From the dark, winterlands of Finland a storm has long been brewing. Rushing with twisted energy, laced with Gothic melancholy and fast, furious and futuristic, it's the sound of artists like Carbon Based, DJ Rx, Proteus and Pain On Creation. And with Alek Száhala and Carbon Based now finding their tracks on labels like Nu Energy whilst Proteus becomes named the World's Number One Hard Dance DJ once more, it's a storm that is in full, devastating effect right now. Boasting the next thundering release on the pioneering Finrg label, twenty-five year old DJ Rx is currently riding the winds of Finnish hard NRG like no other. From the twisted fury of his upcoming 'Killer Instinct' to his mindblowing DJ performances across Finland he's been on something of a roll recently and with his London DJ debut next week at the Nu Energy Collective's Freeformation he's now set to hold court on a new exciting stage. Going back to back with Toni Carbon Based his set at the 100% free entry Freeformation is one of the main attractions of what is set to be a truly memorable night and as he gears up for take-off, we catch up with him for an insightful interview into his influences, ambitions and aims within the underground dance scene...
Hi Rex, good to speak to you mate! First of all, you’ve been DJing for the best part of a decade having started in 1997 but what was it that first inspired you to take to the decks? Was it a particular party or track that grabbed hold of your attention or did you had a friend or older sibling who lead you to the darkside?
Well... I first started to create music with tracker based programs in the mid 90s, about the same time I found drum and bass and all other forms of electronica such as psy and trance music. I think the release of Prodigy's Music for the Jilted generation was a definitely a turning point for me turning from a metal-head to full-on electronica purist.
I've always been into music with prbpably the strongest backgound of music from our crew, with lots of music schools, band projects etc but I found that DJing electronic music was ultimately the most fitting way to express myself musically at that point in time. After 1997 it took several more years for me to discover the hard-dance and the music I play today. Since then the whole thing has changed from hobby to a full-time profession.
What sort of music were you listening to before you became fixated by electronic sounds? Many of the Finnish contingent seem to have histories listening to pioneering Industrial acts like Nine Inch Nails or heavy metal acts… does the same apply to you?
Haha... Yeah, well not suprisingly I was a total metal-head in the mid-90s before I realy got into electronic music and got loads of inspiration such artists as Danzig, Arcturus, Craddle of filth, Dimmu Borgir etc. and afterwards industrial /electronica artits such Beast, Front line assembly, NIN, Squarepusher, FSOL and Aphex Twin just a name a few. Eventually I found my way to such artists as Lab-4, Captain Tinrib, Wierdo and of course the mighty Nu-energy that quickly became a strong backbone for my sets to come.
What were the first records that you purchased and which producers and DJs were most influential in shaping your early sound?
After discovering hard-dance it must have been some uk based labels, I was always looking for the most hardest and nastiest tracks I could find. I played a lot of the same material as my dear colleagues such as Harri (Proteus) and Ari(E-nrg) wich later on became a very good friends of mine. Finding that "ultimate sound" became adaunting process because the sounds and atmospheres I was looking for seemed not to exist ... not until I found Lab-4.
Can you remember the first major club booking that you received? To use an English term, were you ‘bricking it’ beforehand or did you manage to keep your nerves under control?
I think it was the first time in Scandinavia's biggest electronic music festival Koneisto when I felt I'd really punched through the domestic scene. Participating in such event with such magnitude and performing there was such an honour.
Ive been performing to a live audiences since I was a kid so it´s very rare that I get nervous before or after the gig... So no, I haven´t felt "stage fright" since I was... umm.. five. I´m a fairly solid player no matter how big the event. Apparently I only get nervous when the gear I play don´t work properly or they are not familiar to me.
Alongside the likes of Carbon Based, Alek Száhala and Proteus, you are one of the leading lights in the Finnish hard NRG and underground hard dance scene. What are the main parties going on in Finland and do you have any residencies?
The massive multi-stage events such Koneisto, Laserpoint, Pacifique (held inside a water amusement park) and Konemetsä (festival held inside forest located Marttila, Finland) and the major clubs such Hallmark, Millenium, Säde, Rush, Fury, and our yearly FINRG tour wich I happen to be resident in.
A lot of people on this side of the waters seem to assume that the Finnish scene has strong aesthetic ties with the Goth and fetish scene. Is this a fair assumption and what is your own preferred style of dress? Are you a trainers, jean and t-shirt man or do you like to get a bit twisted with your looks?
I used to dress up as bit more gothic clothes in the past than nowadays, a simple cybergothic appereance seems to be the trend in finnish hard-dance djs artists as well as the people who listen such music, so black clothes, chains and iroquoises are quite "my choice" to the parties. Most often when I play a set I take half my clothes off anyway so ...
Recently you’ve taken the plunge into the production sphere by unleashing your twisted track ‘Killer Instinct’ and the searing ‘Fish Eye’. What inspired you to take your talents to the studio and how steep has the learning curve been?
In brief I felt that I´ve kinda gained everything there is to gain on a personal level as a hard-dance dj in Finland and after putting up the FINRG Recordings with my friends it was just a natural extension of what I had been doing for years. I also had the burning desire to contribute my own visions to the futuristic sounds of FINRG. I´ve only been doing this very seriously for couple of years and plans are to go to a polytechnic school to study music production so I can take everything into my own hands continue developing the sound of FINRG with mixture of industrial, drum n bass, hard-dance and twisted sound design.
Your ‘Killer Instinct’ track has recently been handed to rising Nu Energy talent Eryk Orpheus for remix duties. When did you first come across Eryk’s work and why did you choose him specifically for the remix?
Eryk got in touch with me after getting the "Frozen ep" from us and expressed his desire to do a remix of one of my tracks. Being a strong supporter of such collaborations between Uk and Finland, I checked Eryk's productions was very impressed with what he had made and got in touch him. After a few more e-mails and new tracks from me, Eryk decided to remix Killer Instinct and now I´m very keen to hear what he´s up to, I´m sure he´ll get high profile support from the finnish crew when he gets it ready. Hopefully this exchange of remix making and other kind collaborations between Finland and Uk will grow in future.
You’ve even taken a ‘vacation’ from DJing to concentrate your efforts on music production. Was this a hard decision to take and can you tell us a bit about the other tracks that you are working on?
Not really, after doing way too many gigs within the past couple of years I realy needed some time to recover from the extremely heavy fall of ´05 - ending into Comminatio Arctica main event with my first live pa. Producing my own music and learning loads of new things about music production has been the single most exciting thing for me in years, but doing gigs, running a label, organisizing events left me such little time to concetrate music that I saw this as being the only solution to arrange more time to it. At the moment I´m doing only few selected gigs in Finland, but I´m going to start doing gigs as usual propably after the Australian tour next July.
Recently the Finnish sound has shown that it is hear to stay. Carbon Based and Alek Száhala have enjoyed high-profile releases on the mighty Nu Energy, Proteus scooped the best DJ accolade at the Hard Dance Awards for the second year running and a number of UK jocks are filling their boxes with Finnish twistedness. How far do you think the Finnish sound can realistically go and how do you predict the future to be?
I think the secret of Finnish music breaking in the global markets has definitely been the relentless marketing of Finnish freeform and its talented artists as a group, rather than promoting just as single artists. This has helped people to easily explore the whole spectrum of Finnish freeform and get people infected with the Finnish sound. Personally I think we're just getting started and the hard work we've done for years is finally paying back.
After hearing the forthcoming material from our artists as well as the new up an coming artits coming from Finland Im very confident that both Finnish and Uk freeform will keep growing its popularity among masses.
I guess you could say that the FINRG as well as uk freeform is on a brink of a final breakthrough with vast posibilities to expand endlessly as long as the productions maintain the high quality as they have to this date.
Will you be aiming towards a release on labels like Nu Energy yourself? How did you first hear about the Nu Energy label?
I will definintely propose that to the Nu Energy crew when I get a track that first the sound of the label. It´s definitely in a high position on my current "to-do" list. I think that the single most reason of our success in UK has been because of our artists releases on Nu Energy and Electronic label. The first time I heard Nu Energy was probably at the turn of Millenium, when I was looking for faster music styles and stumbled into a mixtape made by some canadian DJ. Bit of detective work on my behalf and I found my way to the Nu Energys site and I haven´t turned looked back since!
If you had the choice to produce with any mortal producer who would you pick and why?
I think i would like to spend an hour or two in a studio with Liam Howlett from Prodigy, the Lab-4 boys or probably with the Pendulum boys... the biggest icons for me so far!
On March 10th, you’re going to be playing our Freeformation event at Hidden alongside Toni Carbon Based. Have you ever sampled the atmosphere of a UK hard dance or hardcore event in the past?
Yeah, couple of years ago at an Elation event. The Carbon Based boys were playing there live. The athmosphere there was something I've never seen, heard or felt before, people were so nice, smiling and up for it... hopefully we´ll be
able to create that same atmosphere on 10th March at Freeformation as well.
What did you see as the main differences between the UK and Finnish hard dance crowds? If not, what are you expecting from March 10th?
Main differences between UK and Finland are definitely the music played out on at parties. Whilst your music is usually very uplifting, happy and sometimes even bit cheesy, the Finnish audience like to embrace the melancholic, dark and most f*cked up tracks around!. The scene is very gothic as you mentioned before, it's been growing rapidly much like the same way as Finnish freeforms popularity in global markets and nowadays represent a major part of finnish dance scene along side with trance music. In the end the differences are not that big, just noticetable.
How do you think the crowd will respond to your sound and can you let us in to the sort of sound that you’ll be unleashing?
It is going to be a total annihilation and I´m sure we´ll get the crowd animated and to a state of elation with our dark fusion of drum and bass, finnish freeform and hard-dance. We´ll be probably be treating the crowd with unreleased Finnish material from such artists as Alek Száhala, PoC, Proteus, Carbon Based and me. I´ll make sure we´ll come guns blazing with all the weaponry we have available. We´ll do our best to unleash such finnish fury to the dance floor that you may have never seen before.
Have you ever played with Toni Carbon Based before and do you think you will need to adapt your styles much?
No we actually haven't, but both of us has been fairly open minded for it and it's great to be able to treat UK crowds to this one-off spectacular!
Will you be hanging around the entire duration of the event and what other sets are you most keen to catch?
I'm going to arrive as early as possible and will try see as many sets as possible! There are so many high profile djs I want to see that I don't even know where to start!
Will you be venturing into the studio with any of our UK hardcore producers whilst you are over in England and what other plans do you have for your visit?
We're hopefully going to Sharkster's lair to learn some geeky stuff and hopefully meet and socialise Eryk, Kev, Allan and other producers/staff of Nu Energy crew and if there's any time left for music production I´m always up for it.
Finally, what other styles of music find a home on the Rx stereo these days? Are you a full-on drum and bass junkie or do you prefer to chill out to something a little more relaxing after a weekend in the clubs?
I'm really hard to learn how to produce drum and bass properly in order to combine it and FINRG in to new twisted mixture of tracks, so I listen to a lot of it just to learn how to produce it. In addition I listen to a lot of mixtapes, both freeform and other styles, chillout, experimental, industrial and even metal. Depends totally on the mood I'm in. I've also been listening a lot of Alek's tracks lately because we're doing a Alek Száhala vs. DJ Rx live pa / dj hybrid next weekend at Turku and I need to know he's tunes featured on that set back and forth.
Favourite three tunes of all time?
Ah this is a hard one... Hmm..
The Prodigy - Voodoo People (Pendulum remix)
Lab-4 - Candyman
Alek Száhala - Man Eaten
Three current favourites?
Turmion Kätilöt - Lihaa Ja Verta (Proteus Remix)
DJ Rx - Hellfire
Alek Száhala - Unholy Word
Most memorable clubbing moment?
Last year at Konemetsä 2005, I've never seen anything like that. Stages
in the middle of wilderness, beer, good lookings chicks and sunshine. What more could you ask? Propably the best weekend I've had in years. Too bad I'm missing it this year because of the Australian tour.
Last film you saw?
Hmm... must have been some documentary I think... Dunno, I haven't had
much time to watch tv.
Ideal night out..?
Good friends, loads Finnish booze probably Koskenkorva- Vodka, sauna and
good music. An unbeatable combination.
Nice one Rx, awesome to speak to ya! As for the rest of you don't forget to get your names to freeformation@nuenergy.co.uk to secure your free list place for Freeformation on 10th March at Vauxhall's Hidden! Get on our events pages for more information!
