As a multi-talented deejay and graphic designer, Any Guy is steadily establishing himself as one of Leeds' most sought after deejays. Inspired by the likes of Oneman, Any Guy's eclectic blend of everything from Hip Hop and Soul to Garage and Grime has seen him play at some of Leeds' most prestigious nights. With a return to London on the cards and plans to run a night in Central over the summer, the future looks promising for one of Leeds' brightest new talents.
THE LAST 12 MONTHS:
"I've been working on playing out in Leeds with 'Vagabondz', 'Hangar' and 'Bangerang' as well as promoting some smaller nights as sort of a side project. It's been a case of getting tunes together and developing my sound. I don't wanna sound like a wanker (laughs) but I spend a lot of time trying to work out what I want to play and what I think will get people moving - I love seeing people dance so that's always a motivating factor behind my sets. The main focus is always forward thinking music though.
I've got my 'Lo Note' thing going on too - it's basically a blog come events management come graphic design company. It's good fun to look after and I basically use it to push my stuff as both a deejay and designer and I'll tend to post up a few things a day, generally concerning stuff I'm liking - I'm not really fussed about finding the 'latest' trends or whatever. I'm doing quite a bit in London at the moment too - I've deejayed quite a lot over the last few months and done a few secret location parties by London Bridge and I'll playing there again on Friday with Dark Sky as it goes! There's talk in the pipeline of possibly starting some sort of agency too but for the immediate future I'm going to be running some nights at a small venue in Central over the summer - you can expect good vibes and a few special guests! Bar all that, I've just been dealing with University and trying to get a degree."
INFLUENCES:
"The first record I bought was some weird thing by DJ Spooky from a record shop in South London. It was kinda trip-hop and on the flip was a Jungle tune and I remember thinking it was pretty odd but I used to mess around with tunes like that when I was 11 or 12. I didn't have a clue what I was doing but slowly but surely I started to work out what I liked and I ended up falling into House and Garage initially before discovering Drum 'N Bass and Jungle. I loved guys like Andy C and Hype but I always had Garage floating around in the background - I guess I just love good quality production so genres didn't always necessarily matter. These days, my sets are generally made up of Garage, House, Grime instrumentals and some of the fresh post-Dubstep stuff - I like to mix it all up in the dance which seems to go down well!"
LEEDS STORY:
"I had a slow start in Leeds - the focus wasn't really on playing out initially and it didn't really become a big part of my life until I settled down a bit. It took a while but I started to gather confidence and I started to believe I could offer something to a crowd - I wanted to be able to move and entertain people first and foremost so I made sure my mixing was in order before throwing myself out there. I got a few gigs on standard little student nights before getting picked up by the Bangerang boys and from there Vagabondz and Hangar (one of Leeds' biggest Drum 'N Bass nights) got in touch, all of which have proved to be great opportunities to play out and enjoy myself - I've ended up supporting guys like James Blake, Oneman and even Yasmin along the way too!"
DEEJAY STYLE:
"When I was younger just mixing Drum 'N Bass it was important to be really tight and I'd always concentrate on trying to offer a seamless set - I remember always trying to focus on double drops, trying to emulate the top guys like Andy C. I used solely turntables for about 5 years too and it wasn't until I started to listen to a broader selection of music that I started to think about using CDJs and Serato. I remember Mr Scruff wrote a really good piece somewhere talking about the fundamental importance of playing tracks that people can respond too, regardless of the format and that's always stuck with me. For me it's a case of playing Garage, Funky and Grime as much as I can but I do play a lot of Hip-Hop and Soul too. Generally the aim is to entertain people and hopefully play them a few things they'll have never heard before."
AMBITIONS:
"The most important thing for me is to build up 'Lo Note' into a decent platform to promote myself, my deejaying and my graphic design - it'd be nice to get the demand for work eventually. Musically, Oneman is my main inspiration - I'd love to become a well-respected deejay / entertainer in a similar vain to him really. Besides that, it's just about carrying on to push good, forward-thinking music."
DETAILS:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/LoNoteUK
Soundcloud (Guns and Pork Mixes Vol 1 + 2): http://soundcloud.com/anyguy
Lo Note Tumblr: http://lonoteuk.tumblr.com/
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