interview
18/11/04
brought to you by el harvo
mad mats
to tickle your tastebuds before his first visit to bristol for seen live xl,
el harvo tracked down raw fusion's unstoppable label boss mad mats for a short 'n' sweet chat to find out what presses his buttons.
1. So can you tell us a little bit about how the whole Raw Fusion thing got
started...
Raw Fusion was originally called just Fusion and started in 1996 with doing
monthly parties on Wednesday nights for 1000-1500 people. The idea was to
spread black underground dance music to a dancing crowd. Over the years
we've had over 140 international guest DJs where we had peeps like Theo
Parrish, Jay Dee, Louie Vega, Gilles Peterson, The Roots, Roni Size, Bugz In
The Attic etc. In 2000 we moved to a smaller venue in Stockholm in order to
bring it even further underground. The club is now stronger than ever and we
just celebrated our 8 year anniversary last weekend with Bobbito and Frankie
Feliciano. It was massive!
2.What does the future hold for the label/night?
For the club we will just continue to bring over DJs from all around the
world and spread the best beats. For the label(s) we are now concentrating
on the Povo album and compilation with bass infected hip hop beats entitled
"Raw Fusion Bass-Ment Classics".
3. There seems to be a sizeable amount of pretty average music on the
shelves at the moment - Which artists/labels are getting you excited musically?
I personally dig labels like BBE, Stones Throw, Ricanstruction, Barak,
Bitasweet, Papa, Planet E and Ubiquity.
4. What can we expect from you on your trip to Bristol?
All kinds of black dance rhythms (new + retro) with a slight b-boy twist!
5. One piece of advice (any subject).
Be your own boss!
