DJ Fabio - Interview 2 part b - 1993

Back to Fabio Interview 2 part 1

Why do you think it all split up?
"I think it’s because you get people following DJs, when it first started the DJ thing wasn’t that big. People come to see you for a style of music that you’re known for, I wouldn’t go to a Techno club and listen to a DJ who I haven’t heard before, but I’d go and listen to some one like Dave. If I was going to a Garage club I’d go and listen to an excellent Garage DJ.

It’s more down to the DJ’s now and has back fired on itself because you don’t have the freedom you used to have, the crowd would be surprised if I started to play some Garage tracks. People have become really single minded and it’s even started to get a split in the Breakbeat now, there’s a lot of Jungle stuff and a lot of main stream stuff and then the really deep stuff that I’m in to. Carl Cox and Slipmatt are more crowd pleasers."

Do you always go for the underground stuff?
"You always find the real deal underground, the bigger clubs are always there to please the crowd and the underground clubs are where you go to hear the DJ play a set really. Thank God, the scene now is going back underground. When ‘Sesame Street’ came out, that really killed Breakbeat because no one could take it serious any more, all the big record companies picked up on it and forced people to make more pop Breakbeat, SL2 came along and they have all been so badly treated. We were on the verge of getting signed up by London records until they dropped the Breakbeat stuff because they weren’t in to it any more. That’s the problem, trends, things go in and out of fashion and Mixmag jump on Progressive and tell every one Progressive is wonderful. Progressive is like Progressive Baleric, back then there was the House, the Acid which is like Techno, or even Breakbeat, and the Baleric which I see Progressive, light music, it’s just not got enough energy for me, like watered down Techno, I’m not really a fan of Progressive. A lot of people playing progressive today, back in ’89 were into the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays and totally dis’ing the whole dance scene. Then they were slagging us off calling Techno music ‘Bone Head’ music. The likes of Andy Weatherall and Danny Rampling came along a few years later playing Techno "I was really surprised, the Happy Mondays had just been a trend and they wanted to start dancing again and go back on what they had said."

So do you think the scene going underground will be good?
"Yes definitely, the commercial scene has just ripped us off, our names were on the flyers and we weren’t booked, I got a really bad name in the Midlands for not turning up at one point but I wasn’t booked. At the underground events you feel more with the crowd, close to the people and it can not survive a commercial thing. The music at the moment has got a lot better, strings and chords. The main stream aren’t going to hear it but the people underground know the music has got a lot better."

Although every one nowadays classes Fabio as a Breakbeat DJ he has had a lot of contact with some of the famous Techno names over the years, at one point was going to work with The Black Dog and has a lot of respect for people like Luke Slater. Fabio knows all these people because back in 91/92 he was playing Techno, back then he used to go to Frankfurt and play at a club for Alec, from Jam and Spoon when they produced Snap and ran Logic Records. Back when Fabio did play Techno, he played a lot overseas. Breakbeat is more of an English thing, he has played in Austria, Spain, Japan, Belgium, Italy - the list goes on. If Fabio plays now at some countries such as Switzerland, he wouldn’t take a Breakbeat set, he’d take Techno, at some he plays a House set and recently he has played some Garage sets with Grooverider down on the south coast.

"It’s good because when we started it was about playing music, not about playing Jungle or playing Techno, it was about being versatile. A lot of the old Soul stuff, I still do Soul tapes and Reggae tapes, I am also heavily in to dub. I’d love to have a radio show where I could play a cross section of every thing even Rock. I used to be really in to Depeche Mode, Human League."

Who do you respect on the Breakbeat scene?
"Goldie from Reinforced, Neil Trix from Birmingham, Ronnie Sine from Bristol, guys from all over the country making music which is good - giving a more musical feel and these people are feeding off myself, Groove, Bukem, Randall and they are specifically making the music for us, but they are going off what we are playing. I love strings and melodies, Jungle is in a separate entering to what I’m doing, Jungle has got more of a Ragga style and there is a split in this music as well. You got the Jungle Fever’s which is Ragga which I don’t mind but we were playing that stuff in ’92 and I don’t like staying on one thing too much. If something a bit more musical comes along I prefer to go with that. Everything is getting divided, in Techno people are saying they don’t want Gabba and you’re getting a split with that.

More than ever the crowd expect you to play a certain style which is a pity because before Garage and Hardcore could be played together. It had the same roots and we are trying to fuse the two and hold them together. People are going to have to be more open minded, I’m an open minded person and there is good and bad in all kinds of music. People should try to go to another kind of club and see if they can get into it, it’s all come from the same thing, it’s all from the original House stuff. The whole love vibe that was around was because people were open minded, they wanted to go and listen to something different and they wanted the DJ to be able to play anything he wanted to. The trouble nowadays is that it is all down to trends and fashion magazines like Mixmag put up a certain thing and make a trend. Two years ago they thought me and Groove were trendy and they did a DJ Heros, the great DJ’s of all time and they put me and Groove ahead of Sasha, everyone else and that was a nice thing to happen. Suddenly they didn’t want us any more and they stopped phoning us. That trend thing has come in to the music which is bad, people listen to Mixmag and they are listening to ‘Breakbeat shit’ and ‘Prodigy are the end of rave’, they have never been one of my heroes which is a dis’ but they have always been a mainstream Breakbeat group. People started thinking that what was in the charts was what was being played in the clubs and most of the tunes like ‘Sesame Street’ were never played."

Fabio was into the original Breakbeat sound like the Ragga Twins and Fabio has followed the musical people who make the music, like Goldie from Reinforced, even LTJ Bukem who Fabio feels is the Dave Angle of this scene is making really hypnotic breaks, the bassline is not as Reggae orientated.

He has become recognised for an individual style that is unique and loved by many, we asked him how he thought up and coming DJ’s could get a break and get recognised for what they are doing.

"A lot of the up and coming DJ’s fall into the trap where they think they should play what every one else is playing and that is wrong! You look at top 30 DJ’s in the world and they are know for the way they play, not what they play like.... They don’t play like anyone else and that is why they are there. My message to any up and coming DJ’s is try and create your own style, work on it, DJ’ing is an art, playing the right music at the right time and putting it together well."

Fabio is ready to play any kind of set and is upset when people laugh at the thought of him playing a Garage set, he has not been playing Breakbeat since ’88 and reminds us recently of sets both Grooverider and him have been playing. Grooverider recently shocked everyone at Knowledge with an impressive Techno set, an example of flexibility. They only ask that people give them a chance! Although Fabio to date has not made any music of his own but he has plans, a year ago he, along with many others, were very disappointed about the scene and not much good music was about but this year he feels a lot better and thinks the music has found a more positive direction. Fabio and Grooverider did make a track called Rage and used a sample from 808 State. They were really upset with this and threatened to sue them. They lost thousands of pre-sales and shortly after 808 State released a track called ‘Cubik’ which went to no 4 in the charts. This put Fabio off the music scene for a while and has been waiting for the right time which he feels is getting near.

Fabio still loves DJing and we had to pose the question regarding the MC’s, does Fabio like to work with them or would he prefer to be on his own?

"My music speaks for itself so I could do with out them really. MC’s like GQ are excellent and give you some space, but nowadays, a lot are so self important, they think everyone has come to see them and see them talk but never in the history of clubs have I heard anyone say "I’m off to see MC who ever". At some clubs you have 5 MC’s and have no control. When they start realising they have got to stop listening to their own voice things will get better, I’ve got a feeling anyone could do it anyway."

Fabio’s message to the DJ’s with attitude is "Piss off", when he plays at a Garage club he is not there to "stand on toes", he plays the music he loves whether it’s Garage, Techno or Breakbeat and wishes that people would accept him for the music he loves. He has ideas for the future but plans he has not, the past has been so unpredictable he just plans to continue the way he has in the past. He has ideas to get more in to music production and music has been and always will be his true love, although DJing was something he never thought he would do. He has made a career out of something he wasn’t really that interested in. He wants to concentrate on House music across the board and hopes to bring it back together, it can be fused together and knows the future looks promising as long as he puts his mind to it.