DARREN J - wide open music

“I’ve always been in some way musical, since I was a kid. I remember the first bit of money I had I spent on records, even before I was deejaying. I always collected records and a lot of different styles as well. When I used to go to record shops I used to buy the same way a deejay would. I would always get to the counter with a big pile of records, even though it was just for my own consumption. I didn’t have any ideas that I wanted to play out. I didn’t have decks, I just knew that I liked collecting music so that lead up to me wanting to get decks and play music to people.” Reminisces Darren Jay of his youth.

Darren also recalls the competition to be a deejay being hard in the early days. A lucky break presented itself to him in the early nineties when he was given the opportunity to become a resident deejay in Tenerife. “I was a raver and I’ve got no problem in saying that - I used to love going out and having a good time! I knew a guy over there who had literally sewn the whole island up over the previous three years by doing big warehouse parties.

I went and ended up staying there with a friend of mine who came over, Jason, who now runs Transition Mastering. We worked at this club every night and others on thursdays and Fridays but on saturdays there was an abandoned theme park called the ‘Cactus Park’ that used to hold parties of about 3,000 people. Every week we used to have deejays like Ricardo down there, the deejay from the KLF, Mr C and Bushwacka, who was then known as Matthew B. The Shamen were doing the ‘Move Any Mountain’ track at the time and unfortunately Colin Angus died when they were filming the video out there.

As it happened Mr C was in town the first night I ever deejayed over there and he emceed for me. I couldn’t have asked for anything else because it was a good set, a good show and he was wicked.” It was this once in a life time trip turned short stay on the island that earned Darren his deejaying apprenticeship. From working in clubs with one man and his dog in attendance to entertaining thousands of ‘mad for it’ ravers at outdoor sunset parties Darren learned how to programme his sets. “It’s not just about what records you have, it’s about how you play them and taking people on a little bit of a journey.”

Perhaps the most memorable moment that the average junglist will remember Darren for is his addition to the legendary AWOL roster back in the nineties alongside Mickey Finn, Kenny Ken, Randall and Dr S Gachet. A flurry of jungle compilations entered the market around this time coinciding with the scenes soaring popularity and commercial prospects. In 1995 AWOL released a CD recorded live at the Ministry of Sound and asked Darren to put down one of the mixes. This particular mix fell into the hands of many people who hadn’t had the chance to experience AWOL first hand. Darren cannot believe that still to this day the amount of people who ask him to sign the CD whilst on his international travels and impressed by those who claim it was their first exposure to the music.

Darren went on to organise compilations for the likes of Moonshine and MCA, putting together series’ like 'Jungle Warfare' and 'Total Science' (a name sought from way back when). 'Total Science' is more what Darren calls 'coffee table' music and wasn't geared towards the dancefloor. It was something different to what he would play at the time but confesses he still enjoys listening to it on his car stereo every now and again. Whilst at MCA Darren would bump into Rene Gelston, the founder of Soho's infamous Blackmarket Records. A friendship and business partnership then formed and has existed to the present day.

“I never forgave him for robbing me of all that money through his store for about four years! I used to say to him ‘I’ve spent so much money in your shop I must have bought you a house’! When we left MCA we had a roster of artists and people who still wanted to work with us so we started a label called Mecca for which we signed up acts like Donna D and Phoebe One. The drum and bass side of things we let slide a little bit. We were putting out tracks that we were making a hundred thousand pound videos for and there was only three of us involved so we had to really concentrate on that. It taught me a lot about the music business and much, much more about the way majors look at independent dance music.”

Darren imparts that although at the time he didn't think he had made a success with Mecca he had actually made quite a few achievements. "We had Phoebe working with artists from Jamaica like Red Rat, Goofy and Buckaneer. One track went top 30 and was one of the number one tracks for MTV's On The Box for the video. She also won a MOBO for Best British hip hop artist. Looking back, with the budget we had, we were really quite successful. Talking to people now who work with pop acts I know how much money they have to spend to even stand a chance of getting in the top 20, we were spending a quarter of that!" Although Mecca is now defunct Darren and Rene run the online music store 911murder.com which is run through Vitaminic.co.uk.

Wide Open Music is Darren’s current record label, which has been steadily releasing since late 2000. “Mecca was quite jump-up, I just wanted to start a new outlook, my policy is to be wide open with this, whether it’s a string track or a vocal track. The next three things are all completely different and that’s really what the label is about. If someone has something dark, funky, minimal or whatever term you want to pidgeon hole it I’m willing to listen to it. If I like it and it’s good I’ll put it out.” So far releases have been notched up by Weaver, Stomp, Audio Species, Surreal and Parameter 2 on Wide Open Music.

“I think in the last six months a lot of producers, especially those on my label have been sitting tight and just watching the transition of the music. I think the fact that Shy’s track was picked up by a major with not a lot of money spent on the video and promotion and then got into the top 10 has done a lot of credit to the scene. Now they are going to start talking to other artists. I think producers I’ve been talking to are going to be making slightly different music to what they were before because they feel differently which is good. About a year and a half ago there was some music I was getting through my door and I was thinking ‘if this is drum and bass I don’t think I want to be in the scene anymore’ because I don’t understand it!

People always write this music off. Ever since I’ve been in this scene, every couple of years or so majors and other people are like ‘it’s dying a death, it’s shit!’ But you know what? It always comes back twice as good, twice as strong and always reinvents itself. As long as the music is exciting and always going forward I’ll always be playing it. If I don’t like it anymore you won’t hear my name about. If someone said play this and I didn’t like it, I couldn’t play it. You have to play what you feel, otherwise you’re kidding everyone and worst of all yourself!”

Darren himself is back in the studio with Special K. They will be going under the pseudonym of Vanguard and launching a record label by the same name, watch out for first release ‘Blow’ b/w ‘Breakage’. Various projects will soon be surfacing with Darren and a host of emcees, first one confirmed between him and Riddla. Social Sounds is a brand new label soon to be launched too, running from North America with something a little different in the offing. Events wise Wide Open are in negotiation to host a weekly sunday evening event in Brighton with Peshay and Special K guesting.