PUBLIC DOMAIN VS ULTRASONIC INTERVIEW
 Tell
us to clear up any confusion… who is involved with the tour? Who are
the band members of both ULTRASONIC and PUBLIC DOMAIN?
On this DJ tour of Australia David Forbes , Mark Sherry (Public
Domain) and myself Mallorca Lee (Ultra-Sonic / Public Domain) will
be promoting the DJ mix cd - DJ BATTLE 1, Public Domain Vs
Ultra-Sonic, that David & I have just mixed for Central Station
Records.
After our “oldskool special” Ultra-Sonic live tour last year we
thought about ways which we could better the last tour. We decided
to have a DJ battle and asked Mark Sherry if he would be interested
in joining in on the madness. As well as writing music with the rest
the guys for both PD & US I also MC’d for each band. I will again be
on the M.I.C. while the three of us battle it out on the techniques.
It really is hard work controlling the mic, mixing two records and
finish a Jack Daniels and coke at the same time! (ha ha)
The members that make up the Public Domain Sound system are – David
Forbes,
Mark Sherry, Alistair Mc Issac, myself and James Alan. The members
of Ultra- Sonic were Rodger Hughes and I, but sadly we no longer
work together.
For the new people out there… firstly, how did ULTRASONIC form?
After several summers of love had shook the UK, my younger brother,
Darren, introduced Rodger and I to each other in the car park of our
old school (Auchenharvie Academy in Stevenston, Scotland) in 1990.
From that meeting Ultra-Sonic formed and we were fortunate enough to
tour the planet for almost 8 years, playing at gigs I would have
paid to go to. The name came from a machine at my work that cleaned
computer hard disks using Ultra-Sonic sound waves, I thought it
sounded cool and the name stuck.– not a lot of people know that!
US had a sound of their own, with tunes like ANNIHILATING RHYTHM,
1234, and Obsession being so prominent. How does it feel to still
know these tunes are being played somewhere in the world at various
events?
It really is a great feeling, we were influenced by the eclectic
musical styles that all DJ’s had in the early days of house music.
They would spin what was just called house music, which was anything
from Drum and bass to Tekno and back again. I was also strongly
influenced by Hip- Hop Legends Public Enemy and Run DMC.
I’ve just finished compiling The Best Of Ultra-Sonic album last
month (due out in the UK in June on Rumour Records). I was going
thru all my old master recordings and running them into my computer
trying to get the best mixes sounding as good as I could, re-living
8 years in 1 week. It really was a difficult task because we
recorded so many great tracks together and I had hundreds to choose
from. Fortunately I had two CD’s to fill so I managed to get all the
big tracks, the B-sides that were almost as big as our A side and
several live tracks recorded in 1996. The full track listing can be
found on the www.redmonkeyrecords.com message board. It still blows
me away to this day when someone says that they like this track or
that track, it means so much to them because at this or that gig…..
When we were writing those tracks we were doing it for ourselves,
just to play at the weekend in our live shows. At the start we never
dreamt that they would be on a record or CD. Looking back at the
tracks now the production does sound dated but at the same time they
hold so many memories for me and everyone else who has enjoyed them.
There is also the new breed of clubbers coming thru discovering all
this music for a first time which kicks it off all over again. It’s
hard to put into words, but yeah, it still surprises me that people
still dig today what I did over 12 years ago
US was a group that showed they could be flexible and experimented
with different sounds as well… how did this evolve over time?
We signed our first ever recording deal for free in 1991 with
Scottish independent dance label Club Scene Records and went on to
release 'Obsession ' (with ‘React / Amnesia’ on the flip side)
touring the UK & Ireland. Our first album, Tekno Junkies 1991 - 1994
catapulted us from being an underground band, playing illegal raves
to touring the world with our definition of dance music, alongside
artists such as Moby, Carl Cox, The Prodigy, Jeff Mills and Sven
Vath. Touring Australia and New Zealand 5 times, escaping from the
Limelight Club in New York, top billing, Fantazia, Rezerection and
Amnesia (UK), Soul Velvet (Japan), and headlining just about every
European dance events and festival such as Mayday and Nature-One
(Germany) where we played to crowds of over 40,000 people. It was on
these tours that inspired us to start recording our second studio
album, 1996’s Global Tekno. After several years we became bored with
the UK hardcore sound of the late 90’s and started recording what
would be our last album together called The Hour Of Chaos. It was
mostly trance and quite a few steps ahead of the game at that time.
For me it was always about pushing things and seeing just what we
could do. To this day I still believe that in dance music or any
kind of music for that matter, there are no rules, you just got to
do what inspires you, what you thinks is good and if other people
agree, that’s a bonus. We were selling 50/60 thousand US albums per
release. Bands now are lucky if they reach 10 thousand copies before
the record company drops them , so I guess we were very fortunate to
reach a lot of people when we did.
You toured Australia a few times under the US name… how was it to be
so widely accepted within the rave scene?
I think it had a lot to do with us being one of the first bands
doing what we were doing round about that time. When we started, the
full scene was just about to explode. There were just a hand full of
bands around -N-joi, Adamski and the Prodigy, that were a big
inspiration to us, especially N-JOI. Only one or two bands actually
got around to putting an album together and I guess we were one of
them. We never really thought of ourselves as a PA or a dance act,
we thought of ourselves as a band in the true sense of the word. The
fact that we put a couple of tour videos together (Paul from Double
Vision asked me if I would like to work with him on a full length
video while chatting at a rave called AWESOME in Livingston,
Scotland) helped raise our profile. People wanted to book us once
they seen the tour video, even if they had not heard our music
before. The rave scene exploded in the UK and we were surfing the
crest of the wave. With the release of Annihilating Rhythm we broke
into Germany and that really opened our eyes to the way the
Europeans perceived electronic music, which was a way of life, its
own culture. That was a major influence. I remember being in the car
park at the Mayday festival in 1994 and every car had its boot open
with Annihilating Rhythm playing, full volume, with people dancing
all around these cars. That was our first gig outside the UK, 40,000
people in an Olympic Velodrome in Dortmound, Germany. That gig was a
seminal moment in our careers as Ultra- Sonic.
When and why did ULTRASONIC come to an end so to speak?
During the recording sessions of Global Tekno, Rodger and I, started
writing different material that we considered too leftfield to be
included on the album. We continued recording these demos under the
working title of ‘Revolver’ (which was later to become Bikini
State). This music was a fusion of synths, samples, guitars, bass
and live drums mixed with loop beats, techno and rap vocals. The
track Too Many MC’s David and I recorded for the Public Domain album
Hard Hop Superstars is a similar sounding track to what we were
working on back then. After the release of The Hour of Chaos on our
own label USR (Ultra Sonic Research), Rodger and I concentrated
solely on Bikini State putting a 5 piece band together, pure rock
and roll but with a tekno soul. We secured a massive recording deal
in 1999 with BMG/Deconstruction after a gig at The Barfly in London.
During the recording of Bikini States debut album Deconstruction
collapsed in January 2000, and we were left without a record label.
We had all put a lot of blood sweat and tears into the recoding of
that album leaving us gutted and off the rails. We went loco with
the recording advance that we received. It was just sex, drugs and
rock and roll, seriously, it was like something from the movie –
Spinal Tap. I think, I lost the plot for over 2 years and ended up
drying out in Ibiza after my brother suggested I go there with him
on holiday. That trip changed my life and I found again what I
thought I had lost – DANCE MUSIC. Rodger and I have not worked
together since Bikini State, which is really sad, but its an age old
tale in the music industry, we did have 8 fantastic years working
together and possibly one day we might be able to get together and
have a laugh about it all…Recently you have had ANNIHILATING RHYTHM
remixed and released… how is that going down with the crowds?
I have always admired the Warp Bros production skills and when we
hooked up to record the remix the result really knocked me on my
ass. I got the finished copy two hours before David and I DJ’d at
RISE in Perth last year (Oct 2002). It was the first time I had
heard the finished remix on a sound system and it wrecked the club.
Its has been at the front of my box and played at every Red Monkey
party that we hold since. David and I were thinking of putting it
out on our own label Red Monkey Records but we have already got
releases planned up until the end of the year. We also just finished
another track with the Warp Bros which is an exclusive and the first
track on CD 1 – (Warp Bros. Feat Red Monkey) of the new PD Vs US DJ
mix album. That track is going to be massive, there are already
several companies going nuts chasing the track!!! Its one of many
tunes that I just can’t wait to drop in Oz.
Any other plans for further material being released by US?
This is quite a sore point for me at the moment. I personally think
that the music Rodger and I recorded together as Ultra-Sonic was
Ultra-Sonic. I have no plans to put any new material out under the
name Ultra-Sonic. No matter how many times I am asked by record
companies, it’s just not the right thing to do. The two of us were
responsible for creating that sound and I don’t think it’s up to one
of us to continue without the other.
I am all for our back catalogue being remixed and re – released
which will help bring the US sound up to date, but recording new
material under the name US, it’s just not the right thing to do
simply because Rodger and I no longer work together. I did recently
hear that Rodger was writing music again and is attempting to
release some new music under the name Ultra-Sonic but I really don’t
think it’s for the right reasons. He is talented enough to start
something new. I think it’s better to try new things and keep moving
forward, that’s why I was happy to work/record the Public Domain
album and singles because it was like a step on from where
Ultra-Sonic left off.
How was PUBLIC DOMAIN formed?
Public Domain was formed by Mark, Alistair and James at an
Ultra-Sonic live show. The guys wanted to do dance music and were
heavily influenced by what we were doing back in the day. I had
known Mark for years and when he approached me and asked if I would
be interested in working with them on what was to become Operation
Blade, I initially said no because I thought that I had covered that
ground with US. But Mark twisted my arm and we started working
together. After we finished Funky Beats with one of my all time
hero’s, Chuck D, we all decided to do a full album. I work with
David Forbes, we are production partners as well as great friends so
the both of us got involved and produced four tracks for the PD
album (Inside Out, Too Many MC’s, Pump Up Nation and Let Me Clear My
Throat) on top of the tracks that I had been recording with Mark,
James and Ali (Operation Blade, Rock the Funky Beats, No Time To Run
and DJ’s on The Move) at JAM studio’s. So that’s how The Public
Domain Sound system came together.
You have been defined as being the forefront of HARDHOP… what’s your
interpretation of HARDHOP..?
Hard Hop is just a mixture of hard dance and Hip Hop. It all started
as a bit of a laugh really, because the UK music press always want
to put you in a pigeon hole so they can say - ok, well they do this
type of music so we can put them on this page with this lot! We just
came up with the name while we were joking about during an interview
for a UK Dance magazine and it stuck. Music journalists picked up on
it and gave us the tag and Hard Hop was conceived. We were the first
and only band to be doing – Hard Hop, so we thought it would be a
good laugh to call the album Hard hop Superstars, with our tongues
firmly in our cheeks, the cheeks of our mouth, that is (lol)
BASS IN THE PLACE, ROCK DA FUNKY BEATS… both became pretty popular
within the
club scene and then went on for commercial success… how does it feel
to cross over into the charts as such?
When I first started writing dance music back in 1990, chart success
was the last thing on my mind, even to this day. When David and I
are working in the Mother Ship on a track it’s not the chance of
commercial success that drives us. The minute you start saying - ok
today we shall write a chart topper! That’s the day you should just
jack it all in and jump out the window. You got to go with the flow,
what you are into and hopefully the rest will fall into place. Blade
and Funky Beats along with all of the US material I worked on was
written by clubbers to be played in club and enjoyed by clubbers.
When a record gathers so much momentum and hits the charts, it’s out
of anyone’s control. I think it’s a great thing because it’s not
hype it’s public demands that gets that particular track into the
national charts. Our tracks were all club tracks but they became
commercial in the sense that a lot of people liked them, they were
never written for the charts, unlike a lot of the crap that clutters
our airwaves.
What other projects does the PUBLIC DOMAIN sound system have
underway?
David and I are leaving Public Domain to concentrate on our two
record labels (RED MONKEY RECORDS & DEBUNK MUSIC) and our club
nights/tours of the same names. So this tour of Australia will be
the final gigs we do under the name Public Domain. Mark, James and
Ali are going to continue with PD and have another album in the pipe
line which I have had some input in. David and I felt that we had
too much on to give PD the 100% of our time it needed. We just keep
pushing ourselves, trying new things and trying to constantly evolve
with the technology around us. We got some great tracks lined up for
our labels and some huge collaborations with producers such as the
Warp Bros. We are putting an album together under the name of
Scanners and if I am being honest with myself that is really where
all our concentration and energy go as it’s that music both of us
have been wanting to work on for years. I guess we got plenty to
keep us busy in the studio and on the road for a long time yet….
For and update on what we are doing you can check out our websites
www.redmonkeyrecords.com for Trance and Hard dance and
www.debunkmusic.com for dirty house.
In terms of performing live, how does it feel to be back out there,
on stage and in clubs?
I have been let loose on club land since 1990 so for me it’s not
really a case of being let back out there. With US I was fortunate
enough to tour the globe several times, then with Public Domain I
picked up from where US left off. I managed to get to see some
countries that I never thought I would ever get a chance to party
in, as well as playing at all the major dance festivals like
Homelands, Dance Valley and Knebworth and rocked out at the Reading
and Leeds Festivals which were gigs that I have always really wanted
to play at. The only thing that I did not want to do was wake up in
Russia, after playing Privilege in Ibiza the night before, with a
bill for £11,000 worth of damages to the stage and light equipment,
doh !
We work in the studio Monday to Friday working on new tracks for our
labels, and our DJ calendars are always full, playing somewhere in
this small planet, spinning here, there and everywhere. I really
enjoy the freedom of being behind the decks, being able to change
the tempo, the mood and the genre at any moment, really giving the
crowd a slice of your head for that one night. When we go back to
back, we really get twisted and reach highs that I have never
experienced within any live show I have ever done. We really do
enjoy interacting with the crowds and keep the same energy levels
that you used to find in our live shows, the only difference being
we are DJ’ing which means we can play anything, anywhere at anytime
especially being able to play in clubs that don’t have a stage (lol)
It’s also a great opportunity to road test tracks we have just
finished or signed to our labels, that’s how our first club night,
Debunk, started and that in turn has really improved our production
and understandings of what works on a dance floor. Now at our own
club nights we get the chance to invite guests from all over the
world (Fergie, D:Fuse, Mike Monday, DJ Elite and Yves Deruter) to
come and play and they cant believe the energy the club has and
that’s just the way we like it.
What’s planned for the upcoming ULTRASONIC vs PUBLIC DOMAIN
showcase?
This tour is going to be over 2 weeks of solid partying (the
traveling is just for sleeping!) for David, Mark and myself. We are
really looking forward to it because Australia has some of the best
crowds and parties in the world. What we are going to do is mix up
all our styles and have a DJ battle, like they used to have at Block
parties in the Bronx during the 80’s. Each one us trying to up the
stakes and build each track higher than the last, until the 3 of us
go back to back at the same time, there will be times when the three
of us will be working the decks, mixers, mic and Fx’s
playing/editing and cutting up tracks that people know us for and
tracks that have not been released yet. We are also trying to keep
it as interactive as possible by asking clubbers to post on our
message board a list of tracks that they would like us to play. We
will be keeping a drunken tour diary on our message board too.
www.redmonkeyrecods.com
Your last few performances, for both the Public Domain Tour and as
ULTRASONIC at GAS have left many punters happy… what are your
impressions of Australia?
As I have said in just about every interview that I’ve done, since
1995 Australia and New Zealand have some of the hottest parties and
clubbers in the world and I have forged some really strong
friendships over the years . Anyone who knows me will know that I am
not on some PR rant, I am serious. (The PD Vrs US will be Mallorca’s
8th tour of Australia). Like everywhere else the scene does have its
problems and hopefully we can all work together to prevent them
because the majority of Raves, Festivals and clubs that I have
played at, have been some of my best gigs of all time. Shows like -
MDMA 2 just outside Sydney, Adventjah in Brisbane, Rise in Perth,
Heaven in Adelaide and of course GAS in Sydney have all been
special. Even now answering this question loads more gigs spring to
mind. I really can’t wait to get back over and start this tour. I am
in Italy at the moment but will be returning to Glasgow to play at
several big gigs in Scotland before we leave, which should be good
practice, for us, before we return to OZ.
My girlfriend, Maria, just had our first child three weeks ago his
name is Oceano and I am looking forward to” wetting the waynes heed
“. It’s basically a tradition that we have in Scotland where you go
out with some good friends and celebrate the arrival of your new
born child. Since I will be in Australia with two great friends,
playing to thousands of mental party people, I can’t think of
anywhere better in the world to be toasting the best thing that has
ever happened to me in my entire life! It’s a shame Oceano is not
old enough to join in and party with us all. See you down the front
!
Mallorca Lee
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