Billy, you re currently in the middle of one of the most extensive DJ tours ever. Can you tell us a bit more about it?
Yeah, it s a worldwide tour to publicise Tortured Chambers, the mix CD that we re releasing. It s mixed by me, and it includes the best releases that we ve done on Tortured so far. I want Tortured Chambers to become an ongoing series, which becomes the definitive techno mix CDs. I want people like Adam Beyer, Umek, Joel Mull and Marco Carolla to do the next ones: people are going mad for their records worldwide and they re DJing worldwide, and we want to capture their club vibe on CD and people can pull it out at parties and listen to it. We ve set up this tour that basically goes all over Europe and North America. It s quite intensive touring, and, although I ve been busy in the last ten years, this two-month space is really intense! I ve been joined by acts on the label who ve also got tracks on the mix CD so everything s going really well.
In the last few years Tortured seem to have discovered loads of new artists: Umek, Joel Mull, Adam Beyer and Marco Carolla all spring to mind.
Definitely, that s what we try and do. I ve got a DJ agency, Theremin, which sorts out the DJ side and Tortured releases the records. I try and find out which artists show potential. I ve always been one of those people who reads the small print on record sleeves. A lot of other artists and DJs don t want to help other people out but I have a different attitude: with the agency and label I want to represent new talent, give them a little push: they re going to get there regardless, but if they meet people like me they get there a year or two early. It s not for any kind of personal or financial greed or reward, its all done for techno, which is the music I love.
On that note, it seems like techno is more popular than ever nowadays.
Well, we started the agency because nobody was supporting the DJs we liked. We started a night at The End two years ago when techno was going through the worst time ever. Two years ago it was terrible, last year it got better and this year it s bang on it! The productions are getting better and everything is going well. It s funny because people tell me I ve got a sound but its not my sound, it s not controlled by one person, it s a sound that s shaped by all the people on the label, a gathering of like minded people.
What have your experiences been like running an independent label? Have you had any problems?
Tortured was three years old this January and when I look at all the people we ve worked with and what we ve achieved I don t know how we ve done it. We ve worked hard, we ve built up an identity with our roster and we ve sold decent amounts of records. In fact, I ve had it quite easy with the label. We ve a good deal with our distributors and I just oversee it all: there s very little for me to do because I ve got a very strong group of people around me who help me run the label and make sure it flows smoothly. I haven t had many problems at all.
I ve spoken to a few people lately, including Laurent Garnier, about the music industry in England being quite fucked up. Would you agree with that?
Laurent s in a sticky position because he s a proper techno DJ but he s also playing at commercial clubs and naturally he sees the worst side of the scene. I don t want to get into a big rant, but I don t play France. When I went there I got treated so badly we got strip searched on the way back, we all got food poisoning and some geezer tried to take me off after two records! This was about three years ago and I still refuse to play there. The CD was going to be called I Don t Play Trance, France Or Milton Keynes!!! I agree with Laurent, that 80% of club land in the UK is shite. It s full of the same old cheesy DJs and the same old cheesy snare roll trance shite!
Do you think its hypocritical that a lot of the mainstream trance DJs are now picking up on deeper techno and tech-house?
I just think that the progressive house thing we did Paul Daley, Weatherall and Fabi Paras it was the blueprint for everything those cheesy DJs have been doing since. None of them have bettered it and that was six or seven years ago. When the trance thing started Sven Vath, Jam & Spoon, Harthouse and Eye Q were all amazing; it was brilliant trance music, but not now. It s just become a clichi, just the same old same old. The records that were made years ago sound the same as the ones today. It shows that the music hasn t progressed. That s why I have evolved deeper and deeper into techno. It s just the nature of the music, it s always striving for new shapes, new textures, new sounds. Nobody can say that the techno I m playing now is like the techno I played last year, but I m still doing my thing.
Tortured Chambers is out now on Tortured.