Roni Size – Interview

Roni Size and crew Reprazent broke open the world of drum ‘n’ bass with the phenomenal album New Forms.
Roni learned the fundamentals of hip-hop through the area’s sounds systems, house parties, and underground clubs. It was in Bristol where he hooked up with labelmates DJ Krust, Suv, and DJ Die at the 1990 Glastonbury Festival. The four stayed in contact, eventually the Full Cycle label. The label was formed as an outlet for their entrance into drum ‘n’ bass. The Full Cycle sound is a subtle mix of jazz and soul with jump-up rhythms and world beat references spanning from Jamaican sounds to ’50s be-bop and the Motown sound.

New Forms launched the crew to the center of the electronica genre. They came together again to release the potent In The Mode, full of powerhouse beats and MCs Method Man and Rage Against the Machine’s Zack De La Rocha.

Recently I had the chance to talk one on one with Krust. Krust has been there from the beginning and is one of the founding members of Full Cycle. Krust’s stock has risen from the releases of solo projects and his part of the acclaimed New Forms. Krust not only spoke about the state of his music, but of its history and future. He was never lacking in quotes and intelligent insight. It didn’t take long to realize why his music always seems to set standards for music and the mind.

I’m sort of a layman when it comes to electronic music. I like groups, not really genres per se, and I don’t know that I could tell drum ‘n’ bass from anything else. Do you think electronic music is so hard to wrap your head around?

I think if you love music and are interested in music then you’ll find it and it will be interesting for you. I don’t think it’s necessarily a hard thing. I know a lot of people say it’s really fast and then they realize that there is another tempo they can listen to. Then they say this isn’t so fast because they really hear it. And then they get into other forms of it. My thing about drum ‘n’ bass is that you can’t dislike it because there are so many forms of it and one of those are bound to get you. I’ve seen people come up to me and whine that they don’t like the music, but as soon as they find a vibe in it that they like then they are in it. There is so much variety in this music that you can’t dislike it.

It seems like people can become intimidated by the many different styles.

I just think people are afraid of new things. Also you have to realize that there are people out there that are diehard fans of their genre and they don’t want to go and listen to anything else. There are people who listen to hip-hop and only hip-hop and that is that. They aren’t interested in anything else. There are people who listen to acid, house, trance and don’t care about nothing else. They only way they hear it is by accident like getting in someone’s car who is listening to it and realize it’s okay. We all do it. I can also be surprised by things I wouldn’t normally listen to. I’m open. If you aren’t open, what are you? If you want to hear it you’ll hear it, if you don’t you won’t.

When you brought in Method Man and Zack De La Rocha did you plan on bringing them on or did you have a track and realize those guys were right for the part?

The idea was always there to work with someone from Wu. With Zack, Roni worked with him before and wanted to again. Rahzel took the beat box vibe and worked it and progressed on the whole idea. It’s like if you want a beat box you have to have Rahzel. If you want a fucking terrorist on the microphone, you get Method Man and Zack. Forget the names. Just think of the energy levels they bring when on the mic. Method Man is a bomb waiting to go off. Zack especially, the way he flowed was real fresh. I’ve listened to lots of people trying to write to this music, but he came with such a different approach that was really refreshing.

What is on your mind when you go in to work on music?

Nothing. Nothing whatsoever. I keep my mind open and let anything happen. You just go, not mad, but when you hear something you focus in on it. Thinking can get you in trouble sometimes. You have to understand what you are naturally and let that natural ability come out. I think that drum ‘n’ bass is good for that, I think most music is good for that. You just have to understand what you can and what you can’t do. You don’t sit there and think, ‘Well, I’ve only got this one piece of equipment so I can’t do this or that.’ No, you need to take that piece of equipment and do as much as you can with it until you can’t do no more. You create until you can’t create no more. Don’t think something can’t be done, just do it.

What is the difference between doing songs solo and with the group?

Well, one way you go in with five other people and the other way you go in by yourself. Seriously, it’s all about the vibes. We just got out of the studio after like three weeks after getting back from the Big Day Out which is a big tour in Australia. And we came back from that so excited and so energized and ready to go that we started a new Reprazent album with stuff we’ve worked on in the last few months. We are trying to finish the album to get released this year. It was a real spontaneous thing where we all went in and did what we do best. I played strings, Die played strings, Roni did some drums and so on. Everybody just did what they did best and it worked out. We made some mad fucking music.

When you are in the studio, is it organized chaos?

Yeah. You just hear someone doing a loop and you catch a vibe off of that and you do something.

What’s the live show like?

It’s real live man. Lots of excitement, lots of energy onstage. Four guys behind keyboards, a drummer, bass player, two vocalists with a lot of energy up there. It’s fireworks man.

Is it great to get out on stage and seeing people’s reactions instead of just reading reviews and hearing the praise?

I think that is the best way. I think you can read and read and read all day, but I like to get my hands dirty, so rather than read I’d rather be in the middle of it. It’s about the crowd and about the people being there listening and getting excited. You don’t get that from reading an article or looking at some pictures.

How does the acclaim affect you when you hear things like your crew has defined a genre or that you are miles ahead of everyone else?

It’s okay and great. Everyone deserves praise for their work, but at the end of the day we know what we are doing and we are pushing our whole field. It’s not that we aren’t happy, but there is a lot of work to be done. We don’t focus on the media, we focus on the music and getting the most records out on the streets and securing the scene. We need to make sure the scene is ready, make sure it’s tight and contributing to that and being a part of that.

Electronic music has this vibe of always pushing the envelope. Do you go in and try to push that envelope or do you not worry about that and just make the best music you can?

I think you have to do the best you can because things will just happen. Like I said, thinking gets you into trouble. If you respond naturally to what you do and are creative naturally and have the initial idea, instead of sitting about trying to do something different. You have to plan what you want to do, but do it. You don’t sit down and draw some mathematical diagrams figure out everything you need to do. If you have it in your head you’ll proceed in that manner instinctively.

It was what, five or six years ago that electronic music was supposed to take America by storm and cause a new musical revolution? It stalled and never happened. Do you think there is any specific reason why America hasn’t seemed to adopt it as much as everywhere else?

I think America is a big place. We need a little patience to let it get there and hit home. There is a very different attitude over here. You might smash it in New York, but that is only one state and that is as big as England. Then you have Florida, Canada, Mid-west, Southwest, and so on. Drum ‘n’ bass people aren’t used to touring and getting on a bus through fifty-two states. It’s a lot of work. It’s coming. I think that people need to understand that this music is still young. We need to find a formula that works. I think everyone was excited because they wanted to be the first to say this new music is coming and it’s going to be great. They were trying to make it live up to everyone else’s expectations, but the people in the scene weren’t worried. The people in the scene knew it wasn’t ready yet. We’ve still got problems. There are still sound problems, engineering problems. We are still working out things that aren’t going to get fixed straight away. It has to mature. I always look at hip-hop. Hip-hop took fifteen years to get where it is. People are trying to make us get where hip-hop is in only five years. We’ve got a long way to go.

I don’t even think people realize what was going on in hip-hop fifteen years ago.

I know it. Right now there are a lot of people in the forefront of your music and a lot of new energy and vibes and kids coming through. That is where it’s really going to bust. We are just writing the manuscript right now. We are only on page three or four right now, its early days.

How does it feel to have all the up and coming artists calling you their idols?

It’s good. I think right now we have a certain amount of energy. We are focused, we have a good label and group of artists and I think we are getting better and better. We are getting more businesslike and I think people who look up to us can see the positives. They see a couple of guys just like them who have achieved this. I think they realize this is all achievable. I think dreaming makes it a possibility. I was just a kid looking up to guys in Bristol and thought I wanted to be like them. I think if you’ve got the energy and drive then you can achieve anything.

Are there artists out there that you listen to and you are wowwed by?

There is a lot right now, a lot of hip-hop. I just bought a stack of cds the other day. There is a lot of music that is really good. Drum ‘n’ bass is getting really, really good now too. There is a lot of stuff making people excited and making me excited right now. Lots of soul music, like Jill Scott is really good, I enjoy her. I’ve started to listen a lot of old funk and jazz as well. Anything that has a groove is interesting to me. Anything different.

Lastly, where do you see the music going or can’t you predict it because it is changing all the time?

As an artist I’m doing my own thing. I’m not really watching what is going on right now. I think one of the things we do best is to do our own thing. We let people do their own thing. I can only tell you what we are doing next, but I do think we will start to see more diverse types of music within the music. It’ll still be drum ‘n’ bass, but someone is going to do more rock, someone may try something else. I think we’ve just begun to understand that there are no limits. Anything is possible.

+ charlie craine