Interview with Joey Negro
Questions by Toni Tambourine (Defected Records)

Q: How did your career start?

Joey Negro: I've been DJ'ing since the late 80's but what really started me off was making music. I'd always been a big music fan. I managed to get a job in a record shop in London in 1986. I moved from Clacton on Sea in Essex down to London and got a job in just around the time house music was really kicking in. It was the time when tracks like Jack Your Body and Fingers Inc had come in but hip-hop and rare groove was really strong too. It was a really exiting time to be in London and I met a lot of people like Jonathan Moore (Coldcut) and Trevor Nelson, who was working on one of the vans that sold us records, it really seemed like there was a new school of people coming through. I stayed in the record shop for about 9 months before getting a job with a record distributor (Rough Trade), which taught me a lot about the business. I then started my own label called Republic, we put out a lot of early New York garage - things like Blaze and The Turntable Orchestra. At the same time I started making my own music, something I'd always wanted to do. My first release was a track I'd done with a friend called MDM - Get Busy on Republic. I started Z records in 1992 which was set-up to release my own records or stuff that I really liked. Out of our 75 releases, I'd say around 65 are me or tracks that I've remixed. Things like Must Be the Music, Can't Get High Without You, Saturday.

Q: Were You Involved In the Acid House Scene

Joey Negro: I was involved in the Acid Scence to a degree because I was around at that point when acid exploded. We did an acid track, a mix of MDM called 'Get Acidic which came out on Transmat, Derrik May's label. It was a cool scene for a bit but I felt it overshadowed a lot of other music that came out around the same time because it was just so dominant. It was interesting to see so many people who weren't really interested in dance music who were all of a sudden getting on board something.

Q: What is it About Disco That Inspires You?

Joey Negro: I often wonder what it is about disco music that I like about so much. I'm always playing records to try and analyse what it is I like about it so much and see if I can use it in one of my own tracks. I guess when really got into music in my teens the music that was really dominant on the radio was stuff like Shalamar, Beegee's, Third World, Can You Feel the Force. I just loved it. I didn't get into it because it was a cool thing, it was just because I liked it.
There's loads of people whose records from the 70's I love, producers like; George Duke and Kenton Nicks, this stuff really gets me.

Q: What Do You Think Makes a Good DJ?

Joey Negro: I think people like to see a DJ whose enjoying himself, there's nothing worse than seeing someone who's completely still. Visually, DJ's can be pretty boring and if they're not dancing looking like they're enjoying themselves, what's the point? I don't like going completely crazy and jumping into the crowd!! but hearing music that I love loud, I find it hard not to dance.

Q: What record Would You Like To Be Played at Your Funeral?

Joey Negro: I was thinking some really long boring instrumental just to keep people standing there looking at each other thinking "god this is shit!"

Q: How would you best sum up your Attitude to Life?

Joey Negro: I dunno really, I guess I'm a pretty easy going person really but then again I get really wound up sometimes. I tend to just take it as it comes I guess.

Q: What Words Of DJ Wisdom Could You Share With Mankind

Joey Negro: I always say to people, the best way to do it is to either make your own record, even if it's not great or to start your own night and get a cool scene going around that. You have to get your name on some vinyl or some flyers. To begin with you have to make yourself a commodity.

Q: Can You Predict the Year that people will run out of disco samples to Use?

Joey Negro: I don't think people will ever run out of disco samples. As technology change people will find how to do different things with the same samples. Take a record that has been sampled 15 years ago, you could sample it now and do something different with it. The days of making a track by just sampling a big chunk of a disco record and just looping it will maybe run out sometime, but only because people are gonna get bored of that sort of thing. But something like Lola's theme which was probably the biggest dance record this year was just a big disco sample record. Why didn't anyone sample it before? I wish I'd sampled it! If people wanna make a disco sample record in 100 years time I think they'll be able to find a record that may or may not have been sampled before but do something with it that is so different to what you can do with it now that it might as well be a different sample.

Q: What's Been The Proudest Moment of Your Career?

Joey Negro: I think the proudest moment of my career was when I released a track called 'Do What You Feel' on Virgin. It got to number one in the 'Record Mirror' club chart which I had bought every week throughout my teens. To see my own record get to number one in the club chart was amazing. The track charted at number 36 and just listening to the countdown was incredible. I thought god its me! I'm in the charts!

Q: How Much Time Do You Spend In the Studio?

Joey Negro: I've got a pretty strict studio regime now where I start at 10am and work through till 8pm in the evening four days a week. I used to spend a lot more time in the early hours. I used to start at 2pm and go on till 4am but it's a really unhealthy lifestyle. So now I employ an engineer and I really have to give him something to do. You can find me there on the weekends too, burning CD's and editing a few bits. So I'm there quite a lot really!

Q: What Did You Want to Achieve with this Compilation?

Joey Negro: For the 'In the House' compilation I wanted to show all the different sides of my musical tastes. Because its two CD's it gives me the opportunity to do be really diverse. You'll find some old house alongside some 80's boogie electronic stuff, alongside some disco stuff. Its great to be able to put this together in a coherent manner. For me it's all about the musical content of the CD, I put stuff on there because I really like the track not because it mixes well together. For me it's the best of the best, I wouldn't put anything on there unless I really love it and I've liked it for years or I passionately love the song. I never think, "oh that'll do" or "that mixes well with that one". I think - I love that track, even if it doesn't mix well with any of them I've got to get it on there.
It was nice to dig through some old records, there was one by 2 Raw called 'We Got the Funk' which is an old Steve Silk Hurley production, which is an old hip house thing, which still sounds really fresh. I've also got the O'Jays' 'Put Our Heads Together', which I've been playing out recently. One of the tracks on the album I really like is 'Another Day' by Kings of Tomorrow, which is really deep, people probably don't think it's a vocal track because its got a really long intro.
I haven't put loads of my own tracks on the album because there are so many records by other people I wanted to put on there. One of my own tracks I have put on there is Every Day - Sunburst Band, which has been really popular on the modern soul scene as well as the house scene.

Q: Are There Any Special Dave Lee Re-edits on there?

Joey Negro: There's quite a lot of re-edits for the album and quite a lot of tracks that I've already edited for when I play out. Things like RSL and Giva I've actually got the original parts for so its been somewhere between a remix and a re-edit, so there's a lot of exclusive stuff on there.

Q: What Do You Think You've Brought To the 'In The House' Series?

Joey Negro: I think I've got a specific taste in music, I've got pretty strong views on what I like and what I don't like. I don't know anyone else who's got quite the same taste as me. When I here other people's mix CD's I think "I wouldn't have put that on there", not because I'm being critical but because I simply wouldn't have put it on there. People always try and compare me with Dimitri or Miguel Migs but my tastes are unique. What I do have in common with Dimitri is that I really try and dig quite deep for records that haven't been rinsed out. I'm not one to put out stuff that has already been on loads of compilations. I try and put new stuff mixed with old stuff that's not overly familiar.

Q: What Does The Future Hold For Joey Negro?

Joey Negro: Lots more Dj'ing and producing, I'm working on a new album at the moment. I've made a lot of house records but I really want to start making something new and start exploring some new areas. I love house, I love dance and I'm always gonna be making it but as a producer I really wanna keep pushing myself forward and not get stuck in a rut playing the same records.

Q: Who Inspires You?

Joey Negro: I always try and check out Tony Humphries, I like the way he can play things that don't always sound good on their own but sound great in his set. He always manages to make things sound funky. I like people like Giles Peterson because he plays jazz, funk and drum and bass - a really eclectic set. I heard Danny Krivit the other week for the first time who I thought was really good because he threw in some James Brown and some Brand New Heavies with some contemporary house. I don't like DJ's who get too carried away with the mix, to me a record sometimes a record just needs to be left to play!