Wheel 'n' spiel

>> The very mobile Digital makes drum & bass "just fun again"

by CHRIS HATHERILL

London's Steve Carr, aka Digital, has long been a name in the elite drum & bass scene, having impressed impressive scenesters like Doc Scott and Goldie with his early efforts at bringing dub elements (learned from years working on reggae sound systems) into early-'90s drum & bass. Recently, he's floated to the top and now stands alongside people like Marcus Intalex and Total Science as the ones who are really "doing it" for D&B at the moment. After a few run-ins with the Orange Answerphone Service, the Mirror finally connected with Digital and his infectious enthusiasm and laughter as he tried to drive through Ipswich without crashing.



Digital: The fucking battery went out earlier on, didn't it? (laughing already) I'm in the car now, can you hear me?

Mirror: Yeah, when should I call you back?

D: You can talk to me now if you want.

M: I don't want you to get in an accident.

D: Well, if it's gonna be like that you're gonna be chasing me all over (laughs more). I don't sit in one place, you know what I mean?

M: Okay, be careful, yo.

D: Don't worry (laughs even more).

M: Uh, okay. So a lot of people have been throwing your name around recently--what have you been doing to get so much attention?

D: I don't know, just drum & bass, mate. Bass, drums--and that's it. Ha. Whatever, man.

M: You're bringing back the old-school flavour?

D: Well, whatever. What's new-school, what's old-school, it's just samples, innit? This whole retro thing in drum & bass, it ain't looking back, all right. People forgot, right? That drum & bass is full of samples, yeah? And drum & bass is fun, right? I think people are having fun again, and sampling again. Instead of one break and a load of midrange, people are having fun again and not thinking, Oooh, I'd better do this and I'd better do that (now really laughing).

M: (laughing also) Mashing it up.

D: We're all just doing whatever we want and it's fun, isn't it? DJing, jumping around by the decks, we're all producing tunes, whatever, it's just fun again. It's not retro, it's just back to the way it used to be. It's been getting here, but I think even better around the world. I think a lot of other music's gonna be coming back into it. Like, it all went one thing, it went acid or whatever the fuck it was, or techno or whatever the fuck you want to call it. But now I think it's back to all different kinds of stuff. Hip hop, techno, dub, vocal--whatever.

M: What plates are you bringing over?

D: What plates? Uhhh--me, Spirit, Total Science, fucking Marcus, Dillinja, fucking whoever I want. Fucking Sonic and Silver, they're new artists, I got some stuff off them. Right, I'm at the post office now.

M: All right, good luck with that.

D: Cool, man. Easy. Nice.

With Corey K and Jack Beetz at Binary on Thursday, May 31, 11pm, $10