Craig Richards and his partner Lee Burridge are the most sought after DJ double act. Sasha s support DJs at Tyrant, Richards and Burridge have risen through the ranks and are now the nomad night s star attractions. At a time when seemingly incompatible producers and DJs are finding common ground the late eighties was the last time this happened Burridge and Richards are the zeitgeist capturing kings of tomorrow. What's more, their soon to be released Tyrant mix CD is the most daring representation yet of the whole tech-house/deep trance/tripped out house crossover. As superstardom beckons, we caught up with Craig. Things may have picked up for himself and Lee Burridge, but Richards is keen to point out that its the result of a long, hard slog.
Well, I m 34 this year and I ve been DJing since I ve been sixteen, he explains. I think the reason for our popularity now is because we've got something going on at the moment, musically. Things are working out for us. We had the breakbeat thing, we've been playing a lot of breakbeat and house for a while and people like what we've been doing. I don t think its because we re doing anything different: there are records in my box that I ve been playing for years!
Richards has an art and design background and numbers Paul Smith and Saporro amongst his former high profile client list. On leaving Art College in 1993, he began promoting the now legendary Georgie parties, named after footballer George Best. Ironically, Best put an injunction on the first of these events, but this minor setback didn't deter Richards from starting a club night, Malibu Stacey, with the then unknown Seb Fontaine. One of the first glam nights, Malibu Stacey became known for its strict door policy and dress code rather than its credible music play list.
Craig agrees that Malibu Stacey was a valuable promotional platform for Fontaine.
Seb actually found the venue and I was doing the Georgie parties. He asked me if I wanted to do it, he confirms. We never imagined it would go on for three years, and it grew into a bit of a monster really, but it was incredibly successful. The dress code scenario came from its ridiculous success, he adds. Either you let the first people through the door or you picked the crowd: I guess clothing and appearance was used as a way of judging people, which is wrong really. Musically, it was better in the beginning and I had less to do with it as time went on. We kept it going, but it was very much a launch pad for Seb s career and not mine. The sort of music played there was very much what Seb was doing. I used to play in the back room mostly. We had a lot of fun: there were loads of girls in there and it was a great night. In a way, by carrying it on for a bit too long, it changed. It was still very, very busy, but the girls weren't as nice!
Subsequently, Richards parted company with Malibu Stacey and hooked up with Sasha, whom he'd known for years. Although Craig admits that he harbours no ambitions to emulate the Son Of God, he says that Sasha s hectic schedule has allowed himself and Lee the opportunity to shape the Tyrant sound according to their tastes.
Sasha is still very much a part of it, but he's so incredibly busy that he's got his own thing going on, Craig says. But we got to the point last year where Sasha was very busy working with Madonna, he continues. Suddenly, the duo was placed in a difficult situation. Lee and I had to face the music, which was quite difficult in places because people wanted to see Sasha. We were like the two guys in the background, so there was a point, I think it was the first time we ever did a Tyrant on our own without him, which was the big turning point for us.
So, while Richards verifies that Tyrant without Sasha s decks skills wasn't always easy and there were people complaining because he wasn't playing, Craig and Lee nonetheless became the club s main attraction. It s an encouraging sign, a reminder that if you stick to the music you believe in, things will come good for you.
I think that s very much what were about, Craig agrees. One of the things we didn t want to do with Tyrant was constantly bring in guests. We booked Adam Freeland and a few other breakbeat DJs, but we never really booked anyone else. It would have been easy to get other people in to play, but I m glad we didn't. It s just been Lee and I and we've blossomed. The other thing that s in our favour is that last year we both got residencies: Lee is resident at Golden and I m resident at Fabric so that in itself has really helped our personal profiles and helped things along a lot.
The sound Craig and Lee champion, the magical blend of breaks, techno house and trance evident on the first Tyrant mix CD proves the pair are at the forefront of the crossover between all genres that s injecting a level of unpredictability and energy back into dance music. It certainly sounds like acid house for the new millennium as deep Norwegian house nestles next to tuff London tech-funk. Modest to the last, Craig underplays his increasingly vital role in the grand scheme of things.
I didn't want to put banging records on it because mostly you're going to be listening to a CD at home, at work or in the car, he comments. We just played one record each, and that s what we do when we DJ out. We know each other s records and there s a push-pull thing going on, which in turn leads to its own energy. We just tried to represent what we do really: what I like to do is play the records other people think are warm-up records at the peak of the night. Maybe its just because I m a bit older and slower!
Tyrant is released on Distinctive Breaks on April 24th. Craig Richards and Lee Burridge play Homelands Ireland, The Mosney Centre on April 29th.