AIL Talks to True South's Tim Sheridan

AIL talks to Tim Sheridan about his latest Brixton party, True South and gets a genuinely fascinating account of making records as a form of advertising yourself, the importance of the crowd and the entire state of the industry.
AIL Talks to True South's Tim Sheridan picture

Ahead of the launch of new night True South, which debuts at Brixton’s Jam this Saturday March 23, we talk to dance music iconoclast, Tim Sheridan.

Hi Tim, we'll dive right in to the questions if you don't mind. With all areas of your life in the music industry, it is the music that has come first for you. However with the successes of you as an artist, promoter and now very much label boss, do you see yourself now more focussed on one area?

Things have changed so much so quickly in the last, say... 5 years? If I had to answer that very honestly and bluntly I'd say no matter whom you are you end up focusing on the elements that pay the bills. I was a musician and by that I mean someone who played the drums professionally but eventually drum machines came. Then I was in various bands until technology meant I could become an engineer and producer. Then 'producer' became a word for kind of what I did previously as a musician. Then the entire band thing became less viable than one guy and a record box. I mean, I was always a DJ but in the sense of playing records after gigs in the 80s and not getting paid.

Then one day it was my living and you barely notice 'cos the transition is so slow. For the longest time my main income was making records. Now I'll likely never make a living from it again. It's almost become an expensive advert for the other elements, almost like an audio flyer. So you see the focus shifts constantly. It's now very much multi-discipline and if you don't bend and flow you will be left in the dust. The short answer is "no" haha…

Do you have a preferred role or an area of your work that gives you most satisfaction?

I think "satisfaction" is an important word and I often say that I'll take satisfaction over happiness any day! I don't mean I want to be miserable but happiness is by definition fleeting. Transient. Satisfaction is a longer, more sustained note. I get off on DJing. Anyone who performs to people for a living is hooked and they are full of it if they say different haha. But it is very wearing. In the Rock side of the game the 'artist' is very much a performer and is quite coddled and kind of wheeled around, plonked on stage and wheeled off. I'm a sort of cottage industry and while I have been part of the industry machine in the past, now I do pretty much everything. A sort of reverse industrial revolution has happened. People have migrated away from the factory and office and weave at home haha. I guess I'm trying to say that the whole 'DJ-as-one-man-party' thing is long gone. The satisfaction... and I'm going to sound melodramatic here... is still being alive and taking care of biz.

Your label VVWI is now over 8 years old and has more than stood the test of time as you continue to deliver quality underground music. Is there a particular ethos you work to within the label?

It's funny when you get older time just wobbles about like a big suit on a small man and stops making sense. To me it's just part of a 30-year journey. Different name, same idiot, haha. I mean the ethos is usually an extension of the personality driving it. From the corner shop owner to Steve Jobs... I do always very much avoid fads and genres. There is a unity to our catalogue but I imagine perhaps I'm the only one who sees it haha.

Is there any particular release for whatever reason, you are especially proud of?

You know I've never been asked that! How odd. Not being sarcastic at all. Never been asked. It's a bit like saying one of your kids is better than the other. It's a tricky one but I'll try. You get some releases that do so much better than the others. We’re good at catching people just before they become huge. Shit at holding on to them after haha. Max Cooper was a great example. He's a techno colossus now and I doubt I could get him to answer an email never mind record with us. But you do feel a validation that you knew it before everyone else. I'm very proud of Spektre. We 'broke' them for want of a better word. Their album recorded by us live at Glade is timeless. Great driving to that album - I’m like a proper techno Clarkson!

My own pride is maybe in the one I did with the late and very loved Martin Dawson. I don't want to get all mawkish but long before he was sat beside Giles Smith from Secretsundaze and was doing Two Armadillos we did some work together and I think it's my best work because it was quick and natural and intuitive. Martin was starting piano lessons and I was sort of taking the piss saying "ah yes D minor, saddest of keys" etc and he recorded it and I was actually talking and playing and sort of showing off how to structure things using the tonic and harmonising outwards. Real muso stuff haha. Then Martin just whopped some stonking drums out and I swear it took one day. Just a day. A great day. And it's a quite emotional piece (The Ghosts That Live in Her) and now he has passed away it seems even more affecting. I mean I can't listen to it now I get upset. Yeah perhaps that is what I am proud of. Not success or anything but a good memory like that. He was one of the best of us.

You have managed to create some incredible parties over the years across both the UK and Ibiza and have witnessed some of the finest underground artists play. Is there any DJ or artist in particular that has amazed you with their set, be it creatively or how the club has reacted to them?

You know I'm maybe the wrong person to ask. I am very hard to impress cos part of me is like "it's just playing records" and I truly believe the DJ is just a part of it. The crowd is far FAR more important. A great party is location, tech/production, music (from more than one DJ) and most importantly the crowd. I disagree also that the club reacts to the DJ. It's the other way around. A pro DJ doesn't have anything set up. No "set". I hate the inflexibility of that word.

I once saw Derrick Carter about 20 years ago at Back to Basics do his thing with someone else's records cos his were lost by the airline. I think it was Ralph Lawson's. And during it Ralph was like "I didn't even know I had that tune!" A good DJ just adapts and reflects. You can only be ready, not 'prepared'. How can you know anything in advance about a dynamic fluid system like 1000 people? No science exists for that shit haha. I'll tell you some great moments though. Danny Tenaglia and Alfredo. Playing back to back with both of them at different times on the Space Terrace was awesome, a true once in a lifetime thing. I was one of the honoured few at the last session at The End.

With clubs across the globe playing host to your VeryVeryWrongIndeed and NastyDirtySexMusic parties, is there any club that has truly felt like home for your events?

This is a hard one. You have to understand both were born in Ibiza and both were free parties. I mean there were years of carrying speakers and paying off dodgy people and destroyed turntables and warehouses and beaches and quarries and, well, you get the drift. Every single major East End warehouse space has a party in it now? We were there a long time ago. The toughness with this question is there is always a friction with venues. For me it was nearly always about money versus ethos. We were a free party and had a strong community following us. The club wanted cash money. We wanted a large guest list, they didn't. We wanted giveaways and open booths, they didn’t.

The main thing as well is that you go into a venue and you both work to really build it up but quite quickly - after a raft of success - the venue forgets how the peak started and the concessions they gave begin to disappear. Then one Monday your inbox is rammed with people saying "you put me on the list but when I got there they closed it and charged me" and the venue is doing that on the sly. Like in TV phone-ins when they leave the premium line open even after there’s a winner. It's not just wrong, it's a break of trust. I could go on all day. Sorry. It's as old as time. Commerce versus whatever. Actually, yeah, you know we do have a home. A little beach bar in Ibiza called "Ciao Rosina" named after the Italian owner's mum when she died. On Talamanca beach. That was home or maybe more like the source of a river? It's gone now but... truly the happiest times. Nice.

In London, there are great memories (if somewhat blurred) for me of VVWI at Turnmills. Just recently there have been pictures passing across social media of the demolition of the site causing some nostalgia amongst clubbers. Although it is always sad to see venues go, do you think the closure of some of the larger venues like Turnmills, The Cross etc has breathed new life into London nightlife as people have had to get more creative?

It's such a big topic and it's really relative. I mean for the up and comers and the Facebook promoters it is a time of plenty. For the big dogs it's a drought. Yes the venue thing has impacted on things greatly. I'd say explicitly though there are defo more promoters, DJs and punters than viable space and that is hard to work in. Maybe it's separating the wheat from the chaff, I don’t know.

For me the turning point was working at Matter. I mean, talk about the Titanic. It had so much going for it but was almost a metaphor for the change. I mean it nearly ruined me and others. Mainly thanks to London Underground. This isn't America, if they decide (often the same day) to shut down the only viable method of transport you can't sue them. You just lose. And on that topic this was interesting. I was in talks with a very large German agent and she represented a very large act. They were booked for us after finally FINALLY getting free of the Fabric embargo on them. So after they were booked she calls and to cut a long story short tells me things have changed and they now cost more. A lot more. After a long chat it boiled down to me saying "look, let me get this clear... are you saying that because they are working less often, your response to that is to charge more??" and she said, "yes". This just writ large something so very wrong about everything never mind the biz I'm in. The correct response is to flex, come down, and meet the new line even just for a time. It's the big dogs of all industries being greedy and inflexible who are killing things.

People don't realise but that is why my thing is called VVWI. We always wanted to try and be an antidote to that. Especially after fighting for so long with some of the biggest clubs to be a bit more punter-friendly. Anyway... you've got me started now I'd best stop haha.

For your newest party, True South, you have chosen to host at Jamm in Brixton. Is there any particular reason for this as the size and location are certainly not the obvious choices on the surface?

Location is about being local. Myself and David Minns (co-promoter) and most of the guests are all Brixtonian. That is what it's about. It's kind of two fingers up to the hipsters and saying "look, all you have to do is get killer DJs, it doesn't matter if it's in a skip in Haggerston" haha. You hit it on the head. Not obvious. By my reckoning you can spend nearly £100 travelling from South to East these days.

The line up for the launch of True South is class! You have some great guests in Rocky (X-Press 2), Frank Tope and Colin Dale amongst others. This looks to offer quite a diverse sound when you include yourself in the equation, is this something that we will come to expect from this new night?

Well spotted! Yeah, I mean it's entirely about that. London is a big old town and you'd be surprised how many DJs are living south or from the south. The only dilemma is letting people know. The thing about the East now is in a sense people associate it with going out so they can actually rock up there with no real plan and just mince about looking for something 'hip'. You have to plan to come to us. I like that. Strictly not for tourists innit, haha.

For me it's about intent. Don't get me wrong, I mean, I'm off to see Trouble Funk tonight then Aybee at Dance Tunnel in Dalston with the Thunder crew. But I know what I'm after. Am I making sense? The bar is lowered by venues knowing there is walk up, putting on Johnny Laptop or USB McGee playing stuff they Shazam'd then Spotify'd or Beatported. And you know what? Fair play to both them and the people who are ok with that. They are not our people. We want people who see a line-up like ours and know exactly what it means. It is a statement because each of those names is a headliner alone. We are all 20+ years in men. You don't get to still be around after 20 odd years if you aren't very good at it. Most don't last 2 years. And if you think well they are all "old" then wow you are right. We are! Proud of it. It's not policy. Future guests don't need an OAP bus pass haha. We are only booking the best. Age doesn't come into it but you know... it's a factor.

You have been a key player on the scene for a fare while, from your days with Utah Saints, running Kiss FM up north, dashing about London, Ibiza and all over the place, your label etc. I hear this experience is being utilised by the BBC. Can you tell us more about this?

Haha! That makes me sound well important rather than unemployable and fickle which is more like it haha. Well we've now gone independent since last week but yeah... making a documentary about Ibiza. And by that I mean the history of it more than anything to do with discos. That is a part but you know... if the history of Ibiza was a clock face then clubs appeared at 11.57, know what I mean? There wasn't even an airport till the late 70's. My mate Gordon who has another documentary about to drop about Acid House called "They Call it Acid" is looking at the footage I shot as we speak actually.

You spent quite some time in Ibiza but returned a while back for various reasons. Are you now in London for the foreseeable future?

I'd still be there but my old folks are getting on. I'm the eldest so I had to. I mean, what have they ever done for me?! haha. It's a pleasure to hang out with your folks when you’re a bit older and they’re retired and starting to have fun, finally. So came back and I did a couple of years in the Yorkshire Dales with them, coincidentally just as the internet was smashing things to tiny bits. It's all very well poncing around on a horse when the industry is shambling about like the Thriller video but then it came time to come back to town and knuckle down. Do some graft and re-stock the old folk battle chest. I've been based in Brixton on and off since 1989 and I always seem to snap back like I've got my braces stuck in the escalator of the Brixton tube or something. London is the centre of business. I mean, yeah, Ibiza is the centre of our scene but only for a few months. Needs must. Glad to be home though…

Interview by Barry Eaton

Tim Sheridan launches new night True South at Brixton’s Jamm on Friday 23 March. For details click here

Published Mar 15, 2013