Breaks
Unique 3 - 'Wearing Colourful Hats Made Me Stand Out In 1989!'
How do you feel when people cite 'The Theme' as being so influential?
Being lucky enough to be credited with such an influential track is a great thing, surely it's every producer's wish. Without sounding ungrateful, it can also be a right pain in the arse, when everything else you write is either compared with 'The Theme' or simply overlooked by dewey eyed oldschool fans
When you made the track did you have any idea of how influential it would become?
The track always sounded special, you have to remember that there wasn't very much club or Dance music as it became known out then. I remember the track belting out of the recording studio monitors & the hairs on my arms standing up. I knew it was basic & raw but I knew it was gonna kick up.
What do you think you were doing back in '89 that made you stand out?
Wearing colourful hats. Na! there wasn't much competition & not many contempories so it was far easier to carve out a niche. It's so very hard today for your producers, everyone has access to the same programs, hardware & sounds .... being original is a very hard task these days unlike back then.
How did it feel to be given such a large advance by Virgin?
Rich!! .... I'd never seen so much money ... there is a funny story to the Virgin advances: on signing to the label, they sent out a cheque for £150k which was duly cashed & fun was had by all, then, a week later, another cheque for £150k arrived through the post.
Obviously a mistake, I was too worried to cash it in case we got into trouble but didn't want to send it back ... weeks & weeks later I received a letter from Virgin Publishing who were worried that they'd sent out a cheque, some weeks before, that hadn't been cashed ... i didn't realise that we'd signed 2 deals - one with Virgin Records & one with Virgin Publishing, both of which had paid £150k advance ... it was like Christmas ... alll over again!
Why has it taken 17 years to follow up your debut album?
I have been running my own nightclub from the bottom of a bottomless bag of Class 'A' for the last 10 years. Having moved on from the club 18 months ago (returning to London) & eventually clawed my way to the seal top of the bag, my brain started working musically again. this new album is obviously the festering outpouring of a long constipated producer
The problems you've had are pretty well-documented – how do you think what you've been through influences your approach to what you do now?
The ups, ups & downs of the last 20 years have totally influenced my approach to music & deejaying. I think a writer can only write something, slightly worth reading if he or she has looked deep inside themselves. There's a track: 'I'm The..' on the new album & I think that if I never wrote another song or lyric again, I could be happy that that was my last offering to the vast cracked urn that is 'music'.
How do you think the music industry has changed in the time since you started out?
The music industry is unrecognisable to me sometimes. It's hard to identify people who are in it, purely because they are propelled by something (genuine) inside. Open a music magazine & wade through the over priced full page ads for superclubs & you'll find college courses for Deejaying & pay as you go day courses from everything from music writing to management. It all seems so mercenary now.
The demise of vinyl & what that means to small labels & their remix budgets is probably one of the saddest elements of the change of 'The Music Industry' - obviously, electronic music (and the multi million pound industry that has grown, growth like on it's side) has always been on the edge of change & of advance, technology wise, but there's got to be more care for it's vital organs, or it will become extinct & one day, we will all forget why it was ever there in the first place.
I went to the Dali exhibition the other day and stared at a painting called 'Autumnal Cannibalism' it reminded me of the music industry and how it seems to be eating itself away without a thought for the future
Looking back to the early years, is there anything you'd have done differently?
I could have been more aware of the people who came from nowhere, made music their own & claims that were lies, made a shitload of dough & left while we plodded along all romantic like
What's the maddest memory you have from the early years?
Walking across an old airfield in southern England somewhere, fighting back magic mushrooms & hearing the opening bars of 'The Theme' drift over from a 20,000 marquee & hearing the whole tent scream with excitement (reaches for a cold flannel) - i'll never get that feeling again
Do you think music's become watered down over the years?
Mostly yes but thankfully there's still producers out there who write from the heart not formula music with a bank balance in mind. There's also a healthy list of promoters who don't mind taking a personal hit, month in month out, for the promotions & shows that they believe in, once we lose these people we really are f*cked.
What were your aims with 'Invasive Signals', and do you think you've achieved those aims?
I wanted to pack an album out with as much music as physically possible. We had so much trouble editing the final track list down for the cut, having to lose about 15 minutes in all. I wanted Breaks, Electro, Techno, Deep House & Drum & Bass on there, which I achieved. I hoped that it wouldn't alienate any genre of music buyer but be wider open to people who maybe wouldn't generally buy something on an underground label like Fat! Records
I wanted to tell a few stories with my lyrics, maybe have people rewinding the songs back to have a better listen to the tales of woe!
I think I've achieved everything I set out to do.
Which tracks on the album are you most proud of and why?
My favourites shift from week to week but I think 'Shades of Grey' is one of my favourites, I attacked this song using only the old analogue equipment that the original Unique 3 stuff was made on - to me, it does sound like the old stuff & I'm particularly proud that I pulled it off. I mentioned 'I'm The ...' which will always remind me of my lowest ebbs of despair - i'm particularly proud of my words in that song and thirdly 'Take This Love' as it sounds like nothing else I've heard & coming up with original sounding tracks these days is an art in itself! (the drum & bass track I like too & i'd like to see how that works at a D&B do!)
How do your productions come together?
With strong black coffee, empty washing up liquid bottles, bits of string & sticky back plastic
Which current producers do you rate?
I'm a big fan of that painfully talented Si Begg - I know where he lives so if I ever need to take him out of the game! My label mate Merka is also mega talented ... just the mention of those two makes me feel tired & dangerously low on B Vitamins.
What do you still want to achieve in music?
It was to be on Top of the Pops a second time & miss out on Steve Wright taking the piss on his 'One Hit Wonders' section of his TOTPs2 show but they've gone & spoilt any chance of THAT!!
Featured Tracks:
| Invasive Signals (Unmixed Album) (78:08) | |||||||
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Artist: Unique 3 Label: Fat Records Genre: Breaks Release Date: 2007-10-22 
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| The Theme (Original 8 Track Mix) (5:47) | Cue in Player | Play Now | |||||
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Artist: Unique 3 Label: Fat Records Genre: Electro Release Date: 2007-06-11
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