#grooveyard

Szép hétfői, későnkelős, megbocsátós reggelt mindenkinek! Én már megbocsátottam magamnak a sok késés miatt, mert ugyanolyan jó lesz délután lehuppanni a kanapéra és ezt megnyitni, mintha tegnap tettétek volna - ettől a szabálytalan, kiszámíthatatlan, Weekly-nevű jelenségtől lesz igazán maradandó élmény. Vagy épp attól, amit alább hoztam nektek?

When and where was Groove Yard Records started? 

Based in East London I knew lots of people that were like minded. After DJing for about 5 years it was kind of a natural progression for me. I had lots of friends with studio and started tinkering with beats around 1992/93. I decided it was something that I wanted to do myself, so I set up a little studio with a friend (Steve). Later I met up with another guy (Paul) who went to the same school as me. We got chatting and he was into hardcore but interested in getting involved in what I was doing, which was more on a US House tip. Paul had just purchased an Akai s950 sampler and asked shall I bring it to the studio?, that’s where it all started. After a while Steve ended up leaving the party but Paul and I continued to build the studio and learn the equipment.

What inspired you to start a label? Did you have a particular concept for Groove Yard?

A good friend of mine Tony Portelli had a record label called 4 liberty. We took a track to him that would eventually become our first release on Groove Yard, Nightlife - That'll do Nicely.

Tony liked the track and gave us some good feedback, which gave us a bit of confidence. Paul parents were quite wealthy and lent us £1000 to get the label set up and produce our first piece of vinyl. We thought long and hard for a name until one day I was sitting at a bus stop where there was an advert for a well known film which had a graveyard in the image. A light bulb flicked in my head and Groove Yard was born. I had a mate who produced all of the artwork for the events that I was promoting and between us we ripped of the the graveyard to create the logo for Groove Yard.

Tell us about LAB79 studios? Was this Groove Yards in house studio?

Originally the studio was at my mums house but when I moved out into a flat with my girlfriend and young son there was no longer room for the studio. We moved the studio into Paul’s parents house which was number 79 on the street, hence the name LAB79. We stayed there for a year or so before renting a unit in Millmead estate in Tottenham where we had 2 studios, offices and storage space.

Discogs lists Egypt, Floorbangers, Heavy Melon, Out Of The Underground, Red Line Records, Sandpaper Records, X System Records as sub labels. Were there anymore labels that can be accredited to Groove Yard?

Not sure where they got Egypt from, guilty as charged with the others though. Heavy Melon was my designer Andy Bundock and his flat mate Bunny who used to be involved with acid jazz, the other labels were all ours. Some that you haven't mentioned, Test Press, W.K.W.D, D'strict Knight ( jungle label ), M1 (hardcore label), this was Paul's preferred genre, not my thing really. Initially we had Groove Yard and Floorbangers but when we moved to the unit in Tottenham we set up a distribution company to deliver our labels to the shops. We decided to set up other labels so we had more that just 1 label to distribute as we were churning out a fair bit at the time.

You had released under the name DJ Einstein. Was Chewy someone else? Were there any other alias you went by?

I was Einstein, that was my DJ name that I had used for years because my hair used to be long and made me look like Albert Einstein. Now I just use my own name Lee Bramley. Paul was Chewy because he looked like Chewbacca from Star Wars. Other aliases were Kalani Bob & Remegel, LAB79, Danny Suarez, Nightlife, Suburbanite W.K.W.D.

Were the unknown artist tracks e.g. Floorbangers series were this produced by yourself?

Again guilty as charged. We produced most of the tracks under different aliases or un-named.

Was there much unreleased music from the groove yard camp? Would you ever consider releasing any of it?

We had loads of unreleased stuff that we didn't feel was good enough for release.

Would you consider releasing the groove yard discography digitally?

I would love to do that but unfortunately a lot of the masters have been lost. Deep Breath was actually remastered last year for a compilation, Pure Deep House 3.

Are you still producing and DJing to this day?

I'm living in Perth now but still DJing and promoting events under the name Groove Yard Promotions. I host a radioshow on London’s Housefm.net with my eldest son, who is a very talented DJ and is making big waves on the scene here too. We play together a fair bit like father like son. Still making a few bits and pieces when I get time,

Had you been involved in the music industry before Groove Yard Records?

I started DJing when I was 14 playing in a local wine bar, believe it or not the whole school was in there. At 15 I was promoting events for school leavers with a friend of mine and by 16 I was playing for Genesis on their pirate station, this led me into clubland. After about 6 months at Genesis I got caught in the studio by the Police and DTI and moved to Sunrise fm. Sunrise was one of London’s biggest Pirate’s at the time.

Do you have a particular favourite production/release from the catalogue that you are most proud or producing/releasing?

Cheese & Pickle was probably our biggest track. I still hear this on a regular basis aswell as Kutz from the Lab Vol 1. The Fundamentals EP got us some exposure and remix work with some of the major labels .

We did have a lot of tracks that flew under the radar. I played a vinyl set over in Perth recently and played entirely my tracks for the whole set, which I have never done before. I hadn't heard a lot of them for years and had totally forgotten about them but I was pleasantly surprised. Could get away with them in clubs now.

There are some amazing tracks of Richard Purser on your label, he is one of our personal favourites here at Enchanted Rhythms, how did you come to meet and work with him?

Richard is a great guy and very talented. I met him through Grant Nelson. They were working together on some bits and pieces and I used to sit in the studio with Grant sometimes during the Nice ‘n’ Ripe Days. We just hit it off and he was keen to get exposure from as many platforms as possible so we got him involved with us too.

Was there anything you wanted to mention?

There are lots of things, I could go on for days; Forgot to give my good friend Errol Simms a mention. He came on board with us for a while when we moved to the studio in Tottenham, he was very talented. You may know him from this track, One Tribe ft Gem. He had a couple of releases on D'Strict Knight and some involvement with the Groove Yard stuff. Also Jay Anders rented a studio from us and brought us the Hyperfunk track by Antonio, which we distributed before it was signed to Locked on. After I left the original studio with Paul, some months after Errol and Jay contacted me and we set up a little studio together in Elephant and Castle. We produced many tracks between us that never were released. Timmy Magic also produced quite a few tracks in our studio durning the early Dreem Team phase which we had some involvement in. Had some very funny times with those boys.

You can catch Einstein aka Lee Bramley along side his son Tommy B and Grant Nelson Saturday 2nd July at the Legends of House White Party Reunion.

You can also catch Lee & Tommy on the House Proud Show every Friday 4-6pm GMT on housefm.net  Check the Facebook pages below to stay up to date.  THE HOUSE PROUD SHOW Groove Yard Promotions

Great for lounging or something.