Never far from the cutting edge of the dance music world, Ralph Lawson has rarely played it safe, becoming a highly respected figure at both the business and performance ends of the market. Here, Defected's Ben Lovett dicusses the latest project in an exceptional 20+ year career.
2020 Vision supremo Ralph Lawson is seeing things more clearly than at any point in his long and distinguished career. Our interview takes place on a rainy, utterly forgettable midweek May afternoon but, for Lawson, the timing is significant. Only yesterday he called time on 2020 Soundsystem, his live electronic obsession for the past decade or so, and now today he is officially pursuing “new directions.”
“I feel good” he says, of the change. “One big project has been put to bed and another, excitingly, is under way. I spent all day yesterday updating my blog to confirm Soundsystem’s demise. I summarised everything the band had done, and gathered loads of photos. I wanted to show full respect to it; it wasn’t easy. Today is poignant because I’m finally moving on and pursuing a different role; one I’ve been thinking about for a while.”
With immediate effect, then, Lawson returns to duties as a “pure DJ”. He did occupy the DJ role in 2020 Soundsystem but that, he claims, was a completely different kettle of fish. “I was always a DJ in the band but that’s a completely different experience. Going back to pure DJing and putting my name to it represents a fantastic challenge; there’s a great deal of scope to try new things and make an impression. I don’t honestly feel like I’ve achieved a lot of what I want to do yet; there are some regrets.”
That’s hard to believe when you consider his CV. Lawson first experienced house music during the mid-Eighties, his love of London’s transatlantic, rapidly evolving dancefloors swiftly transferred to Leeds after a move there in 1988. Northern clubs like the Warehouse were equally enamoured by Chicago, New York and Detroit, inspiring Lawson to record a series mixtapes that would – in the hands of a burger van man-turned-promoter – land him with warm-up spots at Warehouse’s sizeable Tuesday night Joy.
In 1991, Lawson became resident DJ at soon-to-be-seminal Leeds party Back To Basics. It was he who played Back To Basics’ very first record – Marshall Jefferson Presents The Truth’s Open Your Eyes – and, when promoted to Music Director, secured UK debuts for Daft Punk, Danny Tenaglia and Francois K. The Basic To Basics’ legend promptly exploded and Lawson found himself playing at major clubs all over the world; everywhere from the Hacienda to Space in Ibiza.
Lawson was also now working alongside Carl Finlow as 2020 Vision. The duo’s newly created base, Farmhouse Studios, would help it deliver heavy collaborations with Chez Damier and a slew of classic remixes for Josh Wink, Felix Da Housecat and, perhaps most pivotally, Blaze. 2020 Vision’s benchmark remix of Blaze’s Lovelee Dae is still regularly rinsed by the world’s biggest DJs.
At broadly the same time 2020 Vision spawned an eponymous label, which over a considerable length of time has facilitated consistently influential releases by the likes of Bobby Peru, Fred Everything, Crazy P, Maya Jane Coles and PBR Streetgang, not to mention 2020 Soundsystem. Finlow moved to Paris in 2001 but Lawson maintained the label and, in 2003, formed Soundystem, a live electronic four-piece. The quartet delivered two well-received albums – No Order (2006) and Falling (2009) – and huge crowd-pleasing shows at mega-festivals Sonar, Glastonbury and Bestival before its end this week, owing to the thousands of miles currently between band members (also including Danny Ward and Argentines Fernando Pulichino and Carlos Julia Sanza).
Lawson has already achieved much. We’re here now, in fact, to discuss the 2020 Vision label’s landmark 250th release (more on that in a moment); a project proceeding 20 years of ‘2020’ in 2014 (more on that too). These numbers don’t lie - cannot Lawson recognise his previous success?
“I can, I know I’ve done a lot” he reflects. “But whilst people within the industry know me and 2020, I don’t think the younger generations do. I’m massively confident in my skills and energised by the current state of our music scene, so I want to show the kids that I can rock it. Who says that the kids have a monopoly on electronic music? Everything I’ve done has always been cutting edge. I’m not a new artist but I have a new mentality and that for me is really exciting. I want to expand my remit.”
Lawson’s renewed partnership with Finlow for that aforementioned 250th label release, Dusty Dubs & Gold Dust, adds interesting colour and context to his remarks on the changing face of clubland. The project came to pass last year when MN2S requested permission to re-release a 13-year-old 2020 remix of DJ Dove lick Come On. Lawson had forgotten all about it being that he and Finlow recorded so many remixes at the time, but he listened, liked and agreed to clear it.
“People started reacting to it like it was a new track” Lawson takes up. “It does sound new when you hear it and people love it. What’s interesting here is that you have these kids trying to make retro records and then someone like me behind a remix that sounds new. The way in which we release music today has drastically changed. You don’t even blink nowadays, records appear instantly on Beatport and there’s little or no preamble. Therefore people have no perception of anything and you can have these interesting situations like the Dove remix. In the past there was more of a build up.”
The overwhelmingly positive reaction to Hold On prompted Lawson, on a quiet January afternoon right after Christmas, to raid his garage for the master tapes of more dusty treats, both unreleased or long, long forgotten: “It was a nightmare; there were all these old DAT tapes but the player I eventually found for them started to chew them up. At last I got it working and realised just how much stuff I’d had sitting around doing nothing.”
Dusty Dubs & Gold Dust features vintage, yet remarkably fresh-sounding remixes of legendary club acts including Blaze, Soldiers Of Twilight and Arthur Baker. It’s an impressively solid body of work. “Everything has been re-mastered, and the Gold Dust remixes have never seen the light of day which makes them even fresher. The project was a little confusing to start with but it’s become this amazing thing now. And it’s an effective way to re-introduce my partnership with Carl.”
Indeed. Lawson and Finlow are already entertaining several new remix commissions. These will follow remixes for Little Boots-fronted, Maya Jane Coles-produced outfit LB (released earlier this year) and Freak Seven (the outing that brought them back together last April). “I had the drums and this classic Detroit groove locked down” Lawson recalls of the latter, “but something was missing. I suddenly just thought of sending it to Carl, who’s amazing with keyboards and synths. It came back a few days later with those extra layers and left me with goose bumps. It was like no time had passed; nothing had changed between us at all.”
Looking ahead, Lawson feels confident enough to consider putting his own name against productions, for the very first time: “I’ve learned so much about the studio over my career and I’m at the stage now where I’m comfortable about having ‘Ralph Lawson’ remixes, as well as remixes with Carl. That wasn’t the case when I was younger; I had a lot of input in remixes but it didn’t feel right to label any of them as my own work. Of course there were the big DJs –and I won’t disclose them – who used to build their brands by putting their name to remixes someone else had completed. I used to see it happen a lot; I never liked the idea of that.
“In terms of where Carl and I are at now; we’re going to work the records in the same way that we used to, like the Americans. That means vocal mixes, dubs, acapellas and a few variations; the complete package.”
Next year, 2020 Vision will, fittingly, hit 20. What do the boys have lined up?: “We can’t reveal too much at this stage but we want to throw 20 huge parties in 20 major cities around the world. Big parties....”
It’s a grand plan keenly reflecting Lawson’s reconstituted focus and determination to lift his own brand, and all that goes with it, to the next level. Maybe there he will find the total self-satisfaction he has long been craving. “I can only say that it feels like our turn, you know?” he remarks. “Labels like Crosstown Rebels, Hot Creations and Defected have done really well; they’re all on a bigger stage. 2020 Vision is established, yes, but it’s time to kick on and really show what we’re about. I still have things to achieve.”
Lawson continues: “I said in my blog yesterday that the Soundsystem was too slow to capitalise on its [mid-Noughties] buzz and I think with the right management things may have been totally different; I might have been in a different place. But I’m looking forward now; all of my energy is focussed on the future.”
The ‘pure’ DJing will be a big part of that. “I went off clubs for a time, which is how 2020 Soundsystem came about, but the changes to the scene over the past couple of years have been really refreshing and now I don’t have the band, I’m relishing developing my DJ schedule; I have a tonne of appetite. It’s an exciting time. There are great new talents like Ben UFO and [Julio] Bashmore out there, and great energy levels from the crowds; their ears are open to everything. For the first time in ages the clubbing landscape feels acceptable again.
“I had absolutely no idea electronic music would become my life when I started out. I was seriously naive and, of course, there weren’t the career paths DJs and producers have today. I thought the music would be a fun but short-lived thing. But here I still am, and I’ve learned so, so much. As I say, this is a rather poignant week for me. Something big has ended and something big has started. I’m ready for the change.”
Ralph Lawson Presents Dusty Dubs & Gold Dust is out now
