To call Barry Ashworth a break beat DJ, would be to miss the point completely. From his work with the highly acclaimed Dub Pistols, to side projects such as Rumblefish – not to mention spinning at such famous clubs as London’s Fabric on a regular basis - the man is a multi-faceted DJ, producer, and all around good guy. Resident Advisor recently sat down with the man behind the upcoming release in the Y4K series for an afternoon chat…

Resident Advisor: I wanted to talk to you a bit about the upcoming 'Y4K' release – I noticed particularly with tracks like Coloursound’s “Fly With Me” and Mint Royale’s “Blue” that you seem to venturing out from the break beat scene, incorporating sounds of disco and blues – I wanted to know if this is what you see as the progression of break beat…
Barry Ashworth: I was just throwing a grenade at the Breaks Police. I mean, it’s a weird thing – I got known for being breaks, the Dub Pistols got known for being breaks – and that being tied into being told that you have to play a certain thing or you do a certain thing…I mean, it was not a genre when I started to do breaks, it was against the grain. Then, suddenly you find yourself stuck in the middle of a scene and being told that’s what you do…I just went through a period where I couldn’t play breaks any more, so I started fucking around with different sounds. And starting to make that album it was kinda like, ‘Well, I think when people listen to CD’s it’s not like playing an out and out dance floor set.’ It (Y4K) just came out of fuck’in around a bit and making it more listenable – just muck’in around with people a bit more.

RA: Indeed it seems that while the album stays within the realm of “break beat”, there are a lot of different elements – blues, electro, disco, etc… - that separate it from the typical breaks disc…
BA: I know there are a lot of breaks DJ’s who are starting to play four on the floor, and it’s just – I don’t know – it’s still got breaks in it, every single record that is on the mix there’s still a break in it, but I’m really just trying to open it up a bit more. If anything, I’m just trying not to give people the same thing every time, I hate that…

RA: When you did the Y4K album, did they give you complete freedom on what to choose?
BA: Oh yeah, total freedom. It was after playing in Miami that they approached me about doing it – and I had always shied away from doing them (mix albums). The way that I did it was having everybody send me their parts so I could totally fuck around with them on the computer. So it’s like a mixture of Technics and technology – and they did not interfere one bit, they were totally encouraging it, which is a nice thing to have from a label.

Dub Pistols

RA:In terms of editing I noticed especially with the opening track (Layo and Bushwacka’s “Let the Good Times Roll”) that you start with the middle, and then go back to the beginning – reworking the track. How many of the tracks on the album did you actually do that with?
BA: Every single one of them. And with a lot of them I asked the artist’s to send me the parts of the tracks. So we’d build up new intros, we’d mesh two tracks over the top of each other. There’s no track there that’s heard as it was (originally recorded).

RA: With all of the editing and reworking that was done on the compilation, how long did it take you to record the entire things?
BA: Three weeks. Three weeks of a lot of hours every day.

RA: How exactly did you go from start to finish?
BA: Well, we did it on Cubase. We mixed it on the decks first of all, put it onto the audio, time-stretched it – just took out different parts of the tracks and just started mixing them together…dropping out bits and looping up parts. Just taking sections of everybody’s records.

RA: How would you say the compilation is similar to or different from The Dub Pistols live?
BA: Dub Pistols as a band is more like a soul led, dub, hip-hop group – this (the compilation) is more like me in a DJ mode, using other people’s records and keeping it danceable.

RA: Since you do have a live music background, how would you say that contributes to your DJing?
BA: Well, I don’t know, because it’s kind of weird. The way Dub Pistols started was when I used to DJ I’d come and get people to jam with me live, and then it became a pain in the ass ‘cause I could never hear myself DJ because of what they were playing over the songs. It’s a strange thing, I don’t know. Dub Pistols has developed into being a live band. It started off as a breaks/dance floor thing, and it’s just developed into a band, it’s just the course it’s run. With me DJing, I just don’t know, it’s just quite nice and fresh to be able to do both things.

RA: Are you planning to tour behind the Y4K release?
BA: I’m just about to go off and do Australia and Asia, which I’ve never done before. I’m going to Australia on the 13th of November. It seems like it’s winding up really big over there so I’m really excited about getting to do that.

RA: Besides the Y4K release and tour dates, is there anything else coming up in the near future?
BA: Well the (Dub Pistols) album never came out – 'Six Million Ways to Live' never came out because of September 11th. We’ve just gone back and freshened that up – that’s going to come out February/March now – a year and a half later. We’re also already halfway to three-quarters way through a new album. And then I do a bunch of different things under different guises. You know, just keep going…

RA: Finally, in terms of break beats, the album encompasses some sounds that really distinguish it from other breaks albums. Do you see this as the future of break beats – incorporating more styles of music into the break beat format?
BA: Well, that was the idea of break beat in the first place. The whole idea was that it was kind of eclectic; it was kind of more experimental – that was the whole point. I know a lot of DJ’s are starting to use four-on-the-floor, 4/4 in with their breaks - so I just think it’s the way it will naturally go, and then it will go somewhere else.

RA: So where do you think "somewhere else" will be?
BA: I don’t know. I’ll let you know next time I do it!

Dub Pistols Oz tour dates 2002
Friday 15th The Moobar, Brisbane
Saturday 16th Marble Bar, Perth
Thursday 21st Prince of Wales, Melbourne
Friday 22nd Bass Bin, Tantra, Sydney