Features

The Moody Boyz aka Tony Thorpe is a true dance music legend. His career started in the 80s as part of the seminal art dance / rock outfit 400 Blows before going solo as The Moody Boyz. He worked with the KLF at their peak and has released hundreds of dub influenced dance tracks and remixes over the years. These days he still makes experimental dub music for a variety of different labels and runs his own dubstep label Studio Rockers. Studio Rockers is Botchit & Scarper's sister dubstep label and their debut compilation Studio Rockers @ The Controls is out at the end of October.

What kind of stuff did you listen to while you were growing up?

I grew up in a West Indian household where my granddad would throw a blues party every weekend. I used to hear ska, rock steady, reggae and blues all the time so that was a big part of my musical education I guess. But like any kid back then I used to listen to Top Of The Pops and all the chart stuff as well.

How did you get involved with making music?

I started in the late 70s and early 80s in Croydon where I grew up. We used to play funk, reggae and soul every Friday at the Whitgift Centre on a soundsystem my mate's dad had bought on hire purchase and we were always trying to scrape together enough each week to pay him back.

Tell us more about the 400 Blows project you were involved with in the 80s...

It was around this time as well that I met Andrew who was my partner in 400 Blows. We met at Dr Jim's and he gave me a 7" he'd done called Beat The Devil. 400 Blows was basically all about exploring new sounds and techniques and of course this was in 1983 in the days before computers. But it was interesting because I came from this black, funk background and he was from a white, punk background, which came through in our sound I think.

I remember the boss of Illuminated Records asking us who we wanted to work with and at the time I was listening to a lot of Mad Professor, so that was that. And that's how the first single Declaration of Intent came about.

Obviously you got into acid house in the late 80s, is it right you released the first UK acid compilation Acid Beats?

Yeah that's true. It was called 'Acid Beats' and it came out in late '87 on Warrior Records but it didn't really take off until '88. But I believe it was the first acid house compilation to feature all UK artists.

I first came across you as The Moody Boys in 1990 when I bought your Journey Into Dubland EP on XL. I loved the whole EP but especially the track Free. You were way ahead of your time with that release as it mixed dub with acid house, tell us more about how it came about and your experiences of making music around that time.

Journeys into Dubland came about really from the remixes I was doing for KLF. I was already experimenting with ideas and sounds that I wanted to develop but I guess the early blueprint for my sound on Journey... was laid down in those remixes and in particular my remix of What Time Is Love in 1990.

Tell us more about how you linked up with the KLF...

I was doing an indie dance compilation called 'funky alternatives' and I approached KLF for a track called 'Don't Take 5, Take What You Want' to remix for the compilation. So I did the remix and gave it to Billy and Jim who thought it was shit and binned it in front of me. The rest is history really.

What happened after Journey Into Dubland? You seemed to release lots of tracks on many different labels...

Well this was partly because I never really had the support of one record label but also because I had so many different styles to explore that I didn't want to get stuck with the same sound.

I'm surprised you never made any jungle around '92 / '93, did it not appeal to you?

I did actually make a couple of jungle tunes that never saw the light of day. There was a jungle mix of one of my tunes called Destination Africa that came out on a 12" back in the day. But really I was more involved in the prototype days of jungle.

Your sound was a kind of dub / house crossover in the early 90s but it seems to have got 'dubbier' over the years...

If you listen to my stuff then you'll hear that at the foundations my sound has always been dub influenced, but I guess I take influence from other musical styles that are relevant at the time. But I was doing house when it was underground you know.

When and where did you first hear dubstep?

Well I've got records from the early nineties that sound like dubstep but I guess it was mid to late nineties when garage was popular. I used to buy records from Big Apple Records in Croydon and Hatcha used to be there selling early dubstep records.

Did you immerse yourself in it afterwards? What clubs did you go and check?

No, not really. Dubstep is just one of many genres of music that I love listening to. I used to check Plastic People and the DMZ nights back then.

It really is the perfect genre for you in some ways, has it give you a new lease of life?

Yeah, I guess in some ways it is. I was making this music years ago and I remember the days of playing out experimental dub music when nobody was listening. I saw Kode9 play weird music to a packed crowd recently whereas if I'd done that ten years ago the place would be empty! Now that's all changed so dubstep has definitely given me a channel and a new audience for my music.

Tell us more about your Studio Rockers label...

I'd been thinking about starting a label for a while and then the whole dubstep sound really started coming into it's own and I thought it'd be a good time to put our sound across before the scene got too diluted. We have a small but dedicated team of us that handle all the day-to-day running of the label so there's always a lot of passion for what we're doing.

How do you go about finding new artists?

I spend a lot of time on MySpace checking out what's there. These days there are so many talented young producers promoting their own music that wouldn't necessarily be sending demos to labels but a lot of them are making some really heavy sounds. That's what we look for here at Studio Rockers really, we like to find talented young producers and help them to develop their sound.

Tell us more about your new compilation and what we can expect...

We've been around for a couple of years now and released ten singles and we've already got plenty of heavy tunes lined up for release in 2010 so it just felt like the right time to take stock of where we're at now and also to give the heads who've just discovered Studio Rockers the chance to catch up and get onboard with where we are now. The compilation is called Studio Rockers @ The Controls and it's a 23-track mix CD compiled by myself. It features all of the tracks that I feel have made the biggest impact and best represent what it is we do here at Studio Rockers, and there's even a few exclusive unreleased tracks on there to whet your appetite for what's to come in 2010.

I notice that you haven't had a Moody Boyz 12" release on Studio Rockers so far, any reason for this?

Ha ha, well the short answer is that my first single on Studio Rockers has just come out. It's called Freedom and it features Pete Simpson on vocals. Essentially though I wanted to develop the label and the sound as much as possible through the artists that we have before I got involved. I wanted the label have it's own identity that's separate from The Moody Boyz and I think we have that now.

Tell us more about Freedom...

Well I was doing A&R at Wall of Sound and we signed a band called 'Unibombers' whose album featured Pete Simpson. Ever since then I've loved his voice and I've always planned on working with him at some point. At that time though I wasn't in the studio so it was frustrating to miss those sort of opportunities. So as soon as I got round to doing a vocal track I had to get Pete involved. I'm not sure when you'll be hearing the next Moody Boyz single on Studio Rockers but yeah I doubt this will be the last 12" you'll hear from me on the label.

Tell us more about some of the high profile remixes you've done in recent years like Amy Winehouse, Roots Manuva, Erykah Badu and Lee Perry...

Well the first ones I did were Ben Hudson and Amy Winehouse back in the days where I was still at Wall of Sound. Since then I get offered a few every now and again and I really enjoy giving a new edge to an existing sound. It's something I've always done right back from the days of KLF.

You seem to have done more remixes in recent years than solo releases, any reason for this?

I guess I just enjoy the freedom of reworking other people's music. You can be a lot more objective than you can be with your own music. Sometimes there's just too much emotion invested in your own music.

Tony has kindly given us an exclusive Moody Boyz track to give away for free, you can download it here.

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