Addiction Boat Party Pt2 Preview: Interview with DJ/Producer Nick Rowland Posted by Addiction on Jun 20, 2006 - 7:44:00 PM

AT: So Nick, for those that have never heard of Nick Rowland, Rowland & Wright, The Coalition or PBS, can you just give us a brief background of who you are ? What you do ? And where you come from ?

NR: Well…. Once upon a time, in a land far far away… Actually, it was in Bristol, but that’s far enough! I’ve always been into the music scene in one way or another – I started DJ’ing when I was 16 in your average Friday night club, and I played the guitar and wrote songs as a kid, and really enjoyed it. I began making tunes on the Amiga about 14 years ago (god I’m old!!), but never really took it seriously. 

I met Dave Wright in a bar in Birmingham that I was DJ’ing in, and we both said we had an interest in writing dance music, so we used to get together when we could, and bash out some ideas. After a fairly short while, and not too many complete turkeys, we got a track signed by Alphamagic for the Execute label, and hence PBS was born – or Phatt Bloke & Slim. We were quickly picked up by Nukleuz for their Hard Trance EP series, and Rowland & Wright just snowballed from there for just over a year. Towards the end of that year, we did some tracks with a few other well known DJ’s (Nick Rafferty, Phil Reynolds, Ed Real) under The Coalition moniker, which also did really well for us. Dave had commitments with his full time job, and didn’t have the time to spend in the studio, so I started to do stuff on my own as well as continuing The Coalition brand with Nick Rafferty. In 2004 I had my first solo EP on Nukleuz Green which featured 'Somebody' & 'Burn The Dancefloor Down', that kick-started my solo career really well. Since then I’ve lived over in Montreal, Canada for a while, and since coming back I’m sharing a house with Dave in sunny Tamworth, writing for myself and producing for others, and generally enjoying myself!

AT: You truly are a Hard Dance household name with tracks on every major label and compilation album, not too mention having remixed countless tracks for some of the scenes biggest artists. Out of all the tracks you’ve produced and remixed over the years which one would you say is your favourite and why ?

NR: There have been so many landmark tracks for me all for different reasons. Silverspeed, written with Dave, was my first release on a major label - Nukleuz. The remix we did of Happens (Intensive) was also a really big track for us back in the early Rowland & Wright days, as well as Deeper (Nukleuz) and Bring The Lights Down (with Rob Tissera). More recently, I had a great time writing Fakin’ It (Honey Pot) with Nick Rafferty, which was played by Dave Pearce some three weeks in a row on Dance Anthems! The tracks I’m the most proud of as a solo artist have to be Overdrive and h2o – both of which went out on Tidy. h2o was a great cross-genre track, and was played out by Tech Trance DJ’s such as Christopher Lawrence, as well as on Hard Dance scene by the likes of BK. Hybrid, which was the first track working back with Dave, seems to be doing phenomenally well as a cross-genre Trance / Hard Dance track, with plays from John O’Callaghan, Ian Betts and John Askew as well as The Tidy Boys, Wid & Ben, Paul Kershaw (Galaxy FM) and other Hard Dance aficionados.

AT: Normally every artist’s material is influenced by someone. Who do you think has inspired your productions the most ? Or do you feel that you have and have always had a completely unique sound ?

NR: I take inspiration from all sorts of artists from all styles of music and have learnt to do what I do by tearing apart their records, and trying to emulate the best bits. BT has been one of the most influential artists for me - the guy is so diverse and has such talent.  When I was learning how to produce hard house, artists like BK and Nick Sentience were the main people I aspired.

AT: You’ve also proved to be an extremely versatile producer. With releases covering the whole Hard Dance spectrum from Trance & Hard Trance to Hard House and even Psy-Trance, how would you describe the style of music you are producing at the moment ?

NR: Well, basically I try to keep myself from being 'too' pigeon-holed.  I love trance and the harder side of dance too, so I’ll continue to write all kinds of music with no real overall “style”. Recently I’ve leaned towards the more trancey stuff, but I’ve got plans to write a load more tracks which will again cross many genres.

AT: Having worked with almost every major player around including artists like Nick Sentience, James Lawson & Phil York, you must have some tales to tell. What’s the funniest story you can tell us from any studio session ? And who were you working with ?

NR: There are a few! The funniest was probably one of the bank holidays a year or so ago; I was engineering for Nick Rafferty & Paul Kershaw and we all agreed to start on the Tuesday as we would all be pretty messy from the weekend. So the weekend passed and at 7:30am Kershaw turns up, we're both pretty tired but get a coffee and start working. Time rolled on & there was still no sign of Rafferty. We try phoning time and time again but there was no answer. At 11:30am the phone rings and we get a quiet voice on the other end - it's Rafferty! He's sat in a bar in Birmingham completely wrecked saying that he's been out since Saturday night with no sleep and he's not going to make it!  The conversation was a funny one - I wish I had recorded it now and bribed him with it!

AT: Are there any artists that you wouldn’t work with again ? And why ?

NR: Some people can be very, very hard to work with and there have been some situations in the past which have been, lets say, uncomfortable. But I like to think it possible to overcome most differences in the studio, especially when the end results are good!

AT: You’ve recently re-launched your own Digital Mp3 Download label ‘Periodically Repeated Sequence’ as well as completing a massive remix of Xinetd_D & Bruce H ‘Fear Factor’ for Addiction’s own Mp3 label Addiction Digital. Do you think that digital labels and mp3 downloads are the future of dance music sales ? And what treats are in store for release later this year on PRS Digital ?

NR: Digital downloads are without doubt the way forward. The problem at the moment is that there is no physical product (i.e Vinyl, CD, etc) which in effect devalues the music to a lot of people who would otherwise buy it. In this scene I think CD albums like the “Edison Factors World Series” are a very good stepping stone while people get used to the idea of owning music as a digital only product. I know a few people who are working on these kind of albums now (me included!).

Taken by Saqib

AT: For your next performance aboard the Addiction Boat Party Pt2 on Saturday July 15th, you’ll be blowing 300 Addict’s away with your fantastic Live PA ! The burning question here Nick is, is it actually live or pre-recorded ? What makes this more special than one of your DJ Sets ? And finally what tricks have you up your sleeve to make your Live PA stand out above the rest ?

NR: My DJ sets are all about the music that does it for me, I usually only play a couple of my own tracks, this makes the PA very different. With dance music it's all about tight timing, if your vocals or leads are even slightly out of time you know it and it sounds shit. This makes it very difficult to play 'Live' in the conventional sense, unless you incorporate real instruments like drums and guitars - The Edison Factor do this very well. I chose to not go the instrument route. Basically I use Ableton Live to effectively remix all my songs on the fly. I can bring in loops, samples, re-arrange and do all sorts of cool stuff in real time.  While I play no 'real' instruments live there is still plenty of room for mistakes and plenty of room to be creative!

AT: You’ll be joining an ‘all star’ line up including, Spencer Freeland, Pierre Pienaar AKA P.H.A.T.T. feat Jennie Rix and Ben Gold ! Have you ever played on a Boat party before ? Do you get Sea Sick ? and what are you looking forward to the most ?

NR: I’ve never played a boat party before, and I’m thoroughly looking forward to it. I have heard a lot of good things about Ben Gold so I’m looking forward to his set. Hopefully I won’t get sea-sick, but there’s only one way to find out!

AT: You also often DJ overseas, particularly in the US and Canada, and are not long back from a tour of the two. What’s the scene like over there ? How do the clubs, punters and music compare to the UK ?

NR: I love it over there, the scene is still very young compared to the UK and the clubbers are much more open to different styles of music than they are over here.  It's still more about fun over there than being cool and it reminds me a lot of the UK club scene a few years ago.

AT: What’s the best gig you’ve ever played and why ?

NR: When I was living in Montreal I played at a night called 'Lollipop' in Quebec City (Canada).  I was asked to come and stand in for Jon Langford as he couldn't make it so as we were only 3 hours drive away we drove up. It was in an Ice Hockey rink or something, the setup was wicked, the crowd were nuts and the place went off!

AT: If you could only choose one would it be production or DJ’ing ?

NR: Don't get me wrong, I love DJing but it's the production side that buzzes me. Having an idea in your head and being able to work that into a finished track is really rewarding for me.

AT: How do you foresee the future of DJ’ing both personally and generally ? Do you think that turntables will eventually be phased out ? With more artists turning to their laptops, do you think that the Live PA will take over completely ? And have there been any other recent technical advances that you think will make a significant change to the performances we see on stage ?

NR: I think the turntables days as a club format are numbered, laptops make life a lot easier (and more reliable) and you can to do so much more. Ableton Live has opened many doors and the way I do my PA is pretty much how I see DJ sets going, the only real difference being the music and the fact that producers can dissect all their own tracks into individual parts which you can't do with other peoples tunes. Sasha & Paul Van Dyk are already DJ’ing like this so it's only a matter of time.

AT: What are your top 3 tunes of all time ?

NR: This changes all the time!

Energy 52 - Cafe Del Mar

BT & Tori Amos - Blue Skys (Paul Van Dyk's Blauer Himmel Remix)

The Sex Pistols - Friggin' In The Riggin'

AT: Finally Nick pls tell us what you think of the Trance & Hard Dance scene at the minute. What clubs or artist’s are doing it for you ? And what changes if any, would you like to see in music or on our Dance Floors ?

NR: Over the last few years music has been split into so many micro-genres that I think it has damaged the scene somewhat.  It would be great to see more musically versatile nights around the country (it was that way a few years back!), I think this would increase the numbers and people in our clubs and open people up to different music. Innovate is pretty much the only night I can think of doing this in the main room and it's consistently good. As a producer I want to explore different sounds and it would be great to not feel like you would be alienated for playing around. As for artists that are doing it for me at the moment I have been really impressed by MDA & Spherical lately, and also Micky D is proving himself to be exceptionally talented!

AT: Thanks very much for taking the time to speak to me Nick, and we’ll see you aboard The Sundance on July 15th

NR: Cheers Andy and I'll see you on the Thames!!!

To view the E Flyer for full line up, ticket info, competitions, important information and more please click here