Interview with Force and Styles
Force and Styles (25 year old Paul and 21 year old
Darren) are ripping up dancefloors all over the country, responsible
for tunes like Harmony, Heart of Gold, Funfair, Shining Down and
Wonderland. Rated by many of the top DJs and promoters it looks as
though 1996 will be their year. I tagged along one night to find out
more about the Clacton based duo.
When and how did you start DJ’ing?
Force: Here we go! About seven years ago, I started doing a mobile
disco, I have to admit it. Weddings, Birthdays, Hen parties – they
were fun! All those sorts of things.
Styles: It was about four years ago, something like that. I used to
be a barman in a club and I asked if I could have a set, got my
first set and it’s all come from there really.
What’s the crack with “Force and Evolution”?
Force: Right, good question. Force and Evolution started in 1992.
That was obviously me, and three other guys, one of them being
Darren. The other guys are Paul and James. So Evolution was a group
of three people. They’d been doing gigs at school, making music at
school…
Styles: College. College, not school!
Force: We joined together, started putting tunes out on Kniteforce
and then the other two started working full-time, so we started
doing more stuff ourselves and that’s how the Force and Styles thing
got going.
How long has it been just “Force and Styles”?
Both: About a year now.
Force: We still do things with them, but we haven’t done anything
for a while. The last one was before Christmas.
Styles: We’re not planning on doing much more, but we’ll have to do
some.
So are the other two still working together?
Force: They do stuff under “New Motion” and they’ve done a release
on our label, UK Dance, so they’re keeping busy.
When did you start up your label?
Force: Once upon a time, there was two young DJs…..! We started it
last July really as an outlet for the music that we wanted to put
out. Basically, even though we’ve had a couple of releases out by
other artists, it’s mainly a Force and Styles label..
What other labels do you rate?
Force: Universal (Slipmatt), United Dance…
Styles: Yeah, Essential Platinum’s the one at the moment.
Force: Yeah, Essential Platinum’s havin’ it large.
Styles: Quosh, Impact…
Force: Big Beats (Vinyl Groover), RSR, Burn Out (Alchemist, Pure
Dance (Fade)).
If you could change anything about the scene, what would it be?
Styles: Make Paul have a shave!
Force: And stop wearing ridiculous shirts – you didn’t want to say
that did you?!
Styles: I’d make the scene bigger. It’s big as it is, but I’d just
make it a bit more well known. No so much commercial just a bit more
recognised.
Force: The councils need to sort out their licensing, more
all-nighters, that’s what we need. Get rid of all the small-minded
people and sort it out.
Where do you think the scenes heading?
Force: Upwards and upwards. At the moment, the clubs are suffering
because of the big parties. There’s so many big parties on and
everyone’s saving their money to go to them. What happens is, you
normal Joe Bloggs goes to a club and they see it half full and they
think “oh, the rave scenes died”, but they don’t go to the big
events, where there could be 5-6,000 people. The scenes not dying at
all, it’s just getting bigger and bigger. Go to any school and
you’ll see 20 Slammin’ Vinyl jackets and everyone’s got record bags
– all the kids are bang into it and they’re the next generation.
Styles: Something will go commercial soon though, I reckon in about
a year.
Force: If it does go that way, it won’t be a hardcore tune as it is,
it’ll be a mix of hardcore tunes. I hope it won’t be an original
hardcore tune, ‘cause people won’t appreciate it. Look what happened
last time when stuff charted. It went downhill, it got slated…. I
don’t think that would happen this time, I don’t know why. If
anything charts, it’ll make the scene bigger. It wasn’t the
Prodigy’s fault last time, it just sort of happened.
What do you think of the music at the moment?
Force: It’s getting better by the day. It’s getting more original….
Styles: More musical, there’s less use of other people’s samples….
Force: And more original vocal work, which can only mean one thing…
Styles: It’s attract a wider audience.
Force: More people will take seriously, without as much chipmunk
vocals and all that kind of stuff.
What tunes do you reckon are doing it at the moment?
Force: Dougal’s “Love Of My Life” is the top tune at the moment.
Slipmatt’s doing some good stuff and Brisky’s doing some good stuff.
Styles: Hixxy…
Force: Ham, Alchemist – “Keep on Trying” and what’s it called?
Styles: “I Can See Clearly”.
Force: Yeah. (Sings) “I can see clearly now the rain has gone…” –
that’s mental. Our best tune is probably “Heart Of Gold” and we’ve
just done a new one with MC Junior, our MC. It’s called “Pretty
Green Eyes” and that will be out soon. It’s one for the ladies.
We’re also doing a lot of remixes at the moment for United Dance,
Impact and Happy Vibes.
What are your best and worst experiences?
Styles: My worst is…. I was playing at Oscar’s in Clacton. I’d
finished the mix, turned round to my records in the box to get
another one out, someone walked past and tripped over my headphones
and pulled the mixer onto the floor, the decks onto the floor and I
was just left standing there. The whole club was looking up at me as
if to say “where’s the music gone?” and there’s me, standing there
with two decks on the floor. That’s the worst.
Force: I can’t think of anything bad really. The only real problem
is when you get clubs with no monitors and when headphones don’t
work. That happened at Rezerection. Hixxy had to play his whole set
like that and I had to play the first few tunes with it. Apart from
taking the wrong record off when you’re mixing, headphones not
working is the worst, can’t beat it.
What was the best?
Force: Have we had any?
Styles: United Dance in the main room.
Force: Oh yeah, United Dance obviously comes top, but I’ve got to go
through these. Dreamscape, Dance Paradise, the Pleasuredome…
Styles: Hardcore Heaven, Doncaster, Warehouse, Kinetic…
Force: Yeah, Kinetic’s probably the best club. And I’ve got to give
a mention to Oscar’s.
Styles: Yeah, we play there every week.
Force: I’ve been playing there every week for five years now.
Does it get busy?
Force: In the summer, it’s rammed. You get 1,200 in there.
Styles: But to us, when it’s crap, it’s good to others. It’s just
‘cause we’ve seen big events.
Force: At the moment, they’re getting 700 in. In the height of
Oscars, the best night they’ve ever had down there was 5,000 on New
Year. That was incredible. Best night ever.
Have you ever played abroad?
Force: Yep – Ibiza, Germany – we’ve done quite a lot in Germany. We
did some PA’s over there and a couple of things with Slipmatt,
Vibes, Seduction and all that lot.
Styles: And we’ve got Australia, Canada, Sweden and Ibiza all coming
up.
Which country did you enjoy playing in most?
Styles: Ibiza for the crack.
Force: Ibiza was the biggest laugh. All the DJ’s were over there and
we had a mental one. Madness!
So do you prefer doing PA’s or DJ’ing?
Force: We used to do a lot of PA’s as “Force and Evolution” and no
matter what anyone thinks, they’re a lot of hard work. It’s not a
matter of just turning up and standing there behind a keyboard, a
lot of preparation goes into a PA.
Styles: And it’s not just the people you see on the stage who are
involved. There’s one or two that do a lot of backstage work. But to
be honest, at the end of the day, DJ’ing is closest to our hearts
and if the choice comes between a PA and DJ’ing, DJ’ing comes first
every time.
You’re best known as a twosome, but do you prefer to play on your
own?
Force: This is a difficult one. Playing back to back is great fun
and we think the crowd really does appreciate it, probably because
not many people are doing it anymore. It can be difficult playing a
one hour set each at a club because whoever plays first gets to play
the best tunes.
Styles: Yeah, we’re always arguing about who gets to play first.
There’s not really an answer to the question… both options have
their good and bad points. Playing back to back is a great laugh,
but you can get into a set more if you have an hour or so to
yourself.
Which DJ’s and MC’s do you respect in the scene?
Styles: (No hesitation). Slipmatt!
Force: Slipmatt, oh Godfather one. For his mixing, Briskypoos: all
round nice guy and top man, Dougal: all the others, Hixxy, Ramos and
Supreme, Druid, Billy Bunter. You’d just have to list them all,
‘cause they’re all wicked.
Styles: MCs would have to have Junior and Sharkey. Biggest respect,
BIGGEST respect goes out to GQ and Fearless for MC’ing over Ribbzy’s
and, Seduction’s sets at United Dance. Top class. They’re jungle MCs
and they didn’t have to do it, but they did it and it was wicked!
Force: The man of the moment, the geezer with the golden tongues MC
MC. Major respect to the man like MC MC.
What other music are you into?
Force: Hardcore!
Styles: Oasis. I like Oasis.
Force: I’m a strictly hardcore man really. I like jungle to listen
to in the car, but I don’t like it in clubs. You can’t beat a happy
rave. But in the car, it’s nice…
Styles: Yeah, Drum and bass, house, hardcore and Oasis.
Why are you into Oasis?
Styles: I think they’re top boys.
Force: It’s ‘cause they’re tough isn’t it?! I Hate Oasis ‘cause they
support Manchester City – no respect – and I support Man. United.
Right, I want some gossip! Tell me a secret! Unfortunately, the lads
were not too forthcoming and kept accusing each other of lying.
After LOADs of arseing around….
Force: Oh, I’ve got one. Darren’s real name is actually Derek James
Bartholomew.
Styles: Bollocks! That’s Bollocks!
Force: Yeah, print that one!
Styles: When we were in Ibiza. Slipmatt and Brisk knocked on our
door, bundled us out the room and locked the door. They cut the
phone wire, wrote “Force and Styles” on the mirror and they got a
whole toilet roll and threw it against the walls. And there was
toothpaste all over the walls. They totally ripped the room apart.
“They let us back in to find the room in bits!”.
Force: I’ve got another little secret about Darren. He hasn’t done
it lately, but he used to. We’d be in the studio and half past three
would come round, I’d turn round, and there would be Darren, in the
front room watching Tots TV. Tots TV is his favourite programme.
Styles: Right then! Every time you play out and we’re in the car,
Paul makes me listen to Mike ‘Sodding’ Vincent on the bloody Talk
Show!
Force: It’s funny! It keeps me awake.
What are your future plans?
Force: Well we want to keep producing music to the best of our
ability and to allow to progress, but at the same time, make sure
it’s what people want to hear. The bottom line is, no matter how
good we might think a tune is, if the raver doesn’t like it then we
haven’t done our job properly.
Styles: Following on from there, we would obviously like to build
the label up to one of the biggest Hardcore labels in the country,
if not the world!
Force: Our DJ’ing careers are very important to us, and one day we
would like to be as popular as the other big names on the scene.
Is there anything else you would like to say?
Force: Yeah, we want to give a mention to Elite Forces. It’s a new
promotion company which is run by a very nice guy called Darren
Bolino. Basically, it involves six of the country’s leading Hardcore
labels, United Dance, Universal, Impact, Quosh, Essential Platinum
and our very own UK Dance. It’s basically a central point where the
distribution of white labels to DJ’s, shops and radio stations take
place.
The whole idea is to get the music out to all those who need it and
also to those who we think should at long last be sitting up and
taking notice of it.
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