Interview: Leftroom’s Matt Tolfrey Part 1

Interview: Leftroom’s Matt Tolfrey Part 1

27 May, 2008 | 9.51AM

• Written by: Lee Smith
• Filed under: Music News: leftroom recordings

In this extensive two part interview, Beatportal meets Fabric fave Matt Tolfrey, one of the brightest DJ talents in the UK scene.

Along with production partner Inxec, he’s behind one of the summer’s biggest remixes, in the form of their version of George Morel and SPJ’s ‘Let’s Take Drugs’ on Yoshitoshi.

Matt’s also the main man behind Leftroom Records, one of the hottest imprints on the planet, and home to all manner of top quality, future-leaning dancefloor beats.

Read what Matt has to say about his upbringing, his early DJing experiences, and his mission for Leftroom after the jump.

How did you get involved with dance music in the early days?

I actually grew up in Bahrain, in the Middle East, from the ages of three to 15.

My brother would bring over these Sasha ‘Magic’ tapes, and I used to walk past his room when I was a nipper and thinking, “What’s in there”?

And I ended up hearing these tapes, thinking, “This sounds wicked.”

I was listening to band music and stuff, but band music is always quite loose, and electronic music is very much more regimented, more linear.

I think that’s why I liked it when I was a kid—I always used to play with building blocks and stuff and put them in lines and shit.

Maybe I’m autistic?

There’s a theory that Beethoven was severely autistic, and had this incredibly advanced mathematical skills, hence his ability to compose these amazing symphones and whatever after he went deaf.

And that was the reason he was so good?  Makes sense.

So how did you get your formative gigs?

When I was sixteen I moved back to the UK for A levels with my mum.

Then my cousin, who used to go raving with my brother, had these decks, so I was always hanging around his, thinking, “I wish I had 1210s”, playing all this rave stuff, garage bits.

Then I saved up a bit of money and got some decks on my 18th birthday, and ended up going out clubbing in Birmingham, going to the local record shop there, and handing mix tapes in to the bar.

I got a Sunday gig, which was weird – it was always like a funky house night, and I’d turn up with these massive prog records.

It was supposed to be chilled, but all my mates ended up coming down, so it was rammed.

I was lucky in that I got to play in front of people pretty much straight away.

So when did it go to the next level, as it were?

What happened was, I did my A levels, then moved to Nottingham to do a degree in business studies.

There I met Harvey Bailey, who ran a club called The Bomb, where we used to go regularly.

I heard Dave Congreve there and decided, “This is what I want to do,” so I gave him some mix CDs.

Then there was this time at a Tyrant event when Lee Burridge couldn’t make it, and Dave couldn’t play either.

I played before and after Craig Richards, which was the biggest night of my life up to that point.

Then Craig said, “Why don’t you come and play at Fabric?”, on the basis of that set.

The Bomb didn’t stay open that much longer after that, but I held a residency there, then Stealth opened, and everyone moved from the bomb to Stealth, and me and Dave went with them.

When on the timescale did you hatch the plan to start a label?

I was 23, coming to the end of my degree, which was really weighing down on me.

I didn’t end up finishing it.

I thought I could take a year out of my life, concentrate, not go out and all that bollocks, or I could do the music thing.

So I sacked off the degree and started the label.

What were you trying to do with the label?

Well, I come from a really close family, and I really liked this idea of having a label that was like a family.

That’s why the first EP was called ‘The Extended Family’ – I wanted to get four artists, four tracks, and from then on they’d all get a full EP.

It didn’t work out like that in the end, but that was the initial idea.

What would you say the music is about on the label?

I wouldn’t say we have a policy as such.

There’s Leftroom, the core label, which is generally UK-based, so me, MarcAshken, Inxec, Glimpse and some other bits and pieces, but they’re the core guys.

Then there’s Leftroom Limited, for big-ass crossover records that I just think destroy dancefloors, basically.

Then Leftout, which is trying to be a bit ahead of our time. 

I don’t want to sound like some big-ass guy who can predict the stars of the future, but it’s the kids that I think are really bloody good that aren’t getting breaks.

Some of them are better than producers on a lot of other labels, but because they’re not known they don’t get that break, so we’re promoting some younger talent.

And if it sells well, they’ve got the passion and their hearts are in the right place, then they can kinda move up to Leftroom.

I guess Leftroom started at around the same time as a lot of labels to see a downturn in their sales - but in your case, things seem to just be getting bigger and better.

Record sales are records sales.

You just have to be realistic.

The problem at the moment is that it’s often the label that sells, not the music.

So if ‘X’ record came out on a certain label, it would sell like 5000 copies, whereas if we put it out it’ll only do, well, the numbers we do.

People become accustomed to the label, they know what it sounds like.

The way we’ll sell more records now is by getting more fans, not even necessarily by putting out ‘better’ music.

We sell about the same amounts each time, but as more people find out about the label, the more records will sell.

If I put out a Minus record, it wouldn’t do the same as it would on Minus, you know what I mean?

That’s business basically.

Moving more towards yourself, what’s your DJing style?  Who’s influenced you?

Because I’ve always had residencies, I think I like to have the feeling that I’ve kind of done something, or been somewhere musically when I play.

Style-wise, I play stuff that mirrors me as a person.

If you meet me, and we have a chat and a laugh, then you hear me play afterwards, you can kind of see where I’m coming from.

I’m not one of these people who gets on the decks and goes in on themselves, goes dark or whatever, that’s not me.

You mentioned the seminal gig at Tyrant, but are there others?

The first gig at Fabric was special – I think I was 21, which made me the youngest person to have played in Room 1 at Fabric.

So that was obviously pretty special for me – and pretty nerve racking!

One time I took my mum.

She’s always backed me up – we’re not the richest family in the world, but she’s always supported me.

It got to her birthday last year, and I had no idea what to get her, so I decided to take her to Fabric for her birthday.

I was playing the warm-up set, 11-2 or something, and she came down.

I always go on about Fabric to her, so she worked out it was a big deal.

She stayed until 2, it was absolutely hilarious.

She was dancing with my friends in the DJ booth - a bit close to some of them as well, which was annoying me.

It was funny – what always winds me up about it was the last record I played, the very last one, she leans over and goes, “Oh, I like this one,” and I was like, “Cheers, so you didn’t like the other four hours I played before that, then?  Bollocks. Cheers. Thank you very much.”

But that’s what mums are for…

My mum keeps threatening to do a similar thing actually…

Turn up and start raving at your club night?  She’d love it.

I’m not sure she would, in truth. Maybe if I booked Moby or something. You also talked about supporting the UK scene. How do you feel about it at the moment?

Because I have had all these residencies, and built up a relationship with all these different promoters throughout the country, I’m probably one of the most-travelled UK DJs at the moment.

I luckily get to play in all the major cities round the country.

Because I’ve played with the guys for so long, I know what’s going on everywhere—Leeds, Manchester, Brighton, London.

I’m not so clued up with some of the newer parties – I’m not old, but I am getting older – but people tell me all about the newer parties and stuff, and I think it’s getting better here all the time.

As per usual, the whole minimal scene kicked off, and I was as such branded a minimal DJ in Nottingham, and everyone was like, “What’s that shit?”

Now, everyone plays it, and they turn around to me and I’m smiling, like, “What do you expect me to say?”

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