Interview with Micky Finn

He’s been smashing it up on the rave scene since the days of ’87 and has blown the roof off more buildings than I can count. He was one of the pioneers in the early days and is still leading the way today. So one Thursday evening we travelled down to London to run an in depth interview with the man himself.

So Micky, where did it all start?

“Well I grew up on my older sister music really, Japan, Bowie, Lou Reed, Psychedelic Furs, Roxy Music, Gary Newman, Ultravox, Steve Strange and this was when I was 9 or 10. I liked the electronic music and stuff. I then started getting into Soul when I was about 13 or 14 and started getting more into coloured artists, but my mum’s always been a Motown woman anyway. I’ve always loved music since I was a kid. I started to tape music off the radio, but used to get so pissed off when the DJ used to speak and that used to fuck up the song. I’ve always bought records, so I went out and bought a couple of old decks, but what really intrigued me was when I went to see Erik B, LL Cool J and Public Enemy. When I saw what they were doing it really intrigued me. The first thing I ever did was a friends House party in Islington, it was in a café and went on till the early hours. This was in 1987. That was when I first kicked off as it was still an underground thing in London. It hadn’t spread anywhere yet. I met Andy Weatherall there and he told me that he wanted me to do a thing for him, but the first major thing which I did was at The Tunnel Club in Greenwich. That was the first residency I got. It was one of the only places in England which had a license till 10am, and from there I started working for Genesis, Biology, Back To The Future, Atmosphere and never looked back”.

But who was your biggest inspiration at the time and did you ever look up to anyone?

“I didn’t look up to anyone, but I used to watch Paul Oakenfold a lot. I used to just stand there and watch him, I would watch to see what he was doing and think, “What’s he doing that for”. I would then come home and practice, not to jump on the mix, but to try and suss out what he was doing and to see if it would make me any better – and it worked, obviously. I never said to myself, “Well I’m gonna be like him”, I just tried to take up some information off certain people”.

Micky’s sister used to run The Tunnel Club on certain nights and although Micky wasn’t into the limelight grabbing thing, she told him that she needed to put something on the flyer – namewise. So what with Micky being on the slim side she came up with the name Micky Finn (as in thin).

But what about nerves, weren’t you ever nervous about playing in front of people?

“No, because after 6 months of DJ-ing I was thrown in front of 8,000 people so I feel that I went in at the deep end. People said, “I don’t know how you coped with it”, but I just blanked them out of my head and told myself, “Just play like you’re in your room”, and that’s how I have always come round it”.

The music has changed a lot since those days back in ’87, so how would you classify the music which you play today>

“I classify it for different types of the country. I couldn’t play in Mansfield what I would play in Coventry – even though there’s only a small space apart. It’s a wide range of music really, I play Jungle, breaks, breaks with vocals in Garage. I don’t play out with Garage, but I still buy it. Garage and House is really what we started off playing in late ’88 on the Bigshot Label like, ‘Come And Get My Love’ and stuff like that. It’s called Garage now, but it wasn’t called it then – then it was just one big lot of music”.

But what about unification, don’t you think that all the different types of music which we have now, will eventually all merge as one and bring the scene back to how it once was?

“Me personally, no I don’t think so. If you’re into Techno you’re not going to go to a club that’s gonna play probably 4 hours of Jungle, especially if you don’t like that stuff. But I think it’s brilliant that we have got one big scene and it’s been segregated into about 10 different categories of music. You’ve got the choice, if you like Jungle you’re gonna go to a Jungle club, and if you don’t like it – well don’t fucking go. It’s the way I look at it. If you like Techno then go to a club where they play Techno all night and you will be the happiest man on the planet. You wont get no bad vibes then with people saying, “Oh I don’t like this fucking music, it’s fucking shit, come on let’s go”.

“Just bypass this altogether and go to the club where you’re gonna get the music that you like. It’s good because it’s all one big scene. You couldn’t go anywhere in the world and get this kind of scene split up into about 10 different types of music”.

But why did you choose Breakbeat and Jungle above all the other types?

“When I used to play the Dutch and German stuff, when The Eclipse was in its day in ’91 I loved it, it was fresh and it was new”.

“After a while it never seemed to progress, they were still using the same kind of sound and rhythm. It wasn’t steppin’ up and it wasn’t going anywhere, but with the English Breakbeat stuff people were experimenting with old Soul vocals and it mad it just that bit more exciting. People were saying, “Oh I know where that’s from”. The drums were getting a bit more sophisticated, it worked and I liked it. It’s still going on today. The Breakbeat thing segregated itself into its own thing and it’s been going a couple of years now”.

But do you think the Breakbeat scene will branch out from the UK to other areas?

“I don’t think so - I know. It’s already started to happen. At the end of this month myself, Bryan Gee and LTJ Bukem are going to Germany to a Breakbeat club which is happening and they are about to get their first big party together. It happening over there just like it happened here. A load of people left the Techno scene to go to the Garage or the Breakbeat scene”.

“I’m going to do a big Breakbeat party in a warehouse in Paris on the 7th May, and Greece is also heading for the Breakbeat scene. That’s one of the last places I would have expected Breakbeat to go. A Greek geezer was going up to Jack Frost shouting “Metalheads – Metalheads”, trying to describe the rolling drum beats. It’s happening all over”.

As far as making the music goes, you have had a couple of good tunes, but don’t you think that you sold out went commercial what with the Urban Shakedown tune?

“When the Urban Shakedown thing charted at No. 23, there was a chance that we were gonna have to go on Top Of The Pops and I was thinking, “Oh no fucking hell I can’t do that”. People did approach me and say, “What are you selling out for?” and I said, “Listen, are you gonna buy me a big house, because that’s what I want. So if you’re not gonna buy me one shut the fuck up”. If I can go out there and earn money and still go and do what I like doing, then that’s alright. Those people are jealous people. It’s never someone’s fault when their record gets charted. Some people said, “Yeah you’ve sold out going into the charts”, and I said “What are you on about – 2 years ago you were dancing to it you cunt”. It wasn’t like Sesame Street where it had the bollocks drilled out of it, it was a good tune, a lot of people liked it and they went and bought it. I can’t see the point of spending all that time working my bollocks off in the studio only to sell 2 thousand copies”.

So what plans have you got for the future in terms of recording?

“D’Pressed on Dee Jay Recordings was the last thing which I did, but I do get more into the remix work. At the moment I am trying to move so I can buy somewhere and dedicate a room or garage and convert it into a studio”.

“So many times when I go into a studio the engineers don’t understand what I want to do, and plus it’s better if you do it yourself because you can’t blame anyone else for making a mistake. If an idea comes into my head at 4am in the morning I want to be able to go and put that down. Another reason is because if you are booked to go into a studio on a certain fixed day and you don’t feel too good or you just ain’t into doing it – YOU’VE GOT TO DO IT. The chances are that you are going to come out with a product that you’re not happy with and may result in you having to scrap it and do it all over again. For the future what I would like to do is write a soundtrack for a film. I like videos and I got involved with the editing on the Urban Shakedown video. I liked that side of it so I wouldn’t mind getting into that”.

So what about DJ’s and MC’s – who’s doing it for you at the moment and why?

“Grooverider, I can listen to Groove because of the stuff he plays and I like his originality. Fabio for the same reasons, as they both have the ability to take you on a journey. Randall – he is doing it at the moment, very much so. I like his technical skill, his mixing and his choice of tunes. Darren Jay again for being original. As for MC’s – GQ. GQ is someone who understands music very very well. Infact he understands it better than some DJ’s which I have heard. I mean I can play a set down The Paradise and play 10 records on the trot which I have just cut. I know he has never heard them before, but he knows when the bass is gonna come in, and the vocals )so he shuts up). That to me is someone that really understands music. If he’s not at The Paradise, the club just isn’t the same”.

And what about the up and coming DJ’s, any advice you feel that you can give to them?

“They have to be dedicated and dedication doesn’t come overnight. Years ago I used to always send out tapes, and even if I never got a reply I always sent another. That way you are always keeping your name in their head. It only takes one person to use you and if you do a good job, it will go round like anything. Nobody is going to come up to you, tap you on the shoulder and say, “You’re a DJ, I hear you want work”. You’ve got to sort yourself out. If you want it, you have to go and get it”.

What about a story then. In the length of time you have been a DJ, you must have a story that you want to share with us?

“Well, it’s like this. There’s a firm of people going out to Canada – Jack Frost, Ellis Dee, D Cruze and Mensa. They are all flying out on the Monday and they asked me to go, but I won’t because it will cost me too much live, so I fly out on the Friday. 8 hours later and 9,000 miles I arrive at Toronto Airport. I head for the Immigration Department and they say to me, “Are you here on business or pleasure?”. So I tell them that I am here on business doing a nights work. Then they reply, “Well where is your work permit?” I don’t know anything about a work permit, but maybe the people who are picking me up from the airport do. So when the people arrive to pick me up, the immigration people quizzed them to ask what I was doing here. They then told them that I working on an album, to which the immigration people replied, “Well that’s funny because he told us that he is here doing a nights work, we think he is lying”. I was then locked up whilst they went and tapped my name into their computer. Then they came back with this big read out and said, “Do you want to talk to us about prison?”. I have been in prison, but that was a long time ago and I have always had the belief that – He who can do wrong can do right. To cut a long story short the Canadian Immigration people weren’t happy with my story and sent me 9,000 miles back home on the next flight. I couldn’t fuckin’ believe it. It wouldn’t have been so bad if I was in Birmingham, but this was Canada”.

Micky explained that being a top name DJ isn’t as glamorous as it seems. Micky has friend who is a camera man and they’re going to get together and do a fly on the wall project on DJ’s, what they do in the day when they’re not DJ-ing etc, they hope to do it on Grooverider and if when it’s finished, things work out hope Channel 4 might be interested. Micky feels that this is what people will be more interested to see. On a Friday and Saturday night, he spends more time in his car than he does playing at raves, and can cover up to 1,000 miles. For this purpose he said that there is only one DJ’s car and that is the BMW – “They take such a battering”.

Micky is currently planning to write an article on dub plates in a future issue of Eternity, so keep your eyes peeled for those ‘Finn sheets of metal”.