Grooverider has an image synonymous with his drum n bass sound, that is, deep, dark and mysterious. With this in mind I was very unsure what the person down the other end of the phone line in London, was going to be like. Safe to say, I was pleasantly surprised by his warm personality and thunderously rolling laugh. Grooverider was conducting his phone interviews from bed! After six days straight of djing, he was trying to fit in a little bit of rest while promoting his latest mix compilation CD, Fabriclive 06.

In a world of compilation CDs the Fabriclive series is shaping up to be one of the better ones, giving new djs exposure, and with the new Grooverider CD expanding the dance genres covered in the series to include drum n bass. The series is highly representative of what goes on at Fabric, with the drum n bass room at the Friday night Fabriclive being one of the most popular in the club. Grooverider’s own association with the club is long lived, his residency commencing three years ago when the club opened. When asked why Fabric is such a popular club with DJs, Grooverider himself saying it is his favourite club in the UK, he responds that “It’s still got that kind of old school warehouse feel to it. It’s a brick building and all that and it’s underground so it’s the perfect environment for dance music really. It’s like an old warehouse party but it’s a club. It’s got that warehouse feel to it.” In other words, to an old school player like Grooverider it feels like home.

Fabriclive 06 has just been released in Australia. I comment to Grooverider that I like the CD because it covers a diverse range of sounds, from the lighter tracks like Danny C’s “The Mexican” to the darker tracks such as Dillinja’s “It Aint Too Loud”. Grooverider admits this was his aim for the compilation, “I tried to mix it up a bit you know. I tried to do the scope of drum n bass because there is so much to it.” The mix for the CD was recorded at Grooverider’s house and perfectly demonstrates why he is such a highly regarded dj both in sound and style, with jigsaw mixes and quick cuts. Selecting the tracks for the mix was easy he explains, “I just tried to choose tracks that were representative of what we’re doing at the moment, well at that point when I made it.”

As a regular listener of Fabio and Grooverider’s BBC Radio 1 drum n bass show I was delighted to see that some of my favourite tunes from their weekly “Five Mighty Rollers” had made it onto the Fabriclive CD. Fabio and Grooverider clearly lead the pack with their influential radio show. Grooverider gives that thunderous laugh when I explain how I was clued up for trainspotting at a recent Aphrodite gig because of the Five Mighty Rollers. That some of the featured tracks are included on the CD, and are being played out now, demonstrates how Grooverider is ahead of the scene, to which he emphatically adds, “That’s my point, that’s my dominant feature.”

While Grooverider’s life includes djing, production and running his own record label, Prototype Records, make no mistake that he is about djing first and foremost. When asked if he has a preference among the three he takes a serious tone and says, “Probably djing really. That’s what I started, and that’s the thing I’m most used to, and everything expanded from that. If I didn’t do djing I wouldn’t be making music, and I wouldn’t be running a record label. That’s the whole point of it to me. These are all things that have lead on from djing. If I didn’t dj I wouldn’t be interested in any of those things. Djing is my biggest thing out of all of them.” Leaving no doubt in my mind how committed he is to his career he adds, “That’s because I’m a real DJ you know. That’s what I do. That’s my thing. Everything else takes second place.”

It has been a long career for Grooverider as well. He’s best known as a Godfather in the drum n bass scene but he started out in the mid-eighties, and has been involved in dance from the acid house days through to the hardcore period, and the beginning of the jungle movement. With his background in house music, and status in dnb I ask if he ever thinks of playing other styles when he’s out? “I do. I play the occasional house set when I’m out, when I have the time. It’s very occasional. I’ve only got one pair of hands and the bottom line is this is what I like doing most (dnb). I’m not saying that in five years that won’t change, it might change because I’ve changed from acid house to this. In five years time I might be doing something else,” Grooverider replies. The expression “never say never” is definitely part of his philosophy.

Listening to Fabio regularly on Radio 1 I hear him talk about other dnb djs and producers as if they are a family, such as when he recently described on air Goldie's wedding. I ask Grooverider what the deal is with the dnb fraternity. He explains “Everyone knows each other, and we’re quite tight with each other. It’s not necessarily because we all started out together, but that we have all been through this together. I started off banging acid house and all that so I didn’t know I was going to start all this back then, this little movement thing. Everyone is linked together to try and push it through all together.” And how is the dnb scene faring currently in the UK? “Oh yes, it’s going really well at the moment. We’ve had a couple of records (become) big tunes in the charts, which is a big thing over here. It’s going pretty well. At the end of the day even though people said it wasn’t running, it’s always been running. Clubwise anyway.” It’s not just the UK that is doing well. Grooverider elaborates, “I’m off to Japan next week and then I’m off to the States to do a tour for two weeks. Every little scene has got their scene, you know what I mean? Tokyo is off the hook! There are places all over as you can imagine. Spots all over the world.”

My hometown of Melbourne definitely hosts a thriving dnb scene. “I noticed!” Grooverider affirms. “Definitely it’s cool in Melbourne, the whole of Australia, I like it a lot. I must do because I have been there 11 times!” I remark that he mustn’t have told Fabio good stories about Australia since Fabio has just arrived in Australia on his first ever tour! “He’s just scared of the travelling because it’s so far” Grooverider comments cheekily. “It’s something you just have to get used to. To be honest with you, every time I go there I think I’m never going back. And then once I get there and I’ve done all my gigs and that, I think I’m definitely coming back! But when you’re on the flight over you always think I’m never going back there because it’s so far. When you actually see what’s going on over there, the sort of vibe, then you definitely have to go back again, so it’s not a problem.” Grooverider definitely has no problems with jetting around the world for gigs, “It’s cool to be doing it. Of course I can handle that, very easily. There’s harder things in life than that!” he responds with his hearty rolling laugh.

One of the first things I noticed, with a touch of disappointment I admit, was that the Fabriclive 06 CD didn’t include any new tracks by Grooverider himself. It’s been a long time passing since his last artist album, the classic “Mysteries of the Funk”, but things are in the works. Grooverider has a new single with a scheduled release date of 2003. I press him as to why the date is so far away? He explains, “They’re waiting until I finish my album. They were planning to release it in October (the single) but they want to put it back until I have finished my new album so it’s going to be next year.” I get excited when he confirms that it’s a new artist album to follow up “Mysteries of the Funk”. “Just you wait until you hear it. It might not be so exciting” he replies with more laughs. I explain my excitement by saying that “Mysteries of the Funk” was so different to anything else at the time. “You’ve just got to try and do some different things” Grooverider tells me, and this includes collaborating. “I’m supposed to be (collaborating) but it’s about getting all the artists together, everybody’s got to link but it’s not that easy to get everyone together. I’ve done about three collaborations already but I’ve got a couple more to do. It should be alright.”

Grooverider also works under the pseudonym Codename John. I enquire if he still uses this name since it’s been a while since any releases as Codename John. “That’s for stuff on my own label, but I haven’t really done anything since I have been working on this album. I plan to do a Codename John album as well. That’s what I’m going to be working on after. It’s not about different music, just a different label.” And finally, as a label manager to does Grooverider hassle the artists on his label, Trace, Ed Rush, Optical and Fierce, to put stuff out? “It’s more the other way round. They hassle me to put the shit out!” he quickly admits. “Everybody is pretty cool though. When I need tunes they’ve got them ready for me so it’s all good.” And with that I let a weary, hard working drum n bass DJ get a bit of rest in between his busy schedule of djing. Nice one Grooverider, nice one!

To read the review click here : FabricLIVE 06 - Grooverider.