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Mr C
Hello Mr.C, thanks for taking the time to take part in this interview for Audiation magazine. How are things over in over there in the USA and what was the 1st piece of music you listened to?
Things in the USA are very good indeed. The quality of life in California is exactly what I need at my age. I’ve been working very hard so far this year recording music, working on the Superfreq label in general & setting up the USA Superfreq anniversary tour for the Spring as well as setting up other events. The first piece of music I remember listening to? I was very young in the early 70s. A Country song called Rose Garden by Lynn Anderson, that my mum used to play springs to mind & I loved Elvis as a little kid too.
Mr.C with out a shadow of a doubt you are one of the pioneers of the London underground scene. Unbeknown to many your 1st venture into the “industry” was as a rapper/MC. How did this come about?
I’ve always loved dance music, funk, disco, ska & fell in love with rap music from when I first head Rappers Delight by the Sugarhill Gang as a 13 year old kid. I learned every word of the extended version & then that was it, I was hooked. From then on I was searching out the music & 3 years later decided to become a rapper. Before rapping I was into body popping & pop locking. At 16 years old there were all these 12 or 13 year old kids coming through, break dancing & doing crazy shit, which I simply couldn’t do due to being not so supple & having thin hair. Spinning on the head was a big no no. So to stay ahead of the pack I decided to take my love of rap & old school electro a step further & became a rapper. I was just a street rapper at first but soon took it into the clubs & got pretty well know pretty quickly.
From working with the likes of Jasper the Vinyl Junkie & the legendary Evil Eddie Richards your career progressed from being resident MC at London’s Camden Palace in the year of 86 to forging career as a Disc Jockey. What provoked the change in direction and how did it change you?
It was actually autumn of 87 that I started DJing. I made my first deep house record with Eddie Richards in 86 doing a spoken work vocal song about the power of meditation & positive thinking called Page 67 under the name Myster-E on Eddie’s Baad imprint. That was released in August 87 & from that moment I knew I wanted to be more involved in the music making & playing process. It was then that I decided I’d become a DJ & start writing my own music. That changed everything for me as I also had to give up my real job as a milkman & make a commitment to making DJing & making music my career.
You’ve been a professional recording