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Harvey
was recently a guest at the Red Bull Music Academy. Go
here to read
more and check out some long interview clips – one on one sitdown style
with the Cult leader.
—
(Map of Africa blurb from ID magazine)
click to see bigger
—
(Map of Africa bio 2005)
"Map Of Africa" is a band featuring the
combined forces of legendary DJ/musician Harvey and all around production
genius Thom Bullock.
Having grown up together in the wilds of Fen-land East Anglia
they have found their way into a studio built in the old barn of a commune
compound deep in the woods and rivers of Northern New York State. From
here they have single-handedly written and recorded their first album
of songs that, though they are clearly the work of individual vision,
can at times remind you of the bands Can and Hawkwind or for that matter
Godley and Creme.
Harvey is known for his priceless Black Cock releases
and having ushered in the current wave of re-edit hysteria as well as
his unique remix and production style that along with his international
DJ performances has kept him in a position of cult status amongst disco
and dance connoseurs for the past 2 decades.
Bullock is most easily recognized
for his role in his DJ partnership Rub n Tug but may also be remembered
as the man behind the music of an earlier NY super nova; A.R.E. Weapons.
Now as well as his work with Harvey he is recording an LP under the
handle of Bobbie Marie and producing several other groups all for the
brand new and super funky "Whatever
We Want Records".
In the winters night
Let the fire smoke
Send the signal up
And let the people know
—
click to see bigger
—
(interview
from 8inch magazine, 8.2005)
Harvey, if someone does an internet search with your
name, he opens a whole can of worms. On internet forums like djhistory.com,
you achieved a god-like status as cult leader numero uno for all the
odd ones out there. How do you feel about that reputation and the need
of your fans to have every single song and track on your numerous mixes
identified that are floating around?
Yeh it’s definitely crazy and flattering, I don’t really
check any of them out I’m not that computer friendly though I
do like to cruise e-bay – I think it’s great that people
are interested enough to want to find out what the tracks I play are,
I play some pretty crazy shit – Get ready for the next, I’m
going to do my own label - things will fall out every once in a while,
I always thought once someone finally got all the tracks it’d
be time to do another – I’m not sure anyone has yet though.
You moved, when exactly by the way, from London to Los Angeles. What
were your main reasons, apart from the better weather?
I’ve been out of the UK for quite a few years now though I spend
my time between upstate NY where Thomas and I record, LA and Hawaii – I
try to spend two weeks a month there at my gallery/club. It was time
for a change more than anything I was doing really well in Europe and
some people thought it was suicide but it’s been a creative rebirth
it’s always good to change it up.
How is the scene in LA at the moment. Speaking
from internet experience there seem to be some nice things going
on. Especially, if one looks to San Diego and the Lounge Candela’s
thing. What is the story about that one?
LA is a strange beast, I get my jollys but as far as regular goes
it’s
almost best to not play there too often, it’s crazy there are
literally millions of people in LA but the scene can be really small – there’s
a bit of a driftwood mentality there too as in if someone is successful
they kick anyone off their bit of wood that shows interest or is perceived
as a threat. The positives of LA far outweigh any negatives, our annual
beach party at Zuma is pretty hard to beat, I’m pretty sure there
is nothing like it anywhere in the world, SF has some great parties
Candelas is small and oh so good, LA is great for the one offs and
the crazy Hollywood scene. There’s great radio in America too – I
see myself organising so many more things out here – Hawaii will
turn into a destination and I’d like to get some kind of once
a year happening together there.
You also have something going on in Hawaii. Could you please elaborate
a little bit on that one? Hawaii seems to be the perfect place for
having a party in this world!
A space in Hawaii is a dream come true made possible by other people
for me to just turn up and lord over really, Right now we are trying
to get some sound system sponsorship to beef it up and we are finally
in a position to invite guests to come and play. We are a gallery
space and showcase great cutting edge art, often overlooked in Hawaii – Christmas
and NYE is a big time for us and we plan to have a great exhibition
up for that period as well as some great nights planned I would advise
anyone thinking of taking a break at that time to come to Oahu. You
can check it out at HYPERLINK "http://www.thirtyninehotel.com" www.thirtyninehotel.com
we’ve been getting some nice press we have been featured in
the Hawaiian airlines inflight magazine for a few months.
Could you please describe a little bit of your musical background?
Id est, what were your first steps as a DJ or musician, what were your
favourite artists and djs and how did the whole dance music thing start
for you?
My mom used to play great records to me as a kid – I’m
lucky I am surrounded by friends and experiences that constantly inspire
me, I was a drummer in punk bands from a really young age John Peel
played our stuff on the radio when I was 13. Then I took the same route
most people my age did getting a pair of decks and cutting up breaks – I
was a crews DJ which is really how the whole Tonka thing came about,
I was a better DJ than a breaker or graffiti artist.
What was the Tonka Sound System?
We were a collective of alternative types DJ’s musicians, set
designers, sound people and we put things together purely for the love
of playing – It was almost like a cult ha ha– with lots
of cute small girls running around as I remember… Myself Chocci
and Rev were the main DJ’s and we spawned a whole generation
of DJ’s like The Idjuts, Garth and Markie. We would haul those
big yellow speakers all over the UK. We played the Zap in Brighton
once a month then afterwards we’d haul the speakers onto the
beach at Black Rock and party till the sun came up and beyond and nobody
bothered us. David Sims took some great photos of the Tonka crew I’d
like to get my hands on.
Nights like “Moist”, “New hard Left” or
your tenure at the Ministry Of Sound are legendary and seem to
have had a huge impact on a whole generation of British selectors.
What was your point with those nights, what were the legendary
happenings and did you always like to mix things up and serve a
different meal than your counter peers?
Heidi was really the brain and the balls behind those things, she
always sees really well what’s happening next, we would talk about people
like Larry and Francois and she would say lets find em and get em to
play – they are artists all they want to do is show their craft
and be appreciated. Then she would be out all over the place spreading
the word to the fashion freaks she associated with. Believe it or not
at the time it wasn’t an easy sell for any of those nights, we
were putting DJ’s on all night long when you could go to a club
round the corner and see one an hour for 6 hours – we had to
destroy a lot of peoples perceptions and she convinced the clubs it
was a good way to keep evolving. She’s doing her thing now in
LA she had Madlib, Peanut Butter Wolf and Jay Rock play a grammy party
she organised – they tore the house down and it was one of the
best nights LA has seen this year, you had the likes of Quinten Tarrentino,
Jay Z, Mos Def, Tony Alva at one end of the room and friends from London
like Frank Tope and Basement Jaxx at the other all going crazy for
these guys. Usher and RZA were freestyling through the headphone’s
at one point – Yeh that girl really does know how to throw
a party.
Together with Gerry Rooney and your Black Cock
joint venture, you were also at the forefront of the whole editmania.
At least, in Europe. What do you think about the whole edit business
nowadays? “Edit” here
and “edit” there, seems to be all the rage since the
mouse substituted the razor blade.
I was aware of the whole edit thing that came out of the US and paradise
garage scene and there were tracks I would play two copies of or
record them to the reel to mess around with as I was Djing and re-editing
for me was just an extension of that. When you have a residency you
are playing records week after week breaking new stuff and it’s
a way to keep things fresh and exciting and put your personality on
the music that people are getting to know, I was into disco loops at
that time and funnily enough some stuff I had made for myself was made
into actual tunes that were released – I was never comfortable
doing that, so much of that stuff got put out credited not to the
original artists but the DJ some producers made quite nice careers
out of it.
What are current producers, musicians or disc jockeys you fancy listening
to?
I always have a great time hanging out and listening to Thomas
and Eric. I’d more like to hang out with some buddies more than
anything people like Ivan S and Romain, the mad crew in Norway, Oslo.
Gerry and I could play records to each other for weeks and still not
get through em all. We’re trying to get hold of a bunch of people
to come and play with me out in Hawaii, when they’re stateside
I know people out there would love to hear the likes of those guys
and people like Giles, Norman, Francois.
What is the story with your new project “Map Of Africa”?
Which label will it be on and when can we expect something that is
not “white label”?
It’s myself and DJ Thomas. It’s our band we have finished
an album and are just putting the sparkle on it. I sing, the first
12" is just out on Whatever We Want records and it’s really
just a hand to hand thing. The next single everyone tells us is great
and then the album will follow that. You can go to www.whateverwewantrecords.com
to find out more. We’ve been asked to do live gigs and we will
do a few next year, we had a few rehearsals with our band in NY and
it’s pretty exciting stuff. It’s a family affair Carlos
who owns the label is a great friend I designed the artwork Michael
K of Stussy is getting the merchandising together – I designed
a great t shirt. We’re really pretty fucking dangerous musically
and well in everything really. I wouldn’t want to be our tour
manager.
You have been deejaying for quite some years now. Have you ever
reached that point, wehre you were so fed up with the whole circus
that you wanted to become a Carthusian monk?
I always avoid the circus, I’ve been on the brink of it a few
times but then I always disappear off up my arse. I live a pretty nice
life I get to do what I like, when I like, how I like if there’s
no waves in Hawaii and the guest DJ’s have it taken care of I
can go to New York, when I’ve damaged my liver partying in NY
I can head off to LA. I’m constantly running off.
As one of the
recent pioneers of the genre, why did the “Balearic” thing
come back so heavily? Are people tired of the same old, same old
4/4 patterns?
I never stopped playing so called balearic music – I play so
much of that stuff in LA and California people really dig it out there – it
goes so well with the feel and climate of the place. At the annual
beach party I always have a moment where I think this is what people
think Ibiza will be like, all beautiful people dancing on the beach,
amazing chilled out tunes but then you have perfect waves out in front
of you with dolphins swimming around. I play Balearic music the world
over in fact they really get into it in NYC too but there you have
to mix it up with the ugliest heaviest shit anyone ever heard – you
know it’s the light and the dark and I like to push it all
the way both ways, ha ha.
That’s all for now and thanks for the
reading (and answering) those silly questions!
—
Seb's
Interview with Harvey 24th Dec 1999(?)
DJ Harvey is one of the Hottest
underground players of the last 10 years, one of the original scratch
DJ's, Harvey went on to become one of the pioneers of the UK house
scene. Next year Harvey is set to shock us all with his first album
project, which he's currently producing in a secret studio location.
Almost 'Beck' like in his approach Harvey is a man of many alents,
he sings like Jim Morrisson, he's a drummer and produces all of his
music in a unique and organic way. He's definately going to be one
of the characters to watch next year, in the meantime you can catch
his two hour retrospective of house Essential mix on Radio 1 Boxing
Day.
Introduce yourself:
DJ Harvey
Describe your DJing style, in 3 Words:
'Long, eclectic, journey' or 'better than yours' (ha ha ha)
What do you find
the most fulfilling, DJing, drumming or producing?
All three, DJing for the instant interaction and response. Drumming because
bashing the hell out of my drum kit sure does get out the frustration, producing
because it's a great honour to be asked to work alongside some of my heroes
like Ian Brown or electronic and also producing your own records and hearing
people play them is amazing.
I get loads of strange requests when I'm DJing,
what's the strangest one you've had?
'Hurry up and get off, we're only here for Seb'. But seriously, once I had
a G-string thrown at me in the booth of the Ministry, and at one gig a girl
told me she was a stripper and would I like to have a private show, so I said
'yes, right her, right now - so she obliged right there on top of the booth
as I was playing - and she went the Full Monty.
What is your favourite club?
Oh my god, there's so many. The Ministry when I was resident was amazing, Electric
Chair in manchester is awsome, Gold in Tokyo, Pasha in Ibiza, fabric - I'm
so indecisive, sorry.
What else do you love other than music?
Other than music i love eating great food, very fast motorbikes and even
faster women - typical boy stuff.
Do you have any non-music related interests/hobbies?
My biggest hobbies are skateboarding and surfing - I recently broke my
arm doing the former and was in plaster for 2 months - still managed to
DJ though, and now my hands are insured for a small fortune.
What will you be
doing on the eve of the Millennium?
I will be playing one of my long eclectic sets for The End in london, I will
be taking over AKA, the bar attached to the club, and playing all night long.
People have the freedom to wander between the club and the bar as they wish
and I get to drink their wicked cocktails all night long.
If you weren't DJing
on New Year's Eve, what would you be doing?
I'm on tour in Singapore and Japan all over Xmas until 30th December so to
be honest I'd probably be sleeping. Mind you surfing somewhere exotic stealing
millennium kisses off the natives would be quite nice, or maybe you and I
should go down the local and get totally pissed, kick the roadshow DJ off
and play all his records - altogether now "and it's hi-ho silver lining!"
—
Liner notes taken from DJ HARVEY's Late Night Sessions cd
that came out on Ministry
Of Sound in 1996.
Harvey's
long involvement in and love of music began at the tender age of
13 when he and two older friends formed a new wave band called 'Ersatz'
(Cheap Substitute) who recorded their first track in 1978. By 1981
he had moved on to a new band imaginatively titled 'Your Dinner'
which harvey describes as having a Madness vibe with more satirical lyrics!
He also at this time set up a label called 'Leisure Sounds' to release
their material as well as offerings from the other aspiring bands
they were collaborating.
This early involvement with music burgeoned through his love of drums
into experimenting with breakbeats and tired & disillusioned
with the live music scene, he began to lose himself in his growing
collection of old Disco and Hip-Hop.
His first major break as a DJ came with his sets at 'Wet' where he
played alongside Breeze and Ian B (Eon). It was a mixed club that
allowed them to experiment with the crowd by combining a wide variety
of musical styles as well as slipping in the odd bit of poetry!
By the mid 80's Harvey teamed up with some friend from Cambridge to
form the legendary 'Tonka' Sound System. From their early warehouse
parties to the infamous monthly monday night jams at the Zap in Brighton.
Harvey, Choci & Rev treated
Tonka's huge following to a rare blend of Hip-Hop, Reggae, Electro, Classics
and smatterings of House in the latter days.
House music was now an integral part of Harvey's set and more DJs were
supporting this exciting new phenomenon. Harvey found himself at numerous
warehouse parties including the notorious 'Freedom' events alongside the
likes of Paul 'Trouble' Anderson, Norman Jay, Judge Jules and Danny Rampling.
The parties created headline news, flying revellers to Amsterdam for mad
weekends and taking over huge warehouses for parties that would carry on
well into the next day. It was at this time that the organizer of these
parties , Kevin Simpson became good friends with Harvey, and when Freedom
came to and end they would go on to have a fruitful relationship with future
projects.
By now a sought-after DJ on the House circuit Harvey agreed to become resident
at 'Solaris' and while playing there he met up with Marbo, organizer of the
first House club in Japan the result of which being a tour of Japan which
has been repeated annually ever since.
As if to reaffirm his status. Harvey went on the '!90! tour Ibiza organized
by Flying's Charlie Chester and blew everyone away with his uncompromising
mix of music. It was here that he met Heidi Lawden, then involved with the
club 'Yellow Book'. Between them they set up 'Moist', a club dedicated to
the ideals and the vibe of the 'The Paradise Garage' and played host to
legends such as Larry Levan, Francois Kevorkian and Kenny Carpenter to
name but a few. His relationship with Heidi would be cemented further when
in July '92 Heidi gave birth to their son, Harley.
At about this time Harvey proved himself to be multi-talented when he was
asked by Kevin Simpson from the 'Freedom' parties to play percussion for
a new band he had just started to manage called 'Jamiroquai'. This was
the beginning of many great guest appearances for the likes of Marshall
Jefferson, Mary J. Blige, Ashley Beedle, T-empo and many more.
An important facet of Harvey's 'sound ' is the mixing up of classics with
fresh house sounds which led him to set up his own label "Black Cock Records" to
release records made by him, as a kind of DJ reference for the leftfield
train spotters of the world! This work in the studio led onto remix work
for artists such as The Police as well as a number of projects for Ministry
Of Sound's two label's, 'Sound Of Ministry' and 'Open' culminating in the
formation of the act 'Persuasion' with keyboard player Pete Z.
Having been part of The Ministry from it's early days, he still cherishes
a pink G-String that was thrown into the DJ booth one night whilst he was
in the mix, that he's actually had framed! His Versatility manner that
he was playing both Fridays and Saturdays before being offered a residency
at 'Open All Hours' on Fridays with Darren Emerson where he grew a loyal
following for his 'last set general weirdness' before moving on to his
Saturday night slot at 'Rulin' with CJ Makintosh in November '94. Again
Ministry regulars came to appreciate Harvey at his best doing the 6-10am
'graveyard shift' playing a melange of classics, deep jazzy house and general
leftfield vibes that the loyal band of music lovers and serious groovers
have come to regard as part of the evening that is their own.
The 'Late Night Session' is meant to be a snapshot of that part of the
evening, but there in only one place to hear it in its true state and that's
at 8am on a Sunday morning in the Ministry's Boom Boom Room! – Jim Masters & Simone
Young
—
read more about Harvey on the following links...
• Harvey interview
in Faith
fanzine.
• Swine
magazine has a humorous talk with R.V.
• JahSonic's
Harvey page. Short
interview and some setlists.
• Now
Toronto asks Harvey what's in his crate.
• Philly's Citypaper blurb.
• The "other" DJ
Harvey.
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