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Adam F tells us how Fabio & Grooverider changed his life
Drum and Bass | Friday 7th August 2015 | Osh
Adam F is next up in our series celebrating 25 years of Fabio & Grooverider. The Breakbeat Kaos boss tells us how the legendary drum & bass duo changed his life.
What’s your first memory of Fabio & Grooverider?
First memory of Fabio & Grooverider is probably back in the Blue Note days and the night in Shoreditch really. I think it was just going down there and listening to everybody play the Metalheadz sound, and also overseeing Fabio at the Speed nights. It’s like one thing to the other. I remember playing tunes that I did like ‘Aromatherapy’ and stuff and being inspired from Fabio and the sets he was playing, and then seeing Groove and playing and wanting to make tunes like ‘Metropolis’ on Metalheadz. My first memory of Groove, the one that sticks in my head, is going over to Groove with what was ‘Metropolis’ at the time, and saying “man I got a tune for you”, and he just took it out its sleeve, he’d never even heard it before, and just put it on and then started playing the tune. And then Goldie’s hand and rings came over the deck and rewound the tune. So yeah that was my early days memory of Groove and Fab.
Nice. So how did they influence you? They were obviously a big part of your career.
Yeah I talk about this a lot, with Fresh we were having this conversation last night, like you grow up and you have people that you wanna be. I had that in the hip-hop scene as well, people that I worked with, people that you aspire to, people that are big influence on you in different ways, either because of what they do musically or because of their personality, their character, things you can relate to. Back in those days, you know for me it was Groove, it was Goldie, it was Fab, it was Bukem, they were people that if they played your tune that’s all you wanted, you were like “please play my tune”. And I remember I used to do the guestlist down at Equinox, the Moving Shadow nights, standing on the door, when I made my first tune and was still making them, and run downstairs if I heard my tune being played and then come up and carry on doing the guestlist. It was like everyone had to graft a way and earn their stripes to get up, and that was inspiring hearing those guys just championing all the tracks and everything.
And they’ve managed to stay relevant for a long time, what do you think it is about them that’s allowed them to keep their iconic status?
I mean I think they’ve stayed relevant all the way because for me the whole point about drum & bass is that it’s a street, club, born and bred, made music, and so I’ve always seen club music as like a moving train, and if you’re at the front of that train you’re moving along with the times of what’s going on, and they’ve continued to keep, for want of a cliché phrase, keep it real. They’ve genuinely done stuff from their heart as far as what they feel musically is something that they’ve loved, and at the same time pushed new artists through the time with no fear. They’ve just represented from day one and here they are still today right at the top of the tree.
And do you have a message for them?
Do I have a message? I mean Groove and Fabs I love you guys. You’ve been a big inspiration to me and everybody in the scene, and if it wasn’t for you two I wouldn’t have had my music heard all over the world and had the chance. I remember being at Heaven Groove and seeing you play ‘Circles’ for the very first time, and it changed my life. I just wanna say I love you guys loads, Fabs you know I love you mate, and thanks for supporting everybody in the scene for as long as you have, and giving us a chance from day one man, big up.
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