Words-Art Jefferson
Photography-Chrystal Mafia and Lena Balabuskina
People know the work of Danny Berman through two possible avenues. One route would be under the moniker Hot Coins, the producer whose notorious soul and disco reworks gained large support during the early 2000’s and later during the whole disco re-edit explosion. The other possible entry point is under his Red Rack’em name in which he’s delivered Hip-Hop inspired beats, electronica and house music as well as introducing the world to his ‘Smuggler’s Inn’ platform. No matter the name, you’ve at some point in time head nodded or danced to the Scotland born producer’s music. Having gained support over the years from heavyweights ranging from Gilles Peterson to Carl Craig on down to Mary Anne Hobbs, Red Rack’em’s resume also includes remixes for Tricky, The Revenge, Zed Bias, Jazzanova and a slew acts spanning multiple genres. Along with starting his Bergerac label, he released his debut album “The Early Years” in 2010, which further demonstrated his mastery of deep house, nu jazz, broken beat, twisted funk and chilled beats. After performing large scale festivals such as Glastonbury, Garden Festival, The Big Chill and numerous shows in various countries, Berman packed his bags, leaving the UK and relocated to Berlin, Germany in 2011. Without much of a break, the producer dropped material on Ramp Recordings and his Hot Coins album “The Damage is Done” on Sonar Kollectiv in 2012. With a dedication to constantly progressing as an artist, Danny Berman has assembled the Hot Coins band where he now incorporates live playing in his shows. Although maintaining a hectic schedule, he also produces his Smugglers Inn radio show, conducting interviews and featuring cutting edge DJs and producers. With dates booked globally as well as playing the upcoming The Garden Festival in Croatia, no matter which moniker you see him under, a few things are certain; you are guaranteed to get high quality music, an exceptional performance and an amazing experience.
AJ-Before you were releasing records such as “The Laissez Faire” and “Valiant Truth”, I can remember when your edits were getting played in the early 2000’s. But I read that you actually began DJing in the early 90s. Were you delving into house and classics back then?
RRE-Not really. When I started DJing I was mainly into Hip-Hop, funk and drum and bass. Student music I guess! House was more popular with people in their 30s and I was 18 and living in a Scottish fishing village and then moved to Edinburgh. I had a pretty narrow record collection until around 2000 when I actually started earning money as a DJ. I really loved the French house sound from the mid to late 90s so my house collection was mainly French stuff like Motorbass, Super Discount, Cassius, DJ Gregory etc. in my early years of playing house. I also liked 2 Lone Swordsmen a lot I remember. I was a keen listener and dancer to ‘deep house’ (before it became a cliché) from the mid to late 90s but I was mainly buying drum and bass and Hip-Hop as I was more of a scratch DJ then.
The edits thing is actually a tag which stuck for a long time. I only released 2 disco edit twelves as Hot Coins in 2005. I think the remix I did of ‘Stand On The Word’ by the Joubert Singers in 2009 cemented my place in the nether regions of the UK disco edit boom. Can I just say that it’s not an edit (laughter) it’s a REMIX. I wrote a whole new track and sampled the original.
AJ-Judging by your releases, is it fair to say that the ‘Red Rack‘em’ moniker is more of your house production and ‘Hot Coins’ is the disco and funk side? Also, because you’re able to produce such a wide array of music, is that one of the reasons for the various monikers?
RRE-Yeah that’s totally correct. I am unable to sustain my interest in one style of music for more than a few months both as a producer and DJ. It would be great to build up an audience making loads of different types of music under one name but I have found that people tend to be quite territorial about whatever scene they are digging. I am grateful that my music appeals to people who have a broader taste in music as they are coming from the same place as me and often have similar reference points. I have chosen a longer road but I think it’s a more artistically satisfying one.
Red Rack’em is more club music. As Red Rack’em I have made Hip-Hop, house, beatdown, techno, UK funky and garage style stuff. Hot Coins is much more centred around live music that takes in disco, electro, funk, EBM, new wave etc. Hot Coins has now developed into a proper live band which is amazing progress from those initial disco edits in 2005 which I am still slightly ashamed of. Still you have to start somewhere eh.
AJ-You recently released “The Damage is Done” on Sonar Kollektiv which on one hand sounds like a soundtrack to a long, wild night of partying yet on the other hand, seems to represent someone who is an underdog. What was the inspiration behind the album?
RRE-The album is inspired by the duplicity of partying. On the one hand you have the ‘sexy’ club scene, full of scantily clad women, mysterious men, amazing music and drugs which enable you to live the dream every weekend. On the other hand you have a load of lonely people who can’t settle down and have a real relationship, self medicating to paper over the emotional cracks in their lives, to cover up the hollow feeling of ‘is this it?’.
Who’s there for you when the parties over? If you’re single and in the more extreme end of the party scene, there can be some pretty harrowing, lonely moments. The music on the album is quite representative of the fun side. It’s funky, celebratory, jaunty and a bit dark and twisted at times. But when I was writing the lyrics, I was processing a lot of my feelings about how I was living my life. ‘When does enough feel enough?’ ‘Crash and burn every night’. Geek emotions are emotions never felt by those who chose to win and never had a doubt. So it came out quite dark and introspective. I want to say a big sorry to everyone who wanted me to write some plastic happy shit but life isn’t like that and I wanted to make this a diary entry for the way a lot of people I know are living right now. I am not knocking partying but it’s being driven by something and the relentless nature in which people live their lives these days is something we need to come to terms with. Doing Bikram yoga and smashing it up every weekend is not a balance.
I have always cast myself as an underdog, which is a load of crap if you look at the facts. My life has been really good actually but I think the emotional turmoil I have often found myself in has created a kind of fantasy that there’s ‘another’ life out there for me where I am more confident, stronger and make less mistakes. I am also driven by my self-appointed outsider status. It’s quite motivating to rail against something. Just look at all the activists out there. How do you think they stay sane during their 9-5 each week?
AJ-You’re currently living in Berlin. Do you feel that moving to Germany has allowed you to spread your musical wings even more than back in the UK?
RRE-The big thing for me (and many others living in Berlin) is that it buys you time. This can be used in positive and negative ways. I feel like I have more time to make my own way in music and I don’t think I would have been able to put together such an amazing band so easily in the UK. The lack of financial pressure means that people are able to work for more of an artistic reason than a financial one, which does free up your creativity a bit more. But I also feel quite lazy a lot of the time. It’s hard to motivate yourself when you live in a beautiful capital city and the sun is shining outside! I worked hard for 10 years to get here though so maybe I should be allowed to have a more peaceful pace of life.
I wouldn’t say my taste has been broadened by coming here. They have probably gotten more narrowed in some ways. I think my appreciation of techno has certainly increased. I know it may sound like a bit of a lazy stereotype but the city’s pulse really is a kick drum and I think the omnipresence of techno and house here had reawakened my interest in more banging forms of music. It’s also made me crave soulful music again as a reaction against all the pounding music I have heard. Most of my friends are into pretty different strands of dance music so it’s really nice to live somewhere where everyone is having a passionate affair with their own taste in music. I do often have the feeling that I have heard it all before though. The 90s house revival is really fascinating to some people here. People are very passionate about deep house too. As someone who was there the first time around, I do sometimes miss the more UK style of things being chucked together in one set. There are nights here playing just about every type of club music of course but I haven’t found one that manages to fit them all under one roof yet.
I would say that I maybe stick out a bit more here as a DJ because I play quite rough. I like to bang tunes in. I don’t really fade in much anymore. I have really enjoyed the impact you can have here by playing quite a few styles in one set. It depends on how open the crowd is of course but on a good day in the right club, I would say Berlin is the best place to play in the world.
AJ-You have always been quite an eclectic producer. What sounds or genres have you been enjoying these days?
RRE-I have had to do quite a few Hot Coins DJ mixes to promote the album so I have really enjoyed listening to/playing loads of 80s stuff like Nitzer Ebb, Yello, Cabaret Voltaire, Eurythmics, Heaven 17. I have also been enjoying listening to DJ mixes on http://www.testpressing.org. The best indicator of what I am enjoying is to check out my Smugglers Inn radio show which can be downloaded/streamed at http://www.redrackem.com or search itunes shop for ‘smugglers inn’.
AJ-Can we expect any upcoming releases on your Bergerac label?
RRE-I recently released the debut EP from a very exciting techno producer called Seetheroad. That was the first release on the label by another artist. I am preparing another EP for Bergerac myself but I can’t decide what to put on it. I have got loads of cool new tunes to put out by me but I haven’t heard much by anyone else which I felt fitted into the label aesthetic. I like to keep it chilled with Bergerac – it’s nice to put special records out rather than release substandard stuff just for the sake of building a catalogue.
The next Hot Coins single “New Beat” is out soon and features an outstanding remix by Ron Basejam as well as a dance floor smasher remix of “Freestyle Lover” by Iron Curtis, so I can’t wait until that comes out as it’s really strong.
I am also really excited about releasing “In Love Again 2013”, which I have been testing out at recent gigs. It will be making an appearance soon I think. The original was one of my most popular tracks ever and I decided to revisit it recently and raise the tempo so it’s now 122 BPM. If you want a preview it’s the last track on my recent Boiler Room mix – http://boilerroom.tv/hot-coins-55-min-mix/. I am also looking forward to the next Smugglers Inn release which features Roman Rauch, Dragon, Ajukaja and Bartellow. This will be out in April.
AJ-Finally, I know that you’re playing at The Garden Festival in Croatia this year, which must be exciting. What can fans look forward to at the show?
RRE-It’s really exciting to return to the Garden Festival with a full live band to perform songs from an album that I wrote on my own without any idea that it would get to this level. I played there 3 times in 2010 and each gig was a uniquely enjoyable experience so it’s great to be playing on the main stage on one of the best nights at the festival. It feels like a dream come true.
The Hot Coins album launch party was at Wilde Renate in Berlin in February and it was the bands live debut. I am pleased to say it was a total success with a sold out, rammed club dancing all the way through our set. That was the first time I had ever sung in public with a band and it was such a positive experience so I am really looking forward to the Garden Festival in July.
We will be playing 8 tracks from the album plus a cheeky cover or 2 and we will definitely have some new material by then as well as I am hard at work writing the next album. We’re going to start demoing the new tracks in April so it’s going to be great to introduce some new tracks in the set. Funny as the album has only been out for a couple of months and we’ve only played one live show so far, and we’re already starting on the next album. It’s good to keep things moving.
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