A wee interview

Confusingly, the Wee DJs is but one person, Scottish producer and live act Dave Paton. The creator of wonky, experimental electro for labels like SCSI-AV and Touchin’ Bass, in his first proper interview, Dave holds forth about his ambient past, the inspiration for his ‘Fear & Lothian’ album and his love of Hawaiian music

How are things? Do you still do a day job?

“I’m fine thanks, yeah, I still work a normal job. There isn’t a huge living to be made out of underground electro. I have tried a few times to make more populist music, but it must have something to do with the way I produce, because nothing ever came of it. Apart from the Wee DJs, I’m also in a band called Nob: we have played live a few times - in an underground bunker and a Victorian mental hospital and we plan to do a gig behind a waterfall on the island of Mull soon.”

Are people surprised when they find out that there’s only one of you?

“Yeah, so many times I have turned up to do a gig and people have said ‘where’s the other guy?’ For a while, I pretended that there were a few people involved just for a laugh - it’s easy to keep these kinds of myths going in techno and electro.”

Was there any other reason for having a confusing name?

“Years ago, well, back in the 90s, I used to release ambient stuff on Weatherall’s Emmissions label as Being, but eventually I got sick of that because I wanted to do some dance floor stuff – and I didn’t want people to associate my older material with what I’m doing now.”

Did you find it easy to get the music you make now signed?

“No. When I made this decision to change, it took me about four to five years to get a release, but I think it’s because my stuff is a bit weirder than most electro. I wanted to be experimental, but obviously going in that direction is even less popular than underground electro! It took forever to release a record, but eventually I did, on SCSI-AV and Gassoline.”

So how did you hook up with Touchin’ Bass?

“It was by accident. A few years ago, when I was trying to get my tracks signed, I did a big mailshot to about 50 labels and I got seven replies that said ‘it’s not bad, but…’. I never sent one to Andrea because Daz from SCSI-AV gave her a copy, but she liked the music so much she put out the album. Having said that, the album didn’t do as well as everyone thought, in fact it only sold about 750 copies, but Andrea thinks it’s the kind of release that will sell a lot in the long term. I hope she’s right! Andrea’s whole taste has totally changed, she has got into weirder sounds – and that’s great for me!”

So it happened by accident rather than design?

“Yes. To be honest, getting a record out is all just a game of luck and having some contacts. If someone wants to release my music, I’ll let them contact me. Nowadays, I put out most of my music online for free. I get about 200-300 downlaods per track I upload, so I know that I have a small fanbase! “

You mentioned earlier that you feel your music is a bit weirder than most electro…

“Well, there is so much electro that just doesn’t do it for me: it should be about earthy stuff, the darkness of life, not vocodered vocals and sci-fi fixations. This approach has never done it for me: I don’t understand why a lot of US electro artists still focus on it. My music is just me pissing about, it’s about my life.”

Was that reflected on your debut album, ‘Fear & Lothian’?

“Sure, the LP is grim: I grew up in fear of my life. Lothian is dark and dreary and West Lothian, where I’m from, is worse. In the 60s, the council went out into a green field with concrete and farted out a town. That’s West Lothian. When I was growing up in the 70s, it was clean and nice and quite a futuristic place, but then it started to fall apart and since then it has turned into a massive shithole. It has all the social problems that you could imagine, but probably the worst thing about it is the kind of backwardness that it breeds. The people who live there never leave it, it almost feels like it was a social experiment.”

So what effect did it have on you?

“It messed my head up, especially as a kid I had to watch my back. I got battered to shit a few times and I was bullied at school. I never felt like I fitted in there, I never made any childhood friends that I’m still in contact with, in fact I know no one there from my chikdhood, they were all assholes. I’m glad I left when I did - at 17. I’m sure if you went back now you’d find all the people I was in school with getting senselessly drunk in the local pub.”

Instead of getting drunk, you got into music…

“That’s right. I had started out playing in a brass band and then I got some synths and of course that makes you more introspective, but I had moved by then to Glasgow.”

So where are you based now?

“I live in Edinburgh: there is still a techno scene here, the remnants of Pure and Sativa. There is one small club called Substance that does electro and techno and I’ve played there. Edinburgh is like any small city, it’s easy to fill a club if you’re playing cheesy commerical crap, but drawing a crowd to an underground night is hard. What I like about Substance is that it’s full of old familiar faces and young kids, 17 or 18, who are just getting into the music now. That’s encouraging.”

Were you in the same position - a teenager going to Pure in the early 90s?

“Yes, going to Pure had a big influence on me, especially hearing people like Claude Young play. The whole Detroit sound had a big effect on me - more to do with the attitude. The music has a naivety, but the way that they manipulate sounds is crazy. 4/4 electronic music, and by that I mean tracks that are based on a straight kick drum, still sell well. For example, SCSI-AV put out a 4/4 release by an electro outfit from Holland who I’m not allowed to name - it was out under a different name - and it sold out within two weeks. Maybe it was only a thousand copies, but it proves that the straight stuff is far more popular than anything experimental. What’s impossible to tell, of course, is what music will be timeless.”

Speaking of Detroit, what do you make of the city’s most famous electro acts?

“I would say that Dopplereffekt and Drexciya are some of my influences, but it’s more that I interpreted some of their music than it directly influenced me – some of my tracks are interpretations of Marvin Gaye. I love the elements of the sounds that both Drexciya and Dopplereffekt use: Gerald Donald is always one step ahead, it pisses you off his stuff is so good, it’s the same with DMX Krew.”

What are you up to over the next few months?

“I have a remix of ‘Freaky Bitches’ coming out on Touchin’ Bass and I’ll be doing a live set at Bloc. I use Ableton to play live, but when I produce I use a program called Vaz Modular. It feels like you are playing hardware in real time. “

Finally, what’s on your turntable/CD player at home?

“At the moment I’m hooked on Hawaiian music, Arthur Lyman is my favourite guy from this scene. He was one of the people who started the exotic/lounge style of music. There are usually a few great songs on each album and then the rest sounds like the music that plays over the tannoy in ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’!”

Comments

[paul chillage]

His new lp is excellent - been "caning it" on our show for a while. cool interview with a very good producer. check out his early stuff on scsi