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DJ Hyper

It's not often that one encounters a DJ with as much unbridled enthusiasm as London-based nu skool breaks leader DJ Hyper (né Guy Hatfield). He's excited about nearly every aspect of his job, be it the minutia of running his own record label (Kilowatt), organizing marketing schemes for his promotions company, Waxworks, or digging through record stores in search of the latest and greatest in breakbeat.

Tekst: Christine Hsieh

Publicatiedatum: 27 januari 2002

Nowadays, Hatfield travels around the UK for various club residencies and continues to push the limits of nu skool breaks with several well-received compilations designed to give the genre more exposure. His latest release, Bedrock Breaks (released January 8), borne of his regular guest spot at John Digweed and John Muir's wildly popular Bedrock club night, explores breaks at greater length. The submarine bass and wild electro on display here are borrowed from Hatfield's DJ sets, and the raunchily guttural growl of his music once prompted a fanatical Christian to attempt to convert Hatfield mid-set.
It may be the devil's music, but DJ Hyper's breaks with a twist are nothing if not a delicious temptation.

How would you define your sound to people who wouldn't necessarily have heard it before?
"Breakbeat. Dance music with a funk. It's like house music tempo, but the beats are broken up so it's got a lot more funk. "

How did you end up falling into this style of music?
"I was really into punk as a kid, really into punk. And then I sorta met a load of people who were going out to party…Around Nottingham there's a really healthy sort of free party scene, there's a lot of stuff going on in quarries and woods and stuff like that playing deep house so I ended up going along. So after a while, I kinda wanted a bit more than a sort of straight kick drum, I was getting a bit bored of house as well, as it was. And then I started getting into a lot more hip hop and started to buy, you know, just around that time that Mo' Wax and things like that were coming along and then sort of a lot more people putting out a lot of more uptempo breakbeat and hip hop beats that were a lot faster. And that was kinda of what I wanted…a lot funkier, but it was also danceable, you know. Dancefloor friendly, really, and I sort of got into it from there."

Any favorite artists?
"Chemical Brothers stuff I was really into. I don't really like any of their new stuff at all, though. Some of their early stuff, a lot of the early stuff that was coming out in hard house, I used to really love. That was back in the early days. And the big ones on Mo' Wax, DJ Shadow and stuff like that. And then a lot more label jungle stuff, like Boombox records and TCR. "

You mentioned the free party scene in quarries and woods near Nottingham-was that a big scene?
"Yeah, absolutely. What it was a kind of mish-mash of 30 kids with decks and stuff like that that wanted to do parties, but obviously couldn't get away with it in the city. And a lot of travelers that used to live out there used a lot of really good sites, because they were used to traveling around the country and just sort of pitching up on every good site…it became a cross of city kids wanting to party and the travelers used to find the venues…There was one going on somewhere every Saturday in a 50 mile radius, really."

What kind of music do you listen to now, when you're not DJing?
"Well, I listen to all sorts of stuff. Still a lot of hip hop, a lot of dance stuff, a lot of old punk records and stuff like that. My girlfriends a singer so I end up listening to a lot of pop music as well…My favorite thing of the minute is probably the Tricky album [Blowback]. "

When did you know music wasn't just a hobby for you?
"When my parents kept telling me that I had to go out and get a career! I realized that you could actually go out and do a course in music business studies and stuff like that…and I just kind of went from there, really….Well, DJing I've been doing it for ages but I also run my own promotions company [Waxworks] and my own record label so I've got loads of different things on the go. I started the promotions company 4 years ago and I'm just setting up the record label now so the first releases will be out early next year. So I've been in the industry for about 4-5 years, something like that, but DJing for years and years."

What's up for the future? Are you going to continue with this?
"Yeah, absolutely. It's my baby! If I'm not in the office or DJing, I've got a laptop and my mobile phone so I can work from pretty much anywhere, really. And I hope to be able to continue as is, to keep growing, and [I hope] my record label, Kilowatt, will really get off the ground, as well. I'm really looking forward to that. I've got the first release coming out in January and that's looking really big at the minute."

You mixed Y3K last year…That was certainly well-received.
"I've done two. My favorite, Y2K, is my compilation series. I did that two years ago. I did two albums, then left D'istinctive sort of naturally the way things were going. I wanted to move on a bit, really, and I approached Bedrock in terms of doing the albums as Y4K, and carry on doing that. I've left now and joined Bedrock."

Y3K was an important disc for getting nu skool breaks out to a wider audience.
"Sure, yeah, absolutely. That was the whole plot behind the album. I approached D'istinctive in Miami about three years ago about doing it. And the whole idea is to take it out a bit and take influences from all around you. It's a theme I've kept with Y3K and the Bedrock Breaks album. It's always been a really conscious decision to do. "

What do you think of the progression of the genre now?
"I think it's been quite quiet…[but] there's a lot of labels out really pushing it still, like TCR. Whole Nine Yards are really doing a lot now, they're a really good label. I hope to make quite a big splash with this Kilowatt label. Finger Lickin' is obviously doing really, really well. And Botchit & Scarper."

It seems like breakbeat in general is making quite a big impression in the US with non-hip hop circles. Is it already past that point in the UK?
"It's getting there…but the reaction is still the same. They're still talking about it. Every time you play out in a different environment-every time I do Bedrock or Tyrant [with Craig Richards and Lee Burridge], there's always people coming up and going, 'what the hell is this?' you know what I mean? So there's always people getting turned on to the sound. There's quite a big scene over in Florida, and that's not really sort of what's caught on as much in the rest of the country. But no, it looks really good. Every time I play over there I'm having a really good time, the people are really friendly, crowds are really up for it, and I'm really loving it. Hopefully, the sound will become as big in both countries, really."

What was your worst gig?
"Worst gig…god, there's a lot of them! I had a bit of a nightmare in Tampa, actually. I played a bit for the club, I was quite tired, they had to change the venue. So it was a new venue, and I had to play on a-the sound system was alright, but the club was quite empty so it was a bit of a nightmare. It was one of those things where it was going to be hard for me to get the vibe. So basically I played my set and was having a pretty good time, I was just trying to make the best of it anyways. And then the police turned up and we had to turn the sound system down to like, nothing. And the only music I was hearing was through the monitor I was using. So everyone was crowding round in front and dancing. If you moved 3 feet away you couldn't hear anything. So that was a nightmare, and then there was this dude that kept running up to the decks and waving this magazine in my face, and I couldn't' hear what he was saying and he was annoying me cuz he wouldn't go away and I was trying to DJ. And he came back and I asked him, 'excuse me, can you just leave me alone, I'm trying to mix' and he came back about half an hour later still waving this same magazine and I was like, 'look. What do you want?' And I still couldn't see what it [the magazine] was. And then I saw that it was some magazine of the baby Jesus and this guy was trying to preach to me! And I was like, 'no, just go away!' So basically, he went away again and came back an hour later and like, 3 bouncers just grabbed him and took him out. So that was a funny gig."

Oh, so you've been caught playing the devil's music!
"I must have been! I don't think it was appreciated by the Jesus people!"

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