Author: Martin Smith	Published: May 1998	Home

.TONY DE VIT
Taking it up a gear

Here is a man who, quite literally, needs no introduction. He’s been voted ‘Best DJ’ so many times we lost count ages ago, and he’s delivered more top remixes than we’ve had hot dinners -from his anthemic reworking of Diddy "Give Me Love" at club level through to the more commercial acts such as Louise, Michelle Gayle and Eternal. Over the past three years, through his DJing, remixes and releases he has developed what is universally known as the ‘Tony De Vit sound’ - the ultimate achievement! So why on earth would he want to change a winning formula? Tony finds himself entering a new phase in his career and in order to progress further things inevitably have to change. Where next for the man they’ve dubbed the ‘Hardest working DJ’? After all, when you get this big they name a curry after you...

We have got to start by asking how you ended up having an indian dish named after you?

"I was DJing at Central in Stamford and the resident DJ pointed out these two Indian lads who were really going for it and told me they were really big fans of mine. It turns out they own the local curry house and the next time they brought their menu up to show me. Right at the bottom after the vindaloo it had ‘The De Vit Curry - the hottest curry in the house!’. The other DJ told me he went up and tried it and it was great - it took six pints of lager to get it down! I haven’t tried it myself because I can manage mild curries but if it’s that hot I just couldn’t! Other people have roses named after them and I get a curry!"

When we spoke two years ago you were constantly juggling your time between DJing and the studio - has this got any easier over time?

"I’ve been going abroad to DJ a lot more in far out places such as Japan, Russia, Mexico and Brazil. If you want to go to the next stage as a DJ you can’t just look at this country, even though it’s still the backbone of the clubbing scene. There’s always been a balance to be found between my DJing and studio time and my show on Kiss remains a top priority for me. I’ve also got my own TDV record label now, having broken away from my previous management company. I’m now managing myself with Kay’s help and I feel in control of it all now. Everything is in place to really look at what I want to do musically - the vehicle is there to release absolutely anything I want. We’ve put big brakes on the studio side while I reassess what I want to do. The studio currently has a very personal setup and we’ve had this fabulous report done by a BBC engineer discussing how good it currently is and how it could be a lot better. He’s recommended a lot of improvements which will make it more ‘standard’ and a lot easier for other producers, engineers and DJs to come in and work with me. That’s what I want to do this year because everything I’ve done so far has been with one guy. It’s worked and we’ve done very well at it but I feel I’m at a crossroads where I need to branch out more. I also want to go out and use other people’s studios - I’ve never used another studio because from the word ‘go’ I built this place and it’s the only place I’ve ever made music. Working with other people and new ideas just seems to be the natural progression."

You’re at a new stage in your evolution then?

"Yeah -if it doesn’t sound too arty farty it’s like rediscovering yourself!"

Is it a more exciting point in your career as a result?

"It’s exciting because it’s a change but it’s also quite nerve racking. Nothing is expected of you when you’re starting off as an unknown. It was really exciting when I started banging out those Tony De Vit mixes and the positive responses were coming back. That was more exciting, to be honest, because that was me being born as an artist. After years and years of playing music to suddenly start making it, and have people wanting it, buying it and going bananas to it on the dancefloor was very exciting! It’s kind of nerve racking now because everyone expects a certain standard from Tony De Vit and if you do something that’s slightly different then there’s a chance that a lot of people aren’t going to like it."

Inevitably the established TDV sound is going to change?

"Because we were successful with that certain sound people will ask ‘Why change?’. It’s something that I want to do, and I feel that now is the time to do it. We’ve had a mixed reaction to the ‘Do What You Do’ single - the usual people who like my stuff don’t like it but it’s brought on board people who previously thought that Tony De Vit was too hard. Deep down I actually love the deep, hard, ‘Trade’, banging music and the next single is going to be banging for all those guys who thought this was too commercial."

The overall plan is to broaden your appeal then?

"Totally. After three and a half years I personally feel that it needs new input and ideas because it’s got a little bit stale. When you get a formula that works it can almost become too mechanical. I want to get back to the times when I was jumping up and down with excitement in the studio at the start of a track saying ‘This is wicked!’. I need to make this change to get that spark back again but I’m not saying I’ll no longer use that old sound - it’s simply going to broaden."

Who are you looking forward to working with?

"I’ll be working on my track for the forthcoming Trade EP in the Tidy Trax studios and am looking forward to working with all these people whose music I really love, such as Baby Doc. Take, Claudio, who records as Union Jack on Platipus records - he does some real ‘off the cuff’ stuff and I love some of his sounds. If we can incorporate some of that into my style I think we can do some really good banging’ Trade material! He’s coming up here and we’re going to give it a try to see what happens. It was so funny when he first called me up - I thought I was being interrogated! He wanted to know every piece of equipment I had and it turns out he uses . I was thinking ‘Oh shit, he uses an Emu sampler and I use Akai!’. At the end of the list he says ‘Oh that’s OK, I suppose’ to which I’m thinking ‘Thank god for that’ and then he says ‘Kay tells me you work very quickly’. I told him if the spark does happen then it does come together very quickly to which he replied ‘Oh I can spend three weeks working on one sound’. I’m thinking ‘Oh my god! After a while my attention span’s gone and I’m down the road shopping in town!". He’s obviously very meticulous about what he does and I can just imagine I’ll be in the studio thinking ‘Jeezus - what if I say the wrong thing?’ but I am really looking forward to working with him because it will be a totally new experience!"

Is there anyone in the world you’d really love to work with?

"Not really. I’d actually love to find another unknown and do it all again with a new sound - that would be wicked! Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great feeling to be standing in the record shop hearing other people’s tracks and someone saying’ Oh, that’s very Tony De Vit’. It’s one hell of a compliment to be linked with a particular sound and it’s what makes it so difficult breaking away from it now. It’s got to be done though and if it takes six months or a year before anything big comes out of it that I’m really proud of then fine - that’s what it takes!"

We presume there’s no passion lost on the DJing side - you’re still as excited playing to the crowds as you ever were?

"Oh god, yes! Going abroad has been a big boost for me and gives me opportunities which just weren’t there two or three years ago. People now know exactly what I play and come to hear just that. I no longer get promoters coming up to me beforehand and saying ‘You’re not going to play too hard tonight, are you?’. There are certain things that are expected of me wherever I play, for example if I’m playing in Scotland and I don’t finish on "Are You All Ready" then I basically don’t get out that door! What IS expected is for me to get out there and get that crowd going - if I don’t then people will be saying ‘Tony was a bit off tonight’. There are always some harder tunes I want to play that can be fed into my set to a lesser or greater extent, depending on how upfront the club is, how good the crowd are and so on. Because it’s weekly and because I’ve been there so long, Trade is the club where I can experiment more, without a doubt. It’s the only club where I can do an entire set of totally brand new music. I do "Full On" in the back room of Cream once a month where you can play whatever you like until six in the morning. Then again I’ll get booked for the main room at Cream on a Saturday night where I’ll play well hard house and you can tell they’re so up for it. I get the overriding impression that the harder stuff is getting more and more popular."

Is your set generally harder than the previous DJ?

"The worst thing is actually when the DJ who’s on before you tries to take it through the roof! I remember Jon Of The Pleased Wimmin fretting and saying ‘Oh my god! Bring it down! I’m never going to be able to follow your set!’. If it happens to me I’ll just turn the power off on the deck and stop the music - it’s not a problem! If anything, it helps emphasise that a new DJ is coming on but for some reason everybody thinks you’ve got to mix out of the previous DJ’s last record! I followed Carl Cox once and he was really banging it out so I came straight down to some chunky, housey stuff for about half an hour and started building it again. I didn’t want to start my set up there and keep it up there because it wouldn’t have worked so well."

Which were your favourite countries to play abroad?

"Japan was a great place to DJ - the crowds are so into it and enthusiastic. Australia is fantastic too. I’ve only played there twice but it’s like it was over here three or four years ago. Their attitude to life is so much better. They haven’t got the hang-ups the British people have and are a lot more laid back, perhaps because of the weather! It’s all more clean, spacious and modern."

Would you like to retire out there?

"Maybe - it’s a country I could live in but I couldn’t work there, certainly to the level that I can over here. If I couldn’t live in this country then Australia would be top of the list."

How do you cope with your near ‘pop star’ status?

"It’s a bit of a selfish profession really, because as a DJ I’m simply playing records that I really like! I shy away from the ‘pop star’ side but it’s a really nice feeling that you’re doing something people like. When I came off stage in Japan it was the closest I’ve ever been to being mobbed - people asking me to sign this and sign that, which was nice! When I played down in Bournemouth recently these four girls at the front were really going for it for the entire hour and a half. I went off and did an interview and before I left I just had to go out the front and thank them because they made the difference. It’s hard to explain it really, but these four girls were constantly egging me on and I played like fuck for them because they really got me going! They were there on the Friday at Slinky, Saturday at the BICC and Sunday at Nuts & Bolts by which time they looked really knackered! Cream is one of the superclubs that really lives up to it’s name - a fabulous crowd, very friendly and they really go mental. The crowd at Passion in Coleville is unbelievable too - absolutely brilliant! I think it’s fair to say I have a great rapport with the clubbers. I always get excited seeing the crowd react to my set and will try and spend some time with them afterwards - if they want to talk to me that’s wicked! I’m very flattered. I love the adulation and attention - it’s an indescribable feeling."

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

Tony guides YOU round his studio on the Mixology June CD! See where he mixes up his Kiss shows and DJ mix albums! See where he creates those stunning productions and remixes as Tony shows you his favourite studio gear and explains what they do! Missing out? Then you'd better subscribe!