Roni Size

Roni Size’s the founder of Bristol drum ‘n’ bass collective Reprazent who won the Mercury Prize in ’97, and he’s a pioneer in dance music. He’s had several albums out since then and has worked with some incredible names. With drum ‘n’ bass firmly back in the charts these days, Reprazent are back with a blisteringly hot live performance and a great new album to show us how it’s really done. Playing worldwide to crowds who just can’t get enough, this legend of the Bristol scene and musical innovator will be at Latitude Festival this month to give Suffolk a proper kick up its arse. I spoke to the man himself about his career thus far and that time he turned Madonna down.

REWIND!

How are you doing mate?

I’m actually a little bit exhausted! I’ve had an amazing last few months. I’ve been to Tokyo, New Zealand, Australia, then we came back to the UK and played at Liverpool and did a big show in Bristol. It’s been a whirlwind but I wouldn’t change it for the world. I love what I do!

How did you first start getting into music, and when did you first discovered and started to create drum ‘n’ bass?

I was fortunate to grow up being surrounded by a family of music lovers; two brothers, a sister and my mum and dad. They would have parties where they’d play their old 7” records. One of my brothers was into reggae and the other was into hip hop, and my sister used to listen to pop music and sing around the house, so it all absorbed into me, the youngest. There wasn’t much to do back in the day; football, being mischievous, breakdancing or being a DJ, and that’s what I wanted to do, music. Bristol had a small number of music lovers and when we saw them starting to appear on the TV, like Nellee Hooper with Soul II Soul, it was incredible. There was this guy who we saw everyday on the telly! So then we wanted to do what he was doing…he wasn’t trying to be a pop star, he was doing what he normally did; he was an incredible inspiration to everyone from Bristol. So we started to make music. Smith & Mighty were around and had lots of studio equipment and space and free time, so we used their studio. We started messing around with a sound we first called ‘rave’, then ‘jungle’, then jungle techno’ and then it became “drum ‘n’ bass’.

Bristol must be very dear to your heart as you’ve lived there all you life, until recently. It’s been a hotbed of drum n bass activity as well as trip hop. How do you think the city has affected your music over the years?

Through the years Bristol’s been renowned for trip-hop acts like Tricky, Portishead, Massive Attack and The Wild Bunch, and it has a great authentic history. For my name to be placed next to those names is fantastic. Of course, we’re all still going as well! Drum ‘n’ bass and dance music is really popular at the moment, it’s all over the radio and TV. It’s really taken off again because there’s no other music like it, you know, it has it’s own tempo, it moves in its own way and keeps reinventing itself.

How did Reprazent start?

When I first started out making records we got approached by a few independent labels, but we set up our own, called Full Cycle and through putting records out on the underground we started getting approached by major labels like Talkin’ Loud and Mo Wax, because they’d become familiar with the sound. Once we’d decided to sign to Talkin’ Loud, we recorded and delivered the album. Then I was asked “So when are you gonna go live then?” and I said “Live??” I’d never even considered it before in my life! Once we’d talked it through and worked out how to do it, I put my studio on the stage and we decided to go out and be a band. We didn’t really have a name. We knew we were doing something very different for our scene and we knew that we had to represent, so that’s where we got the name from.

Reprazent’s New Forms won the Mercury Music Prize back in 1997. To what extent do you feel that this accolade helped raise the consciousness of people to drum ‘n’ bass?

It was a great moment for us. I’ve got no qualifications, I never finished school, I doubted myself educationally, but when I won the Mercury I had a new sense of self belief. I had tunnel vision for what I wanted to do and I followed it through. Winning the Mercury was like my reward for all those years of never winning anything, so for me it was a great time. Yeah it was a lot of pressure, but it was good pressure; we wanted it and we took it. Now when I travel the world, a lot of people tell me the first time they became aware of this form of music was at the Mercury in 1997 so for me that’s a massive testament.

How come you are touring again now and making new music?

I was never going to be a pop star, although the style of music we make is reaching number one all over the place these days. I honestly think we peaked too early; twenty years ago we were bang on the money! We just had to wait for everyone else to catch up! I see people like Chase & Status, Sigma, DJ Fresh and Pendulum who are commanding stages of tens of thousands and I look back at my career, like when I played Glastonbury, and I want that again. I want to be out there smashing it as well. I feel as vibrant as I did when I first started and can’t wait for the new music to come out.

You collaborated with people like Method Man and Zac de la Rocha back in 1999. What was that experience like?

When you sign to a major record label you write a wish list of people to work with and you hope that it comes true. For me, it did come true, I worked with a lot of my favourites, like Method Man, Gangstarr, and Zac. There were some as well who wanted to work with me, which was great. There were some people along the way who I said no to, which I regret now, like Madonna. I was so committed to my genre that I didn’t feel that Madonna had a place in that music. But when I look back I think I could have opened the doors earlier.

You’re playing at Latitude in June. How much of what we’ll see and hear be improvised on the night?

The live show is all live, it’s not improvised though, we go for ‘betterment’. So it’s a fully live band but we try to look at the performances and get better and better. It’s not programmed in, we don’t just press play and dance around a laptop, that’s not what we do. As a band I think we fill a valid gap; we bring an energy and a performance that no one else can bring. Number one we’re from Bristol and we’ve got this catalogue of music that we’ve built up over the past two decades, and number two, we also have our new music that we can just throw in there and give it a little bit of a brand new feeling.

Can you tell me a bit about your new album due this year, Do It For The Masses? What does the title mean to you?

When we talk about ‘the masses’, we’re talking about all those who come to all the festivals; they’re there at the front in the rain, no matter what and they know all the words to the songs. No disrespect to The X Factor or Britain’s Got Talent and all that, ‘cos I appreciate that, but we’re not talking about the masses who’ll scream at anything and everything. I’m talking about the masses who by the end of the summer have like 600 festival wristbands on and they’re going to keep them on. They bought their tickets early, they’ve mapped out who they’re seeing when. There are masses out there who just love the festival season, and they’re in it so hard. Those are the masses we’re talking about. There are a lot of us out there!

So what sort of material will there be on the new album? Has your sound developed?

Absolutely, you can only progress with your sound, but it still has the Reprazent favour. First and foremost you have to be able to rave to the music and you should also be able to put it on in your lounge and listen to it. It’s not going to be like New Forms, because that was a different time. I can’t wait to hear the feedback for it!

Are you going to play some new tracks at Latitude?

Absolutely! There’ll be stuff from In the Mode…lots of new stuff and also old stuff.

It’s pretty hard to dance to drum ‘n’ bass. What moves can you recommend we try out when we see you at Latitude?

Ha ha! The best way to dance to drum ‘n’ bass is with your partner, so you’ve got that memory; when the record comes on you can look at each other and say “Oh, I love this record!” and you have that moment together. I’ve always thought music is for sharing a moment or a memory which you can then take to your happy place!

Roni Size Reprazent: Live will be performing at Latitude Festival 2015. Find out more at latitudefestival.com.

Lizz Page