Our latest interview is with dance-rock DJ/presenter/producer, Eddy Temple-Morris. This week he gives us the low-down on what he's been up to as well as his views on the dance scene...
BoH - You’ve been hosting your popular radio show, The Remix on XFM for many years now and have been responsible for the emergence of some of today’s most popular electronic artists. What do you most enjoy about it?ETM - I love the immediacy of radio, listen to a pile of CDs and downloads each week, then play the ones I love. It's so simple and direct. I also like the fact that I don't have to rely on anyone. If I'm able to stand, and talk, then the show happens.
BoH - Have there been any particularly defining moments?ETM - The show has been going for nearly nine years so there are quite a few: obvious ones like playing demos by Kasabian, Scissor Sisters, and being the first person to play acts like Pendulum, Reverend And the Makers, Infadels, Alex Metric etc, but the defining moment for me was when I first played a Mix CD by two guys in a band I like, from Belgium. They were called the Flying Deweale Brothers, it was the first time anyone in the UK had heard them on radio. When I invited them for their first ever live radio mix, the phone lines went into meltdown - it was that good. They played at my little club-night and I carried on supporting them because I knew they were the best DJs I'd ever seen and ever would see... Sometime later they changed their name... to 2manyDJs.
BoH - Wow, that's a story to tell the grand-kids! We’ve recently had minimal and electro house prove popular in clubs. What do you see as house music’s next emerging sub-genre?ETM - There's a groundswell I can feel of - don't take this the wrong way - Gay Electro: that's the most succinct description I can come up with... It's kind of light-loafered, poppy, very musical and melodic electronica with its feet in the 80s, but with production values of now. The best exponent of this, and he will be massive, is a very young Scotsman called GRUM. He's brilliant.
BoH - Who do you think is really at the top of their game in the house scene?ETM - I don't really know anything about the 'House Scene' - as the prodigy's favourite DJ I share a general loathing of the genre with Liam Howlett, but the people I've been loving in the four-four dance music world this year have been people like The Shoes, DIM, MSTRKRFT, Herve, Jack Beats, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, SebastiAn, Teenage Badgirl, Justice, and I've never stopped loving Utah Saints, Chemical Brothers and Soulwax.
BoH - Any ideas about artists we’re going to hear about in the not-so-distant future?ETM - GRUM, Plugs, Le Castle Vania and look out for the return of Mylo, and the new Prodigy album which is going to surprise a lot of people and make the entire Nu Rave movement give up and go home.
BoH - You’ve obviously seen a lot of artists come and go. What do you think sets those still around from the rest of the crowd?ETM - If you make something timeless, if you don't attach yourself -musically- to a fad or a trend, then you'll get longevity.
BoH - Who are your greatest inspirations?ETM - First and foremost, Liam Howlett for teaching me that dance music could rock as much as rock music, and being the greatest beatmaker and tunesmith weve ever had. Chemical Brothers for their sense of joyous hand-in-the-air music, aimed always at the dancefloor, Orbital for the musicality, Soulwax and Tom Middleton for their eclectisism, Tim Garbutt of Utah Saints who inspired me to raise my game as a DJ, and Barry Ashworth and Adam Freeland for teaching me how to properly connect with a crowd.
BoH - What projects have you currently on the go?ETM - Its all about The Losers, a dance music production/remix outfit comprising me and Tom Bellamy, the beautiful one from The Cooper Temple Clause (a progressive indie-electronica band from Reading who were never as big as they deserved to be). We've remixed Rage Against The Machine, Candi Staton, The Presets, Slyde and the next Snow Patrol single, amongst many others, and weve nearly finished our debut album.
BoH - Are there any ideas for the not-so-distant future?ETM - We've just started doing it live... We played our first gig ever at The Dance Rocks Stage of The Secret Garden Party... It went surprisingly well, and we have a handful of gigs booked between now and Chistmas in the north and south of the UK. We just want to get the album away with a label we like and tour it. The live thing works a treat. Tom and I play everything, a lot of triggering, with live guitars, bass, keys and noises.
BoH - For the producers who browse these pages, what does your studio/work station consist of?ETM - Coming from a live band background, we favour Protools to make our tunes, with Propellerhead Reason and some sexy outboard gear, analogue keys and a Lord Skywave synth, of which there were only 10 ever made.
BoH - Your taste in music is quite eclectic. If only one genre were to survive, what would it be?ETM - Dance that rocks.
BoH - If you could host your own house music festival who would you invite and why?ETM - A 'Dance Music Festival' would have to be The Prodigy, because there's still nobody that can touch them live, but if it HAD to be 'HOUSE' music, I guess I couldn't have them, or Soulwax, so my more down-the-line choices would include Tiefschwarz, Boys Noize, Ewan Pearson, Audio Bullys and Slagsmalsklubben.
BoH - Would you headline or watch? (You can do only one!)ETM - If the Prodigy were playing, I'd support then watch, as I have done many times. Anyone else, I could follow without feeling threatened.
Eddy was also gracious enough to provide us with a track from his band, Losers' upcoming album. This is Friends Are False (Losers Wilson Says Aaron Mix).
You can listen to Eddy's show, The Remix on XFM every Friday evening from 10pm to 1am. For more on Eddy Temple-Morris follow the links below.
Eddy's MySpace /
Loser's MySpace /
The Remix on XFM
