I N T E R V I E W : A R T F U L  D O D G E R

     Artful Dodger Interview

We caught up with Pete at a secret gig on 22nd March, and had a quick chat:

P.M: You’ve broken through the commercial barrier with ‘rewind’ and more recently ‘movin’ too fast’, how’s it been for you these last few months?

Pete : Pretty mad, pretty mad from being relatively unknown, for example not being able to get DJ bookings anywhere, not being able to get remix work, no one really pays much attention to you, suddenly to having bookings till the end of the summer, being offered around 15 remixes a day, every major record label has thrown a deal at us and its from one extreme to another…..

P.M: Have you now signed a deal?

Pete: We’ve just signed a deal with London Records…….home of Mr Tong and co…..and All Saints, so yeah its been weird because you’ve got to keep going as best you can, where as everything around you is changing, and suddenly everyone’s attitude changes because you’ve suddenly become a pop star but you’re still yourself……

P.M: Do you get people crawling out of the woodwork?

Pete: Yeah, yeah, everyone from industry bods who have blanked you for three years who come back and say ‘oh you know, we knew you would come good ‘and this and that to people that you fell out with 10 years ago at school suddenly want to get back on the phone

P.M: When did you start?

Pete: Artful Dodger started 3 years ago……

P.M: and were you Garage orientated then?

Pete: Mark has owned a studio for 4 years and I originally phoned up to do some extracts and that was about the time that the speed garage thing kicked off and we just started fiddling around with a few vocals and did a couple of bootlegs and got some good press and I think it took off from there really

P.M: How much do you think it’s changed since then?

Pete: Its obviously a lot more mature and I think there was a huge media explosion around Speed Garage and no one really knew what Speed Garage was and a couple of tracks broke through, ‘107 Lockdown’, ‘Double 99’, but because the scene was so young, there was nothing coming through after that, so everyone musically assumed that it was finished and was just a flash in the pan and all the producers and DJ’s sort of took it underground and in a way and theres just now such a massive talent out there and you can see that because everyweek theres a UK Garage event happening and I think N ‘N’ G ‘Right before my eyes’ is going for top 10 this Sunday, so that’s another big track, I mean its changed because obviously 2Step has taken over and everything’s a lot more song based, and people know what direction its going in.

P.M: Where did Garage actually start off?

Pete: The whole UK thing kicked off years ago in London and there was a pub in elephant and castle in London, and I can’t remember what the DJ at the forefront of it was, but basically it was a Sunday morning club and everyone would kick out at lick 10am and everyone would go to other venues, and all the DJ’s would play the same records as in the club but upped its pitch and speed, and the basslines had more effect and was a lot more cutting, and so obviously some people went away and kind of used this to move away from US garage and so UK Garage was born, and its grown from there, and it will continue to grow because I don’t think its properly defined and it’s a bit like drum ‘n’ bass, theres so many splinter groups and that’s what were pushing, you know the R ‘n’ B inspired bits and bobs

P.M: You’ve worked with Craig David who releases his new single ‘Fill me in’ which comes out in a couple of weeks and you also do your radio show with him on capital, how long have you known him?

Pete: Yeah, I’ve known him ages, and Marks known Craig for about 3-4 years…..

P.M: and he’s only 18 isn’t he?

Pete: Well its funny but Craigs been 18 for 4-5 years and he’s just jumped to 18 recently, I think he’s about 29 really, no I don’t know how old Craig is………

P.M: You’ve also got Romina on the new single, how did you meet her?

Pete: I met her through our then manager, he is business partners with Romina’s boyfriend and he gave us a DAT with Rominas vocals on and basically he said could we knock something up, so 18 months ago we did it, put it out on our label, loads of interest, there was a situation where we didn’t own the track 100% and other parties couldn’t agree what to do with it, and the thing got buried. Then we brought it back about 6 months ago, licensed it to ‘Locked On’, did about 80,000 copies and XL came along straight away and it was just beaten to number 1 again

P.M: Have you ever been involved in Pirate Radio, because recently we interviewed DJ Luck and Scott Garcia and both said that without pirate radio, Garage wouldn’t exist……

Pete: No never, pirate radio’s massive, without it there’d be no re-wind and there’d be no scene, it’s the beauty of it all, the kids are coming in, listening to pirate radio doing their homework, it’s got great support, and it’s the same with drum ‘n’ bass because the scenes so strong in London, and pirate radio and underground nights has given it a great foundation and a lot of support to take it to the next level and I whole heartedly believe that without that, then there’d be no scene, it would have died

P.M: Is there anyone else you like to work with, perhaps on the vocal slot?

Pete: Well we’re doing the album, and its got to be finished April 15^th and we’ve been lining up singers for that

P.M: Anyone we’d know?

Pete: Well Stevie Wonders been approached, but he’s like a god, so……. Ali Campbell from UB40 is gonna come and sing on a track, Shaznay from All Saints is gonna come and do a track, Donnell Jones has been spoken to, and Alistair MC also, but its not the sort of thing we want to keep to because people can turn around and say ‘you know you’ve only sold a million album just because so and so’s on it, you kind of what it to sell on the strength of Artful Dodger and I suppose you don’t want any one singer to dominate the whole thing, so I don’t think it’s a problem I just think that its about creating a balance.

P.M: When the next single out?

Pete: The next single is ‘Woman Trouble’ out June 19^th featuring Robbie Craig and Craig David, Robbie Craig being a big underground singer who’s had a few tracks out on public demand, and it’s a track that’s been done years ago, and a lot of critics and friends say its our best track to date, so we shall see, certainly for me its one of the best tracks we’ve done, so June 19^th is the date for that………

P.M: How about the material on the Ministry of Sound remix album?

Pete: Well there’s ‘Something’ and ‘Are you ready’, and Alistair MC did a few bits on that, so with ‘Re-Wind’, ‘Movin’ too fast’ and ‘Woman Trouble’ you’re kind of half way to a remix album already, and if they release the album on the back off woman trouble, then they’ll probably just release the singles and say ‘This is Artful Dodger’, which we haven’t got any problems with……so there’s some strong tracks on there and we’ve got the time to hopefully produce some more crackers.

I imagine that there will be 3 or 4 singles will be taken from the album and then we can look at doing another album

P.M: Will you be doing Agia Napia this year?

Pete: We are, we’ve got a DJ festival on May 27^th, and Leftfield are headlining and also Kelis is on the bill, I mean we were doing Homelands but we’re not doing that now, we’ve got Glastonbury, Creamfields in Scotland and Liverpool, and so far we’ve got 3 bookings for Agia Napia, 3 for Ibiza and then Rhodes, Tenerife, Dubai and obviously……

P.M: Do you think Garage is the new trance?

Pete: Garage is gonna kill trance, for a start trance is not song based, which in my books give it a limited shelf life and its great club music because of the energy. Trance is killing Trance, but I love Trance because it’s meaning that people are looking towards other music and they’re making an effort to find something new. There’s been so many compliation’s which has been good too, and UK clubs have started getting Garage rooms, and towards the end of the year more will

P.M: Emporium in Coalville, a club that basically is one of the strongest clubs for Trance and Hard House have got a new Garage room

Pete: Yeah for me, I mean who wants to go to Ibiza and go to see the same DJ’s all the time, Tall Paul, Seb Fontaine and all that, and you look at the number of sales something like Yomanda ‘Synth and Strings’ notched up and they come in around the 200,000 mark and Garage doubles that, Re-Wind has done nearly 700,000 now and Luck and Neat have done about 350,000 – 400,000. For me you look back in history, people love classic songs, so……….

PM: We spoke to DJ Luck and Scott Garcia and they said they were worried that all the major record labels were buying up Garage just for the sake of it and some of it is crap basically, and they just want to buy it for the sake of it……

Pete: It’s happened, but its not really surfaced, and you hear rumours, but basically its panic buying because they were all offered Re-Wind, and Luck and Neat and the Basement Jaxx and they turned their nose up to it, and now they’re thinking ‘we’re getting left behind, let’s buy some garage’, but at the end of the day, the buying public decide what is a good track and what isn’t, and if its crap its not gonna go anywhere and I think qualitys gonna shine through, but its not gonna kill the scene. I think a lot of producer have to take responsibility, I mean obviously everyone wants the success, and you have to ask the question if people want to sign the track, why do they want to sign it. Although the labels are waving the money around, its up to the producers who sign the artists…….its about being clever, and we were offered deals for the last few months before ‘re-wind’ blew up, and half of you says to go for it, the other half says, if they’re offering this now, what will they offer later on……

P.M: What deal have you got with London Records?

Pete: Two albums firm, and then we’ll re-negotiate…..if we’re still around!

P.M: How much more do you think the scene will change in the next few months?

Pete: There’s definitely 2 clear directions that its going, you know the big base, underground tune and then the commercial, happy ‘re-wind’ style Luck and Neat, the more R ‘n’ B tracks, take the drum beat away from ‘Re-Wind’ and its R ‘n’ B but it hasn’t got the same energy as Garage, when the drop comes in, R ‘n’ B need something to dance to…..so for us it’s all about songs, all ours so far have been very strong and that’s the way we’re pushing it……Craigs new single is very R ‘n’ B / Garage and strikes a nice balance

P.M: What do you think of the music business?

Pete: Its all about money, we’re all in it for the money but at the end of the day, that’s life

Thanks to Pete from Artful Dodger, MC Alistair, Dave Singh, Lynne Thomas @ XL