DJ Vadim Interview

Amongst the dub reggae and rock extremes of Taxi performing live in a backstreet pub in Manchester (the obscure venue of Absolut Vodka’s UK Launch of Absolut Tracks). DJ Vadim and I head off upstairs to a dingy little back room to conduct one fascinating interview.

Born in the war-torn St. Petersburg (formally known as Leningrad) in 1979, Vadim and his family soon relocated to the UK where he’s carved his place in hip-hop and underground culture. An outstanding hip-hop producer and DJ extraordinaire, he has been specifically drafted in by the purveyors of vodka, Absolut to create the creative vision.
DJ Vadim - ooh feel my beard!
We discuss what this means to him, who he supports during the world cup, how one of his more moral releases got banned from American airwaves and the ever changing state of technology. But first, take a minute or two to turn up your speakers and check out the Absolut Tracks for free courtesy of Clubbing UK and Absolut. Then read on.

How are you and what have you been up to?
Been doing a lot of shows all around the world, left right and centre, been doing quite a few things for Absolut Vodka, I made the music for them earlier this year and we’ve been doing this kind of launch thing in Valencia in Spain, Hamburg and Munich in Germany, Moscow in Russia and this is the latest one. Apart from that finished two albums for Ninja Tunes, we’re just getting the video shot at the moment, finalising the artwork.

The first album is called "Children Of Possibility", which will come out in May, it’s a group album, with me, DJ Woody, Yarah Bravo and Blu-run 13, it’s a new project I’ve put together called One Self (see our "Bluebird" review). The second album is just me, it’ll be just instrumental tracks, I’ve finished that but I haven’t given it a title yet, that’ll come out later.

Can you give a brief on how you got where you are today?
I started off getting into music in the mid-80s, through hip-hop grabbed my ear, got more and more in to it, about 88-89 I bought myself some decks, started DJing locally where I lived, Kingston in South West London, 92 I brought myself a sampler, started making a few tunes on my computer, 95 setup my own label (Jazz Fudge) released my own tunes, the following year signed to Ninja Tune released my first album, since then I’ve had three LPs on Ninja Tunes plus one remix album, produced an album for Jazz Fudge, and had like 30/40 releases there, loads of singles, travelled the world, DJ’d in every continent, done all kinds of bits and pieces and now I’m here in Manchester.

OK, so if you could play football or when it comes to the world cup, who do you support?
My wife is half Brazilian, half Chilean, but was raised in Sweden. The English manager is Swedish, my step-father is Irish and French, I was born in Russia but live in England. So quite bizarrely when it comes to the World Cup I can support England, if England don’t go nowhere, I can support Russia, I can support Brazil (which is pretty good because everybody loves Brazil), I can support Chile, France, Sweden or Republic or Ireland so I’m pretty unlucky if one of those teams doesn’t win.

What would you describe as the highlight of your career so far?
When I flew to South America, to play in Sao Paulo, in Tokyo, or in Sydney or in Chile, playing to 2-3000 people, it’s kinda crazy to go that far and people know of you, even though you don’t know how (Ninja Tune doesn’t really sell records there) people coming out and partying - that’s amazing when you go to South America.

I think doing this, I was very happy to do the Absolut thing, I don’t ever do corporate sponsorship anything like that, I think most of it is cheesy, Pepsi wanna have Britney Spears, and Coca Cola wanna have this and that, those companies usually don’t care about what you do, they just want to sell more. But with Absolut it feels a little bit more different, they’re actually interested in the creative angle not necessarily to boost their sales directly, that’s what it feels like. They gave me total creative control, and the fact who they’ve worked with (you say what’s the pinnacle) they’ve worked with Keith Herring, Versace, this person, that person, really famous photographers, artists and now music is their latest thing, and it’s a very very strong brand of imaging, the adverts are very very creative, and they’re held in quite high regards in creative design circles, to be asked by them to create something for them I was very chuffed, and the fact every other person they asked have all made house, housey-techno whatever, I’m the only one who didn’t do that, I was very proud to be able to do that.

How is the scene in Russia club scene evolving?
I go there a bit, once or twice a year to DJ, I was just there 3 weeks ago doing an Absolut party in Moscow, but I’m going again next weekend to play. There’s various things happening, electronic music is getting quite big, I’d say house music is very, very popular (especially in Moscow), people like Sasha and John Digweed that kind of hand-bag, the UK house scene’s very very big, techno - Moscow’s the capital, St. Petersburg's more the creative capitol, there their taste is a little more, (cultured perhaps not the right word), bit broader, electronic music is much bigger, so things like Warp, Ninja Tune, Aphex Twin, Ortecher that kind of thing is getting a lot of exposure, but also hip-hop is also something on the rise with their own local scene so that’s happening as well.

Is hip-hop your preferred main genre?
" That’s what first got me in to music through hip-hop, watching Hip-hop films, that was in the mid-eighties, and from that I discovered every other music, from listening to hip-hop I discovered James Brown cause I wanted to hear what the original samples were, then I discovered Roy Ayres, and Blue-Note records from Jazz you go into jazz-fusion, jazz-rock, blues, soul and all kinds of things, you see how all these different kinds of music have come and fused together, even though I love hip-hop, I love all kinds of music, it would be wrong for me to say, this is just my music, or that is just my music, because when I DJ can play all kinds of stuff, I could play a whole funk set, a whole reggae set, I can play Jungle I can play this I can play that, it depends, I’m most well known for doing hip-hop, I went on tour with the Super Furry animals, I worked with house producers, I’m doing a Flamenco project at the moment in Spain, doing all kinds of things."

What are your views on the Beslan (Russian hostage) siege?
"… it’s awful, awful, awful, but the things are happening in Chechnya are similarly awful, but as it happens it’s the terrorists who claim 400 very unfortunate lives who are seen to be the culprits, yet Russia killing 40-50,000 or 100,000s innocent people in Chechnya isn’t wrong, you’ve got to see both sides of the picture. It’s something that we’re seeing around the world like what’s happening in Palestine, it’s happening in Sudan now, certain sections of the government committing genocide on its own people. It’s very difficult to comment on all these kinds of things unless you actually go there and see the conditions people are under, a great example was Margaret Thatcher said "Nelson Mandela is a terrorist and he’ll never set foot in this country", I wonder if she believes that now? You can’t really say what he is, what he isn’t unless you go there."

DJ Vadim interview continued