The discography of Vincent ‘DJ Spinna’ Williams is a long and involved one but it has, for now, rather unceremoniously, ground to a halt. The fact that Spinna has found a couple of hours – “boy, literally that” – to mix one half of Southport Weekender’s latest double-disc compilation has made things worse.
“Putting that mix together just made me want to run back to the studio and knock up some beats of my own. Truth be told, I just haven’t had the time, and I’m still fighting to find the time for next year” he sighs. “It’s not easy for me. I have a family… two lovely daughters… and when I’m not with them then I’m on a plane travelling to various shows around the world. Studio time has been kicked to the curb. I’m screaming inside to make my own music.”
It is admirable however that Spinna has proven prepared to compromise his career for those things close to home. “And draining” he quips. “At the end of the day I want to be a dad and have that quality time; that’s non negotiable. Longer-term, I think it will breed contentment with everything else in my life, but right now it does make it harder to drag yourself up and concentrate on an original remix, production or show.
“Half the time, I wake up shattered from the day before, and in this game of ours you want to be putting a certain amount of energy and feeling into the beats. But the music will always be there; it’s another big part of my life and, in actual fact, a necessary creative release from some of those repetitive family routines.”
That’s not to say routine hasn’t crept into Spinna’s career. His music is, as always, staggeringly deep and varied, sliding soulfully between the tempos of house and indie hip-hop with delicious freedom. Nonetheless, in his own mind, he worries that he has spent too much time to date on remix work and not enough on solo craft.
“This is a digital world we’re living in and people need to push their records quicker if they’re going to survive. Remixes have become a business card for artists because labels need them ‘on tap’ to maximise sales. The industry landscape has changed massively and I think I’ve been caught up in that… which is cool and all, but I don’t just want to be re-interpreting other people’s ideas.”
There have been hundreds of remixes over the years – all, by and large, refreshingly varied and consummately produced. Commissions include everyone from Nightmares on Wax and 4 Hero to Blaze, Louie Vega and, most recently, Black Coffee. More, too, are on the way for Spen’s cohort Karizma, South African chanteuse Bucie and Lenny Kravitz.
“I’ve found myself windows of time to get these things done” he explains. “And now, looking to the New Year I want to make those windows even bigger. It’s my resolution to try and step up the output of original work by a significant AMOUNT.”
In fairness, Spinna has a couple of well-flexed springboards from which to catapult. Earlier this autumn he launched Correct Technique Records with his own fly hip-hop cut alongside rhymester Oxygen; the label promises more such nimble hip-hop flow in the months ahead, a foil to the soul-dance ambitions of HIS 2003 start-up Wonderwax. Meantime SPINNa has begun blueprinting new material for freaky, quirky, electro-funky groove project The Free Radikalz (as previously released on Papa).
Sheer bulk of remixes aside, New York-based Spinna is actually author to six albums, including 1999 hip-hop outing.
Heavy Beats Volume 1 (on kingpin genre label Rawkus), 2006’s supreme Wonderwax glide Intergalactic Soul and 2009 beat feast Sonic Smash. He has truly come far since those first turntable twitches as an 11-year-old.
Early projects for Rawkus (with group The Jigmastas and, subsequently, the Polyrhythm Addicts) during the late Nineties led to work with hip-hop heavyweights Guru, The Jungle Brothers, De La Soul and EVENTUALLY Eminem.
Beyond that came the aforementioned remix WORK AND STUDIO ALBUMS, moving easily between down and uptempo; not to mention waves of DJ bookings (his passport has, over time, picked up stamps for Australia, Japan, South Africa, Iceland and everywhere in between) and further work alongside Stevie Wonder (in whose honour he regularly hosts huge INTERNATIONAL, tastefully done WONDER-Full tribute parties), Mary J Blige and the cream of the house crop – Vega, Gonzalez, Claussell, Osunlade….
Given that detailed backdrop, surely DJ Spinna’s current concerns about lack of time and remix overload are no so bad? “I’m grateful for all I’ve achieved but I can’t sit still. My head and heart won’t let me; I have to do more. I love music that much. Whether I’m taking a walk through Brooklyn with my family or on the dancefloor at Shelter listening to Timmy Regisford, I’m picking up inspirations and ideas. It’s non-stop. I actually think this part of me has intensified since I’ve had kids; I’m an emotional person… my life finds its way into the music. I can’t do it any other way, because that’s where the groove comes from.”
But what then triggers Spinna decision to make a house or hip-hop record?
Where does he draw his artistic lines? “I record depending on mood rather than genre” he answers. “I like a lot of different soulful music so why should I confine myself to one element of it when I’m expressing a particular state of mind? Feelings are complicated and powerful things not easy to bracket; you just have to go with them. That extends to both studio and DJ booth.”
As such, Spinna’s mix for Southport Weekender Volume 9 is a rollercoaster of emotion (the album’s other disc is helmed by Mr Scruff). Marshalling cuts by artists such as Boddhi Satva, Reel People, Cajmere, Kerri Chandler, Henrik Schwarz and Atjazz, he skilfully covers all points of the pure house spectrum – New Jersey, deep-afro, jack-house, minimal and even acid. It is very real, standout stuff.
“Mix compilations can be a nightmare to organise, because you have so little space for so many great records that you’re feeling at that point” Spinna stresses. “But the Southport mix was a joy to put together. I felt like I had free reign; there were tracks by people like Deetron which we couldn’t include in time but, overall, I think it is representative of what I’m feeling and of what real house music should sound like.”
Clearly, house music has undergone serious evolutionary mutation in recent years – one thinks of the underground scene’s ongoing fascination with deeper, more minimal and electronic four-to-the-floor, as much as of America’s mainstream acceptance of dance via brash R&B fusions from The Black Eyed Peas and Rhianna; to name but two. What does Spinna make of it all?
“It’s all extremely frustrating” he vents. “But I’m thinking of hip-hop as well as house. The generation of music lovers who grew up with a rich understanding of the evolution of those two genres is being neglected. We’re seeing weaker songwriting and less musicianship; there are exceptions but unfortunately they come as a surprise now. Everything is too computerized today; it gets produced too quickly with little understanding of what has gone before.
“What I hear today is often too deep and track-y; longer-term, it’s going to lead to a wave of distraught, uneducated dancefloors. On the positive side though, younger people are prepared to learn and so we [OMIT 'HAVE' PLEASE] still have opportunities to help them along. House music, too, revolves in 10-year cycles. It might take a while, but I think the more soulful forms of house will come fully back into the limelight. There is evidence of that happening already; and when I think of young up-and-coming producers like Sean McCabe [featured on Spinna’s Southport set, as remixer of The Demetrios Project] then I have even greater hope for the future.”
Words: Ben Lovett
Various Artists – Southport Weekender Vol 9: Mixed By Mr Scruff & DJ Spinna is released by Miroma Music (UK) on February 6, 2012.
