Vibes: Interviews.Features

LTJ Bukem Interview

LTJ Bukem Interview
By Norman Mayers

LTJ Bukem is an iconic figure in drum & bass for many reasons. He was an integral part of the development of the scene and the culture honing his skills during the days of the London soundsystems and the acid house rave scene. With good friend and fellow drum & bass luminary Fabio, he created Speed, one of the first nights where people could actually hear the music, and inadvertently created a global movement. With his landmark album Logical Progression, Bukem broadened the scope of drum & bass, infusing it with jazz, soul, techno, and ambient sounds, widening its audience and gaining a loyal fanbase that has remained intact for well over a decade. He has played all over the world bringing everyone from hippies to hip-hop heads together in symbiotic bliss. And now he is ready to drop a new masterpiece on his fans with the release of a new Fabriclive mix. Nu-Soul Magazine was able to chat with this drum & bass visionary about the impact of his music and his growth as a human being.

Nu-Soul: You’ve been involved in the scene since the beginning. Even since the soundsystem days. How magical was that whole time for you?
LTJ Bukem: Wow. My first sound system was probably back in 1984. It was a very magical moment for me. It was just people being inspired by the music. It was just something that had to happen.

Nu-Soul: What kind of musical training do you have? Do you play any instruments?
LTJ Bukem: When I was very young I started piano and I played drums.

Nu-Soul: What sort of music were you influenced by as a child or even as a teenager?
LTJ Bukem: I was very influenced by things that my piano teacher brought to me.

Nu-Soul: You and Fabio have been friends for a while? How did you become friends and what led to the creation of Speed?
LTJ Bukem: We met in school and when we started up Speed it was on a Tuesday night. Only 20 people showed up but we kept doing it for a few months. Then one night we just had a queue around the block and it was like that for a few years.

Nu-Soul: Logical Progression is obviously a very influential album. Looking back what do you think was the true impact and what is the lasting legacy of that album?
LTJ Bukem: I think you have to ask the people that it affected. At the time it just sent out a statement of intent that I wanted to represent and I’ve heard so many stories from people around the world about how that album affected them. “We’ve made a baby to your album, ” or mad things like this. It has had a massive impact on people. I just don’t know why that is.

Nu-Soul: Who are some of the artists that your label Good Looking has supported over the years?
LTJ Bukem: I was one of the first guys to play a Photek track. I definitely represented Photek as a DJ and we put out his stuff on Good Looking in the early days. People like Blu Martin, Seba, PFM, Blame, Big Bud, there are so many. When I look back, I think, my goodness, we have helped a lot of people.

Nu-Soul: You recently met your biological mother. How important was that event in pushing you forward musically?
LTJ Bukem: That event is bigger than music. It pushed me forward as a man and as an individual. I have had many conversations with other adoptees since I met her and I always say you must go and find your original parents. You must go and do that. Because there are all kinds of states of mind within you lying dormant that you don’t actually realize until maybe a later stage in your life. If you can imagine, before I was even one year old I was adopted into a family that was not my own and so there are so many different things that you don’t know that just aren’t right. And you don’t know why they aren’t right.

I will never forget what my adopted parents have done for me in my life. But you need to know where you come from to understand who you are as a person. And I never really did that until I sat down with my mother and found out. I just realized where I get my things from. So it’s bigger than music. It helped settle me as a person and made me realize who I was and what I had done. It totally just made me at peace. Some people have very different experiences. I was lucky in that respect that it was something we were both looking forward to for 40 years. It was a good experience. It was a loving experience. I just think that as an individual you need to know your roots to be able to face the future.

Nu-Soul: How did your mix with Fabric come about and what can people expect on that?
LTJ Bukem: It came about because I have been a resident at Fabric on the last Friday of every month for the last three years. At the end of last year they said it would be great to have me as one of the artists featured on their Fabriclive mix series. I was honored they asked and of course I accepted. It was perfect timing to represent who I am as a DJ. I just went in with some dubplates and some vinyl and two turntables and I did what I do every weekend. That’s what I wanted people to hear. And also it helped me represent where the label is at musically and what my statement of intent is and where we are headed in the future.

Nu-Soul: At your shows you always bring out an eclectic mix of music listeners. Why do you think that is?
LTJ Bukem: I think it’s because the music I represent spreads far and wide into music lovers consciousness, if that makes any sense. I always notice there are house people, there are jazz and soul people there, there are hip-hop guys there, there are techno guys there. The music I play, I think, it brings out a lot of aspects in music that involves those people so they are interested in hearing their moment, their feeling of music that they are into through what I am doing drum&bass-wise. I think that’s why it brings out all kinds of people, young and old.

Nu-Soul: What’s in the future for you and the label?
LTJ Bukem: For me, it’s definitely hard running a label doing all the things that I do, being A&R and everything. It’s so hard getting in the studio. I want to get the label to a certain point so I can take a few months off and work on this album that I have been wanting to do. And with the label, we’re doing two releases a month and we’re re-releasing the old catalogue. We have a DVD with me playing for 30,000 people. I also have a new mix series called Mellow Yellow which is going to come out in January of next year. I also started the sub-labels as well and they are going to feature music from new artists so we can up their profiles before moving them onto Good Looking. So much stuff!

www.goodlooking.org
myspace.com/therealdannyltjbukem

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