Adam Gow 0:00

Hi. I'm Adam Gow DJ from the unseen times currently known as Wax On. Welcome to the ones that DJ podcast DJing and DJ culture have been a huge part of my life. For better or worse. They've given me a massive buzz at times and loads of stress at others, and taught me a load of valuable lessons along the way. On this podcast to speak to DJs from around the world who've made the names when it was just about skills and selection, not social media followers, will discuss their journey through ascendancy and what pie plays in their life now, whether they're still on the scene said goodbye to the decks forever or still get sneaky mixing when life gives them the chance. Whatever road that travelled, they were always once a DJ.

That was nice. Welcome back to once a DJ. This week. I'm delighted to say that we're here with Bronx legend, DJ producer and creator of the amazing dusty fingers in school yard breaks compilations, Danny Dan the Beat Mann, Danny, thanks a lot for coming on the show today. How are you doing?

Beat Mann 1:02

Good, good. How's everything? Yeah, cool. Thanks,

Adam Gow 1:05

man. Good, just busy, busy. Really, absolutely. Delighted to have you on today. So thanks a lot for coming on. So what I'd really like to do is just kind of have a look at your career really, and how you came into it. Because I think with what your kind of position is, and your level of influence in hip hop, hip hop being 50, as well, and you've been kind of around it from, I think, more or less the start of it. I'm really excited to get into it. So you want to tell us how you first got into, I guess, got into records and what your early musical influences were

Beat Mann 1:41

from my mother was basically always, you know, playing records. As a little kid, I was just watch her play records and look at her record collection. That's what got me interested in it. But as a kid growing up, you know, you get involved with baseball, comics, and all that. So I kind of like, paid attention to what she was doing, looking at her records, always looking at her records, and looking at all the covers in the artwork, and that interests me a lot. But I love music in general. And I did a lot of movie watching as well. foreign films and stuff like that, because my mother's you know, English, Italian. So she, I had those influences. And then my father was Spanish, Puerto Rican, from Spain. So those influences were all around my house music wise.

Adam Gow 2:36

So what sort of stuff was your mom playing? Like, she

Beat Mann 2:40

was playing all kinds of weird stuff like, top 40s. A lot of Beatles a lot of Brazilian jazz. I mean, she had an eclectic collection, she had to tie your music. You know, like, everything that came out in the 60s. Yeah, that was that was popular as I was growing up. And then, as soon as the 70s came around, she started working for a radio station in Manhattan as a receptionist, and she would listen to the radio what they were playing. And she would say I liked that record. And the DJs will call her and they will give her promo copies of stuff. Wow. And that was like, you know, I think it was like six or seven years old when she was coming home with all these records, and I was like, Oh, I cool. I want to you know, listen to what she bring. And she'll play it. And I got into it.

Adam Gow 3:37

Did she get you excited about like the rarity with the beam promos, and things like that, which like, check out this promo version.

Beat Mann 3:45

Adam Gow 5:14

Would you have been then?

Beat Mann 5:15

I was like seven or eight.

Adam Gow 5:18

So you've got an early start, then yeah. whereabouts? Is it the Bronx that you're from?

Beat Mann 5:22

Adam Gow 6:07

would the guy's new record shops like with you then if you would, if you were kind of going in and buying quite quite a good taste of sort of stuff, where they're like I was, this kid may

Beat Mann 6:17

say nothing much, man, I was I will go there with a list of records. And they would just pick them out for me and I will buy them. They were like, think, at that time. 40 cents a record. Wow. And couldn't you imagine? So like, I would go there were like $3 and buy me a bunch of 40 fives, you know what I mean? Yeah, for myself, and then I remember going up to 50 cents and the 60 cents, then 275 cents, you know, as I kept buying them. But at one point, I went to like a quarter party that he did out in cedar park, and 75 I believe it was. And I seen him playing, you know, to the same record making a merry go round. And and he just didn't do that. He did that with two different records and go back and forth. But when he had the doubles, he would go back and forth. And I was like, That's genius. I want to do that. So then I started buying every record that I could, but I couldn't find certain records that he was playing. Until I started sitting down and just watching them I went to every jam. And I will look at the covers. I was like oh, okay, I know what that record is. You know, I'm saying I had a photographic memory. So I was starting to buy records then I found this record store man, what all these guys will get their breaks from it was called downstairs records. And it was called downstairs upstairs downstairs records. So like if you're coming in from the street on 42nd You go downstairs and is corridor. One record store was across with 40 fives in it. And a diagonally across was with the album's was sold. And they had a patchy day, but they wanted $100 for it. I was like that's too much money. I can't I can't afford that.

Adam Gow 8:11

Was that like her signature break then? Yeah, one of

Beat Mann 8:15

Adam Gow 9:43

Yeah. Would you still still have been at school at this point then? Yeah, I

Beat Mann 9:47

was in school throughout the whole time. Yeah.

Adam Gow 9:49

How was school we went to school I was just thinking about Brown. I was

Beat Mann 9:53

it sounds like your parents were really kind of enthusiastic and kind of nurturing with it, then. Yeah, they

knew that I was into it. So they, they knew that it kept me out of trouble. Yeah, you know, for me, because the kids could do a lot of crazy shit. And I did a lot of crazy shit. That's not all I did. You know, but my main focus was buying records. Yeah,

cuz I mean, how kind of I mean, I'm from a little village in England, but like, how, how kind of risky? Was it travelling around New York at that time? For me,

we were you in that sort of situation. Would you be quiet if it wasn't kind of guys that were in that net? work. You're saying, like Clark and people like that you'd all kind of help each other out? If it was people outside of that group. Were you a bit more kind of secretive about your records?

Yeah, I was always secretive about my records at that time. I let nobody know. I had magic mark all my records. You know, I'm saying, so I wouldn't give anybody no information. Really. I'll just say, Yeah, five just records. You know, when I was downtown, looking for old records, you know? And they were like, Damn, man, you playing a lot of good stuff. I was like, yeah, that's why I told you let me get on, you know. And that was it.

So that would be sort of around the time that disco was coming in as well. Exactly.

It's a French, but I'm gonna just write that down now.

It's really dope. Bongo rockers, live Bongo rockers.

But yeah, cuz you've got an original Apache, haven't you? I'm sure I've seen you posted on Instagram, of course.

Because I have the original. Yeah, but I also have, you know, the remakes. I have different versions of that record.

So when you were getting into the disco did did the DJs kind of start moving from the block parties into the clubs at that point, while

mean, that's a lot of money to be making, isn't it at that age? Yeah, I

was I was making I was making pretty good money, you know, and I wish I had a partner just to just just to help me out, and we will split the money.

So with a summer summer sort of block parties was that just to keep the reputation going to make sure you'd be getting the bookings? Exactly.

But but also to have fun and meet girls. Yeah.

read something the other day that was saying that you would when you got with the girl, sometimes some of the records out of their parents collection might kind of end up with you. And that that may be caused some cause some breakups? No,

can you remember what the what the best record was? That you got from a girlfriend, parents collection? Wow.

It depends. I know, I know, some James Brown records were a part of the collection, some Spanish records that have brakes on it for the B boys. And just some, you know, nice records that I know that had something on it. That was that was funky. Some 40 fives you know what I'm saying? So, you know, it's definitely stuff that I could use, as far as DJing, even some disco records, that I might have one copy of I find another one, you know. And you know, they weren't using the records, they were just there. You know, sometimes the mother would never be there, I would never meet the mother. And I will go with the girl to her crib. You know, just to hang out for a little bit. I looked through the records. Oh, can I borrow this? She's like, Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Because she was nice with me, you know, I mean, and then they'll never get the records back. That's the way it was. And if only one press me really hard, I need that record back. My mother is going to kill me. So I went to the mother, and I bring the record back. And she met me and she's like, you're so you don't want to have my record and everything? I'm like, Yes, but I took care of her. You see, I'm a DJ, I you know, I use it. Oh, but you can have the record didn't go ahead. So I want to open it anyway. It was crazy. You know, I'm saying and that's like, you know, records are, you know, they're an expense needles, turntables, mixers, wires, amplifiers, all that should signal expense, but I was able to manage it by myself. Yeah, no one helped me get anything. I didn't have a crew of guys shipping. Like usually, it would be that way. And I was like, whoever wanted to be done with. You had to chip in what's for some, you know, I'm saying buy records or some, but I rather have them give me the money and I buy everything I need. Yeah, instead of buying pieces of equipment. And I had done that with with a friend of mine. And he's backstab me. He sold it to someone else and they came to my house collecting it. Out of nowhere. I was like, Oh, shit. Okay, I can see how this guy is moving. All right. He gave me all his records, but he sold the amplifier that he bought, because my other amplifier was in the shop. Yeah, I was like, Okay, I'm hooked the amplifier. I gave it to him. That's all he bought. I had the preamp still. And I had another amplifier in the shop. I just had to buy that same one back because it was a bigger model. It was had more wattage. Yeah. So I saved up for a couple of weeks. And I got all that back. That was no sweat off my back. But it's the way people were like, I learned from that day, don't let no one chip in for equipment. But at that time, I was like, Hey, you want to be down? You got to chip in you know, I mean,

so is that effectively kind of your sound system and crew,

right? So basically I paid for everything, I got my speaker's done myself, because I found the the cabinets were in an old club, and they were throwing the speakers out. So my a friend of mine took them out of the club and bring them to me, but there were 15 inch scoops. So I was like, damn, these speakers are so big, I can make them into 18. And I did I'm glad I did that. I threw some EVs in that bitch. The bass that came out of there was retarded. You know, the way that speakers were designed. The comedians have built that speaker and they did some ill shit to it. And then I had my man put in my my new Wolfers for 18 inches and he's, and he's secure them and he did a crossover and everything. So they were great speakers. So

how did you learn that kind of technical side of things?

Yeah. So were you just dt? Was it consistent? Sort of three days a week all through that period?

Oh, it could have been. It could have been but it wasn't all the time. It was like certain times of the year. You know what I mean? Right? Yeah.

So what was it like being around in New York when in the sort of early 80s When Hip Hop went global.

I mean, it was phenomenal. That time was like the best time ever. We all had a part in what we were doing. I believe I was always going out to to different clubs to different and also I was part of record pools back then too. So I will get all the new records and whatever records I didn't get, like from the club scene or whatever. I will find on my own. Like, every time I was just looking for new sounds, new sounds and new stuff to keep my DJing interesting. I was a mobile DJ never had a residency in a club ever. But I played in clubs, right? I played in clubs, I brand my records and played in clubs did special things with different people. But I never saw myself being trapped one place. I like to travel. Did

you kind of have a reputation as a DJ? For kind of the same sort of thing that you have in terms of the compilations? Was it like Danny's like a skillful guy but he's like, Well, you're playing things that were a bit different to everyone else at the time. Well,

it depends on the setup that I had was always to introduce new music with the old so like I would mix it up like new records with and these are old records by the way, these are not new. These are like records you know from the 70s and I was still playing that into the 80s but I will find newer stuff to go with. So I would I would do BPMs so let's say I'm walking on you know, assembly line by the Commodores. And I found something like in the 80s Let's say the funk is on I will play those back to back your Do you know those two records? No assembly line and the funk is owned by incident funk. They sound similar But I used to play those back to back, which was interesting because they were made it two different times. One was made in the 80s. One was made in the 70s. So it's clearly they, they probably the one in the 80s had the influence from the one that came out in the 70s, but it was two different records. So I would just beat match all my stuff. So I will play like an unknown record, and between those two, or right after those two, and then I will come in with something that's familiar, but I will keep it going. And then I play a couple of more that were, you know, like, what the hell was that? You'd never heard it, but they would jam into it, I will watch the reaction. As long as they were dancing and everything, and they didn't stop and look around. It was cool. Because I did that with a lot of records. And I will just play them the one time, because I always had new records to play. And the more popular records, you know, you had to play them. Like every time you do a party, if it was popular, you know what I'm saying? Like you had to throw that in rotation. But when it came to the break part of the of, of the gym, I would just play a lot of different records back to back. And that's what made me popular of playing different music. I will even have dance records and r&b records that were not from that country, which they I could have gotten something from England, you know. And I will get a lot of records from England back then. Because I stopped buying records in America for the reason why that they were making a lot of records on styrene. Yeah, especially on the 45. So I will order my records in England, France and in Germany over the phone and pay by credit card, and they'll mail me to records. So that's how I used to buy a lot of my records. And that was very important to me to get, you know, vinyl vinyl copies. Because I was buying these diary records and cutting them up and it would staticky as soon as you play him. I was like, why is the record sound like this? What was going on? And this man explained to me then I'm making it from vinyl. It's a styrene. It's, it's not made for you to be scratching and putting your fingers on it. I just so where can I get oh, you know, some vinyl copies of these records. It's like, you could mail order them from England and France or that cool. He ripped out this book. You wrote down some names of some record stores that carry records that I will call them up over the phone. Order my records and they will ship them to me. My mom used to let me use her credit card, which was very, very useful at the time. And I will give her the cash. Yeah, right then and there. As they charged you $79 For the records. He is $79 in cash. And then she will pay the bill. When when he came. Yeah. And that was it. I was like so I never old my mother no money. She was cool with it. And that's the way I rocked. And she would do it anytime from you.

when they first came out, did they did they just kind of blow up and just everyone had a pair and they were in the clubs and things like that? Not

yet. They weren't in clubs yet. I think I was the first ones. One of the first ones to ever have a pair. Yeah.

Crazy. Were you in the 80s? I appreciate I'm going kind of back and forth a bit here. Yeah. Did you at any point, you know, sort of in the mid 80s, when sampling was kind of getting bigger, you know, post Miley miles starting working and, and that sort of thing. Did you and the other guys in New York, we're still seeing kind of Clark and people like that and hip and each other up to records. And then were any of the producers coming to you guys for samples or anything.

That That didn't happen until like, the 90s. When producing started to get big in the late in the late 80s, early 90s. That's a that's when I stopped DJing and 87. And I started doing production. Right, but everybody was still secretive. No one came to each other. You know, I know if if they knew that if you were using some. It was about trying to who can get the record out first. Yeah. And those days, and then you have to scrap that idea if someone else used it. Because you didn't want to be a biter. No one bit back then you had to be original. You know, I'm saying but I didn't care. If Ben samples something I'm gonna sample it. Yeah, and use it my way. You know what I'm saying? I didn't care about that may have been super cool back then. Anyway, so it didn't matter. So I thought I liked his style of music that he produced with Molly, because he gave a lot of records to Malinois. Molly didn't have the records, because had the records, because

one of my friends said that he'd heard that you'd given bees the Freddy Scott record.

Yeah, I gave Freddy Scott and add the lead. Dorsey was supposed to produce that record for him in the studio. But he couldn't wait. He was impatient. I'll put those two together. And I chopped the Freddie Scott pianos on my keyboard. But I made it where you couldn't hear the drum brakes. So all you heard was like to the tune because I eacute it and it sounded very tinny. So I had it like what a lot of reverb stretching it out. So I had rain, boom, bam, boom, boom, bang, getting going. Boom, boom, during dang Dang. thing. They they, you know, I want to piece it together, dating dang Dang, dang dating ring. And then I would chop that up five different times. And I played it over the beat. And this was very crude. And then I, once I taped it all together, that I loop that whole thing. And all you heard was the drums and the piano together. Yeah. And I started off with a four bar drum break by itself. And then I let him hear it. But he couldn't loop it together. I said, No, I didn't loop it. On top of each other. I had to chop it. I was chopping it way before. People started chopping stuff. Like that was the only way it will work. Because the beats were clash. Freddie Scott was a little bit more faster. And that and so the drums on Lee Darcy were very hard. Because I had a different pressing of it. So it was really like, you know, I mean, that was a great. That was a great time, though. But he got into the studio. He had someone play it over, which was perfect. And that record was a monster hit. To this day, you could still play it.

Yeah, I mean, that that shows the quality of your ear. Yep. You know, piecing that together. And what that hit became, you know, in still is, yeah.

And then he had to take the record to study it. So he can make the lyrics. No, because the record is not named. You got what I need. It's just a friend. So he's talking about a girl he made a story about a girl. And then the hook was, you got what I need. And that that became a monster hit, because he signed a record. That's what made it even better. Because he tried to get all kinds of people to sing it. And they wouldn't do it. So he's like, I'm gonna do it myself. At that. That's what made the record special. him trying to sing. It made it a comedy, you know, kind of thing. And it was his heart bleeding out because of the story. And that's what made sense of why that record was made.

Yeah. Are we okay to just stay on base for a couple of minutes? Yeah. Yeah, like something that I noticed the other day when I was researching and I appreciate this is more of like a now thing is I was looking because I saw I was watching the video of you playing on PCs, seven inch technics. Oh,

yes. I'm the only DJ to have a DJ on them. But

that's crazy. No one

else was he willing to let no one else touch him.

Yes. And then I think that in the park video, the first one that came out

that he was doing the 210s Yeah, yeah. I was there that day, too. I was there that day. He was he was he was yelling at me. I was like, you'll play seven minutes a frog with the bongos. It's like I got you. And then and then he finally played

it. Yeah. So yeah. So I was looking at your Discogs then, and I couldn't find much on your production. I feel like your disk, the Discogs entry is just probably quite shallow. Right? Could you just talk a bit about your production? Well,

I did a lot of records that were just singles. So I did I'll record on select records that me and the female dream did on select it was a 12 inch. Then after that, I think I did a entice walk a little closer. I did do up in a bounce squad in the 90s Our bounce squad records is old white label with red

because what's what's the break that that's got the break

I took Louis Allen Tucson and I think I did another version of Have you got what I need on the other side and chop that up and use it and I did like the evil twins. These are records that I remember I did a bunch of other records that never really made it to vinyl. Right but but I did stuff in the studio and basically after the bounce squad man I kind of like dead at it with them because we we have big plans to do a very big project and it fell through and I got tired of it. So I did stuff with the with the evil twins. A group called footprints. And those were like my last final records I ever did far as wrapped production. Yeah. But I started getting into collecting a lot of weird records from the 80s into the 90s and I was like I'm sitting on all these records. I don't know where my mind is we'll just put them out on dusty fingers that's how I made that compilation series

had you been around Lou them when he was doing the ultimate breaks and beats? Yeah,

I've been there was I was around break be Lenny. Right. Break be Lenny was the original owner of the company. Lou just edit the records. Right. So I wasn't really around when he did that, because that was done in a studio. But I was Yeah, Lenny was my mentor. He taught me how to buy records. Like if you see 50 copies of the same record, buy them all. And I was like yeah, it makes sense. The two $4 might as well buy them and resell them for five hours each make my money back, you know, saying so make like 450 profit, you know, and if they buy doubles, you know, $10 you know, two for 10 You know, I was making my money back, you know $9 profit.

Well, you always very kind of careful about buying when you were buying secondhand records about buying really clean ones because everything I've heard that you've done sounds really clean. While the thing

So are all the dusty fingers then? Are they all? They all produce from vinyl copies? Most

of them? Yes. Some of them are not some of them were done from tapes, reel to reel tapes. Yeah. And some of them were from CDs, but I still had to master it. Yeah,

cuz Wait, how did you learn mastering? Because mastering is a serious dark art. Right?

Well, I mean, it's it's learning how the record would sound right. But louder and brighter, but without distortion. That's how I will master the record. And I would never use limiters or anything. i At first I was using that. But I stopped doing that. I wanted to make the record sound as natural as possible. But loud in your face. And I've recorded everything in waves and kept them as waves. I never did NP threes. Because that's what that's for kids. So I keep all my stuff at waves. And my stuff sounds incredible. Yeah. You know, and you know that from the records that I pressed?

Yeah, cuz this is the thing. I mean, I remember I would you get to

listen to the tape I sent you yesterday. Yeah. All that crazy. Uh, what? Really good. Listen to that. Listen to that again. And you see the quality on that? Well,

yeah, that's why I asked because I was thinking as well because I was listening to that and thinking about the quality of it. And thinking back to when I when I got the compilations I had a few of the dusty fingers, not all of them. But just thinking about that in comparison to other compilation series I've had. Right You know, they're really they're really nice. Quality compilations. Yeah. Did you? Did you run strictly breaks your label?

Strictly breaks was a label that my friend made up. Right? My part of that record label was I had strictly break 12 inch strictly drums dusty fingers and screw your breaks. Yeah, those were my records that he did double albums and and a strictly brace where he would name who would use it.

Yeah, that was

his thing. My partner's

blood said the jika collection and tribe collection. Oh,

yeah, that's all that's all his stuff that he made because I didn't like tell it on nobody. How was it? Yeah, I kept that a secret and plus, I knew everybody so that will be odd. So that's why I made dusty fingers as like, none of you knew about these records. I put them out. No one used them yet. And if you did use them. I just put it out. I didn't name nobody who used it. That was his gimmick. But that's so more records than my records. And he got all those, he hired me to do each and every one of those records. Because he had no records. So all of that's from my record collection.

Right? Cuz, like, what's, uh, what year? Did you start doing dusty fingers?

I started in 96. Right? And the first one dropped the 97.

So then how many year were you doing? Because there's, there's quite a few volumes as

well. There's this one through 17 on vinyl. Yeah. And I have 18 through 95. Digital. Yeah. Okay. So I sold those digital, and I emailed them to my customers will buy them. Now I sell it as not as a compilation. That it's only from my record collection that I put together these records. So it's my record collection. I branded as dusty fingers at school yard rates, and sold treats. And that's from my record collection. And if you want to buy my record school, it's my records I pay for, and I'm selling them. They're not online, you got to get them from me direct. And I email you them. And you know, you buy as many as you want. And I'll give me a good deal. And that's it. Yeah.

So with with the dusty fingers, because give given the sort of impact that they've had. We how many were you kind of pressing of each of each? Volume? What

Yeah. And it's nice that they're it's nice that they're on 12 inches. Well. Yeah, they were cool, you know to have on 12 Yeah, like the two series kind of have very different jobs to do, don't they? Yeah,

yeah. Because it's like, that's the stuff that I grew up with. Yeah. And the dusty fingers was more world wide world because of my mother's influence. My father's influence in Spanish music. My cousin with the Spanish my mother with the Brazilian to tie in in English and records from Paris she had my mother listened to everything. So did

she was she kind of upon library music early because there's a lot of library music isn't there in the dusty thing?

cuz that's, I mean, that's, that's kind of early on the library records, isn't it? Yeah.

I mean, there's so much sample fodder on them. But the other thing about them is and I think what makes the dusty fingers compilation series so good, is that I think the thing is with with something that's a good sample quite often a good samples two seconds of a song that's not very exciting. But I think what you what you tend to find with your compilations is that they're good samples, but also good songs. Correct.

I try to find something that's nice for the listener. Yeah. Nice for the people who sample and nice for the DJ it's all around package. So that's the type of records I try to put out.

Yeah, cuz I suppose with with the mixes the dusty fingers mixes that you've done they they kind of highlight that. Although these are really nice, smooth songs, a lot of this stuff can be caught up in like breaks tapes as well.

Never heard my first one.

It's crazy. It's crazy. Yeah. When I heard that mix, so because because what was mad with that I thought was, although it was just the things it didn't have any of the brakes off the dusty fingers that I had. But it's still got the energy. Yeah,

I was totally different records. On the second one. I threw a couple of what I put out on the album's but it was I played them. I didn't cut them up. Yeah, those were very in the beginning, then I didn't I had a slew of records that you never heard before. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? And so I tried to make it interesting. On the first one was like nothing that was on the dusty fingers. I might have put it out later on. On my other volumes, yeah, because I will leak certain ones out. But some of them I don't leak out at all. Whatever I use for the mixes for the mix, that's why a lot of people go yo, your mixes are crazy, because none of the stuff you did on your series were on the mixes. I was like why would I do that? You already heard what I had on the album's I'm gonna give you something totally different. Yeah, I mean, that's the way I get down, you know,

set. Do you get any producers coming to you to try and get the light? Danny? Yeah, of course you got anything that's not been out?

Yeah, a few people. I'm not going to name names that came to me from music. And they buy my book, they buy my new stuff. And they're always interested in learning about new music. So they come to me and they know, even if they got the record mine sound much better because I curate my records. Yes, sound the best I can. You know, and that's what it is, you know, I mean, I love doing what I do, and preserving music. That's my thing. You know, and I love music so much that I have to make sure it's nice and clean for me to enjoy it. And and for the consumer to buy records that I that I do. They have no complaints. Yeah, yeah, everything sounds good. You know, and it sounds right. You know, and again, if you're a real producer, you know what to do with these records. Yeah, even if you don't use them, it can spoil an idea for you to go to the studio and instruct people who know how to play instruments to kind of do that sound without you even having to pay for a sample. Well, this

is something I was going to mention because you didn't you've got the project haven't even the like reap replayed breaks projects. I can't remember the name of it right now. Yeah,

it was called the dusty fingers orchestra. Yeah. Because

is, is one of the first songs on Volume Two, a dusty fingers orchestral one.

No, that is a by another group. Out of Paris. they remade the Brian Bennett saw, yes, fulfils this. I don't do replays, I make up my own music. Right. So on my album that I've done. It was done with me listening to certain stuff and, and getting ideas from certain stuff, but making my own music. And that's called the dusty fingers orchestra. You could look that up. I did 240 fives, and one lp. And I'm about to drop a new LP. As soon as I get some money to do it, because it's going to be very expensive. I'm going to need at least $3,000 to do that. Yeah. You know, I'm saying that's hardcore cash, you know? And I don't know when I'm going to do it. But when I get the money, I'll do it. And I could go on from there, you understand? Yeah. But that's a that's going to be a project that's, it's going to be 45 based only on my doing LPS no more. nice and solid, do a double 45

Oh, nice.

it's crazy. It's crazy. And I think with sampling now, as well, you get a lot more say like the alchemist stuff. Yeah. And other producers like that, where people are just letting the samples breathe. Right.

But it doesn't matter, man, as long as you got a good sample, and you make a good song from it. That's what counts. Yeah, 100%,

you know, I'm

saying I mean, J Dilla. All these audio producers know and use my stuff, you know, saying? They might not admit it, but I'm pretty sure they listened and bought my records. If you're not into music, that way, you would never know about my records. Yeah. So if you got to be really into music, really get to production. And my record was there at the time where you will have to buy it because it was one of the illest records you could buy for the price. You know what I mean? Yeah,

I went in, I went into this record shop. And I was I think I must have just got upon I think I was went in and I was like I want something a bit like Angela by Bob James. Right. And the guy mark in the shop was like, You need to try these. And he got me into the dusty fingers. And as soon as I got them, my mind was blown.

See, a lot of people at first didn't know what they were. Yeah.

I think it's a it's a gateway and an education to the in black introduces people to the world of library

and, and world music. Yeah, it was just just library records. But it was a that was an intricate part of it. But it was more than just a library record. It was the you know, prog rock, funk and soul. Jazz, you know, and rare records that are hard to get? Yeah.

100% So if you stop DJing sort of late 80s When you you kind of put all your energy into the production. Yeah, when did DJ When did DJing come back in for you?

So was was the kind of weird coming back or if you always stayed or vinyl, or did you go on to Serato? No,

You had to have everything instantly, then. Yeah, that was cool.

And then if you had, but a lot of guys. They downloaded their files. Yeah. I was already headed a game. I didn't download my files. I painlessly, stinking, played one record at a time into the computer and made it into a file. Which a lot of DJs were not doing that. They weren't doing that at all.

Particularly in the early days. Yeah, you got some really low bitrate. mp3. Yeah,

to D generally, when you DJ out now, would you genuinely go digital?

I do both. I do 40, fives and digital. So I still use vinyl. You know, I'm saying, I do both. Because if they're not paying me a lot of money, I'll come there do digital. If you're going to pay me some extra for the vinyl, I'll gladly go there with vinyl. Yeah. And that's it. But that's, that's more money. And that's the end of that. And I rarely do those. But when I do my own thing with my peoples, and we're gonna do vinyl, we'll do vinyl.

So do you still get to DJ out with the same kind of guys you've always played with over the years,

just, sadly, only one. The rest of the guys that I used to DJ with, they either got married. They're in two different things. They don't DJ no more. And they gave it up. Yeah. My other partner, he's married, got kids and everything. But he's still like to DJ. So I hooked him up with a bunch of stuff. So it's all digital now. But you could still DJ. You know what I mean? Which is cool. Yeah.

Well, the way I do it, I still go out and dig for records. So I go to charity shops, flea markets, record shows, and record stores that are still around, you know, I'm saying, and I look for records. Because, and if I can't find it, I have record deals all over the world. So if I'm looking for a particular record, like a Japanese artist, or whatever, I have my Japanese connection. I have my French Connection, I have my English connection, and I have my German colonic connection.

Wait, how did you how did you build that network? Um,

I've been I've been doing this through for so many years, I meet people. And, and I've been to the stores myself. So I'll call people up. You know, I try to not, you know, have myself shot because people will always like, Oh, that's such and such. And over price records to me, you know? So, and I've been through that bullshit. I'm like, Man, I'll send someone that that's like, what titles and they'll send me the record, they'll buy the record for me. And I send them the money and PayPal. That's the best way to do it. But when I'm digging around, like certain areas in the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, or Brooklyn, in New York, I know certain spots I go dig through, you know what I mean? They know of me, but they don't know what I do. But if I sell them records, they know automatic Yeah. But I have certain shops that I don't deal with people like that. I just walk in, do what I do, and and whatever I find, you know, I spend the money on it. And it's you know, it's cheap records. I'm not spending a lot of money on the record. So if I come up with something dope, you know, to me, every record could be usable. Even if it's just a snare. Yeah, or a hi hat or something. So I listened for everything. And I don't take manuscript on God not in on it. You know, if it's totally like, I don't really like it or whatever. Then I put it to the side and I bring it down to a charity shop and just give it to them.

So they can sell it. It doesn't matter. Do

you? Do you have a process for listening through cuz I know like with Diller it was that he'd cleaned his studio while listening to the new records he'd got. Is there something you do when you go through? Or do you just literally sit and concentrate? And

yeah, I do that. I just sit there, put the headphones on. And I listen, I skim through the record at first. Yeah, if I hear something interesting. I just let the record rock from beginning to end. And then I just skipped through it. By here's something that's dope. I'm going to use it for something recorded. And that's it. If it's if it's something that's interesting, like multiple tracks on there, that's interesting. I'll record the whole album. Yeah. And I'll save that I'll take a picture of the cover and. And that's it, boom.

Because I think that's what I do, like I'll skip through, but I probably skip through a bit too quickly. And it might be that I missed some absolute gold. But then it's having the right ear for it, isn't it? And what will you you know,

what soon as the track starts, but then again, a record could change in the incident.

Yeah, particularly in like the Prague and stuff like that, right.

So like, I'll listen to a few seconds of it, and I just keep going, then I go there, and I might hear something, I go back, like all that still. And I just keep going through it. You know, this is how I do it. I just go like this. And I just go through the whole record. Boom. Oh, two, I hear something that I like. And I have a good ear. I think so. My ears just like on tune for what I'm looking for.

Yeah, I think you just what you understand is kind of the level of accessibility with music. Because when you're dealing with jazz with prog, things like that. There's a really fine line between things that are comfortable and easy to digest and write things that are just a little bit

weird and bizarre. Yeah. And noisy. It has to have a perfect balance where you know, where it's soothing, but yet dope and funky, it has to be funky. You know what I mean? To me? That's the only way I would I would really listen to you know, as a DJ, to play to play a record out. Yeah,

that's amazing. Danny. Yes. I think that brings us up to date, then. So is there anything else that you want to mention beyond just kind of will reiterate about your socials, and I'll add them into the notes. And just basically, if people can support you, find your compilations get in touch with you. Because there's absolute gold on there. I

mean, yeah, just come to my page, you know, like, Instagram Beat, beat man 24/7 beats, or leave a link and, you know, the other video and just give me a DM, and I'll take care of you, whatever you looking for. On my series. Brilliant. Facebook is Danny man, you can leave me a message. And I'll get back to you. And, you know, I'll, I'll definitely, you know, find some stuff for you. If you want to hear some mixes I got him, you know.

And you've got the band camp as well. Haven't you with with some of the mixes on? Yeah,

the band camp, but I don't really, I really don't promote it as much. You know what I mean, people will know about it, they know about it. But I haven't updated whatever's there. Is there?

Yeah, I think it's I think with the band camp, it's just a good way for people to kind of if they're not up on what you do, it's a good kind of way for them to kind of get a quick Yeah, a quick lesson. Exactly.

Yeah, definitely. But there's certain there's certain mixes I do not put up there. You could get them directly from me. So yeah. And I will be making some more soon. So definitely, you know, be on the lookout for that. But it was good talking to you.

Likewise, and I really appreciate your time today. And definitely like I mentioned to you before, I think what you've done for DJ and what you've done for hip hop is massive. So it's a huge honour to have you on. And then to get into some of your story.

I appreciate it.

Thanks for listening to the one to DJ podcast. If you've got any questions or feedback or any suggestions for guests, please just get in touch with us. Once a DJ podcast@gmail.com or on Instagram at once a DJ podcast. Take care. We'll speak to you soon. That was nice.