Superfast Oz

Over the past thirteen years, Superfast Oz has proved himself to be one of the most influential figures on the hard house scene. With a huge discography, highly respected label in the form of Kaktai Records, an internationally recognised record store and a massive number of residencies all under his belt he's come a long way since playing his first gig in 1994. Over the years he has held residencies for a string of UK clubs including Energized, Sea-Lab, QED, Passion, Torture Gardens, Resonance, Storm, Escape From Samsara, Feersum, Logic, Cheeky Little Monkey, Residance, Insomniacz, Insekt, and most recently Twist - Londons most respected after party. Internationally he's held residencies at London Productions - Cape Town, Popsickle - San Francisco, Q-Dance - Holland, Maniac Love - Tokyo and his international success also stretches to regular guest appearances in Australia, USA, Japan, Canada, Africa, Finland, Ireland, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Highly respected for his production work, Oz has mainly worked with Dom Sweeten over the years under the guise OD404. Together they have built up a discography pushing well into the hundreds with such dance floor classics as U Aint Winnin, Fireball, Block Party, House Is On Fire, 9 Bar, Biofilter and Whizz Bang and remixes including Meltdown, Who Is Elvis, Drop The Dime, Hooked, No More and Street Tab to name but a few. Other names Oz and Dom work under are Satelite Kidz, Hyperloop and $Whores, whilst collaborations between Oz and Project Mayhem such as Bitch Trog and Just Cum go under the pseudonyms Big Tool 4 U and D&G. Solo work you should all be familiar with are tracks such as Bad Ass Ghetto Pimp (my personal fav!) and remixes of Non Stop, Party People and most recently The Dj, The Music.

Not just a wizz on the decks and in the studio, Oz is the all round businessman. Having built up two empires from scratch over the years, Banging Tunes and Kaktai Records - both hard dance institutions in their own rights. In every DJs hard house record collection you'll find a good helping of Kaktai Records, which started in 1997 with Prankster/Prozak 2 as the first release and is still going strong today with solid releases such as Robocock and U Aint Winnin 2005 remixes! For eight years Oz ran the Brighton based vinyl empire Banging Tunes, with shops in Brighton, London and the online store which has grown to the internationally recognised institution and DJ community it is today. Given my position as his piece of arm candy (LOL!) I've had the very rare chance of getting an in depth interview out of him on the early days, just where that name came from, the ins and outs of Banging Tunes,  OD404 LIVE, Twist's 200th Birthday and news on his forthcoming website ....

Hi Oz, first things first lets step right back to the days before DJing, what were you up to?

The only instrument I've had proper lessons for was the drums, was in rock and thrash bands when I was fourteen-sixteen years old and did a few gigs at local pubs/halls etc.... Also dabbled with rhythm and bass guitar for a bit and got into more electronic sounds through going to Hawkwind/Ozric Tenatackles all nighters up at the Brtixton Academy, this was my first experience of loud electronic dance music, Aphex Twin doing some heavy Industrial techno set - It rocked (especially on the snowballs we had that night)

So why did you want to become a DJ?

I'd been collecting vinyl for years. It was a natural progression to get into spinning as you don't have to rely on others band members to turn up for band practice etc...  As I was hanging out in more and more record shops just collecting my mates started calling me a DJ and then it became obvious to me. Hadn't thought whether it was a financially viable living, there wasn't the superstar DJ's then and it seemed more of a underground scene, uncommercial.

Everyone is intrigued as to where your DJ name came from and just what exactly it means?

I used to be a Gabba loving Speed Junkie - no....!!!

This was all circa 1992-93, there was an Australian cleaning product company called "Superfast Oz", kettle descaler, shower head cleaners etc... Adverts on the T.V. every five minutes and seeing as Oz had been my nick name since I was seven, coupled with the fact I was playing a hard/fast euro techno sound - the name just stuck... Too late to change it now unfortunately....

Where did you first play out and what were the gigs you felt helped you the most in making a name for yourself?

Had played a few house parties for mates when I was late sixteen but my most memorable moment in public was in 1994 playing first set at Shoreham Power station "Energized Sound System" illegal rave, there was fifteen people in front when i started, concentrated hard, head down and in the mix - hour and a half later there was two thousand people bouncing like loonies on the beach in front of me...! It'll stay with me forever and was asked to be their resident on the spot, worked with that Sound System for another five years as their main resident. Also I was head hunted for a gay promotion in Brighton called Pasion in 1996 where I was playing more than four hours every sat night, usually broken up into warm up and end set or mega tastic long main set so I played a wide range of material and had scope for experimenting ideas etc.... Did this every sat for three years with only two nights off when I worked over in Amsterdam, it was the best club for interaction with the crowd and I learnt as much as any DJ  cold learn from that lengthy residency. It was fondly known as  Trade by the sea...

Your discography is well up into the hundreds now, a mean feat for any producer, so how did it all start?

Another DJ I met through the Energized system was Dom Sweeten, he'd moved down to Brighton and we did alot gigs together and had similar tastes in vinyl. We both had the idea of buying some keyboards and a second hand Atari just to see if we could make our own beats... A bit of a slow process at first back in the midi era, but we persisted with it and by 1996 we had a few track finished, to a basic standard but good enough for us to play off  DAT in our sets (as long as we built an intro to mix with ...lol). Dom then preferred to be studio based and kinda hung up his headphones at that point. We got really serious about it once we saw the reaction of our efforts, we played some material in the club when we had Lab 4 come down to perform live for the first time in Brighton, they loved our sound and invited us to mix down and master some material with them in their studio and very nearly got us our first signing but that came a little later down the line.

Your label, Kaktai is one of the definitive hard house labels. When did you guys start it up?

1997 after getting some good feedback from alot of U.K. based DJ's, but also being told our sound wasn't quite right for the labels of the time (chug n Bump, Metropolitan, Eve etc..) and we had no choice but to put the matrial out there ourselves and we had immediate attention from the likes of the Trade DJ's, particularly Steve Thomas (from Tripoli Trax who gave us our first signing outside of Kaktai) Tony De Vit,  Pete Wardman, Ian M etc... At the time thesee guys carried alot of weight and we got offered some amazing remix opportunities from then on.

Banging Tunes is an internationally recognised record store, how did the store come about and where do you stand with the company nowadays?

Back in 1996 I started to help out in a local house music shop ordering in techno and hard trance using my own funds, that shop went bust and I was left with a little stock. I had a taste of buying-in and selling and found I enjoyed doing it so then gave me the thought about my own shop. I knew another local DJ who liked the same material as I did, DJ Kristian. We spoke about the possibility and found an indoor market space which was ideal and cheap to set up. The name back then was Klik Klik Whirly Beep Beep , we opperated there for over a year before moving to another space that was in a better location and that brought us some roaring trade (back in the old days). Kristian had always been a computer techy dude, so when the web revolution happened he started to deal with a mail order system which meant we could increase our business onto the global market. I dealt with the music management and processing orders and felt the Bangingtunes.com title was more apt for the operation.... The web explosion kickedoff and the company then grew to just under twenty staff over two shops (one in London) and the Brighton mail order HQ. The B.T. institution was born and my stress levels and business accument where stretched to the max and I had no time for other comitments like studio etc... My involvement with B.T. was dramatically reduced in 2004 as I realised that I'd been distracted from my innitial focus (DJing / Producing) and needed to follow the original path, but I still have ties and support B.T. all the way.

You and Dom first started the OD404 LIVE gigs in 2005 and they have been receiving huge support from across the scene, so is this the year of the Kaktai Tour?

From doing international DJ gigs for over eight years, I had always been asked everywhere I've been 'Are OD404 ever going to play LIVE...?????' As Dom hadn't been DJing for years it seemed as though this may have never been an option, but with digital age upon us and a very impressive back catalogue of material we both finally agreed that in 2005 it would happen and it did. The Past Present and Future Tour is our project for 2006, taking our sound anywhere and everywhere to showcase some of our classic material re-vamped for todays scene, laced with fresh new material which isn't released. We had a good response in the U.K. last year and wanted to then take it onto the international circuit. We're getting an excellent response and the tour dates are starting to be confirmed throughout this year, festivals etc...

What equipment are you using for OD404 LIVE sets?

We use Ableton Live software, two controller keyboards and a laptop mainly, even though we could use alot more equipment. Sounds like its not alot but there is an awe full lot of preparation involved, especially where our older material is concerned due to the changes in software and computers we've had over the years resulting in the inability to load up old Seq & FX etc....

You've held residencies at a huge number of clubs across the years and you've just scored a new one for 2006, tell us a bit about it?

Twist is my most recent post and I'm personally very chuffed with being asked as the club has always retained respect in the London after-party scene since it began a few years ago. In the main room its up front and new hard house with other ressies like Karim and The Twist Arcade which is dedicated to the electro side of things. It's happening down at Factory, 65 Goding Street, London, SE11 5AW every Sunday morning, I'm doing every third Sunday of the month. For more info check out www.twistclub.co.uk

Twist's 200th birthday on Sunday 23rd April is fast approaching and they've got a very rare back to back planned, what's in store?

I have played back to back with Karim a few times now over the years and as we are in contact and have similar influences musically we do generally make it happen. I'm not one for back to backs with anyone usually, but in order for me to agree I do have to know the other person personally and musically for it to ever properly work, otherwise it's the most un-professional thing a DJ could do for themselves (unless at a mashup when you're not getting paid!) and the most disrespectful request from any promoter, not to mention what the clubbers end up with on da floor...? However -  I am looking forward to playing B2B with Karim (aka DJ Mr K) again and the fact that it's Twist 200th Birthday will make the occasion rather special.

What have been your favourite highlights of your career?

I had a residency in Cape Town South Africa for London productions run by DJ Frisky, I headlined loads of sell out gigs at venues like The Gallery, Studio 47, 96 Degrees and Good Hope Center with him and as their money isn't as strong against the pound I would always offer to play a four hours set for them, (in fact I do for most international gigs) which I did every time. There was one time at the Gallery when it'd just gone off in there, had just done the four hours and the crowd wouldn't let me off the decks for another hour,  they were bouncing off the walls in there and it was electric. Even I said I played really well and as anyone who plays out knows you're always the biggest critic of yourself....... Anyhow - there have been so many other memorable moments I cannot seem to remember them right now..? Lol

What are your all time top hard house tunes?

Jesus Christ on a bike.... Impossible...!

XVXno one and two, Pete Wardman's Trade mix of Hooked, Tony De Vit's mix of Age of Love. Natural Born Grooves - Forerunner Experts remix (Steve Thomas), everything by Sourmash (aka razors edge) Dream Plant  - Mighty Machine. Anything by Baby Doc, Jon The dentist remix of stuck on a space trip - got more if i could stop me head from spinning.

You also DJ under the name Superfunk Oz, with which you play twisted disco, house and electro. How did you venture to the funky side of things and where can we expect to see Superfunk Oz in the future?

I  have always had a love of House music and had experienced US house first hand at California's biggest House event called 'How Sweet it is", which is spread over six aircraft style hangers where I witnessed the cream of America's finest house DJ's like DJ Dan, Donald Claude, DJ Sneak, Badboy Bill Danny Tenaglia, Dave Morales and Roger Sanchez.... It was like a near religious experience and it was fucking clear and loud in every arena! I spent the rest of my tour in the US record shops buying loads of tunes to take back home with me, especially fucked up twisted disco stuff. Since then I've been it to it all, electro/ tribal / disco / latino - all flavours really and have been playing out this sound even though i'm normally know for the U.K. hard sound. I'm expecting to play Superfunk alot more in the future. I'm playing an electro set in the Twist Arcade on 19th March, which I'm really excited about as Dom and I have been doing some electro tracks in the studio recently and I'll get to blast em loud for te first time with some other new bits.....

And last but not least, what are your future plans for DJing, producing and the label?

Music is still my passion and I will keep adapting myself as I have always had to do to keep working professionally. The most pressing future plan is getting my web site up and running which I hope will not be too long till it's launched. As well as all the usual Biography and Discog etc... I'm also keen to have a download section and to put loads of my old tape recordings for free as I have got loads of classic sets spanning over a decade which should be worth checking out! The URL will be www.superfastoz.com

More Kaktai releases are in the pipeline, next up is a collaboration between Dom & Ed Real - Dub War, for this we've enlisted Paul Glazby for remix duties. Seem to be a strong release already, even though we've not properly started promoting it yet. After that we have some in house material from OD404 & Defective Audio.... Watch this space.