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This is the extended version of an interview I did with PJ from Shut Up And Dance. which originally appeared in the excellent Woofah magazine<\/a> in spring 2008. Thanks to Woofah ed John Eden<\/a> for correcting my notoriously bad spelling and grammar, Straddling the lines between hip-hop, acid house and rave, Shut Up and Dance were true pioneers of UK dance music. Starting as a soundsystem, and predating hardcore\u2019s use of sped up breakbeats with their releases in the late 80\u2019s and early 90\u2019s, the label is regularly name dropped as one of the pillars of what later became known as Jungle. Vanishing from view in \u201993 after a string of hits from The Ragga Twins, Peter Bouncer and SUAD, label founders, PJ and Smiley, reinvented themselves with the ragga jump up Label \u2018Redlight\u2019 and went on to put out a series of some of the ruffest jungle tunes ever pressed to wax in 94 and 95.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n In the first of an occasional series of interviews investigating the roots and offshoots of bass culture, The Droid speaks to head honcho PJ about S.U.A.D\u2019s 20 year reign. From breakdancing and stringing up sounds, to raving, sampling, and chart success\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Yeah, They approached us initially, I think it was just for a couple of tracks, there was a Shut Up and Dance track and a Ragga Twins track, and then they came back and asked for some more \u2013\u00a0 it sort of came about that way. They were obviously well aware of us, they came down, did an interview with us, to add to the cover notes and that. But yeah, there\u2019s like a good mutual respect going on there\u2026<\/p>\n And you were happy with the results?<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>Yeah definitely.<\/p>\n Have you ever considered putting out represses or compilations yourselves? <\/strong><\/p>\n We get asked that all the time. But to be honest we view it like we\u2019re trying to concentrate on the future. We\u2019ve been going a long time now, 18 years or whatever and a lot of people in our situation, they\u2019ve sort of stopped \u2013 so it\u2019s not a problem for them to go back and press up all the old classics. But we\u2019re still making music now, so we\u2019d rather people focused on what we\u2019re doing now. We appreciate what we\u2019ve done in the past and that there\u2019s people still into it and that, but we\u2019d rather personally, look forward. We sort of see it like \u2013 there\u2019s more to come.<\/p>\n So you haven\u2019t been tempted to cash in?<\/strong><\/p>\n (Laughs) Nah \u2013 trust me. We\u2019ve been asked literally since we started till now. \u201dAin\u2019t you gonna press \u2018em up? Ain\u2019t you gonna press \u2018em up?\u201d And we\u2019ve resisted all the way. But y\u2019know, I never say never to anything \u2013 you never know what the future will hold.<\/p>\n And you\u2019re not bothered by seeing your releases go for silly money on Ebay? <\/strong><\/p>\n At the end of the day \u2013 it\u2019s an open market innit. People are free to do what they\u2019re gonna do. There\u2019s not an awful lot you can do about that \u2013 if they bought the tune legitimately back in the day, then good luck to them.<\/p>\n We\u2019re not going to see any High Contrast remixes of old Shut up and Dance tunes then?<\/strong><\/p>\n Nope! (Laughs)<\/p>\n To go back to your roots – you started out in the mid 80s by forming the Heatwave soundsystem, but you guys were hip hop heads, what was the story with that sound?<\/strong><\/p>\n Well basically, me and Smiley went to school together, also Daddy Earl and Hype [DJ Hype of Ganja Records fame], we all went to the same secondary school \u2013 in fact them three guys went to the same primary school as well. So we all knew each other from then.<\/p>\n This is about 84\/85, I left school in what, 84 \u2013 so yeah, I was about 16 in 84. This was a time when rap was massive in the UK, it was fresh, it was new. But back then it was people like LL Cool J, The Beastie boys, Public Enemy, it was all slower stuff, and there was breakdancing and all that stuff. And I was well into that \u2013 every lunchtime we used to have breakdance battles, and body popping battles.<\/p>\n Just by chance I bumped into Smiley about a year after leaving school, and it turned out we were both still into hip hop, still into rapping and that, and we just got together and basically started dancing together. We entered competitions \u2013 we even won a few. We were just generally into rap and the whole hip hop culture, we loved it all, the dancing, the music, the writing. We were doing all parts of it, and basically that\u2019s where our love came from; it came from hip-hop and rap.<\/p>\n So would it be fair to say you were more inspired by hip-hop than reggae?<\/strong><\/p>\n Definitely, definitely.<\/p>\n I assume you were aware of the big UK reggae sounds of the day?<\/strong><\/p>\n What happened there was, back at school we was going to all the soundclashes and that, we were going to all the Saxon, Unity and Coxsone dances. That was like what we did at the weekend sorta thing. And we had a soundsystem, we bought a little soundsystem, y\u2019know, young, not really knowing much, but it was a good soundsystem. We used to go round the roads, kick off doors, string up the set, put on a little blues, people used to come to our dances and that.<\/p>\n So the whole soundsystem culture, is like, we grew up on that as part of everything else. Which is why when we had the soundsystem, me and Smiley were rappers on it. But we also had the reggae side of it which was Daddy Earl, who\u2019s Smiley\u2019s brother, and Hype, back then he was our DJ, but he was a wicked hip hop DJ, he use to cut and scratch in the mix an that. So you\u2019d have these two mad guys rapping over this guy cutting up \u2013 this was when no other soundsystem was doing it back then, that was like \u201cwhat they hell are these guys doing?\u201d\u2026 Basically, you were either a reggae sound or a soul sound. You wasn\u2019t rapping and scratching and have some reggae MC also doing his thing over this guy cutting up tunes, it was like \u201cwhat the hell is this?\u201d\u2026 (Laughs)<\/p>\n So from a vocal end of things, UK Reggae MC\u2019s like Tippa Irie and Smiley Culture didn\u2019t have much influence on you as MCs?<\/strong><\/p>\n Just a general influence from the whole soundsystem vibe, the whole thing, the whole y\u2019know, MC on the mic, chatting really good lyrics, smashing up the place, the whole soundsystem vibe to this day we still carry it with us. The whole energy of that vibe. You can\u2019t beat it. You just can\u2019t beat it.<\/p>\n After acid house and the rave scene kicked up, did you see any parallels between what you were doing, what soundsystems did, and what rave was?<\/strong><\/p>\n Well, funnily enough, when we eventually started our label \u2013 I don\u2019t know if you know how we actually decided to start our label\u2026 Me and Smiley were basically making music with Hype, but the direction we wanted to go in, Hype wanted to try his own thing. So we said fair enough, we stayed friends and everything, and he just sort of went off and did his thing and me and Smiley were trying to get a deal. So we were rappers making what we thought was British rap, but because we had the dance background, we wanted to make music that you could dance to, so our rap music was a lot faster than rap.<\/p>\n We were going round trying to get a deal with this demo with all of these mad rap tunes (Laughs). It turned out we didn\u2019t get a deal, and that\u2019s how eventually we started our own label. We sat down one day and said \u201cy\u2019know what, lets just try and do it ourselves\u201d So we set ourselves a date and we said, right, we\u2019re both going leave our nine to fives, and we\u2019re going to take what money we have and put out a record. And that\u2019s what we did.<\/p>\n So it was like the whole DIY thing of rave a few years beforehand?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah that\u2019s right.<\/p>\n I think you’ve said before in interviews that you didn’t go to any of the early raves in the late 80’s like Sunrise or Genesis\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n No we didn\u2019t, cos what happened was, the music we was making, like the first 3\/4 singles we put out, we thought it was British rap, but as I said, it was faster than everything else. What we used to do is put a rap single on one side, and then we\u2019d just do an interesting instrumental where we\u2019d get a break, speed it up. Which again, back then, no one was doing this, which is why people say now, that we were the creators of drum n bass or whatever.<\/p>\n We used to get hip hop beats, cos that\u2019s what we knew, and get a little part of the break and then just speed it up and rap over it. Smiley had a younger brother, and he was a raver, he used to go to all the big nights and he used to come home and say \u201cyou guys gotta come out and hear this stuff, their killin\u2019 your stuff, their playing it everywhere\u201d and we’re like \u201cWhat? What\u2019re you talking about?\u201d And he\u2019s like \u201cYeah, it\u2019s this rave, you gotta come to this rave\u201d, we’re like \u2013 \u201cwhat the hell are you on about?\u201d<\/p>\n So eventually we went, and we walked in, and just to see these people kicking off to your tune, it was like \u201cwhat the hell is this?\u201d It just opened our eyes to it, and then when we saw the love out there for the stuff we were doing it obviously encouraged us, and that was it really. We sorta got thrown into this rave scene – but really we saw ourselves as UK rap. We sorta complemented the both.<\/p>\n I guess it was pretty lucky… almost a fluke that you were making 130bpm breakbeat when all this house and techno was coming through at the same speed?<\/strong><\/p>\n Definitely… Exactly, yeah, exactly.<\/p>\n Did you ever feel like you were really part of the rave scene? After a couple of years, I suppose in \u201891 or so, when you were, I assume, selling a lot of records?<\/strong><\/p>\n We always embraced it, but at the same time, the true rave scene was a lot of that piano stuff, y’know \u201cPlink, Plink Plink, Plink, Plink\u201d stuff, and we never any made stuff like that. All our stuff was just like raw beats, fat basslines, either one of us on it, or the Ragga Twins on it. So we didn\u2019t really see ourselves as rave, but it fitted obviously, to the whole rave thing. Cos I see rave as glowsticks, hands in the air, \u201cPlink, Plink Plink, Plink, Plink\u201d, which is all fine, but that\u2019s not what we were making, we were making a lot rawer sound than that, a lot rawer – keeping it with the soundsystem vibe.<\/p>\n Just out of curiosity, how many 12\u201ds of each release were you pressing back then?<\/strong><\/p>\n I can\u2019t remember to be honest, but trust me sales were good back then. (Laughs). Our first single \u20185,6,7,8<\/a>\u2019, we were literally selling it out of the back of my boot, I had a little orange Ford Escort… and trust me, sales were good back then – even a shit tune would do 2 and a half, 3000.<\/p>\n So you were probably talking 10,000 at least for the big tunes?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah, you were going from between say three up to 10 upwards depending on the track. And you were always guaranteed a repress to come back and press more and more…<\/p>\n Things have changed a lot haven\u2019t they?<\/strong><\/p>\n (Laughs) Definitely.<\/p>\n Now – There’s been a few anti-drug tunes on Shut up and Dance stuff like Ragga Trip\/The Killing and even Raving Im raving, though not explicitly anti drug, kinda had a dark side to it with the ‘Do I feel the way I feel’ vocal. The only other producer I can think of from the same period who did anything like that was L Double, who did that tune ‘leave it alone’ \u2026 maybe some of the anti-crack tunes from \u201993 How did you reconcile this with the fact that there were loads of people going out and dancing to your tunes on E?<\/strong><\/p>\n Well, we didn\u2019t really see it as a conflict, ‘cos we’ve always from day one, just did what we do. We don\u2019t preach to people but we’ve always tried to have a message. Like if it was a rap tune we would have a message in the rap, like \u201cA change soon come\u201d, or \u201cthis town needs a sheriff\u201d. We was always on about things. And if it was an instrumental there was a message in the title. Like ‘The Green Man<\/a>‘ – people think that\u2019s just a title, but The Green Man was actually the local pub where all the people used to go to get their crack. We always had a message to put out.<\/p>\n So you never actually went out to a rave and dropped E’s and danced around?<\/strong><\/p>\n We went to all of these places, cos you had to see what was making the people… obviously if you go out and you see the environment and people reacting to it helps you make better music. So we took part on that side of things, but on the other side of things, we were never really into that, we’re drinkers (Laughs) we grew up on that.<\/p>\n Just to go back to Hype for a sec. You were obviously doing really well in the early 90s, and Hype was producing stuff at the same time, and he had a hit with ‘The Exorcist’. How come he never put out anything on Shut Up and Dance?<\/strong><\/p>\n That\u2019s\u2019 a very good question! It took till about three years ago before we did anything together \u2013 I dunno if you know the track \u2018Reclaim the Streets\u2019? We were all still friends and everything, but he was doing his thing, we were doing our thing, and it was all great – it just didn\u2019t come about…<\/p>\n Were you close to any other producers or labels? Rebel MC for example? Or Paul Ibiza, or people who were pushing similar sounds?<\/strong><\/p>\n We knew of everyone, because most of the people making music in that scene came from our area anyway. Hackney is responsible for a lot of music people \u2013 not even just in the rave scene, but everyone, from Soul 2 Soul, Trevor Mad Hatter, now known as Trevor Nelson, Rebel MC \u2013 all came from Hackney. Ragga Twins, Tenor Fly \u2013 everyone was all in the same zone.<\/p>\n Along with XL, you were probably the most commercially successful hardcore label. I know the ragga twins made it into the charts a few times, but how many times did you make it into the top 40 in total? 5\/6 times?<\/strong><\/p>\n Quite a few times. Most of our stuff used to hit guaranteed top 60. A few of it made top 40. The Ragga Twins were always bubbling around just outside the top 40. We were always floating around in that zone really.<\/p>\n It was around the same time you did the LP for Nicolette as well. Did you have ambitions to be a mainstream label \u2013 taking the majors on at their own game?<\/strong><\/p>\n Not really. As I said we were sort of forced into it. We started out own thing, and luckily from day one it was successful, and it built and built, just roller-coasted really. Next minute we had management, and then we were signing artists, and it was like \u201cbloody hell we have to get organized \u2013 we have to do an album for these people now\u201d\u2026 it just naturally rolled along.<\/p>\n Just to move onto 92. In the 2 years before that, you put out some of the most influential tunes in breakbeat history \u2013 and then you had that \u2018trouble\u2019 in mid 92 \u2013 which was a real shame, cos that\u2019s when the jungle sound was really starting to come out. Can you give any more details about the ‘I’m Raving I\u2019m Raving<\/a>‘ episode? And you were hit by a bunch of other claims by the MCPS for more uncleared samples\u2026 Did you feel like you had been scapegoated?<\/strong><\/p>\n When I look back know with hindsight \u2013 we were just ahead of our time. It\u2019s not like trying to get sample clearance is now. Back then, they didn\u2019t even know what a sample was, they were like \u201cWho? What?\u201d even trying to speak with the publishers, no one knew what anything was. Now you\u2019ve got whole departments set up just to sit down and deal with it \u2013 whether it\u2019s a sample or you\u2019ve replayed it or whatever, now you\u2019ve got sections that can deal with it. Back then they didn\u2019t know what the hell you were on about. So we were just sort of 10 years too early (laughs).<\/p>\n It just seems strange \u2013 I can\u2019t think of another big label that was burned as badly as you were.<\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah, this is true. But y\u2019know, out of these things, there\u2019s usually someone who \u2018gets it\u2019 (laughs). At the end of the day \u2013 I\u2019m still here. I can\u2019t complain. Things could be worse.<\/p>\n You never thought about giving up then?<\/strong><\/p>\n Nah, definitely not \u2013 that\u2019s not my mentality<\/p>\n How did it affect your approach to sampling? you went on to sample Tracy Chapman in ‘The Burial<\/a>‘ (on Redlight) \u2013 obviously a much smaller pressing, but were you worried at all about getting into trouble again?<\/strong><\/p>\n Not really. It\u2019s how you do things. You just have to be clever with things, and obviously be careful \u2013 but y\u2019know, you must express yourself.<\/p>\n You obviously had trouble from the mainstream with sampling, what about from the dancehall end of things? You sampled a lot of ragga and reggae on Redlight, and I’ve heard that DJ Ron and Frost were both approached by rudeboys looking for cash for samples – did anything like that ever happen to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n (Laughs) No it didn\u2019t. But we always spoke to most of the people that we dealt with anyway. We spoke to them and sorted out some sort of deal or whatever. That\u2019s how it came about, us signing the Ragga Twins, they were known from the Unity soundsystem, and we sampled a bit of their voice from a soundsystem tape, and we went to them and asked them for permission to use their voice on \u2018Lamborghini<\/a>\u2019 (which also sample the Eurythmics! – d)and that\u2019s how it started. So we always tried to deal with people.<\/p>\n I’d like to ask a few questions about Redlight. As far as I’m aware it\u2019s a relatively unknown label \u2013 and the 12\u201ds are quite rare, so obviously you weren\u2019t pressing too many\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n It was a very limited thing anyway. Everything was like limited edition sorta thing.<\/p>\n So how did you get sucked back into the scene? Were you just waiting for the dust to settle after the court case?<\/strong><\/p>\n Well after that happened, we just took a little bit of time out. We were just writing in the studio, like everyone thought we\u2019d given up or packed it in, but we were just in the studio \u2013 regrouping, writing some new stuff, changing our sound a bit, cos by then everyone was sounding like us, but we were just keeping it fresh in the studio, probably for a year, two years.<\/p>\n There’s wasn’t really much else that sounded like the stuff you were releasing on Redlight at the time – Maybe early Philly Blunt and Ganja and people like Remarc – were you influenced by any other producers or labels?<\/strong><\/p>\n We were just being influenced by ourselves really (laughs) and our love of the whole soundsystem thing. We were just so into it, and we thought it worked well, the hardcore soundsystem vibe \u2013 bringing it on a piece of plastic in a format that works, that people can dance to.<\/p>\n It was quite a departure from what you were doing before \u2013 no live vocals, and a much more full-on dancefloor vibe. If you were writing those tunes in 93, I would have thought they\u2019d have been well ahead of their time.<\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah\u2026 (laughs) They were, definitely. You get the odd person now when we\u2019re out DJing, and they\u2019ll come up and mention a track off the label, and I\u2019ll be like \u201cBloody Hell\u201d, Cos I haven\u2019t heard half of these tunes in so long myself. I haven\u2019t even got copies of every one\u2026 people come round and y\u2019know, borrow it and this and that, and before you know it you can\u2019t find them.<\/p>\n One thing that strikes you when listening to the Redlight catalogue is the rawness of the sound and the way you use samples. When most jungle labels were becoming more sophisticated you seemed to be hanging on the rave aesthetic – simple song structures, being led by the samples\u2026 was that a reaction to they way the scene was going?<\/strong><\/p>\n Not at all. We were just doing our own thing, doing it our own way with our own flavour. Because you have to be yourself in the studio or you just get lost – you don\u2019t know who you are musically. You\u2019re following people instead of doing what you wanna do. But obviously don\u2019t run away with yourself.<\/p>\n Something else that\u2019s obvious in your approach to using samples in general is your sense of humor. From \u2018\u00a320 To Get In\u2019 to \u2018Bastards<\/a>\u2019 – you never seemed to take things too seriously…<\/strong><\/p>\n That\u2019s right yeah.\u00a0 As I said, there\u2019s always a message in our songs, whether it be a little one or a big one, but we don\u2019t do it in a way that we preach. So it\u2019s either gonna be funny, or something obscure\u2026 y\u2019know, we\u2019re gonna do it in a clever way basically, not just an obvious way, cos we don\u2019t want to preach to people. To me that\u2019s not what music is about.<\/p>\n Who is the MC featured on Bastards? That\u2019s a pretty good disguise you\u2019ve got there, I thought you\u2019d gotten some nerdy white guy to do it<\/strong><\/p>\n (Laughs) Yeah that\u2019s me\u2026<\/p>\n You were obviously listening to a lot of 90s dancehall and reggae when you were making those tunes judging by the artists you sampled \u2013 Simpleton and Garnett Silk, amongst others \u2013 were you heavily into dancehall at the time?<\/strong><\/p>\n Erm.. Just kinda of a broad stretch of it. There\u2019s so much music out there that from most artists you\u2019re gonna hear something you like. I don\u2019t like it all – definitely no way, but like Garnett Silk, I was well into him. Just so many, I could be here all day if I started namedropping\u2026<\/p>\n What did you think of the more reggae influenced stuff that labels like Suburban Base, Tearin Vinyl, SOUR, Proper Talent etc were putting out around the same time? <\/strong><\/p>\n I thought it was fine, cos we sort of view competition as healthy. It drives you on, so I was fine with all of that.<\/p>\n And when you played out as DJ\u2019s would you play out stuff from other jungle labels?<\/strong><\/p>\n Nah, cos when we DJ, we play breakbeats full stop. We\u2019re into breaks when we play out and that\u2019s what we\u2019ve always played.<\/p>\n Even back when you were producing jungle?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah, cos we started DJing late, back then we weren\u2019t DJing. We didn\u2019t start DJing til 95 possibly \u2013 maybe 96. We started quite late. We were always in the studio. We always saw ourselves as producers, but then we had to get into the DJing thing, because that\u2019s the way things were going, even more so now. You have to be a DJ to do anything in this game now.<\/p>\n And DJ\u2019s have to get into production to get DJing gigs\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n That\u2019s right yeah \u2013 you have to do both now\u2026<\/p>\n What about the UK reggae labels like Greensleeves, Fashion and Jetstar moving into the jungle scene – did you see much friction between the reggae crowd and the more established labels and artists? <\/strong><\/p>\n I didn\u2019t, but I did hear the rumors as well. I did hear about lots of things going down, but I didn\u2019t personally see none of it.<\/p>\n There’s a lot of talk these days about the Jungle ‘Council’ and the campaign against ragga jungle – DJ Rap allegedly received death threats warning her not to play ‘Incredible’ at Jungle Soundclash in Edmonton, and S.O.U.R.\u2019s Dave Stone cut General Levy out of the BBC’s ‘Jungle Fever’ – did scene politics affect you in any way? And what about all the negative press attention that jungle got in 94 and 95? Y\u2019know it was one of those things, when a scenes getting too big, or people are making too much money, the media or whatever always kicks in and snuff it out, the same thing happened later on to garage. I don\u2019t know what it is\u2026<\/p>\n That\u2019s happened to Grime as well recently\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah, exactly, exactly<\/p>\n Do you think there was an element of racism about the whole thing? <\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s definitely politics… I don\u2019t know if I’d use that word, I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s that strong, but there\u2019s definitely politics involved.<\/p>\n Redlight finished up in 95 – had it run its course? <\/strong><\/p>\n I think the scene had just changed or whatever. It was always going to be a limited thing since we started. We didn\u2019t press up a lot and it was going to be very limited, and it just ran its course and we stopped it. Same with the Ruff Quality label<\/a>, same thing. We ran it for a bit and just stopped it.<\/p>\n Your 1995 LP ‘Black Men United’ on Pulse 8 is like a summary of all the different sounds you’d explored since 89 – breakbeat\/house\/rave\/jump up – was it intended as a swan-song to your rave and jungle days?<\/strong><\/p>\n That was just a collection of the stuff we\u2019d been writing from say, when we disappeared a bit, stopped putting out stuff \u2013 It was like a collection of all the stuff we\u2019d been putting together, cos we were still working with artists, you can hear that on the drum n bass tracks with Richie Davis and Peter Bouncer singing. We were always still writing and still busy, and that was just a compilation of everything we\u2019d been up to. It wasn\u2019t anything deeper than that really. We\u2019ve still been busy, we\u2019ve still been working with artists, this is what we\u2019ve been up to, check it out.<\/p>\n And you actually got back in the charts with a single from that LP as well (\u2018Save it till the mourning after<\/a>\u2019)\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n That\u2019s right yeah, with me in that dodgy video. Me rapping and everything. That wasn\u2019t for me to rap that song, I wrote it for someone else to do it, but we couldn\u2019t find someone else to do it, so I had to do it (laughs) and I didn\u2019t even want to do it\u2026 Nah, we\u2019ve got quite a few, we\u2019ve got videos for \u2018Take it Easy<\/a>\u2019, \u2018Art of Moving Butts<\/a>\u2019, \u2018Derek went mad<\/a>\u2019, \u2018Save it till the mourning after\u2019, \u2018The weekends here<\/a>\u2019, the Ragga Twins have got \u2018Wipe the Needle\u2019 and \u2018Hooligan 69\u2019 . We\u2019ve got quite a few. We are thinking about putting a collection together and getting it up on Myspace, so we\u2019re going to be looking into that<\/p>\n Have you being keeping up to date with the drum and bass scene over the last few years? What do you think of the whole clownstep thing? Have you heard of clownstep?<\/strong><\/p>\n (Laughs) I haven\u2019t heard that name no…<\/p>\n It\u2019s kind of a derogatory term to describe people like Pendulum, swing beats, 180-bpm techno style D+B\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n (Laughs) No, not by that name, I\u2019ve heard the music but I haven\u2019t heard it called that. We still keep up with it. We\u2019re good friends with Hype, and whenever we\u2019re not out working we go out with him, so we\u2019re still on the scene and we\u2019re still locked onto the radio. We\u2019re on a pirate radio station in London called \u2018Origin FM\u2019 Its actually a drum n bass station but we have a breakbeat show every Wednesday nights between ten and midnight, so we\u2019re always locked onto that station as well as Kool FM. We keep our ears to the ground with all types of music.<\/p>\n As of that stuff you\u2019re talking about. I haven\u2019t got a huge problem with it, but some of its a bit noisy (Laughs).<\/p>\n What about grime and dubstep? Have you been keeping up?<\/strong><\/p>\n Definitely. The whole Grime scene, I like a lot of that stuff. I like the energy, gotta lose the anger a bit (laughs), but I was like that at that age. Yeah, I like a lot of that stuff.<\/p>\n So you\u2019re more into grime than the mainly instrumental dubstep side of things?<\/strong><\/p>\n As I said, there\u2019s good in all, but the whole Grime thing I like a lot of it, obviously not all of it. I sorta wish there were mature heads within the scene to help it grow. Cos obviously it\u2019s a very young scene, a lot of the artists are very young, I wish there were someone in there with an older head sort of taking charge and organising things\u2026<\/p>\n Yeah, there\u2019s only Wiley who\u2019s about 28\/29\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah, if there were more people like him within the scene it would bring things on a lot more\u2026 And as for the dubstep thing, I\u2019ve been getting into that,. There\u2019s a single from our new album that\u2019s getting a dubstep mix by a guy called Rezo.<\/p>\n And do you still keep up with dancehall and reggae?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah, yeah. Don\u2019t go to many dances anymore cos there\u2019s not many on. But yeah, still into it. The soundtapes from 15 years ago \u2013 we still pull them out and listen to them\u2026<\/p>\n PJ and Smiley play breakbeat on London pirate Origin 95.2 FM on Wednesday nights 10-12pm<\/em><\/p>\n www.shutupanddance.co.uk<\/a> This is the extended version of an interview I did with PJ from Shut Up And Dance. which originally appeared in the excellent Woofah magazine in spring 2008. Thanks to Woofah ed John Eden for correcting my notoriously bad spelling and grammar, Straddling the lines between hip-hop, acid house and rave, Shut Up and Dance… <\/p>\n
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\nYour place in the history of jungle\/hardcore was acknowledged in Soul Jazz\u2019s recent Rumble in the Jungle<\/a> compilation – Considering how influential you were as a label, it seems like this was well overdue – How did that come about?<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/blog\/images\/SUAD_white_cover.jpg\")
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\nNot really \u2013 I don\u2019t even like talking about it to be honest (laughs). It’s history y\u2019know. We made a track. The writer of the track wasn\u2019t happy with the similarities or whatever, we tried to do a deal, we said: \u201clet\u2019s give all the money to charity\u201d, he said no. End of. That was it. We were only allowed to sell what we\u2019d already pressed.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/blog\/images\/SUAD_imraving_cover.jpg\")
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\nThat\u2019s me. (Laughs)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/blog\/images\/SUAD_bastards_label.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/blog\/images\/SUAD_wowyeh_label.jpg\")
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\n<\/strong>
\nRi-iight. Yeah I did hear at the time about all that politics, but y\u2019know, as a label and as people, me and Smiley don\u2019t get involved in all of that. No politics, we just wanna make music, and that\u2019s all we wanna do. Get people dancing and that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/blog\/images\/SUAD_blackmenunited_cover.jpg\")
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\nDid you make many videos? I think I\u2019ve only seen \u2018Derek went mad\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>
\nOf the what? Sorry?<\/p>\n
\nwww.myspace.com\/shutupanddancetunes <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"