It's often said by many that Birmingham is the home of UK bhangra and they maybe right but in recent years desi talent is coming out from all parts of the UK isles and it's time to announce the new bread of stars who look to follow in the footsteps of Tigerstyle and show that Scotland can hold it owns against the rest. Irfan caught up with DJ VIPS in Glasgow recently to talk about his debut album and his brand new label.
Irfan: Few people will know who DJ VIP is so give us an intro!
DJ VIPS: I have been a DJ for 15 years in Scotland but over say the last 5/6 years I've been doing a lot of work down South. I've been DJ'ing in Manchester, Middlesborough, Lancaster, and sort of Northeast and up North you know what I mean and all of Scotland; everybody pretty much knows us here.
Irfan: I've been told by my good friend Tarv that you've pretty much got Scotland locked down! Is that true?
DJ VIPS: Yeah, yeah I suppose we have, we've been doing it that long. We have 2 Roadshows and we have a female DJ who does Mehndi's and stuff. We are taking on Tarv and Dev (Northern Lights)…so we are going to be forming another solid Roadshow. I think I'm probably one of the busiest live DJs in the UK in terms of the number of gigs we do. Very few DJ's do it full-time but I don't do anything else, it's my full-time job.
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Irfan: Since being a DJ you've now moved onto production. What made you want to make this progression?
DJ VIPS: Well, I've been making mixes and stuff like bootlegs for years, for the last 10 years really. I was sick of buying albums for one track and the rest of it being rubbish and I felt I could do better and as a DJ I felt I knew what people want. That's the concept of were I've based the album 'Party Time' as all its tracks are what people can dance to and enjoy. People from all sorts of backgrounds can enjoy it, so that's basically the concept of the album. |
Irfan: Tell us about your new album! What styles of music should we expect to hear?
DJ VIPS: We recorded it back in 2003 actually, yeah December 2003 in India. I really wanted to do an album called 'Kickin Classics' were I bring back all the old classics like 'Lus Lus Karda' and Gur Nalon Ishq Mitha' so I recorded 10 tracks while I was their all with new singers but all classic tracks. But then I felt it was too much i.e. 10 old tracks would be too much for people to take in. So I decided to mix the album so I decided to put 4 cover versions on the album along with 6 brand new tracks so that's what we've done. I've been working on the album since, a year and half nearly. What we did was produced a track, tried it out on the Road, and made sure it works, fixed it were it needed until we felt that people are feeling it and then locked it away.
Irfan: What vocalists have you used on the album?
DJ VIPS: The vocalists are all new except for one guy called Kulvir who's had a few albums in India and did a track called 'Babhi Di Vajka' which was a really popular track and there is another singer called Mungi Mahal who is quite big in India he did a track with Aman Hayer just last year. Apart from this they are all new. A guy called Kardir who has done a Nusrat sort of track for us. We've used a girl called Bubbly who was only 15 when she recorded the track Laughwacha. I was shocked was her sat down at the studio and I remember saying 'whose that little kid' you know, but she's got an amazing voice.
Irfan: What styles of music have you got on the album?
DJ VIPS: Well you know there is a real mix on the album. I felt that my customer, people that I play for; I wanted to make sure I has bits of everything. It's got raw desi tracks on it; it's got clubby tracks with RnB riff in em. It's got one dance track on it, a Nusrat sort of 'Akhiyan Udheek Diyan', which is sort of a House mix. We got a Drum and Bass track, which has become really popular and we've had a lot of positive feedback for, it's called Nach Lain Ne. It's based on a Brazilian Drum and Bass sample which is different to the UK and a lot of people liked it; I mean Bobby and Nihal loved it.
Irfan: You've shot the video for your album. Tell us more about the concept behind it!
DJ VIPS: We are from Scotland obviously although I don't sound Scottish as I was bought up in Wolverhampton.
Irfan: You're Scottish enough for me [basing that on the accent]!
DJ VIPS: Yeah, I'm Scottish; I've been here 20 years now. We wanted to label ourselves as representing Scotland, like Tigerstyle have been doing for the past 5 years and so that we can differentiate ourselves. We've also got a group of Dhol Players who are in charge of a group called Tartan Dholis who are from Edinburgh. They've even got their own tartan that is designed for them. You've got this in the video so it's quite different to everything else. We got a young group called Punjabi No 1 who are a young kids group from Glasgow who have mimed to a track and then for the last track we have shot it in a Club with a live audience rather than a made up audience with 25/30 people which you can always tell; we actually had 450 people in it and it was quite difficult to shoot the video as their was so many people but we managed it so hopefully it will come out really good.
Irfan: You've set up your own label in Scotland called VIP Records. Do you feel there is enough talent in Scotland to justify this?
DJ VIPS: Yeah, yeah, I feel like there is lots of talent. There are lots of young people who are into DJ'ing, production. We'll start of small but were hoping to expand and encourage young people to come through. The industry is such now that new talent isn't being supported. Nobody wants to touch any material now because of the downloading situation with records not selling meaning labels don't want to invest in new people. This is the reason why we set this up. We were having difficulty getting people wanting to invest in us. They wanted to invest in us but they wanted something back in return and we didn't have any control that's why we set up this way. I know everybody probably says this but we are hoping to give the people good quality products, more than one track on the album.
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Irfan: A lot of labels are putting too much sh** which I would describe as standard. What is VIP Records going to do different that any other label?
DJ VIPS: What we are going to do different is that we not going to tie people down. What other labels do is they give DJ's/Producers a selection of vocals and they may be able to choose one or two and then he's then made to do the best he can with what he's given. What we doing is encouraging people, our artists to get their own vocals or get |
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them sung so got the best songs, the best lyrics so that they feel confident about the track. The thing about production is that when you've got a track, the main track on my album is 'Punjabiay Di Naal' and when the guy sang it with three other songs and said 'which one do you like?' When he sang that (Punjabiay Di Naal) I automatically knew I could do something with that. If you know your music then you can pick up on it and say 'I can do something with this.' If the vocals are not good and you're just making do with something average; which is the case with a lot of labels, then your not gonna come up with kicking tracks. Tarv and Dev's (Northern Lights) album 'Sparked' will be the next one we release and it features some of the biggest names in the industry, such as Labh Janjua, Lember H, Kuldeep Manak and Kaka Bhanewalla (Sanehvaal Chounk) and I can assure you that its going to be heavy. Theres even going to be a bonus exclusive from Tigerstyle, that the boys (Raj n Pops) are adding as a bonus to help launch the boys and before dropping there own album later this year. |
Irfan: Which artists do you have signed to the label?
DJ VIPS: We've got Tarv and Dev's (Northern Lights) 12 track album called 'Sparked' with a bonus new track from Tigerstyle that will be releasing end of June. Mine 'Party Time' is dropping on the 16th of April. After that we've got a compilation album, an urban album, which will feature total urban tracks rather than desi tracks and will feature RnB singers and rappers. We've got 3 tracks ready for that so far. That album will feature tracks from myself, Northern Lights and the other producers on the label such as DJ Kunal who is a top club DJ here in Scotland, we've got people like Ryan who is a percussionist here whose producing an album called Dhol-icious which will be out around the end of the year. Kunal's album is on its way he's got 4 tracks on it's way and that's called 'Firing On All Decks' and that is due out in September. We've got 5 albums already planned; and one which we haven't set a date for, which will be by the Tartan Dholis which will be a Dhol based album. It will feature many different styles and collaborations with different instruments, such as the traditional Scottish bagpipes.
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Irfan: What else that you've got lined up that we should really know about?
DJ VIPS: Yeah, well the tracks on the urban album that we've got lined up are really different so watch out for that. We've got some fresh singers who I think everybody will be after. One of the singers is called Ashok and voice is amazing, I think he could be the next Lembher. He's a young lad, 19 years old from the Punjab, and I think we are the 1st ones from the UK to use his voice. He's got one track on this album, we've got four tracks from his, and we've just getting him to do another 14 tracks for us, which will be coming to us soon. Theres also a lot of fresh Urban talent coming |
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through the label, such as a young man called Calvin from Birmingham and new rappers from Washington DC who will be showing their talents on Northern Lights album, Sparked, out in June and also the Urban album. |
Irfan: Any final words to the desitunes4u readers?
DJ VIPS: We want to offer people albums that people can buy and they don't feel cheated. A lot of the time you buy an album; well as a DJ I buy all the albums, I don't even look at the tracks I just buy it as I feel as a DJ I need to have everything and I get so disappointed as there is hardly one good track on it and even good albums only have two or three good songs. We want to offer people an album that you would want to buy. Quality albums that have got lots of good tracks, sell and they are around for a long time!
That concludes the interview, a big thanks to DJ VIPS for taking some time to chat to us! Watch out for his brand new album 'Party Time' which is out on the 22nd of April. |
