Daniel Avery: Pure Grooves

Both Laurent Garnier and Andrew Weatherall are known for their musically eclectic nature as are you. It’s not surprising to see Garnier drop a alternative hip hop set as well as a house one or seeing Weatherall deliver rockabilly when we would be expecting electronica. Now when listening to your early output under your Stopmakingme moniker and then comparing it to the material on your album Drone Logic it is almost as if these are two sets of work that have been made by two completely different people. Tell us about how you sound has evolved over the years.

Yeah. Firstly Andrew Weatherall is a huge inspiration purely because of what he has achieved. And the way he has gone about it. I’m pretty sure this is the case with him and it’s definitely the case with me that it’s not eclecticism for the sake of eclecticism.  Weatherall is clearly just a massive music fan who is in to all these varying music styles as a music obsessive but I do think there is a common thread that runs throughout his sets whether you see him playing rockabilly or techno. There is a certain energy that runs through both…

I know what you mean. Despite the differences in genre they are still recognizable as Weatherall sets.

Exactly. The idea of mashing things together doesn’t interest me one bit but if you do something and it genuinely comes from you then I think it is going to sound like you but it terms of my stuff and the whole Stopmakingme thing I feel as if… I don’t want to say disregard it but… I think of it as my first band. I was just trying to work out what I wanted to do and the reason I stopped doing it was because I basically felt as if I had served my apprenticeship and the second I stopped doing it was the second I think I found the sound that I really wanted to push as my sound. So both in terms of DJing and production the second I found that sound that was satisfying me I killed off Stopmakingme and starting using my real name as it just felt like it was the right time.

It was also exactly the same time that I was working at record shop which had just closed and I decided not to get another job and make a real go of it. It all happened in a hectic 6 month period.

I was going to ask you about your time at Pure Groove.  Working at different levels within the music industry and with so many music producers and DJs having worked at record shops do you think that immersing yourself in a scene like that is a generally a good thing or does it become tiresome?

Generally, I think it is a good thing. However, I don’t think it’s necessary. I wouldn’t say to a kid “You should cut your teeth in a record shop” but I would say as is the case for a lot of us being obsessed with music is very important.

I remember I did English and Film at university and I loved doing it but I didn’t really know what I was going to do with it. I had no plan. But during those three years at uni I realized that the only thing that I was super passionate about was music. So I knew that I was going to move to London and I had two jobs within music before doing what I do now so I was just lucky to be able to throw myself  fully in. I think if you love music you are probably more likely to gravitate towards those jobs.

Living in London I first became aware of you via your residency at fabric. Now from what I remember there was a similar buzz around what you were doing there to that of when Levon Vincent had emerged via fabric as a resident a short while before. How did you feel about having such a launchpad into the public consciousness and being attached to such an iconic club?

It was amazing and I owe an awful lot to it. I love all the guys at fabric and what I love most about the place is that for 14-15 years now it has been a club that supports very underground music on a very big scale. That is why it is such an institution in London. Imagine how many times it easily could have sold out over the years? They could have booked people just to get the biggest numbers in possible but they just stuck to what they believe in.

Even when I did my fabric CD I was such an unknown, I still am pretty much but that was well over a year ago and the fact that they took that chance on me because they believed enough in me that I was going to be a bit different or interesting really meant a lot to me. It did really well for me and got great reviews and it’s those chances that they take and are still taking that makes the place what it is.

Yeah definitely. The Houndstooth stuff on the clubs label side is really showcasing the clubs tastemaking abilities so hopefully they’ll be able to introduce us to more hidden gems that may have otherwise gone undiscovered in years to come. In regards to the mix generating a lot of attention for you outside of London and I’d imagine slots in lots of places outside the capital, was it nice to widen your horizon in that regard and see how different cities react to different experimentations?

Yes. Absolutely. It’s been really great traveling about and it’s totally right that every city has its own atmosphere and I feel really fortunate to be able to travel.  Going back to what I said earlier I really don’t see myself as this super successful DJ, I don’t ever lord it up. Much in the same way I said I felt great excitement about being able to share music with my friends via mixtapes and then more people via DJing, I still feel that way about music ten years later.  I feel as if though despite the fact there is a much bigger crowd in front of me that it still very much about the sharing experience. There is a very immediate-ness about DJing which is quite beautiful and fairly unique in that you get a reaction straight away from the people in front of you and if something is working then you can see it. It’s a beautiful experience.

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