After a while without an interview, we're bringing things back to you in a suitably grand fashion. Today, we've got Pistonsbeneath into talk to us. There's also a HUGE guest mix that you can check out at the end, or download from here...
NT: To kick things off, introduce us to Pistonsbeneath.
P: Pistonsbeneath
is, unbeknownst to many, a duo rather than just being my thing... I work
with someone I've known for many many years and we click on a level that I
don't think many people do, and have an intuitive relationship when it
comes to music. We've both tinkered for many years and compliment each other well.
My
name is Jon and I'm from the Croydon area and have been for my whole
life pretty much as has the person I work with. Our relationship isn't
like most people that work together from what I understand of other
duos. They wish to remain anonymous and I'm the public face of Pistonsbeneath hence I do all the DJing and interviews and anything else public.
Pistonsbeneath - Deep Peeping
NT: From what I've read elsewhere, you seem to have been involved in
Electronic music for quite a while in some capacity, including running
Dubstep nights in its spiritual home, Croydon. Can you tell us how you arrived to where you're at today?
P: I
did put on a few nights in Croydon yes, pretty far back and obviously
ran Dubkulture every week for 18 months before they decided the
clientele wasn't to their liking haha and that pretty much to me sums up
Croydon sadly... A strange mix of people all looking at each other, you
would have thought Croydon would be a good place to put on grass roots
Dubstep nights but the people and the clubs sabotage it
themselves, there's not enough patience to allow something to grow and I
guess like most towns, the venues just want a quick fix event that will
get people through the door but go nowhere and indeed not have enough
time to grow a reputation if the promoter wants to build
something. Music is pretty poor in Croydon on a week by week basis.
Doing Dubkulture helped me make a lot of contacts
and meet lots of DJs/producers that I see randomly at events
now. Without having that 20k rig to play through each week (before they
insisted it be on a ridiculously quiet volume to the point where people
could have a conversation near the speaker) I wouldn't have bothered
with delving more seriously into production.
I knew within Croydon a fair few heads before doing Dubkulture and linked back up with them. Shiverz and Lost are the
main guys that spring to mind but I also had many other guys play wicked
sets. The best DJ technically hands down I had down was Syte and
linking him and Crises ultimately led to the Mindstep EP.
My music as an even younger youngster than I am now
was pretty mixed. I remember being very connected to tracks like Omni
Trio's 'Renegade Snares', LTJ Bukem's 'Atlantis' and also a lot of
Orbital tunes like 'Halcyon'...One of the most powerful tracks for me to
hear even now despite how cheesy it might sound is Manix 'Feel Real
Good'. 4 Hero tunes can be as classy as they want but nothing for me
will top that one (Marc Clair from 4 Hero was Manix).
My connection to music in general isn't necessarily
the same as many people's, I feel, but maybe this is an assumption. I
just know I don't feel all the music I listen too is a reflection of me
necessarily and I appreciate the beauty of music in its many many forms
regardless of whether I can relate to it on a personal level. I enjoy
listening to Kozzie, DMZ, Photek, King Tubby & Clubroot but equally
love to listen to Vaughan Williams, Satie, Vashti Bunyan, Billie
Holiday, Fela Kuti and Linda Perhacs. I sometimes want to be away from
myself and music is the best thing in the world for that. I think many
people get too bogged down in the baggage that is musical identity and
forget to possibly enjoy the music itself.