Yomanda (aka Paul Masterson) Interview

Did you go out to Ibiza this year (summer 2004)?
"No I didn’t actually, there wasn’t really that many DJ gigs around, I find the DJing side has been quite slow this year - I’ve DJ’ed in lots of other places, I’ve been to Poland 4/5 times this year - Poland's absolutely rocking! I’m back there in January for a thing called Protector (a massive club for 7000 people, split into 3 rooms), and a massive outdoor thing in June again in Poland. I'm missing Ibiza but doing Poland instead."

How's about Miami Winter Music Conference?
"I think I will actually, thing is when I was in Miami this year, Jules was playing there, I went to one of his big gigs. I’d just arrived and he started to play my "Subway" record, (he was one of the first people to play), I’d given him a CDR (anything I do I get to him first) and that went down fantastically, it was good to catch up with everybody. That was only my second year out there, I went this year and last year. It was good this year cause I done MTV Dance and presented alongside BK, Anne Savage, Judge Jules, we done a top 100 Hard-Dance Anthems, we done 20 tracks each, I’d be given say Warp Brothers and I have to speak about the Warp Brothers "We Will Survive", a little synopsis of what the track was and what it meant to me at the time - they showed it about 3 or 4 times since April… Funny thing is I don’t like the sun at all (I’m very fair skinned), I was out there for 2 hours on the beach from 11am-1pm, I got burned no-end, I had jeans on, I had a T-shirts, I had factor 20 on my arms and my head, but didn’t wear a cap, and then 12 hours later I was really sick, I had to call a doctor out, I was suffering from sun-stroke! The following day I had to stay in and drink fluids, and that day my PR had some sort of Italian TV station thing for me to do as well."

Yomanda image Can you name your top clubbing cities or country’s and why?
"Poland and Tokyo come joint, maybe 40/60, Tokyo I’ve been 3 times in the past 3/4 years, and Tokyo is just one amazing place to play, I played a club called Code, and the last time I was there the Under-Lounge in Osaka, they go absolutely crazy the Japanese! You can say Birmingham’s a good place to play they go mad, but there really isn’t anywhere like Japan. They really get into the music, they’ve got so much expression, they really really feel the music, they’re so responsive, whenever I finish my sets, people coming up to me and ask me to sign autographs, kids coming up to me with almost 70% of my back-catalogue. I did a Candy Girls Remix of JX "Son Of A Gun" back in ’95 and I didn’t even see the promo, I wasn’t a DJ back then so I wasn’t getting sent records, I got a CD but I wasn’t really interested in vinyl because as I wasn’t a DJ, I was like "oh my god I’ve never even seen that"! They’re so so friendly, friendliest nation on the earth, very polite, so clean, the food, I can’t praise Japan enough... They really have it sussed - obviously being technology capital of the world, the sound systems are amazing!"

What would you consider the highlight of your career so far?
"Having a successful top 10 record, the first top 10 record was the first Yomanda single "Synth & Strings", just the best thing that’s ever happened to me. It got to number 8 but it was in the chart for 2 months, sold about 200,000 (probably done ¼ million mark now), all the compilations, the Now Compilations. I got my first solo 'Top Of The Pops', I did do TOTP with Amen UK, but "Synth & Strings" was me own track, I was so proud. It was such a great TOTP performance, it was just me on playing keyboards and I had the dancers with me - that was like a really great moment for me, I done the same with Jules the first Hi-Gate record on "Pitchin" but that was my first solo."

What else would you like top achieve?
"Just success really, success in what I do. Because I’m in the studio all the time, my life really revolves around my career because I love what I do so much, it’s not a chore to be in here working on new tunes - my goal is my career, and I’d love to have a number one record, a number dance record or to be involved in one. You don’t sit down and think I’ll write a number one record, you make a record that really excites you and you think that’ll work on the dance-floor (that’s what I’ve done over the years), I’ve never thought I’m gonna make a record that’s gonna go in the Top 5, I think that’s when you fall flat on your face."

What would describe as your best ever UK gig?
"2001 it was New Year’s Eve, Dave Pearce (he’s been a great support to me) asked me to play with himself and David Morales in George Square, New Year’s Eve live on Radio 1, there was about 30,000 people! I was on after Dave and everyone was going mad, it really was nerve racking, there were so many people there on New Year’s Eve, it was live on the radio and live on the web too, I have to say I did actually mess up a couple of the mixes (I was horrified), but I’ve never done anything on that magnitude... Most memorable."

How did your Hi-Gate collaboration with Jules start?
"When I made "Synth & Strings" originally it did have a vocal over the top, this track on Oar Records (Donna Gilles and ‘I’m Telling You’), I lifted an accapella from that and put it on "Synth & Strings" left a with my phone number, will you send me an acetate of this track, I love the music but I don’t’ like the vocal - I was really surprised to hear from him - and he says "if you send me the instrumental I’ll play it on the show on Friday". If he hadn’t told me to take the vocal off "Synth & Strings" may never have been born really, he’s got a part to play in that. I said to Jules "Do you fancy doing a tune together when you’re free?" cause I knew he lived in the same area of London as me, he says "yeah although I’ve got an Australia tour coming up and I’ll hook with you when I get back", we set a date and a few months later we were in the studio, it was all really simple and gelled really well.

You released an album with Jules as Hi-Gate, but what about a solo artist album?
"if you have a succession of top 3 singles, someone like Sash for instance, maybe. On the scale that I’ve been doing it (top 10 / top 30), record companies never seem to pick up the options. I’ve got loads of ideas and loads of stuff (it could happen easily), but the record companies have to ask "is it worth, is it marketable", whenever you’re a dance act you’re at the bottom of the pile."

What about your label 'U Clash Recordings'?
"I’ve had about 5/6 releases on that, I’m hopping to put something out very very soon. I’ve actually done a collaboration with Mark Van Linden from Germany (I went to Germany about 2 months ago) and I’ve always been a big fan. I met him when I played at a Polish gig, he’s not had any big success but I’ve picked up a few remixes over the years, quite bouncy, Dutch club-head, got that energy, Dutch dance stuff, almost a bit tongue-in-cheek, a bit quirky. I said "do you fancy getting together", we’ve done a really good tune, we only had 3 days so we didn’t get it finished, I just need to speak to him, make a few changes, and that’ll be ready. It's quite percussive with a big trancey breakdown, comes back up with big drums and stuff, it’s sounding really good at the moment. Another collaboration that I want to do is with F.R.A.N.K Trax from Spain, they had a big track on Neo Records called "Nebuchan" (a beautiful classic dance track), they done a remix of Yomanda’s "Free" record last year so I’m gonna go over and do something with them."

Anything else coming up?
"Oh Norman Cook (because he liked the vocals on the Subway thing), got me to do a few vocals over this track that he’d signed - I done some extra vocals and he really liked them. He signed a track by (I think) Arthur Baker and Dave Clarke, and they were looking for a quirky vocal, I had about 4/5 ideas, I’m not sure whether Arthur Baker and Dave Clarke have heard the vocal, I know Norman loves it, and he says "if they don’t like we’ll use it for something else". I think he’s starting a new album project at the start of the year and he says he’ll get me down to Brighton!"

Brighton and Southern Fried will of course, welcome him with open arms - check out our his latest Subway "What U Got, What U Do" review, or Yomanda "You're Free" both here.

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