J Da Flex

J DA FLEX

My name’s J Da Flex. People often ask me, "Where does that name come from?" It was the first name I thought of after listening to people like Karl “Tuff Enuff” Brown and Matt “Jam” Lamont. It just seemed to be the in thing to have something linking your name to ... I don’t know, the way you might work the decks. That was pretty much it for me. For me, it was J Da Flex, and I thought, “You know, that works.” It had a ring to it, and it was a Matt “Jam” Lamont, it was like a Karl “Tuff Enuff” Brown. It had a ring to it, so I stuck to it.

TORSTEN SCHMIDT

There's a lot of confusion going on regarding names and labels and all that kind of stuff. How would you call the music you are playing these days, or what is the stuff we're going to talk about?

J DA FLEX

It comes under the umbrella of garage, and that's the root of the music.

TORSTEN SCHMIDT

Are we talking New Jersey deep garage?

J DA FLEX

No, we're talking UK garage. It originated from the US dubs. The b-sides, really. UK cats got involved involved it.

TORSTEN SCHMIDT

When was that?

J DA FLEX

I got involved in this kind of music back in ’95, ’94-’95. I lived in a small place called Huddersfield, and I was hanging about with a guy called Andy Jay. He was the main local DJ in that small town, and I was hanging about with him and had no real intention of being a DJ. I was just kind of in it for the music. I really enjoyed the music at that point. Going to the parties, it was more of a “vibes” thing for me. Living in Huddersfield, I didn't really know much about the scene. Andy Jay was my closest link to the music scene coming from London. Hanging about with him, I'd go to record shops with him. We traveled to Huddersfield, we traveled to Leeds, Manchester as well, going to the record shops. I was more of a listener, more of a punter. He was a DJ obviously. I was a punter. And I’d help him choose tracks, which he and I thought were kind of best suited for the dance floors, basically.

TORSTEN SCHMIDT

So, you were the selector and he was the technician?

J DA FLEX

Something like that, but I didn't get paid for it, unfortunately. As my curiosity increased, I wanted to attempt at being a DJ. My first attempt was when Andy was doing a mix CD for other promotions that he wanted to get involved in for other clubs. After he had finished his mix, I had asked him if I could have a mix and he showed me a few tricks. It kind of went from there, really. That's where my journey started back in '95.

TORSTEN SCHMIDT

You said it was all about the dubs and the US dubs. What kind of records are we talking there?

J DA FLEX

We're talking the B-sides of Masters at Work, Francois K, Louie Vega, people like that. They would have a vocal side, which should probably be the A-side on that. The dubs would be obviously on the B-side. I originated from the drum & bass scene. I was very much kind of hip-hop, then drum & bass and my roots were very dub-y. Very music-orientated as opposed to vocal-orientated. My ears twitched at the sound of a good beat or a good bassline.

TORSTEN SCHMIDT

So you weren’t into the big diva thing at all?

J DA FLEX

Not really. I wasn’t opposed to it. I enjoyed a good sing-a-long every now and then, but I was more beat-orientated. That's what really drove me. This is one of the first tracks that got me interested in the scene.

(music: Unknown)

That’s just a general idea of the kind of music that got me involved in DJing. Very dub-orientated, beat-orientated, no vocals at all. And at that time, the scene was very drug-orientated. It wasn’t much about drinking alcohol and whatever, having a good time. Back when I was young, it was more of a case of you doing your drugs, you’re getting into the party vibe. That’s pretty much where it started for me. I’m a clean boy now.

(music: Louie Vega - Unknown)

For this type of music, when it started, there was a lot of imports, a lot of stuff coming from America. As a lot of the UK producers got involved and got into the studios, there was no need for the UPS shippings. A lot of people would go to local distributors, hand over like 500 records to a distributor and a distributor would probably come around into the record shops. Or you’d press up 500 copies yourself and you do your own footwork. So there was no particular best day to come into a record shop because you might have a producer coming in on Monday having this fresh track or you might have him coming in on Friday. So, if you were eager and wanted fresh music, you’d be there every other day, every three days or whatever. Or some people just stick to the weekend. Going out to the record shops on the weekend. At the time there was Release the Groove in Soho, there was Flying Records in Soho. There’s Black Market Records in Soho, and there was Uptown Records. And you just circulate these shops in central London and you’d have Criminal Records in East London. You’d have various shops, so if you are hungry for it and you wanted the fresh music, you’d have to take a proper day out and travel the whole of London to get all the music. And I guess that’s what helps to build your name on a pirate station. You can’t just get onto a pirate station and play the same 10,000 tracks that everyone else is playing. You’ve got to be making an effort or get in contact with the producers or loitering in the shops, like what I’ve done. I got to the stage where I was calling the numbers on the labels to bug the producers to see if I could get exclusives, and that’s exactly how you made your name on a radio. I started off on a station, and I’d done the graveyard shift, which is 4 to 6 in the morning. Soon after the manager realized that I was getting a lot of exclusive music, then you progress to a more recognizable spot on the radio, and that’s where you begin to build your name on the radio. In London, it’s not just the garage scene or the hip-hop scene. It’s all genres of music. There’s a big pirate scene in London. You could flick from one end of the FM dial to the other end of the FM dial, and you could find in a region maybe 20 pirate stations. You could drive around London and see the state blocks and see antennas. It’s a real big thing. It was then and it still is now.

TORSTEN SCHMIDT

How did you find your way into pirates?

J DA FLEX

I got involved in the pirate thing when I moved down to London in ’97 just after I got my job in the record shop. A friend of mine, locally, told me that there was a pirate station. I tuned into the frequency of the pirate station, and the DJ at the time, he must have been giving out the number for shouts and requests. And I called up the number, and I asked to speak to the station manager and that’s how I got in basically. I spoke to the station manager and said, “Look, I’m interested in DJing.”

You have to do a lot of namedropping, but without trying to be arrogant or being too cocky at the same time. I mean, I’ve done a bit of namedropping, said I knew this person, that person, whatever. And he had time for me. I gave him my demo, and he gave me that 4 to 6 spot, which was my starting point.

TORSTEN SCHMIDT

When you speak about name dropping and pirates, can you enlighten us about the importance or non-importance of the MC and all this “Shoutout to the milkman” business?

J Da Flex

Back at that time, the MC wasn’t such a big deal. The MC was more… his job was to help the DJ. You know, crowd participation, get people involved. It was more of a sidekick thing. Whereas now, the MCs, they’re kind of an entity within themselves. They’re just doing their thing. It’s completely different now to what it was then.

(music: Tuff Jam – unknown)

J DA FLEX

If you want to be the best at what you are doing, you’ve got to be prepared to go that step further to get the extra record that that person hasn’t got or to make the extra contact so you could play in that particular gig. That’s all it is. It’s no kind of, “I’ll kill you for that spot.” It’s not like going to a war. It’s just a case of you want to be the best at what you are doing.

AUDIENCE MEMBER

I’m just curious to know how the music that you are playing is now, which is obviously what you started out listening to, how it mutated into the sound that is now called garage.

J DA FLEX

I will get to that, I’ve got a couple of examples. I mean, it started out very soulful as you know. And there was a collaboration with a guy call ed M.J. Cole and Ramsey & Fen. This is one of the tracks for me which started to change the sound of the scene.

TORSTEN SCHMIDT

Already we got a little bit of a post drum & bass sneaking in.

J DA FLEX

Yeah, that’s what it was. You’ve got the progressions in the sounds and the basslines. I’ve got a perfect example of where the scene actually changed. With this track, a guy called DJ Zinc he started producing what he didn’t like to call garage. It was more of a slowed down drum & bass that he was doing.

(music: DJ Zinc – “138 Trek”)

TORSTEN SCHMIDT

On the label, we got part of the dilemma already. There were a lot of people coming to London, living in London, listening to tracks like this and they are freakin’ out, like, "Where can I get it?"

J DA FLEX

Exactly. I was in Baltimore, like five weeks ago and I’m still getting people asking me, "Where did you get these breaks from?" It’s still very UK-orientated. You’ve got a lot of people around the world making breakbeat, making techno, but I think what we are doing in London is still slightly different to what everyone else is doing.

TORSTEN SCHMIDT

But not only the whole exclusivity thing. I mean, you’ve got a VIP mix. Everyone has been playing that, and you are just like, "I want that track." How long did it take for people to get that one? Ages!

J DA FLEX

Obviously, if you’re working in a record shop – and at that time, I had made my links with various producers, various record labels – you’d get hooked up. And I think I had this [track] maybe eight weeks before it hit the road. And that was just an advantage, a perk of working in a record shop: you get everything first.

This was a landmark tune. After this tune was released, the whole scene changed. Then you had people like Zed Bias making tracks. [switching the record] He was coming from the drum & bass era. And he also got involved in making UK garage or 2step. That’s what it was called at the time.

4Hero, Bugz in the Attic, them boyz ... they’re broken beat. They’re more future jazz, future London jazz. A lot of stuff that I play on the radio now is, I kinda like to go across the board. I play some old school where I’m coming from. I play some current, and I like to kind of, educate. My show is called Underground Knowledge. It’s where I get to educate people. I’m completely different from where Tim might be coming from. He’s already made his name. And 1Xtra is a new radio station. The beauty about 1Xtra is the fact that all the DJs involved in 1Xtra are pirate DJs. We’re all coming straight from pirate stations, and we have all just been given this opportunity to play on legal radio.

TORSTEN SCHMIDT

So you’re the Corleone family in Godfather 2? Now you’re all getting lectured and trying to get it sorted out?

J DA FLEX

It was just a perfect opportunity, and like I said, all the DJs on the station are coming from pirate level. And that’s where the hunger, the enthusiasm is. When they were looking for DJs for 1Xtra, they didn’t want any real established DJs. They didn’t want anyone who’d already made their name famous for any scene or genre that they were involved in. I guess it was a hunger thing. Because if you are given the opportunity to play on a legal station coming from a pirate, you're still going to have that same pirate hunger. Whereas, I’m still going out there looking for the best tracks. There are three other shows on 1Xtra and I’m always trying to be the best garage show. The hunger is still there for me. I’m still grafting, still calling at the people, calling labels on the records and just pestering people for new tracks.

TORSTEN SCHMIDT

Obviously, when you get all these people taken away from the pirates, there must be a lot of hungry kids moving into their spots which are left void now?

J DA FLEX

I mean, there’s always someone who wants to take your spot. So when you leave the pirate station, there’s always someone who is hungry to fill your shoes on the pirate station. And one thing that we were told on 1Xtra was, “Don’t get too complacent. Although you are on a national radio station now, don’t be complacent. Because as fast as you’re employed is as quick as you be dropped if you become complacent if you are not on the top of your game.”

I had a chat with the boss, and basically, it was in case of everyone who was employed on 1xtra, they were an authority figure in their genre. And at that point, just before I was going to 1Xtra, I ran a record label called Ghost. We were kind of innovators. We completely changed the sound again, because there was a whole vocal side of garage, and as I was coming from drum & bass, as I mentioned earlier, we were bringing the drum & bass basslines in there as well. Our sound was very minimal.

TORSTEN SCHMIDT

Got any examples of that?

J DA FLEX

This is one of my first releases on my label Ghost.

(music: Ghost – “The Club”)

That was the first side. It was called “At the Club.” That was done by Blaze. The next track is called “Two Thousand.”

(music: Ghost – “Two Thousand”)

TORSTEN SCHMIDT

Compared to the earlier stuff, we lost a beat or two in the pattern?

J DA FLEX

Yeah, definitely. It went from a 4/4 beat, which is your house structure, to a 2-step. It actually came from a track by Tina Moore. I can’t remember the name of the guy who produced the track, but that was actually a US track. It moved away from the 4/4 structure and had this 2-step vibe to it. It was like a full vocal, and I think that’s where the 2-step sound was coming from. Although they might claim for it to be from London, I think that was the first track Tina Moore, “Never Let You Go” in which I heard a 2-step beat. That’s where the whole 2-step derived from in my opinion. It just changed the scene. It went from a 4/4 dubby vocal to your complete dubs, your RIPs were making all the heavy basslines, the Reese basslines, the drum & bass basslines to M.J. Cole doing his thing and then the 2-step.

The scene was kind of forking off all the time. People kind of being creative in their own right and just trying to make something completely different. Where we came in, we were doing a 2-step thing, but with drum & bass bass sounds just doing something completely different to what anyone else was doing.

(music: Ghost – unknown)

It was just a case of experimenting in the studios, basically. We'd lay down a 2-step beat, and we just tried to find the most ridiculous, the dirtiest, the hardest bassline we could. That’s where the label came from, that’s where Ghost came from, and that’s where we really made our name. Not for trying to do what anyone else is doing at the time. That was fresh. We’ve done that back in 2000 and there was no one doing anything like that at the time. So that’s where we started to build our name.

TORSTEN SCHMIDT

By that time, with the particular situation in London with all the labels, all the media and stuff, the second time around you had a lot of public attention put on your scene with the weirdest stereotypes. How do you survive all these ups and downs, like, "Hey, we all love you, we want to sign you, we want to give you a free house, a free car or whatever?" And then, two weeks later, "No, you are rubbish."

J DA FLEX

I think the media and the record companies really, they mess up your scene. You start with something which is fresh, and over time, it becomes more mainstream. And when it becomes more mainstream, obviously you get a load of press, and record companies wanna get involved in it.

At that point, that was the start of the end of the scene, basically. Where major companies would start throwing £60 thousand or £120 thousand at you for a single. Not an album deal, but a single deal. For one 12" they would give you like 120 grand. And kids want money. There were people that wasn’t even making this type of music, and they caught wind that the record companies were throwing this ridiculous amount of money at you for doing a 12". Everyone was making it. It wore it right down. You lost the real essence of the underground with it becoming more mainstream. You’d hear tracks on washing up liquid-adverts and things like that. From when you switch on the TV and hear tracks on dry commercials then you know your scene is in trouble.

TORSTEN SCHMIDT

Are there any songs you played on white label you regret having played?

J DA FLEX

That’s a good question, actually. As a working, up-and-coming DJ, if you wanted to get gigs, you had to play what the crowd wanted. There were certain clubs I played out that I’d have a cheesy box where I played tracks I didn’t really want to play. That cheesy box would actually come out. Yes, there were a number of tracks I’ve played that I didn’t particularly want to play, but at the end of the day, it’s a case of trying to make a name for yourself as well.

TORSTEN SCHMIDT

A cheesy name then?

J DA FLEX

Not really a cheesy name. I use the opportunity. I might play one or two cheesy tracks, and then I draw for something.

TORSTEN SCHMIDT

Are you probably just afraid to admit that you liked Craig David at some stage?

J DA FLEX

Craig David? Shit, he’s talented, right? He was a talented guy. That’s why he broke through. Even people like Daniel Bedingfield. His first track was a garage track. If you are talented, you go a long way, and I respect that more than anyone who’s coming in just for the money.