INTERVIEW: Andy Grant
Given its relatively recent rise to mainstream popularity in the United States, the rich history of electronic music and the culture that surrounds it is often overlooked.
For roughly 25 years, Andy Grant has been growing and refining his passion for music. In that time, he has gained a unique perspective that is backed by experience and context. Few can boast such a strong tenure in electronic music. We are very grateful to have had the opportunity to sit down with Andy and learn from the wealth of knowledge he has collected during his career as a DJ.
TATS: How did you get into music and more specifically house music?
Andy Grant: I always remember being into music as kid, mainly pop music that I’d hear on the radio or see on TV. My parents weren’t really into music, so I didn’t have any influences at home other than a stack of 7” singles from the pop charts, a few Abba albums, and a small record player. Around 15 I got into heavy metal, listening to Iron Maiden, AC/DC, etc. My tastes were definitely all over the place, though. I remember going to Boots the Chemist one time (a UK store similar to CVS), which stocked popular records, and picking up a copy of Iron Maiden’s first album and Madonna’s first album. Quite a combination! I still have the Madonna one. Not long after the heavy metal phase, I went full goth, listening to The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, Fields of the Nephilim, etc., while also obsessing over Morrissey’s lyrics and dating a hardcore Prince (RIP) fan.
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Andy Grant @ Midnight Project[/caption]
I asked them what it was, and they said it was “house music”. This time around, this pale skinned goth kid was fascinated by the music that didn’t seem to end
It was around this time that house music was starting to creep into popular culture back in the UK, with “Jack Your Body” by Steve “Silk” Hurley topping the pop charts. I remember hearing it for the first time and thinking it was a load of repetitive crap. I just couldn’t understand why anyone would listen it it. Later in 1987, I was on vacation in Spain and met some girls by the pool who were listening to a mix tape. I asked them what it was, and they said it was “house music.” This time around, this pale skinned goth kid was fascinated by the music that didn’t seem to end, which didn’t have any gaps or a DJ talking between the tracks. The one track I can remember from that tape is “Fascinated” by Company B… not so much house music, as hi nrg synth pop proto house, but it’s one that has stayed with me ever since.
Over the next couple of years, I started buying any dance records I could find at the local independent record store, but the next thing I remember really grabbing my attention was Inner City’s Paradise album. It was around this time that I started seeking out clubs that played house music. There was nothing in my local town, so we had to either drive up to London or down the Brighton on the south coast of England. I found my home at the Zap Club in Brighton, a small club right on the beach, where the likes of Carl Cox and Paul Oakenfold would spin regularly. The best night of the bunch, though, was Chris Coco’s Coco Club, which had an amazing Balearic vibe, somewhere where you’d hear the freshest house cuts seamlessly mixed with tracks from such diverse artists Edie Brickell, Erasure, and The Waterboys… and every week, the last track was always “The Whole of the Moon” by the Waterboys. Shivers down my spine whenever I hear that track today. From there on out, every weekend was spent heading to clubs, raves, and festivals as the dance music scene exploded in the UK. The early nineties were exciting times in the UK!
TATS: What were/are some of the biggest influences on how your tastes have evolved over the years? Anything that would surprise us to hear?
Andy Grant: That’s a tough one! My tastes have followed a confusing path over the years, and have at times taken some turns that I’m not particularly proud of, but they’ve all led me to where I am now. Over the past 25 years I ended up everywhere from happy house to hardcore to hard house to the Madchester sound to dub to reggae to ambient to German trance to Detroit techno to deep house to soulful house to garage and speed garage. Tough to say what my influences were… I guess I just went with the flow of who I was hanging out with and which parties we were going to.
In the days before the Internet, your tastes were influenced by the music available to youAnother strong factor that played into my tastes was the records available at my local record store. In the days before the Internet, your tastes were influenced by the music available to you and in the early days it was tough to get hold of the proper underground shit. Back in London in the mid nineties, pirate radio station Girls FM was a huge influence, and it was through that that I really got into the underground house sound. That said, perhaps the biggest influence of all was one single mix tape from 1993 by UK DJ Rob Acteson that really blew my mind, putting me on a path to where I am today. For years I’d listen to this mix on repeat, trying to get track IDs for all the tracks and mostly failing.
Eventually I lost the cassette and figured I’d never hear it again, until I randomly found a rip of it online a few years back, which you can still download here. It even has a mostly complete track listing. Such a great example of true deep house, expertly mixed by a true master. These days I find myself mainly influenced by the talented DJs around me. I regularly hang out and jam with a circle of local DJs including Ramirez, Jubilee, Kochi, DJ Nav, Symmetrical, and my partner and muse Katrina, all super talented and with their own unique styles, and collectively they inspire me to raise my game as a DJ. When you’re jamming in such talented company, you’d better not suck!
On DJING
TATS: In your career as a DJ so far, what have been your top three most memorable gigs? Who did you play with, where were they, and what made them so special to this day?
Andy Grant: That’s a great question. While I’ve been spinning vinyl for around 25 years, my most memorable gigs have all been in the last couple of years. All local. They are all recent because I feel things have only come together for me as a DJ in the last few years. Previously I’d always be stressed out worrying if I was playing what the promoter wanted me to play, what the crowd wanted me to play, what would be cool to play, and I’d spend way too much time planning sets and striving for perfection, leading to rigid performances lacking the magic that happens when you improvise and react to the crowd.
Since I got back into things in 2011 after a 7-year hiatus, I stopped worrying about what everyone else will think and I’ve just been doing my thing. I’m the DJ, and it’s my job to channel the vibe in response to the dancers. There’s no room for second-guessing or self-doubt. I’m not there to give the dancers what they want; I’m there to give them what they need. Forgive me if that sounds arrogant, but I believe a great DJ needs to master their craft and have complete confidence in what they are doing. Anyway, back to the question. I’ve been lucky enough to have some amazing DJing experiences over the years, but if I had to pick, these would be my most memorable gigs, in no particular order:
I’m the DJ, and it’s my job to channel the vibe in response to the dancers.
Midnight Project — January 17th, 2015
My two and a half hour opening set for Fred P at the Midnight Project after hours back in January 2015. There’d been a mix up over set times and I thought I’d be playing later in the night, so I’d brought a record bag filled with peak time warehouse jams suitable for an enthusiastically sloppy after hours crowd. Remember, when you’re playing vinyl you only have the records in your record bag, so you really have to plan appropriately for your time slot. I finished setting up the turntables and just before the doors opened, I was told to get on the decks. I immediately panicked, as I hadn’t really brought much in the way of suitable warm up material… so I just threw on something dubby, pitched it right down and went from there. Within 10 minutes of the doors opening the dance floor was packed and I really got in the zone, spinning records brought for a more peak time set pitched down to fit the earlier time slot. And hey, it worked a treat! A magical experience, proving that sometimes circumstance and limitations can sometimes give creativity a helping hand. Huge thanks to Benoit Haber and Denis Bejan for giving me the opportunity.
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FORWARD Forever Endless
Spinning the set between Guillaume and the Coutu Dumonts and Chicago legend Gene Hunt at the FORWARD Forever Endless party at a warehouse on the Saturday night of the FORWARD Festival 2015. Gene Hunt is one of my favorite DJs, a true legend who spun with Ron Hardy at the Muzik Box in Chicago, so it was an honor to play the lead in to his set, and Guillaume and the Coutu Dumonts’ live set had already got the crowded warehouse going crazy. It was one of those situations where there was no choice but the deliver the goods! Again, I don’t remember much about playing… the energy in the room was so incredible that I just fed off the vibes and the records came out of my record bag one after the other as if in some pre-determined order. It was a truly incredible experience and one that I’m sure won’t be repeated anytime soon. A local DJ spinning between headliners is almost unheard of and I have the FORWARD crew to thank for believing in me and offering me such an amazing opportunity.
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Deep Sugar — August 8th, 2015
Spinning an outdoor, all vinyl, sunrise set on SQ Audio’s stacks at the Deep Sugar Underground Rising party at The Paradox in August 2015. I first heard about The Paradox nightclub back in the UK in the mid nineties when I’d buy records from Baltimore labels such as The Basement Boys, which would have tracks labeled “Paradox Vocal” or “Paradox Dub.” I remember dreaming that one day I’d visit The Paradox, but never imagined that one day I would play there.
Last summer, Deep Sugar residents The Elders kindly booked me to play Deep Sugar outside in the Courtyard at the Dox. I ended up playing from 3am to 6am on the most badass sound system with a crowd of beautiful people dancing as the sun rose. It was a truly amazing experience and once I wrapped up, I realized that it was a once in a lifetime experience. There’s likely nowhere else in the country where you can get away with banging it out on a top notch sound system outside at sunrise without getting shut down, and with The Paradox closing this August, there’s no chance of doing it again there. I’m eternally grateful to the Deep Sugar crew for giving me that opportunity. Something I’ll remember for the rest of my life. Indeed, perhaps my fondest memory of that set was one of the older members of the crowd standing in front of the decks watching me cue up the records with his son, telling him “See, this is how they used to do it,” with the son watching my every move with keen interest. I couldn’t help looking up, smiling, and telling him “This is how I still do it!”
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TATS: We’re curious how you go about discovering music. It seems that more and more DJs and producers have evolved their music discovery rituals into a digital hunt, rather than the exploration of a unfamiliar record shop’s collection. Does crate digging still have a place for you? What are your favorite local shops that our readers should check out?
Andy Grant: My process for music discovery is likely a little bit different than most. I stopped reading the music press back in the 90s, because I realized it was really just a PR-driven popularity contest to steer people towards certain release that likely weren’t the releases most deserving of attention. Indeed, I discovered that by chasing the hyped records I only ended up playing the same stuff as everyone else, and when you’re trying to develop a unique style, that doesn’t really cut it. I realized I don’t care who produces the music; I’m just interested in whether the music does what I need it to do on the dance floor. In my opinion, you’re best off not paying attention to artist or label names and just acquiring and playing music that works for you, regardless of whether it’s cool, whether that artist’s last record was any good, whether it’s popular, whether DJ Big Stuff played it in his Boiler Room set, etc. I also learned to ignore genres when looking for music. When you limit yourself to someone else’s narrow definition of music styles, you’re going to miss out on a ton of music that you might not know you like.
You’re best off not paying attention to artist or label names and just acquiring and playing music that works for youArmed with as complete a lack of knowledge, hype, or insight as I could muster, in the past I would venture to a physical record store and spend the best part of a day listening to as many records as I could and buying what I liked. These days, I spend hours in online record stores such as Juno, decks.de, Hardwax, Deejay.de, etc. listening to as many records as I can and filling my cart. I only buy music on vinyl, very rarely bothering with digital. Why? Well, when you are spending $12 and upwards on a single release, you definitely think twice before hitting the Buy button. Also, with vinyl there’s an in built quality control mechanism. If an artist or label releases something on vinyl, they must really believe in it as there is a non-trivial investment required. This means that when I’m record shopping, I can be sure that almost everything I listen to is going to be really good, so it just becomes a matter of my own personal taste as to what goes in my shopping basket. I rarely end up with a dud. Also, many releases are available on vinyl months before the digital release, if there is one, so you can get hold of great music months before other DJs. Buying digital just isn’t the same.
If an artist or label releases something on vinyl, they must really believe in it as there is a non-trivial investment requiredThe barriers to entry are so damn low that digital stores are overflowing with mediocre crap, so you can spend hours wading through shit trying to find something that stands out. Back when I tried going digital, I would find myself buying mediocre tracks just to have something to show for hours of searching. Another important part of my discovery process is forming relationships with up and coming producers and vinyl record labels and buying direct from them. There are a bunch of great labels out there pressing limited run vinyl-only releases, and when there are only 300 copies of a badass record, I can usually be sure that I’m the only DJ in town with a copy.
Back to the question… crate digging still has a place for me and in DC we are lucky to have a great local institution where you can discover some great finds: Joe’s Record Paradise. Unfortunately they are closed right now as they had to move locations, but they are an amazing resource for finding great second hand vinyl. I have spent many hours digging through their crates. I’d encourage anyone interested in digging for vinyl to check them out and to donate to their fundraiser to help them through some tough times they are currently facing:
Support Joe’s Record Paradise on GoFundMe
Andy Grant’s 10 commandments for music discovery
- Don’t read the press
- Don’t believe the hype
- Don’t chase what’s cool
- Don’t go after tracks other DJs play
- Ignore genres… particularly bullshit sub-genres
- Buy physical media
- Listen to everything
- Buy the stuff that works for YOU
- Form relationships with up coming artists and labels you discover
- Dig thru those crates
TATS: Tell us about some of the rare classics you have in your collection. What vinyls are you most proud of owning and what’s the story behind them? What is #1 on your list of must have eventually (we’ve seen some pretty crazy numbers on Discogs for some old school albums)?
That’s what I love about physical media. Each record has a history beyond the music.Andy Grant: Where do I start? To me every record in my collection is a classic, every record in my collection has a story, and I’ve formed an emotional connection with each and every one of them. That’s what I love about physical media. Each record has a history beyond the music. I can look at a record sleeve or label and immediately remember when I bought it, how I feel when I play it, that time I played it and the place went wild or that time I played it and cleared the dance floor. I try and keep my vinyl collection around 5,000 to 6,000 records… I’ve found that when it gets bigger than that you start to lose track. I keep it down to size by selling stuff I’m no longer into on Discogs. Lately, I’ve been fascinated by how some records that I picked up for buck or two have suddenly become hugely sought after records with a huge price tag. Back to the question… trying to call out a few releases out of thousands is tough. I’m proud of them all! (Well, apart from all those happy house records I picked up in the 90s :p) Perhaps my most treasured records are the three Driftwoods I picked up for $10 a piece back in the early 2000s, which are now worth a few bucks:
https://www.discogs.com/Jeremy-So-Peaceful/release/69786
https://www.discogs.com/Elias-Moneypeople/release/2804
https://www.discogs.com/Robi-Uppin-Fade/release/60286
Proper deep house for true heads. I’d love to pick up the rest of the catalog one day, but the prices are ridiculous. Hoping for a repress.
I’m also very proud of my complete Prescription Records collection. If you’re not familiar with Prescription, do your research: https://www.discogs.com/label/292-Prescription
ON THE DC HOUSE SCENE
TATS: You started DC House Grooves in 2004. What led to its creation? What are your future plans with it?
Andy Grant: When I moved to the US from Scotland in 2004, I had a young baby to provide for, so I decided to put all the partying behind me and focus on career and family. However, I loved the music and wanted an outlet for DJing. Initially I set up DC House Grooves as a place to host my mixes and that’s all it was for many years. Indeed, I’m sure there were several years when I didn’t post anything there. When I came out of my self-imposed retirement as a DJ in 2011, I didn’t know anyone so I started going out to clubs and parties, networking, getting to know people, and over time I started learning about all the different crews and DJs we have in this fine city. However, as a new person trying to discover the underground scene in DC, I really could have used a guide to tell me where to go. I also felt that while we had a ton of talented DJs in this town, the scene revolved around importing talent from out of town because that was the only way to get people out to a decent sized venue.
In 2014, I decided to start writing the DC House Grooves Weekend Round Up to help new people arriving in DC find their music and their people, to give locals a summary of all the best shit going on each week, and to try and raise the profile of local DJs and promoters who are doing things right and deserve to be getting attention. I also wanted to contribute towards putting DC on the map as a place where good things are happening. I realized from the start that I would need to be disciplined; it couldn’t just be something I did for a couple of weeks and then gave up.
Somehow I have managed to maintain that discipline for nearly two years… in July this year the Weekend Round Up will be two years old. The biggest challenge is that so much is happening these days that it takes an ever-increasing amount of time each week to pull together. Asking me about future plans assumes I have a plan. I don’t really have any clue what I’m doing. I guess I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing, adding writers to the team, featuring more useful content about the talented individuals doing things right in DC, and destiny will figure out the rest. The site features at #1 on Google for most house music in DC type searches on Google, so it’s a great asset on which to build in future.
TATS: With running DC House Grooves the last decade, how have you viewed the evolution of the house music scene in DC? Are we trending positively in your eyes? Anything you’d like see happen to help the community grow further?
The one thing I’d like to see happen is for crews and DJs to work with each other more. More love, more mutual support, less competition.Andy Grant: I’ve only really been paying attention since 2011, but right now the DC underground scene is awesome and it just keeps getting better. We’ve got so many amazing clubs, crews, promoters, and DJs who are doing what they do for the love of it, and great things are happening. Sure, there are some players in town still trying to ride that EDM bandwagon, but they don’t interest me. Why would they, when we’ve got ROAM, FORWARD, Midnight Project, Sunday’s Rooftop, Sunglass Sundays, Prescription, Daytime Discotèque, Sticky Fingers, Vague Output, Deep Sugar, Sam Burns’ Underground Soul Solution, Groovetop, The House That U Built (hopefully back soon), DJ Nav’s Uptown House Experience, The UKG Social, TNX, House’N’U, Ernest Fountain’s Strictly 4 The Dancefloor, 1432R, Cadence, Loop’s Soundwaves boat party, Kochi’s Frequency, Philip Goyette’s Transmission 4|4, PHILCO’s The Business End, Doktor D’s Silicon Based Lifeform, Juana’s Tech Support, Body Werk, Dansman & Throe’s #BODYFEEL, DJ Soul’s DUSK, Foot Therapy, W4DA, Subdistrick!, Deep Sessions…? So many great crews doing things right (and I’m sure I’m forgetting a whole bunch).
Then there’s all the amazing venues who take great risks to support us all — Flash, U Street Music Hall, DC9 Nightclub, Eighteenth Street Lounge, The Dance Loft, Zeba Bar, Backbar, Dr. Clock’s Nowhere Bar, etc. The one thing I’d like to see happen is for crews and DJs to work with each other more. More love, more mutual support, less competition… working together we will put DC on the map and start exporting our thing both nationally and internationally.
TATS: From your perspective, what is unique about the DC house music scene compared to other cities that you’ve played at/seen firsthand?
Andy Grant: The great thing about DC is we are a global melting pot with people from all the United States and all over the world coming together and contributing to our growing underground scene. We’re a small city but we’ve got the diversity of a much bigger city and I think that makes for a really interesting landscape. The downside to us being a small scene is that it makes it really difficult to carve out a living doing what you love in the music scene so most people have to hold down a day job to support their love of the music, but I think when people aren’t dependent the music to make a living, it frees them up to be more creative and take more risks. DC is definitely doing it right, and working together we can make some amazing things happen.
Right… I’ve rambled on long enough. If anyone has actually read all that, I tip my hat to you! Thanks for giving me the opportunity to be featured on Tortoise and the Snare! I’ll be opening for André Galluzzi in the main room at Flash next Saturday playing an all vinyl set, while also celebrating being 45 years young. Come celebrate with me. I have a feeling it’s going to be a very special evening.
Exclusive Guest Mix
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