DJ Brisk - Interview 3

There's no stopping Brisk; he may have been up for the best part of the night celebrating his 25th birthday but throw a subject his way and he pounces, more than living up to his name as opinions machine gun from his mouth.

Raves in Holland are currently receiving his attention: "Because the music is around 200bpm they (the ravers or gabbers) dance on the spot moving their legs back and forth so violently and fast that it seems as though everyone is double jointed, almost like a keep fit workout for 5000 epileptics," he says then adds, "It's scary but so, so cool".

This conversation, taking place in a laddish Chichester pool joint, swerves another tangential turn as Britain comes under Brisk scrutiny: "Barry Legg's bill (which to all intents and purposes, proposes closing down any club where drugs or people under their influence are found) is phase two of the governments' masterplan because now they are targeting the clubs (the very same clubs they gave licences to in order to avoid continued illegal outdoor partying) so the scene will go back underground to free parties, but that is where the Criminal Justice Act (CJA) steps in again, preventing any outdoor gatherings. The minute people realise they cannot go out any more, that's when the shit's gonna hit the fan, at which point it could all be too late because the law will have already been passed."
Brisk has a broader scope of interest than many of his contemporaries and even plays house under his real name of Paul Smith but his true colours are nailed to the hardcore flagpole.

"It isn't the biggest form of dance music to emerge but it is definitely one of the most enjoyable to play," he says, "Raw energy, power and fun. I enjoy playing house as I find it quite relaxing and laid-back but you cannot beat a manic thrash getting through 30-40 records in a 60 minute session" The crowds are amongst the best too with no attitude they just dress to sweat and they are down to earth.

Brisk's definition doesn't just stick with happy-kiks-cheesey-vocal either. For him the pop-hook material sits comfortably besides more techno edged material, even the newer trance orientated sounds and his releases on Next Generation (co-owned with enigmatic producer DJ Ham stand as evidence)

Growing up in Southampton the name Brisk stems from graffiti and breakdancing days when he'd spray it on bus stops then put down some lino and break in the local shopping precinct and "hope to raise enough for a Big Mac!". This teenage interest in Electro/hiphop eventually led to involvement with local pirate radio stations besides names like Ramos, Marko( who now records drum & bass under the name of DJ RED) and Simon Aston, one of the Uks premier garage DJs. The usual house/acid/breakbeat techno story followed with a series of club residencies around the south but when these fizzled out his big break occurred; after sending a tape to Club Kinetic in Stoke they had had him up as a guest and in early 1993 he became resident. Along with Diehard in Leicester Kinetic was, until its closure in '96 aruguably England's premier hardcore institution. "When I'm trying out new material," Brisk states definitively, "if it doesn't go down with the Kinetic crowd you know it isn't going to work. I'm absolutely gutted it's closed. The police had been placing increasing pressure on the club to the point when they said, You've got to play ball, we know theres drugs going on etc. etc, so Kinetic had cameras installed and handed over 3 or 4 people with drugs to the police including the odd dealer. When the licence was revoked they took it to the European High Court and the police turned round and used that co-operation against them. They said Well look this place has given us drug offenders on a weekly basis it's clearly a haven for young people to take drugs'. What can you do? If you work alongside the authorities you're fucked, if you work without them you're fucked. It's pitifully ludicrous."

Since the closure of Kinetic Brisk has been hard at it on the remixing and production game working on projects for Universal(Slipmatt), Impact(Seduction), United Dance, UK Dance(Force & Styles) of course Next Generation.

Last year Brisk had a very unpleasant car crash. A sour conversation draws to a close and beer'n'pool become priorities I tentatively broach the touchy subject of hardcore DJs huge mileage and attendance problems.

He's already two steps ahead of the game: "Some house jocks really take liberties. Boy George at The Pleasuredome, New Years Eve, was charging 10,000 and didn't even turn up!! That's disgusting his excuse was "the weather was too bad", then why did every other DJ manage to make it? I would have walked bare foot across the fields to get that gig in, that's more than a lot of people earn in a year. I also heard him on Radio One saying how he had done two gigs over the weekend and was absolutely knackered. This is a guy who has his own driver and did only one gig per night over the weekend!! Try driving yourself and squeezing in 4 gigs a night then come and talk about being knackered!!

I believe in value for money and demanding such ludicrous bucks is just taking the piss out of the punters. Back to the point: Yeah, all hardcore DJs fly around the country, consequently there's a higher risk rate, we're doing 60 90,000 miles per annually. That particular incident you're referring to involved black ice on a road near Hull and we went through a wall.

The airbag went off saving my life but my passenger wasn't so lucky and sustained some nasty injuries. A matter of months later Murray Beetson (Dreamscape founder) died; I got the news whilst driving in fog on the M62 and pulled over in tears. After what happened to me I couldn't believe someone had gone that step further. No promoter or amount of money is worth a human life so I don't run around ballistically to get to gigs anymore. but then last weekend I covered 1600 miles.

The inappropriate and lame "I suppose it's better than getting up at 6am everyday to work in a tyre factory" falls from my mouth. Brisk perks up from any hint of morbidity, "Yeah, I'm very, very lucky to chase a dream and make a living from it," he says firmly. "The best buzz is when you're playing your own tracks and the crowd are going nuts. That makes up for all of it even the accident... Oh and Barry Legg if you are reading this then sort your fucking life out!". He laughs out loud and we head for the green baize tables.

By Thomas H. Green