Made In Sheffield - Now Then

Deadman: It all started going out to parties to see our
mates who’d gone off to uni. There’d be like 27 DJ parties,
all of us cutting our teeth for the first time on the decks
– passing the mic round – it was a pretty comfortable
environment to MC and a good learning ground really.
NT. When did you guys first get into promoting and
do you have any particular good or bad memories
from that time?
Walker: We started our first promotion which was ‘Jungle
Juice’ at Charles St in around March 2003 and while we
were there we got the VK bus….
Deadman: Yeah, it’s like a VK promotional double decker
bus - we had radio mics set up so we were driving round
town blasting out jungle and literally giving VK away to
anyone. There was this moment when all the older D ‘n’ B
crowd were all outside the Forum and we turned the corner
on this bus. I think that’s when they realised we were
insane and also really very dedicated to jungle.
NT. You guys are at the forefront of the dubstep
movement in Sheffield with Dark Crystal and label R8
Records. How did this come about?
Deadman: We set up R8 in the summer of 2006. I’d
probably first heard dubstep almost a year before that and
I did a Dark Crystal event in early 2006.
Rogue State: That was the moment when I decided that I
wanted to do dubstep full-time.
Junglist Alliance are the veritable dons
of Sheffield’s underground bass scene.
The masterminds behind such promotions
as Bass Bar, Dark Crystal & The Mad
Hatters Ball, they are also deeply involved
in the workings of Sheffield roots band
I Witness, and have been and continue to
be found hosting the mic at almost every
worthwhile bass-orientated event in the
city. Having successfully set out upon a
new path with their record label R8 whilst
continuing their non-stop touring, DJing,
promoting and MCing, we were lucky to
catch an hour of Mr Deadman, Walker
and Rogue State’s time to chat about
the past, present and future of their low
frequency-fuelled business.
NT. You guys are practically veterans of the
Sheffield Jungle, D ‘n’ B and bass scenes yet you’re
not even 25 years old. How young were you when
you got started?
Walker: I was definitely, absolutely not the legal age
to be doing anything, let alone be working the door at
Headcharge and DJing all over the place! I remember
performing on my sixteenth birthday at ‘Definition’ and
this was already a couple of years in, so we started really,
really young.
NT. What is R8’s structure like? How are you
releasing music and what has been the response you
have received?
Deadman: In terms of vinyl, we’ve had three releases of
500 copies and have sold them all. It always good to
release vinyl – people take you a bit more seriously and
it get you more kudos. On the digital releases the figures
have been around the same or a bit more.
Rogue State: The music has got out to a much wider
audience than that, though. People are always telling me
they’ve heard it pirated so if you actually take in all the
people that have the mp3s, then it’s a lot.
NT. Has this directly affected the number of
bookings you guys are receiving as DJs?
Rogue State: Yeah, I mean for the last couple of years I’ve
had quite a lot happening in Sheffield but now there are
definitely more people booking me out of town.
NT. What’s happening next for R8 Records and
Junglist Alliance?
Rogue State: R8 have a lot of new artists we are bringing
through – RSD, Twisted from Germany, and Sheffield artists
like Cryogenix, Autograff, Cryptic, Deadbeat and others –
so quite a lot of people really.
Deadman: Our own site is launching soon too and we
are going to be trying a lot of new things. For example,
chopping up mp3s before you buy them so you can
effectively make your own Rogue State remix. It’s still our
music but it is thinking about releases in a really new way.
r8records.co.uk
myspace.com/r8records
REG REGLER.
JUNGLIST ALLIANCE.
PAGe fifty-two.
low end business.