Richard Grey has just finished compiling and mixing Subliminal Essential - the new digital only compilation on Erick Morillo's acclaimed label. We caught up with the Ibiza based DJ and producer to find out about his early clubbing experiences, getting a suprise call from Morillo and why 2009 will be his most prolific year to date...
Tell us a bit about your background. Where did you grow up?
I grew up in a south of France, in lovely Cannes, a 70.000 people-city, where the French high society have their summer residencies. Cannes is also world famous for the Cannes Film Festival which has taken place there yearly since 1946 and of course MIDEM is here yearly as well.
How did you get into dance music?
Dance music was growing in the 90s on French radio. I was listening to it late every evening on the radio; I became a nerd about all the new sounds coming out, spending my days in the record shop. I used to sneak into MIDEM as a child and ask about every single label I knew that was making house music for promos. I remember Kevin from Nervous Records was amazed to see a 12 year old boy asking for promos! Every year I went there to get those gold records and when I entered the business years later, the people recognized me from the old days and were like; “You still here?”
What was your first club experience?
The very first club experience was a kind of rave party on the beach in Cannes. It was the year “I Like To Move It” was released [1993] – I was totally in love with that record.
How did you get into DJing?
A friend of mine was fan of Public Enemy and we used to spend hours scratching in his room. I loved it so much that I stopped school for a while and practiced everyday to enter the French DMC competition! After that, I hooked up with a guy in a club that was in a search of a DJ to produce electronic music as he was more into rock music but very interested in this new sound. So we hooked up couple of times after that and created our first electronic beats together! This was back in 1994.
Once you started, how did you develop into a studio wizard?
I like completion in every domain! Music producing was a big challenge as in those days we had no strong PCs but an Atari and a simple Akai sampler. I was spending more time programming than making music, so took me almost 10 years to learn everything, from engineering to mixing.
How did you meet Erick Morillo and get involved with Subliminal?
After 3 years of producing and bringing out records I created a quite American, disco sound and always received the same answer; “You sound American but you’re from France”. It started to get critical for me money-wise as my new sound was not interesting the record companies here in france. One day I decided to make a last record in the studio and to send it to Subliminal, which was in my opinion at that time the world’s best dance label. To be honest I never expected to hear back from them about my record and I was already looking for regular jobs. 3 weeks later, I received a message from Subliminal. At first I thought it was a joke, so I phoned Subliminal and Erick came on the line. He asked me if the record was still free...the answer was of course yes. Bam!!! I was back into the music business and delivered them a lot of stuff that I had produced with my Akai sampler and Atari only. No mixer, no nada...with my first check from the advance I took a flight to NYC to see them.
What’s Ibiza like as a place to live?
Well the summer time is quite good for business, as well as there being great events to play or go to. In summer we are millions! In winter we are not over 100.000 people. I love the winter here; pure ibiza! It’s such a good place to relax and focus only on producing. Our airport has good connections all year long and is a 2 hour flight from most of cities in Europe, so also good for gigging.
What about your sound, how do you describe it?
Progress demands change and innovation. I’m always looking forward into producing music and trying to avoid becoming old fashion. My roots are French house; I loved my early American disco soul days and I was huge at tribal tracks but also produced progressive, tech, electro and pop dance records! All in I say!
You are a prolific producer, how do you keep yourself inspired?
I live in Ibiza – what a better place is there to get inspired? In summer you go to Pacha and boom!! – in comes an idea. In winter you walk into the wood and boom!! – idea incoming! There’s almost too much music in my head lately! I feel very very very inspired at the moment! The best music from me is coming up in the next months. Trust me.
What about the future for dance music?
It will become the new mainstream, the new pop! Thanks to David Guetta, even more underground records will be played on radio and TV on peak-time shows. Of that I am sure. Plus there are still so many big markets around world like India and China which are quite new to dance music.
What are your next projects?
A record with the one of the godfathers of house Todd Terry, we did a rework on his huge soul record feat Jocelyn Brown. So watch out for Todd Terry vs Richard Grey – ‘Somethin’ Going On’! I also did a brand new record with Erick! Which will be released at Subliminal very soon! Richard Grey vs Erick Morillo "Say The Word". Also coming a Subliminal Sessions mixed and compiled by Richard Grey! And by end of the year a bomb is coming! But pschhhh!!!
Subliminal Essential mixed by Richard Grey is released 7th September.
