In Conversation: Zed Bias & Marcus Intalex Discuss The World Of Social Media

In the weeks coming up, both Zed Bias and Marcus Intalex will be taking over our Room Three space for an entire Friday night, with each of them set to dictate the pace for a full six hours. Both accomplished and established artists - Zed with his decades of dancefloor hits like ‘Neighbourhood’ and his work under numerous names, including Maddslinky and Marcus with his Soul:R label, his drum & bass production and his excursions into house and techno as Trevino – we’re understandably excited at the prospect of both sets; but for completely different reasons, though it's mainly for the scope of opportunity each set provides and the possible tangents each DJ could follow considering their individual heritage and back catalogue. So, ahead of both events, knowing full well that Marcus and Zed both share a home city as well as a friendly kinship, we asked if the Manchester based pairing wouldn’t mind getting together and having a remotely prompted chat for us. Luckily, they both obliged and what they delivered to us is a positively glowing conversation that sheds a lot of light on numerous topics unique to their experience. Given their relationship, it turned out pretty long, so we've chosen to split the full conversation up into three parts which we'll publish in the run up to Marcus' appearance in Room Three on 14th November. This second section includes the two discussing their motivations and the trappings of interacting with fans on social media... ZB: What do you think has been key to your success? MI: I think just being in love with it and being into the music first. You know, you see these DJs come out of nowhere with a manager, one tune and they smash it. They live this life like ‘look at me I smashed it’ and they’ll maybe get a couple years out of it but at the end of it all, they won’t know what to do. Their idea of where it’s all come from has been forgotten because of how quickly it’s all materialized. It’s never been about that for me. I’m not even that much of party person. I’m just totally in love with the music more than this whole idea of clubbing and even listening to the music in that kind of environment. Maybe it’s me being naïve but I really fucking care and I really care about what I sound like when I play my music, I’m not just playing to be popular. If you love the underground and you’re not bothered about being the next big thing then there’s a long term career out there for you, but if you’re in it to put your hands in the air for two years than it’s fine by me. I mean, you’ll probably make more money in two years than I’ve done in my whole career (laughs). It’s possible! But then what do you do? Once you’ve got so high you can only come back down. I think I’ve found this middle ground where you just find those that love your music, try hard not to piss them off but just be you and not fake it. Without sounding cliché, it’s about keeping it real. ZB: Well I think that’s why your fans are your fans. Because of that exact reason and getting to know your music over a certain time. MI: What about you? ZB: Because I’m stubborn. Because I won’t listen to anybody and because there’s nothing else I can do that’s of the same worth. Although, I found out I’m a pretty good Dad when I’m around. MI: Do you find that difficult? ZB: Yeah, it has been but especially now that he’s 5 years old, he really notices when I’m not about. He’s already telling me he wants to be a DJ! Doing what I do has never been a completely selfish thing. I think I probably would have given up years ago if it had been about money, but it’s more about leaving a legacy. As soon as I know my Louis was on the way I wanted to leave a legacy not necessarily just for him but something that he could be proud of. So that’s really been my driving force. I don’t care about millions of pounds. I really don’t. As long as I’ve got enough petrol in my car to get about that’s fine by me. [The fact that] I can sit in my studio and do what I do. That’s good enough for me. But I think, the reason why I’ve kept going is due to another element: garage. The fact that garage has become quite trendy again so the light has been shone back on my catalogue specifically with a couple of tracks. I’ve managed to spin those into a different kind of UK house, garage hybrid. But at the end of the day, it’s a job. It’s something that I used to do and it’s something that I’m doing now. It excites me that I’m doing it, it excites me that I’m able to do it but I can’t keep making garage/house in the same way you couldn’t keep making drum & bass. It’s like eating the same food daily for the past 15 years you’ll go off it at a point. MI: There was that period when you first moved to Manchester as well and you were writing all that sort of R&B thing…. ZB: Oh yeah that’s all on my hard drive. MI: Well y’know, maybe they’ll be a time for that? ZB: Yeah definitely, they’ll probably be a period that will be perfect to go back to the vaults and dig through my old soul albums that I produced. MI: You produced quite a lot of albums, didn’t you? ZB: Yeah there’s eight albums sitting there with Sefton and Jerome but that’s a whole other chapter that needs to be opened. I could go back in and open the session files, get the parts and probably make a lot of good dance music. MI: If only there was time!

“Drum & bass had these rules and it had to sound a certain way, or at least that’s what it feels like when you’ve been making it for so long.” – Marcus Intalex

ZB: So what can we expect from you the months to follow then? MI: As Intalex I’ve done a couple of things for the new DRS LP which is due early next year and I have also written an new Marcus Intalex EP for Soul:R which is also penciled for next year. Through my Trevino alias I’ve started my new label, Birdie… actually I really need to start putting music out. I’ve been writing loads of it but because I’m part of a different scene, I’ve not got the same confidence as I do with drum & bass. You know, when I write a d&b tune I’ll know if it’s a good’n and if I’ll release but I’m not exactly in the same confidence zone with the Trevino stuff. There’s tonnes there and a lot of it’s really good but a lot of it is also at sort of that 90% mark so I’ve been sitting on loads of it. I’m just waiting to get to that point where I’m like, ‘OK, I know what I’m doing.’ So I started the label for the purpose of being able to release a few of my own favourites. The ones I like and the ones that work in my sets. There’s obviously been this explosion of house and techno in the UK and the popularity of it has gone pretty nuts. I’m not exactly looking to be in that club so my attitude is that I’m just going to put music out that I’m really happy with regardless of if it’s going to be really popular or not. I’m passed that point in my career where I want to be a big thing. I just want to be able to represent the stuff that I’m into and if people are into then that’s just a bonus. ZB: I think that’s always been the ethos of Detroit and Chicago and the originators of house music anyway...? MI: Yeah exactly. You know, that’s just underground music and we’ve come from underground so I think that was always the attraction of me getting back into techno. I had a feeling that d&b had kind of lost that underground appeal. You know, you’d hear it on the radio all the time, this pop music with a d&b beat. It just wasn’t the music to rebel to anymore. That sense of rebellion is where it all comes from in a way and I guess that’s why I started to get back into house and techno. It just had that appeal of being underground again and allowing you to be more creative. Drum & bass had these rules and it had to sound a certain way, or at least that’s what it feels like when you’ve been making it for so long. It’s hard to think outside of that when it’s been your entire career and you’re trying to fulfil this demand to make tunes that people will like and can play out. I guess it gets you bookings to an extent, that’s how it all works, but for me, house and techno doesn’t feel like that. People are just into it. It doesn’t need to be the biggest tune out there to sell records. You create your own vibe with it. You’re your own artist and it’s you just doing your own thing. So yeah, aside from the label I’ll be doing stuff for Ben Klock, Martyn and Craig Richards. There’s a world of music out there, I just need to get it out. This coming year, 2015, will be about me getting the music out rather than sitting there questioning if it’s any good or not. Photo: Sarah Ginn ZB: I think any label headed by you, without trying to make you blush, is going to do well because of who you are in the music industry. You’ve done it in the right way. I mean your early apprenticeship in the record store meant you were able to get your hands on those pivotal tunes from an early point. You can’t buy that kind of perk these days. You know people pay money to get that those kind of golden opportunities but it doesn’t exist anymore because of the environment we live in now. These days an mp3 will get lost in a sea of other mp3s, it’s crazy. So I think being that guy in the record shop, people had to depend on you for the music. You were the face of the scene in some ways especially in Manchester. Kids coming through now don’t even realise that’s how it was. There needs to be more stories told about the reality of how it used to be because they can release the absolute preposterous of some of the attitudes in the industry. There’s this real self-entitlement coming out of this social media. I get messages all the time from people saying oh I really like this track, can you send it to me? If you could compare the attitude of the industry now to how it was back then you’d really how preposterous it is. We really had to go through it you know? We really had to show our dedication to the music. MI: And spend a shit load of money as well! ZB: Yeah exactly. You had to buy the music for a start if you could even find it. Sometimes you had to get on a train and go to another city or even go to a club where you know that the guy DJing is the only one that’s playing this particular record. You’d get in his earhole and be like ‘please tell me where you got this record?’ It was a different world. MI: I remember the frustration of hearing a record on the radio and knowing it’s not going to be released for at least another six months… ZB: …usually LTJ Bukem or Metalheadz! They’d run their stuff for a really long time before you could get a hold of them. MI: You’d hear a tune in the club the one time and that’s the only memory you’d have of it before it came out six months later! ZB: The thing is, they used to always sell regardless if it came out a year later, it always sold. Now, if I produced a track and sent it to you on a Friday and you played it on your radio show the following day whoever rips your radio show come Monday morning it will be online and then IDed a week later. Next thing you know you’re getting moaned at for not releasing it. They don’t realise the process of it you know? There’s got to be this grace period where you’re allowed to test the track out at least. MI: It’s like it’s your fault if they can’t have it, which is really fucked up. ZB: It is isn’t it? I summed it up the other day when I was ‘got at’ on my FB page. This guy asked me very nicely for my next release ‘Shizam’ and I didn’t have time to respond. The next message I received from him, I admit wasn’t exactly aggressive, but it wasn’t too nice either. I put up a post the next day where I kind of pulled my hair out a bit and told my “fans” that if anybody felt upset enough to rant at me for not receiving my music free of charge, they should go and have a quick word with themselves. Funnily enough, I got about 700 likes. I think people realise there needs to be a shift in attitude. If there’s a way to get people to respect the music and the concept of paying for it we should go for it. MI: Perhaps those kind of people have always been there. Even before social media there would have been a fair few people that would like your music for free it’s just these days those kind of annoying people are actually in direct contact with you. ZB: I’m pretty uncomfortable with that whole scenario to be honest… MI: So am I. You really should be allowed to just ignore people’s messages. You shouldn’t have to worry about ranting because you’re not giving your record away for free. A record that you might have only made a few days ago that you plan to release at some point. It doesn’t work like that… ZB: What a world we live in. Part 1 of this interview is here. Part 3 of this interview is here.