Article taken from Pro Mobile Magazine. Aimed primarily at DJs, hence the occasional technical references.
My passion for both music and
music collecting started in the late 1970’s when I’d spend all of my Saturday
job wages in the pursuit of collecting every single from the top 30 pop charts.
As my vinyl music collection increasingly grew, I would occasionally be asked
to supply the music for the school fete and local youth club, played from a
single portable Fidelity Record deck with a built in speaker. So in effect
therefore, I’ve been playing out since I was 10 years old - 33 years!
Things have come a long way from
these humble beginnings with one record deck to the company I run today. Matt
Maurice Event Music, formed in 2000 and was the culmination of countless Club
Nights, Parties and Events.
My first professional DJ sets
started when I was about 15 with a Soundout double deck unit, two large
unbranded speakers, a rope light and 2 sound-to-light traffic light styled
units. My foray into nightclubs began at around the same time with an
introduction to a pair of Technics 1210’s. Starting out as night club glass
collector, it was only a matter of time before I was playing the first hour of
warm up and being taught the joys of “beat mixing” by the resident DJ. 80’s
soul and dance was the main soundtrack to the night and so began my journey.
Many of the early house music tracks began to break through at this point in
the mid-80s and being able to play these in my early warm up sets was a joy. I
also don’t recall ever feeling at all nervous playing these early club sets.
At the same time I was still
playing out as a mobile DJ with my trusted Soundout double decks. For one of my
first full time day jobs, I was lucky enough to obtain a youth training
placement at Chrysalis Records. At the time, Chrysalis were one of the largest
independent record companies in the UK with artists such as Spandau Ballet,
Billy Idol and Blondie, to name but a few.
1986 also took me out of the UK
for 6 weeks DJing on the Greek island of Corfu. Working alongside one of
Greece’s leading club DJs at the time, under his guidance I perfected my mixing
skills with a blend of euro dance and pop music. In ‘87 I ventured into pirate
radio, gaining a Sunday morning slot on a London radio station called TKO, a
fairly big Soul Music station at the time and a rival to London’s other big
pirate radio stations LWR and the now very legal Kiss FM.
In 1988 the Acid House scene
exploded across the UK and after a visit to the then-unknown Paul Oakenfold’s
Balearic club night Future, my eclectic love of all music grew. I also gained
my first UK club residency with one of the longest running club nights, Club
Labrynth, under the guise of DJ Vinyl Matt - a club night I still play for
today, 23 years later!
Club Labrynth allowed me to play
alongside some of the very first live gigs of The Prodigy, as well as a host of
legends from the house, hardcore and drum & bass music scenes. I continued
playing out at many private parties and events whilst also travelling around
the UK to play various one off club and warehouse party DJ sets.
By 1991 I had produced my first
record, though its signing ended up being dropped by ffrr due to the fact that
we’d sampled too many other records to make it. Despite that, it still made it
to number 4 in Mixmag’s house chart, solely off the back of a white label
release.
The crowning glory of 1992 was my
second DJ set abroad, this time in Ibiza at the legendary Es Paradise club.
1994 provided another career highlight: playing at Wembley on New Years Eve. I
remember finishing a party set at 12:30 in South London then speeding over to
West London to perform in front of 14,000 ravers. It marked the end of a year
in which I had also signed a singles record deal with Pulse 8 records under the
name of Sweet Life, alongside artists such as Rozalla and the Urban Cookie
Collective.
At this point, I concentrated my
DJing efforts on club work and as a result my mobile work dropped off. Like
many independent record labels, Pulse 8 eventually became defunct with the
owner launching a new label as Inferno records. Their biggest signing was girl
band Mis-Teeq and thanks to my affiliation with Inferno I played at the
Ministry Of Sound on numerous occasions at Inferno parties.
The increase in demand for mobile
work necessitated an investment in new kit by 1997. As I result, I purchased my
first duel CD player, a Kam KCD950. It did the job as required, although these
early duel CD players had a habit of jumping like their vinyl counterparts. I
still used vinyl in conjunction and continued to do so up until I went all CD
in around 2003. My first decent lighting equipment consisted of 4 Abstract
Twister 4’s; I still have and use these original lighting units as they work so
well.
At the dawn of the new
millennium, I gained a Friday residency at the infamous celebrity hangout, the
Met Bar in London. On my very first night at the Met Bar a guest asked if I
could play his Christmas party and handed me his business card, which was
great. The fact that it was in New York was even better. Three weeks later I
was in a Manhattan loft playing to a discerning guest list with the Empire
State Building as my backdrop! Although breaking my arm in a bike accident the
day before I was due to fly, like a true pro I still honoured the event playing
the gig with just one arm!
Following on from the Met Bar, I
moved to another short DJ residency, this time at Richard Branson’s club, The
Kensington Roof Gardens.
At around the same time I began
freelancing for another DJ named Steve Lewis. This resulted in many epic
nights, the highlight of which had to be a cliff top party at the Cannes Film
Festival for Vanity Fair Magazine. For this event, all the kit was imported from
the UK, two Technic 1210’s, a Denon CD player and a Rane mixer - the sound for
outdoor event was amazing! During this period I had the pleasure of
entertaining the likes of Nicole Kidman, Hugh Hefner, Jackie Chan and numerous
other A-list celebrities from around the world.
At the end of the Vanity Fair
party, I was asked if I would like to play the after-show party at the Oscars
in LA. Unfortunately, as I was playing under another company the boss took the
gig, but I couldn’t blame him for that! I also owe a lot to Steve for some of
my early events experience. Other memorable parties at around the same time
included the Rugby World Cup Winners’ Party in London and the Goodwood Festival
Of Speed after-show party, which I played for three years in a row. I performed
on stage with a different artist each year at Goodwood, including Brian Ferry,
The Pretenders and Steve Winwood.
In 2000 I launched Matt Maurice
Event Music and this was the year I also started employment with the UK’s
biggest independent music distributor, Pinnacle Records. My new day job started
off in the dance sales department before progressing to the national accounts
team, looking after the sales of singles into Music Zone, Andy’s Records, Tower
Records, Virgin Online and (the only one left still trading today) HMV.
I received several BPI Gold discs
at Pinnacle Records for my work with artists including Katie Melua and Feeder.
Prior to Ms Melua’s rise to fame, not only did I have the pleasure of sitting
next to her whilst she sang most of her debut album, I also organised her first
in-store UK record shop tour. Every year Pinnacle would hire a leading London
club for their Christmas parties and employ me to play and I have to say that
playing party sets in both Pacha and Fabric was incredible.
2003 was the year I launched my
own record label, Playable Music, primarily a vinyl music label releasing
mash-ups and bootlegs. The biggest of these titles was The Rolling Stones
“Sympathy For The Devil”; we circulated a rumour to Virgin Records that it was
a Fatboy Slim Remix but this backfired somewhat when they actually then commissioned
him to do an official remix and not us!
We were also approached by Hed
Kandi for our Donna Summer remix of “Autumn Changes” and commissioned to remix for
the Ministry Of Sound Winter Chill album. We received the ‘Bootleg of the
Month’ accolade four times in DJ Mag and had regular plays of our remixes on
Radio One, XFM and the like. The last vinyl release on the label was in 2005
just as the bottom fell out of the vinyl market.
Another one of my finer remix
moments was of Bob Marley’s “Jammin”, which was included on Mastermix 294 in
2009. All the remixes were recorded under the name of Lost Vegas with my
production partner Steve Andrews. We still remix and record just for the love
of music, but now give the tracks away for free on Soundcloud.
In 2006 we played our first celebrity wedding for Big
Brother’s Chantelle & Preston. They may be distant tabloid memories now,
but it was a pretty big deal at the time and we were included in the coverage
for OK! Magazine, as well as the book. Further high profile weddings followed, including one playing alongside
singer Duffy for a Russian oligarch on the Italian Amalfi Coast, the wedding of photographic legend Rankin and
the wedding for Nick Mason’s (Pink Floyd) daughter. This included a priceless
moment with Nick Mason playing a cover version of Sister Sledge’s “We Are
Family”.
Matt Maurice Event Music’s growth
has been organic and steady with the last two years being our busiest ever.
This, in the middle of the current financial climate is the result of hard work
and long hours both in and out the office. We now specialize in high-end
weddings and parties, offering DJs either with equipment or on a DJ only basis.
The wedding industry is huge for us and we invest a lot of time and money on
marketing our business in the relevant niches to keep our name at the top of
the industry across the South East.
With bookings for 2013 already
increasing, our style and approach appear to bode well and appeal to high-end
clients and luxury venues. Further expansion is inevitable now that my
partner/director Lotte Travers is running the business alongside me. Going
forwards, a big area of growth for us will be lighting, dance floors and event
furniture hire, with a large industrial unit also on the cards to store it all
in!
Lotte’s previous senior
management experience with a large retail company has been invaluable in both
looking after our client base and helping to select our team of DJs. Lotte also
has a great eye for detail in selecting the DJs and this comes across well in
the image we strive to create. As a company, we look for DJs with something
different to offer, with a speciality in a particular genre other than dance
music always a bonus. Lotte also manages our online media and marketing,
another area that’s so important in keeping up to date within the industry and
keeping the company moving forward.
Personally, my main sound
equipment of choice right now (and for the past 10 years) has been HK Actor, I DJ
from a Mac Book Pro with a 500gb solid-state hard drive currently running
Traktor. To surround the DJ equipment we use DJ booths from S&H in either
black or white. To control the software I use two CDJ 350’s that also act as a
CD back up; I also have an iPad as an additional music back up tool and have
just purchased a Pioneer DDJ-S1 with a switch to Serato Itch immanent. When
called upon, I also like to dust down my Technic 1210’s and go back to basics.
For this I still avidly collect and have a passion for classic dance music on
7”.
For lighting we use anything from
four Twister 4 units on a winch stand to plinth mounted Martin moving heads.
Each set up is unique and really depends on the client’s budget and the look
they are trying to achieve. I like to keep the equipment looking simple, yet
able to create an amazing sound with effective lighting.
Matt Maurice
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