aren't.

Emerging in Manchester in the mid 1990s, this local radio-influenced, former fine art student quickly earned a reputation locally as a talented cross genre DJ. You were just as likely to hear him play at a world music night as you would a reggae night, although it was a distinct hip hop aesthetic he employed to join his selections together.

When given free reign funk, soul, disco, house, breakbeat and hip hop could also be heard in his playlist and, in a city then dominated by its infamous love with house music, Mr Scruff reintroduced a trend for multi-genred music nights that would be taken up by institutions like Electric Chair and which can still be felt in the city today.

He started his recording career in the mid 90s on Robs Records/Pleasure Music, run by former factory Records/New Order/Hacienda associate Rob Gretton before finding a home at Ninja Tune. His second album Keep It Unreal (his first for Ninja Tune) spawned the hit 'Get A Move On' which has since been used on several adverts and on television.

Keep It Unreal is also the name of Mr Scruff's regular club night, which takes place once a month at Band On The Wall in Manchester and which he takes on tour. Although the night has featured guest DJs, it is largely the sole residency of Mr Scruff, offering him six hours plus of playing time in which to manoeuvre around his extensive record collection. The night celebrated its 17 birthday in 2016 with guest DJ Francois Kevorkian.

Mr Scruff has produced three more albums for Ninja Tune since 1999 and an album of outtakes. He has issued several compilations including Keep It Solid Steel Volume 1 for Ninja Tune, remixed the likes of Moloko, Bonobo, Jazzanova, Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators and Lay-far and collaborated with musicians such as Fingathing, Mark Rae, Matthew Halsall and Denis Jones on his recordings.

As a DJ he is a firm festival favourite, appearing regularly at Glastonbury, Outlook Festival and previously the Big Chill. Family life doesn't seem to have curtailed his touring as he is about to embark on a string of European dates - including Nightvision presents Keep It Unreal at La Belle Angele, Edinburgh on Friday 18th November.

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You've got quite a lot of forthcoming dates for the rest of the year and the beginning of next year. Is it normal for you, as a family guy, to be facing such a full upcoming calendar?

Kind of. It's always strange because you book gigs and after the fact you have to work out if that was too much. But, it's fine. I usually have a busy first half of the month and then keep the second half fairly free.

I'd rather stay in gig mode for a bit and then have a proper couple of weeks off. It's a balancing act, but that goes for anyone with a family life and work. I still enjoy it and my wife and daughter still remember what I look like, which is good.

You're going to a lot of places in Europe. Are there some territories you do better in than others? 

It depends. About 5 or 6 years ago I found I was playing in Belgium and the Netherlands quite a lot and that's been going really well. The good thing about that (going to Europe) is that it's all direct flights from Manchester, so if I'm away I'm not spending more time away from my family than I need to. 

Are there some places you just don't go or don't get asked to go?

Not really. I've never played in South America, but I have been asked a few times. It generally has to be a gig that looks good. I might allow myself one long haul gig a year, but I do tend to stick around the UK and Europe. If I go away I try and bring the family with me, like in July and August when I took them to America.

You're doing lots of remixes at present. Do you consider such short dips into production an easier option than committing to original production? 

Kind of, yeah. I do like that with remixes you have, not a restricted palette, but some sounds, elements and arrangements and I tend to try and use as much as I can from the original, even if I do turn it upside down. I've just a few hours ago finished a remix for a Taiwanese rapper called Aristophanese. Initially I thought 'I'm not massively into this', but there were some nice instrumental bits. But I've ended up using most of the vocal and getting quite into it.

What else is current and forthcoming?

I did a Lay Far remix, a Submotion Orchestra one and a Steve Reich remix, which I was really pleased with. There's a band from the Netherlands called the Broken Brass Ensemble which I'm doing and two or three more. I'll finish those and then get back in the studio on my own stuff.

You DJ'd with Francois Kevorkian at the Keep it Unreal birthday. Why did you choose him? Did he surprise you at all at the session?

I played with him at Deep Space, his residency in New York, a couple of times. I like his approach to DJing. His discography, his musical resume outside of DJing, is ridiculous. I've caught up with him at a few events that we were both playing and asked, if a chance came up, would he be interested in coming and doing a back to back in Manchester.

Did he surprise me? Not really, because I know what a seasoned DJ he is and that he likes taking it down and he has quite a soundtracky approach. They were all nice surprises, like we were playing disco and he dropped down to 'Promised Land' by Dennis Brown, peak time, 2am. I love playing back to back with people who are musically well read and who aren't afraid to play music they believe in. 

When you started Keep it Unreal it was intended to showcase you and your record collection all night, but in the last 12 months, as well as Francois, you've had a few local guests like Jon K, Matthew Halsall and others. Does this indicate you've changed your mind in some way?

Kind of, but in the first few months at Planet K I had guests. I had Roots Manuva, Treva Whateva, Andy Weatherall, Pressure Drop. But, for me, I've had 15 years of playing by myself all night and I just fancied a bit of back to back stuff, just to push me more than anything. You can end up playing an even deeper selection than normal if you're doing it with someone who knows how to do it properly, if they don't it can just end up like a hits competition.

As you know, I'm from Manchester but I don't live there any more. But I do get to see a lot of DJs. These days, playing across the board seems to be a lot more in vogue, although in Manchester there seems to have been a long running tradition of that with you, Electric Chair and people like Jon K.

Similarly, I find that a lot of DJs who do now play across the board don't seem to have the breadth of musical knowledge as some Manchester DJs who've been doing this for a long while. Is there something special about the DJs there or the record collections people have, do you think?

It's difficult to say. I think this sort of thing might happen everywhere, but you pick up on it more because you've spent a lot of time in Manchester and its clubs. Unless you were going to specialist nights like northern soul or reggae a lot of nights before house music were across the board.

I think there was just a blip from the early 90s where things may have gotten a little boxed in. In the 90s there wasn't a lot of crossover between hip hop, jazz and house, which is odd because when house arrived in Manchester in the mid 80s and it had an exclusively black audience, there was. I think maybe when different people arrive into a different genre at different times, an influx of people can create an enthusiasm for one strand of music while neglecting the wider picture of where it comes from. 

You mentioned earlier that after your current remixes you'll go back to making some original material. That's a pretty quick return given the gap you had before issuing your last LP Friendly Bacteria. So why did it take you so long to release that?

Yeah, the one previous was 2008. I think it was just having a kid, really. And I've never really been in a rush to release music. I just seem to be pottering along, although I do still enjoy every minute.

Is there anyone you're looking forward to going in the studio with? Either someone you've not used before or one of the guests on Friendly Bacteria that you'd like to continue working with?

I share a studio with Denis Jones. He's working on some stuff at the moment, but when he's got his album out of the way we'll be working together again. Matthew Halsall I'd love to work with again. He's a good friend and an amazing musician, composer and arranger.

There's a singer from Nottingham called Harleighblu, who I've been in the studio with quite a lot. I think we're going to come out with a tonne of material because every time we get together we push each other and we've come up with some amazing things like that, all quite varied too. I think I'm enjoying now spending time working with people over a whole project rather than having guests on the odd track, which can make an album sound like a compilation. I'd like to aim for coming out with an album using the same core group of people.

There's always an easier route to exploring the option of taking it on the road, if you record like that.

Yes. I think if it's written in a live way there's a better option of doing that, but I've seen a lot of great musicians do bad DJ sets and so I certainly don't want to be doing the reverse. A lot of DJs who write great music in the studio aren't particularly great at performing live.

'Get A Move On' was such a success, was it a daunting prospect trying to follow it up?

Not really, because the way it was created was just having fun in the studio. I think, like with my DJing, I've always been aware that I should never repeat myself. That's why 'Get A Move On' is the only tune I've done that really sounds like that. I think if I were to go in the studio and plan what I was going to do, set out to try and make something with a particular end product in mind, it would just kill the excitement for me. It's the same for me as never having planned a DJ set, I don't see what the point is.

Did you get sick of hearing it on adverts?

No. I sometimes rolled my eyes. But that tune 17 years old now, people still love it, I still play it. I think you have to be careful, as an artist, if some people are very fond of certain parts of your back catalogue. You can't say 'I've heard this 2000 times, I'm not going to play it again.'

Your wife is also a DJ. Whose gigs take priority when it comes to baby sitting?

Quite often we play on the same nights! That's when the grandparents get called. 

Does she ask to borrow any of your records?

I think I'm organised, but actually I'm quite untidy. She likes knowing where stuff is. Occasionally she'll borrow stuff. I'll borrow stuff off her too, if I can't find my copy. But generally it's separate, just to avoid arguments. We don't have separate toothpaste. We do have separate record collections.

What if she asked to borrow that £400 private press jazz rarity you have?

If it's something that's irreplaceable then absolutely not! Luckily she plays a lot of soul and disco though, so most of that is fairly affordable.

What advice do you have for any aspiring DJs?

I suppose the important thing, or what I want to hear when I go to hear someone else DJing, is through playing records, you've got to show people what excites you and inspires you. You have to get your influences in there, show people where you're coming from and where you want to go.

I've got my own approach, certain things I do or won't do, and after a number of years that's solidified into a style. There are certain things I think, like that mixing isn't really that important. Mixing for the sake of it is something that can make a DJ sound very boring. You don't have to do that.

Also, know where the music you like comes from. Learn the history of it and that will give you much more room to manoeuvre. If a DJ is passionate and wants to push themselves, they will want to be aware of the roots of the music they play in order to push it forward or join different genres together. I find that easy to do because, once you go back 50 years you find that all these supposedly different genres have roots in common.

I suppose the other thing is to learn how a soundsystem works, learn about sound quality, digital/analogue conversion. Know what is happening between your stylus or laptop and the speakers, because then you can make it sound as good as it possibly can be. The whole club is your soundsystem, not just your sound source and your mixer. 

Mr Scruff plays in Edinburgh for Nightvision presents Keep It Unreal on Friday 18th November. Tickets available below.

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