Biggabush revisited – from Rockers Hi-Fi to “A Different Style”

What first got you into music?

Probably having an older brother who was into playing the guitar and digging bands like Cream and Led Zeppelin when I was coming up to 10.  But I do remember a couple of key moments from when I was younger – the first was listening to Junior Choice with Ed Stewart and things like “Little White Bull” and “Barbara-Ann” by the Beach Boys (for which I was convinced the lyrics were “ Bar Bar Bar –  Bar Bar Barray”). The second was visiting some friends of my parents whose kids had a Dansette record player, the sort where you stack up 45s and they drop one by one onto the platter.  They had a couple of singles by The Who that made a big impression me.

I started playing guitar around this time, trying to work out riffs from records and the radio, listening to John Peel of course and buying my first records.

What were the Rockers Hi-Fi days like? Did you realise how sonically innovative and ahead of its time Rockers Hi-Fi was during the golden years?

It was quite a long period really, from 91-99!  At first we were two music lovers who had discovered raving and were approaching it from two different directions: Dick as a DJ and myself as a muso and sound engineer.  We used to listen to current stuff and get ideas for tracks but because we were into such a range of stuff already we built in much wider influences – dub, film soundtracks, hip hop, electronic music, krautrock, jazz, experimental music – which I think is why the Rockers music has stood the test of time and maybe has more depth than some of the early 90s dance stuff.  It wasn’t really a case of realising that we were innovative – that was where we were coming from.  Dick was much more in the world of club promotion and DJing in those days, I was more from the scene of post punk bands, music co-ops, DIY production, home recording and so on.  As time went on we became more bold with our range of influences, as on the Mish Mash album – but dub was always a key element.

It was quite challenging taking what was essentially a studio project on the road – which is what we decided to do after being dropped by Island Records after about a year.  We knew we had lots of fans in Europe so organised a tour all over, during which we secured a new record deal with Warners in Germany.  The way we made a live show out of it was to really do an enhanced DJ set – what we called Decks and Effects (before Plastikman had a similar idea…).  So Dick would spin a mix of his normal stuff along with dubplates of our own instrumentals to leave room for our live MCs, and I would drop samples and odd bits of noise along with effects etc.  Visually it was made much stronger by having two lighting guys – one doing film loops, oil wheels and cool analogue stuff, the other using state of the art “cyberlights” which could do loads of different effects and transform the whole venue.

What artists / producers were influencing you around that time?

It’s only fairly recently that I’ve realised how big an influence Shut Up and Dance and the Ragga Twins were on us!  Definitely their raw approach, simplicity of production, big basslines that hark back to dub records and sound systems.

I remember Dick coming into the studio with a bag of new tunes on a regular basis – early Metalheadz, Doc Scott, Alex Reese, 31 Recordings, Bukem, Mo Wax. So we were dabbling into drum and bass and trip hop in the early 90s.  But he’d be into things like Lalo Schifrin, David Axelrod, cheapo albums by Chaquito and other easy listening LPs that had some nice breaks on, spoken word stuff, anything with clean sounds to sample.

But the big source of inspiration for us was 70s dub and reggae: Mikey Dread, Sly & Robbie, Scientist, Johnny Osbourne (who we sampled on Push Push and who eventually appeared in the video for that track), Joe Gibbs, King Tubby and Lee Scratch Perry of course.

What’s the story of how Farda P ended up being your MC?

He was working the doors at Snobs night club where Dick DJ’d and he would come up behind the decks and freestyle, not even on a mic, he was just feeling the music – so Dick invited him to come into the studio to do some vocal drops and it just grew from there.  He’s a great guy to be around and I started to enjoy gigs much more once he was involved and taking the spotlight, as I was much more a backroom boy and wasn’t that comfortable just pressing the odd button onstage when I had been playing in bands for years, but didn’t have an instrument to play as virtually everything was now electronically produced.

How did Magic Drum Orchestra come about?

It grew out of drumming workshops I was doing around 2005; well in fact I started playing samba in Birmingham in the 90s and got the bug for that style of drumming.  So when we got the workshops up and running we started to look for people to join a samba band and learn Brazilian rhythms.  This was with Ralph Cree who I co-ran the MDO with till 2015.  We went through about 60 different people over 10 years and pummelled our ears in a garage every week. Hence the tinnitus!

Can you set the scene of how your iconic DJ Kicks was formed?

We often did our best stuff after dark and by this time we had our own studio in Birmingham over Ladbrookes Piano shop in Bristol Street.  You could watch glammed up people queuing for the Dome night club on the other side of the underpass, under the orange sodium lights.

This night the three of us went in – Dick had prepared a set, I had some effects machines set up and Patrick (Farda P) just freestyled it.  We did it all in a couple of takes with some herb and a few cans of Red Stripe.

Can you tell us about your work with Sonar Kollektiv and Stereo Deluxe post-Rockers?

Daniel Best from Sonar Kollektiv was setting up a 45s label called Best Seven and asked me to do the first release.  He gave me a basic idea of what he wanted and I immediately had an idea to do something which mixed a dancehall vibe with a funk feel, so for me the natural instrument to use was the clavinet.  The result was “Me & Me Princess”, which is pretty stripped back, just clav, synth bass, beats and Singing Bird’s vocals.  I ended up doing a whole Lightning Head album for Best Seven (which is now on Tru Thoughts of course along with stuff I released on Stereo Deluxe).

They had also approached me in the early 00s when I was doing remixes for people such as  Boozoo Bajou and Buelent and I did my first BiggaBush album (BiggaBush Free) for them in 2004, as well as a DJ Mix – Sound Sensation.

How did your love of percussion-focused Latin American music spawn your Lightning Head moniker?

Well as I mentioned I’d been into samba since the 90s and dabbling with percussion groups and baterias, so I was properly steeped in the music by the early 00s.  When I made Studio Don I was  imagining a cross-pollination of music between Cuba and Jamaica and the wider Caribbean, so there were elements of salsa, dub, son montuno, latin percussion, steel pans, samba – as well as the formative vibe of “Me & Me Princess”.

How would you describe the music of Biggabush?

It’s really the product of everything I’ve been into over the years, with different elements coming to the fore on different projects.  So it draws from a whole host of influences –  soundtracks, library music, acid house, jungle, beats and breaks, hip hop, post-punk, African music, prog rock, deep funk, electronic music, jazz, Latin, experimental and free music, rock, metal – I always say everything except trance and country music.

What does the future hold for you?

At the moment I’m really digging footwork, 90s trip hop and Zeuhl, as well as learning about modular synthesis, so who knows what might come out….

I’m also working on a full release for my black Albumen project which will feature remixes and alternative versions; we have remixes in the bag for a re-release of “Me and Me Princess” on Tru Thoughts, plus the ‘Different Styles’ remix EP of tracks from my ‘Freevisited’ album.

You can check out all of BiggaBush’s Tru Thoughts releases via his artist profile: https://tru-thoughts.co.uk/artists/biggabush/