FORCE 9
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1 - Can you tell us a bit about how you got into Dance Music?
Marc: OK here it is time to show my age lol, I’ve been into dance music pretty much since it conception, or at least since proper dance music’s conception I first started hearing it and immediately converted from being a mad hip hop dj to djing nothing but dance music from around 1986/87
Jay: To be honest i cant remember when i first got into dance music because ive been into it for as long as i can remember, i have always had a passion for dnce music since a very young age. I was always going to mates poartys and the djs music was shit so i decided to take my own records and i ended up working for the guy doing mobile discos parts for mates when i was 14 , i done a charit dance night at a club when i was 15 and got offered a residency and from there i ended up running my own nights when i was 16, I love Dance music in all forms (well most) and i reckon i always will.
Marc: I remember those night s well lol wee Jay the big promoter, used to love Jay’s nights man!
2 - How did yourself and Marc meet and form the partnership that is Force 9? Where did the name come from?
Jay: The first time i remember meeting Marc was at an all-nighter in the Bunker (an old rave venue in Scotland) i chatted to him for a while and got his number so i could book him for some of my party’s, I booked him for my parties and we just became really good friends from there.
Marc: I have no recollection of that evening at all, that’s bad hey, my memory is the absolute worst lol although mines is now getting better and Jays is now getting worse muahha but in my defence that was like tiiiiiiiiime ago we met and after this amount of time all the weekends just merge into one big lifelong party for me lol
Jay: We always talked about getting into the studio together and after years of talking about it we finally found the time and done it and the rest is history. Ill let Marc explain where the name came from.
Marc: Is this were I’m supposed to tell you some well cool story relating to how the name was born and the extremely deep and meaningful reasoning behind it? Erm..Erm lol, I could make one up if ya want haha. I’m afraid there’s no cool story behind it at all folks. The name Force 9 was a production alias I had been using for a few years to write some different music under away from the hardcore I write. Then when me n Jay finally managed to hook up together we were racking our brains for a name but everything we were coming up with was, well…. a bit shit, and as I hadn’t released anything under the Force 9 name in a little while, and as we both really liked that name, we decided to adopt that for us both to go under, and concentrate on taking the name Force 9 to the next musical level and that’s how it came about!
3 - What are your opinions on the Hardstyle scene at the moment?
Jay: If im gonna be brutaly honest then i think a lot of the producers are running out of ideas, a lot of it sound too samey to other tracks, we need more people who are willing to try something that little bit different. Its starting to get more melodic again which i prefer, as when it first got tagged with the Hardstyle name it was Basicaly Hardtrance but much tougher, then it became hardstlye and it forgot the melodys. Anyone who knows me knows that im love it hard and melodic.
Marc: Yeah I think it had went a little flat for quite a while of late to be honest, everyone just seemed to be bangin out the exact same sound over and over, all the squeaky shit all the time, it kinda lost its way and it just became about beats and noises, not that that’s a bad thing but there was no real music to most it any more, but I do think its turned a corner again now and is starting to get itself back on track, it’s kinda finding its identity again which is a real good thing.
4 - Where have you enjoyed playing most around the world as Force 9?
Jay: All the Force 9 gigs have been awesome for us, but the ones we both enjoy most is always our Scottish gigs as thats our home crowd and they always appreciate what we do, we play out more in England and out of the uk than we do Scotland so it is always good to play to a home crowd. Addiction is always a wicked place to play as the crowd are up for anything, Dundee always rocks when we play there too.
Marc: I really enjoyed doing the big outdoor festival on Holland but yeah the Scottish gigs are pretty special indeed to us both, there something about the vibe and the interaction you get from the Scottish party goers that you just don’t get anywhere else, its unbeatable!! And they just seem to get so into what we do behind the decks and really appreciate what Force 9 is all about.
5 - How would you like to see the Rave scene develop in the future, particularly the Scottish scene?
Jay: I would personaly love the scene to go back the way it was in the early 90s, when you could play lots of diferent styles in one set and the crowd would always love it. All styles under one roof, thats what i would love to see happen again but i realy cant see it happenbing as there is far too many genres and genres within genres to make that happen plus there far to many narrowminded folk who just like to hear one style all night. I hate al these people who slate music which they arent into themselves, why slate something you dont understand? if you dont like it dont listen to it just listen to what you enjoy and let others enjoy what they do, everything has its place
I would like to Scotland back on top of the mountain but unfortunately our scene in Scotland is not what it used to be and the ravers dont have the choice that they used to, they seem to get too much Oldskool threw down their throats and theres not enough people pushing the new sounds and there too much politics and bollox which is imo deffo holdin the scottish scene back.
Marc: Personaly id like to try and get rid of all the ****ing politics or Bollotics as us Force 9 boys lol prefer to call it in the Scottish scene at the moment. It’s an absolute joke, I have been involved In the Scottish music scene for about 20 years and I have never seen politics ever as bad as what they are now, our Scottish scene won’t ever truly develop if it continues like this! Rant over!……but I would like to see the new music get the chance to shine, like jay I also think theres too much old school pushed up here and I think that can end up brainwashing the masses and the danger in that is it wont let the quality good music that’s out there get heard
6 - Los Muertos was somewhat of a banging anthem! Are you guys working on some new material as Force 9?
Marc: Hell yeah we are!!, and its sounding well phat we are both really pleased with the outcome so far, it’s just trying to find the time to actually be able to continually get together in the studio to get all our Force 9 projects finished.
Jay: We both have crazy mad schedules out with Force 9 because we were both working names, before we hooked up as Force 9
Marc: Yeah separately Jays well busy with his uk and worldwide travels with his djing and productions under his Jay M name, and as Marc Smith my hardcore dj schedule is like its always been… just so ridiculously full on, with the same crazy ass uk and worldwide travels, (not complaining there by the way lol) not too mention running my label Notorious Vinyl and all the work that Jay now involved in doing for that too, he’s pretty much my right hand man in Notorious Vinyl now and both of us separately trying to produce plenty of stuff for that and a million other things, and then you got the problem of us both now living at different ends of the country from each other, Jay in Scotland and me now in London. But we are now just putting the finishing touches to Jays own studio so that will make things a whole load easier on us and enable us to get lots more Force 9 work done but yeah we are on it folks and it will be with you real soon
Jay: Plus we both had to take quite a bit of time off earlier in the year, to deal with some personal stuff, but that’s all luckily behind us now and. We have a quite a few tracks sitting that just need the finishing touches, Los Muertos was massively successful, and was way bigger than we ever thought it would be, so we want to make sure the next release is even more special. The follow up should be one we have been road testing over the past while to the crowds 'Hard is not enough', its been getting fantastic reactions from the crowds and Djs. We also have a few remixes we have been working on too.
We are also just finalising our track listing for a Force 9 mix we are doing for a forthcoming compilation album so watch out for that too
7 - For anyone that hasn’t seen you guys, how would you describe a Force 9 DJ set?
Marc: I would describe it as meticulously organised chaos, sonic mayhem and carnage lol, its all about having fun, and providing a real fun experience we just get right in amongst it.. as that’s what we both do anyway and try put on an exciting technical spectacle for folk to watch and get right into themselves which they always do, and musically we don’t ever let ourselves get constrained we just like to push and push the boundaries as far as we can go!
Jay: In the words of a clubber @ the arches 'Force 9 are ****ing mental' hahaha.
Marc: Haha well that works too lol
Jay: Na in all seriousness you can hear everything from Hardtrance to Hardstyle to euro hardcore in our sets and we like to put on a show, we both as most people know are a bit mad and like to jump about and **** about while we are mixing, marc can be mixing and scratching while im mixing and playing with the fx and vice versa, Force 9 is all about having fun and giving the ravers a good show and good music.
8 - Is there any person/hero that you would like to meet that has inspired you in any way to produce and dj?
Marc: I don’t really have any hero’s as such and if I did I suppose Coxxy in his day would be one of them, got lots of time for Carl man he’s one of the nice guys in the scene, but to be honest it has always been really just the music and the ravers that have inspired me, and apart from that, I’ve been lucky enough to have met and have worked with pretty much everyone in the scene already over the years, and have built up good relationships and friendships with them all.
Jay: Like Marc said most of the people who have inspired me and been a hero to me are now my friends, so there not really anyone that springs to mind.
9 - Marc With the re-launch of Notorious Vinyl, can we expect to see any Hardstyle/Hard Trance releases on the label?
Marc: Well no…. Notorious as it stands just now is really just solely my hardcore label for my stuff and for material from other hardcore related producers, but….. Myself and Jay are actually in the planning right now to start a sister label to Notorious, most likely it’s going to called “Notorious White” and that will be our new outlet to feature all our own Force 9 hardstyle and hardtrance material as well as a host of other big name producers and talent from within the scene so keep your eyes peeled for that kicking of folks !!
NOTORIOUS WHITE is on it’s way !!!!
10 - Jay You have set up the Diverse Agency. Can you tell us a bit about it?
Jay: The agency was set up because i always got phone calls from people asking if i could help sort them out with djs etc, so i set up the agency. The agency is non profit on the dj side of things as i just arrange bookings with clubs and djs and take no fee, i just want to help bring the djs we all want to see to the uk. I also do design work (flyers,websites etc) through the agency, but unfortunately i dont do that free lol.
I also run the uk side of www.extranza.com for my good friend Bobby v, we have plans to bring some major hardstyle and hardtrance uk artists to the uk who have not yet had the chance to play here.
11 - Is there anybody you would like to give shouts out to?
Jay: Everyone who has helped to get us where we are and a special shout to my missus who has supported me all the way through my career. shout to all the Diverse crew, the Notorious crew , the Radical crew and the Addiction crew the Extranza Crew and to FSC for not hassling us too much lol (we will have stuff to ya soon promise)
Marc: I’ll second Jay’s shouts and also give a special shout to Ashley you deserve a medal hun for putting up with and supporting him all this time, and I’m gonna get you one, because when we finish his studio, you wont see him after that hahahah ;-P. Id also just like to give a massive shout to all the ravers that continually come out to see us and continually support us and get right into what we do, respects to you all. And a huge shout out to ever my growing Notorious Family, and massive respects to Andy Bowlers an old time friend but now the new booking manager for myself as D.J. Marc Smith and for me and Jay as Force 9, cheers for all the major hard work you do on me n Jays behalf and all the bookings that you sort mate keep up the good work
Courtesy of www.hardstyleuk.co.uk
