Layo: You've Got to Live and Take a Few Calculated Risks
Author: Jonty Adderley
Sunday, September 22, 2002
"It is very bad there but it's like when you visit Israel," said Layo, on DJing there two weeks ago.
"The problems are concentrated in very small sections of society and areas but the media presents it as though the whole country is that bad. Yes, of course, there's terrible crime as a result of the poverty in Argentina but the people I spoke to were looking at the situation with a degree of positivity. The country was very corrupt and maybe these problems will once and for all rid the country of that corruption. Obviously I'd be wary about where I went but you can get mugged and stabbed walking down the road in London. You've got to live and take a few calculated risks. I'm not going to curtail my life because there are a few bad people out there."
As well as regularly DJing and touring the world with Bushwacka, Layo also co-owns London nightclub The End, which was where he chatted to Skrufff's Jonty Adderley.
Skrufff: Just three months ago you played your first live dates as Layo & Bushwacka, how much do you see yourselves as a proper band now-
Layo: "They were just festival dates. I wouldn't say we definitely see ourselves as a live band just yet because it's still too early, we've only done about nine shows, though we do see ourselves to have the ability to be live artists."
Skrufff: Your new album Night Works has been out for a few weeks now, how's the reaction matched your expectations-
Layo: "Erm, I'm pleased though obviously when you release an album you're very nervous about the reaction, since you live and die by its success, as an artist. That might be putting it a little extremely but it makes a huge difference if it goes well or not. It's been very well received overall, it's had very good critical reviews and is selling well. I try and disassociate myself from it as much as possible though in as much as I try to make the music and be happy with what I've done then try to be as immune as possible to the highs and lows of release. Otherwise you become like a reed in the wind; some days you're really happy, then others really sad. That's an ideal, though overall I'm pretty happy."
Skrufff: Is it true that you first met Bishwacka through raves-
Layo: "We formally met through Mr C when Mathew was working at Mr C's studio about eight year ago. I was setting up The End with Mr C while Matthew was his sound engineer at his label. I'd just started making my own music at that point."
Skrufff: We're you an original raver at the Clink Street parties-
Layo: "Yes, and that's how I first met Mr C. I was 17 at the time."
Skrufff: Do you still have vivid memories of those early raves-
Layo: "Funnily enough, I have more vivid memories of those parties than I do for some of the years that followed because I think the early years were more life changing for me. They were so different to what had been going on in my life before, then the years after that, the parties seemed to merge and become more of a blur, in memory terms."
Skrufff: Did you go through that whole rave cliche vibe of thinking the world will never be the same again-
Layo: "To be honest, I never thought it would last or that I would be as involved as I am today. I loved it but I always saw it as something that would just be about a period of my life rather than anything else. If you'd told me then that I'd one day be 30 years old, still being involved in dance music and getting so much out of it, I would have laughed at you."
Skrufff: how do you think a 17 year old coming into the scene today will see clubbing-
Layo: "I th Tags