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Features
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| Introducing NEM3SI$’s new label Infinite Resistance! | | Mindbenderz talk ‘Lord of the Rings’ and fishing, as well as the creation of their new album ‘Celestial Gateway’! | | Iono-Music artists One Function, Eliyahu, Invisible Reality and Dual Vision talk Robert Miles, kids, dogs and vinyl, while we chat about their current releases! | | Luke&Flex talk influences, the Irish rave scene, why Flex wears a mask and Play Hard, their new EP out now on Onhcet Repbulik Xtreme! | | Lyktum expands on his new album ‘Home’ – talking about his love of storytelling, creating new harmonies and the concept behind his musical works. | | Pan talks getting caught short crossing the Sahara, acid eyeballs and tells us Trance is the Answer, plus shares his thoughts on his latest release 'Beyond the Horizon' - all from a beach in Spain! | | Miss C chats about living with the KLF, DJing in a huge cat’s mouth, training her brain and the upcoming super-duper Superfreq Grande party at LDN East this Saturday, 16th September! | | NEM3SI$ - I Live for the Night – talks superficiality, psychopaths, and bittersweet success, ahead of a plethora of evocative, emotional, and passionate upcoming melodic techno releases! | | Psy-Sisters Spring Blast Off! We talk to DJ competition winner ROEN along with other super talents on the lineup! | | Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast! | | Shyisma talks parties, UFO's, and Shotokan Karate ahead of his upcoming album 'Particles' on Iono-Music! | | SOME1 talks family, acid, stage fright and wolves - ahead of his upcoming album release ‘Voyager’ on Iono-Music in February 2023! | | The Transmission Crew tell all and talk about their first London event on 24th February 2023! | | NIXIRO talks body, mind and music production ahead of his release 'Planet Impulse' on Static Movement's label - Sol Music! | | Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project | | The Psy-Sisters chat about music, achievements, aspirations and the 10-Year Anniversary Party - 18/12/22! | | A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden | | Earth Needs a Rebirth! Discussions with Psy-Trance Artist Numayma | | Taking a Journey Through Time with Domino | | New Techno Rising Star DKLUB talks about his debut release White Rock on Onhcet Republik! | | PAN expands on many things including his new album 'Hyperbolic Oxymoron' due for release on the 14th April 2022 on PsyWorld Records! | | Psibindi talks all things music including her new collaborative EP 'Sentient Rays' on Aphid Records, her band Sentience Machine and 10 years of Psy-Sisters! | | N-Kore talks Jean-Michel Jarre, unfinished tracks and fatherhood! | | Celebrating International Women’s Day and Ten Years of Psy-Sisters with Amaluna | | A Catch Up with John Phantasm ahead of his upcoming set at the Tribal Village 4 Day Outdoor Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! | | 'The Maestro that is Tristan talks barn owls, Shazamming and keeping it Psychedelic ahead of his upcoming performance at the Tribal Village 4 Day Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! |
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A Tasty interview with Billy ‘Daniel’ Bunter
Reported by Allan McGrath
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Submitted 28-10-05 02:33
Larger than life itself, few characters within today’s underground scene can lay claim to having as much influence as one Billy ‘Daniel’ Bunter. In a career spanning over 15 years, the 30 year old has reinvented himself more times than Bowie and Madonna combined and set more dance floors alight than most of us have had hot dinners. And he’s had a fair few of them as well.
Starting this illustrious journey as an acid house and underground rave DJ back in the late 80s, the enigmatic artist soon racked up one of the biggest piano hardcore hits of the early 90s with ‘Let It Lift You’ before blowing the hardcore template wide-open with the ragga-rave madness of ‘Bodyslam’. A track he claims to have conceived almost by accident, it was the spark that lit a four year blaze of innovative hardcore meets underground trance/techno fusions through his legendary Great British Techno label before he realised that it was the likes of Pete Wardman and Tony De Vit that were supporting his compositions, rather than the rave-jocks he played alongside at events like Helter Skelter.
Cue a rather astute side-step into a then burgeoning hard dance scene and, unsurprisingly, another resoundingly successful chapter in the career of Billy “Daniel” Bunter. His hard dance DJ career exploded, with productions like ‘Make It Rock’ flying into the boxes of Lashes, Farley and Fergie. Meanwhile his Honeypot label unleashed some of the most innovative hard dance records around (think 414 All, Warehouse, Dimension X), not to mention offering talents such as Jon Doe, Roosta, Nick Sentience and Kevin Energy their first major hard dance releases.
Now half a decade down the line, Bunter is sitting proudly at the top of the scene, thanks in no small part to the success of his high-intensity Tasty events, yet has still found time to return to the mayhem of the hardcore scene both as a DJ and producer of fresh cutting-edge material. Sheesh. Add in 6 gigs a weekend, his hugely popular Pure Anthems show on Sky’s Pure Dance station and continued presence in both the old skool and even funky house arenas and you complete one of the most non-stop and round-the-clock contributions to the current scene as you’re likely to come across! No wonder you can’t shut the bugger up!
We caught up with Daniel in the run up to the fourth birthday of Tasty to see what he had to say and, sure enough, it was quite a lot!
First of all lets start with the Tasty 4th birthday bash on 12th November at The Mass. You started Tasty back in the intimate arches of Vauxhall’s Crash Club back in September of 01. Did you think then that it would progress to become one of the firmest fixtures on the London hard dance calendar and what was it that inspired you to enter the notoriously cut-throat promotion game after all those years in the business?
You know what, I didn’t know what to expect. It was all done on a whim. It was about the only thing in music I hadn’t done, but always had a burning desire to do. We was releasing an album, and I thought fuck it, let’s have a launch party. I lost shit loads of money as I had never done it before, but we rammed out the Crash, and it was a huge buzz, so I continued doing it. 4 years later I have learned how to work it around my dj career and family life without it becoming stressful and it’s kind of another feather in my cap and some thing I enjoy doing. In this day and age it’s got to the point where it’s not enough just to be a dj, you need to be active in all areas to keep moving on and keep your message of what you believe in out there, and Tasty really helps me in pushing the music and vibe that I believe in.
After stints at The Fridge and The Rocket Complex, Tasty seems to have settled nicely at Brixton’s Mass Club with the two linked in the same way Mind Over Matter was once attached to The Camden Palace, Logic with The Fridge and HHA with Brixton Academy. What features of the venue make it such a perfect partner for Tasty and are there any plans to take Tasty to other London venues in the foreseeable future?
I liked the Fridge and we had some awesome events there, but I just felt we weren’t individual enough as so many other promotions used the venue as well. I love the Rocket for sentimental reasons of the early 90s, but the move there, to put it in a nut shell, was disastrous, all the parties were great, but we lost nearly 10 grand there, and on the last event we did at the venue, on the day of the event my girl friend was taken to hospital with a sudden illness. The writing was on the wall for me and I was like “you know what; I don’t think the Rocket is meant to be”.
The Mass just clicks for Tasty, no one else uses all the rooms for the kind of event we do, and it’s a good size and a great venue. I can’t put my finger on it, it just works. We really are unique there, and are doing our own thing, and that’s what makes it special. Like with every thing I do, I don’t want to be part of the “in” crowd and follow the trends, and in the game of music it’s important to be individual as so many people are doing it and copying each other. As regards to the future of Tasty, next year I will be doing a smaller intimate venue once a month, as well as 4 to 6 bigger events.
Your hard dance sets in the last year seem to ditch a lot of the more twisted NRG tracks or tech-fused work-outs that you would spin alongside your UK hard trance cuts three/four years ago and replaced them with a more upbeat, smiley and melodic sound. What were your primary motivations for the switch? Did you feel that it was time to get back to the basics of smiley party anthems or did you find the quality and innovation at the darker end of the spectrum had dropped away?
Music moves on, and it’s essential to keep moving on as a dj. For me personally, the majority of harder music over the past few years has become way too computerized and has lacked a real personal touch. At the moment I play a lot of stuff with vocals, uplifting pianos, and riffs with more melody. It’s still hard and bouncy, but I think people react to it more as it has that personal element of vocals and music to it, as opposed to random noises and percussion made to sound technically amazing but at the end of the day has no real musical substance or hook. I also feel people want to party and hear music that makes them feel good, and there’s nothing better then seeing a club load of people with massive smiles and their hands in the air.
In the past the likes of Sentience, BK, Guyver and Doe burst through at key times with a fresh take on the hard dance template, flipping it on its head completely. But are there any producers out there at the moment with that level of inspiration and imagination? Do you think a new breed of hard dance innovators will again emerge and who are you tipping to lead the revolution?
All those artists were very inspirational and all had their own take on hard house and hard trance through out the “commercially viable” golden era of the music. For me personally across these mentioned artists and a handful of others every thing that could be done for those styles has been done, and anything we are now hearing is just an emulation of what those people done. We are in a different era now, and we are not going to find the future of harder music in people who are emulating what we have heard before. I am digging much deeper for my music and not always looking to the immediate artists around me for inspiration, there is great music coming through from Italy, Germany, Holland, Spain, America, Israel, Australia, and Japan and off course the UK. At the moment I am not relying on any 1 artist for inspiration, I am listening to as much new music from as many artists as possible from around the world for inspiration. The key is variation and it’s out there, as djs we have to do our home work, and look for the next step. One sound that we have hardly heard in harder music over the past 5 years is the uplifting piano riff, and I am playing loads of tracks with that sound at the moment, and it’s something that is really working, and a sound that I am pushing in my sets. The revolution “as you put it” is coming, you can feel it, but it’s gonna come from a cross section of artists and countries vibeing of each other’s different styles, that’s what’s making music so exciting at the moment for me, knowing that there is so much fresh stuff out there that not many other dj’s in my genre are picking up on.
As for your own productions, things seem to have taken a back seat at the moment, especially on the hard dance side. Have you recently completed any hard dance projects and can you tell us a bit about them? Also reveal any forthcoming projects…
I have got a handful of tracks on the go at the moment which I have been playing out, but are in no rush to release. When I release my next Bunter single I want to know that it’s gonna stand out. I have got a track called ‘Burning’ which I have done with Jon Doe & Nikki Mak which I feel will be my first single in a year, with live vocals, a classic piano house riff, a big trance melody, and a banging beat and pumping bass.
Can fans expect future vinyl releases from the legendary Honeypot or has the label come to an end?
I know there has been a lot of speculation as to what is happening with the label, but until I publicly say it’s over, it ain’t over. I’m sitting back, listening to the music that I’m getting from around the world and watching and waiting for that special artist like Jon Doe or a sound that will be individual and make the label different to the pack, like when we first started releasing UK hard trance.
A lot of hard dance djs such as Nick Sentience, Ed Real and James Lawson are incorporating more and more psychedelic trance into their sets to give them a fresh funkin twist. Are you picking up on any of the psy trance material and, if so, which artists are standing out for you?
Yeah I recently down loaded a couple of tracks from track it down by an artists called Bulletproof, one was a remake of Soft Cell — ‘Tainted Love’, which blew me away, and smashes the dance floor when played at the right moment. Psy trance has been around since the early 90s and like with all dance music I have always been open minded to it. I love the vibe of the sound and recently had the pleasure of playing at a psy trance beach party in Australia. How ever, I don’t believe it’s the future sound of the hard house and hard trance scene, it’s not got that fun element which is essential to the UK’s harder dance floors.
As for your hardcore sets, you’ve also turned away from the more acidic 165 bpm rave style that you first forged with your defining GBT label in the late 90s, instead embracing a full-on euphoric and vocal based sound. But do you ever think that the vocal sound can take one step too far on the cheesy route and are their any tunes that simply stench too strongly of stilton to make the Bunter box?
Off course, as with any music, there’s always going to be tracks you don’t like for one reason or another, be it the cheese factor, production standard, a riff you don’t like etc etc. I can’t pin point any one track that has been too cheesy, but there’s a lot of tracks, same in my hard dance sets, that just don’t do it for me, so they don’t get in the box.
Which hardcore tracks have been doing the most floor damage for you over the last few months?
Divine Inspiration — ‘The Way’ (Breeze & Styles mix)
Billy Daniel Bunter & Jon Doe — ‘Burning’ (Hardcore Mix)
Flyin & Limits — ‘Lift me Up’
CLSM — ‘Just A Feeling’
Largely ostracised from the mainstream dance media, hard dance and hardcore have always been snubbed as the black sheep of the clubbing community but you’ve stuck by them through thick n thin. You’re well known for your love of all styles, so have you ever been tempted to ditch the manic kick drums to pursue a career spinning more subtle musical textures?
That’s kind of an interesting question for me, if you listen to my show on Pure Dance, my Jenkins Lane sets at Raindance or my upcoming sets at Promised Land, where I play all the original 88/89 house tracks and club classics. To some one who doesn’t know that music it would sound a lot more subtle to the music I play at events such as Frantic & Tasty now, but back then that was the sound of raves. I have no desire to play more subtle stuff, because in a way I already have a more subtle side that I get to play and appeals to all the original raving crew who used to go out back in the day, and still come out to hear me now.
With events like Slammin Vinyl’s NYE NEC taking on the UK’s biggest indoor arena, thousands of ravers at least stand in conflict to the trend-setters judgements. What do you think has kept the enthusiasm levels within the hard dance scene and rave scene is so high?
At the end of the day, what the fuck do the so called “trend setters” know at all these magazines and web sites about raving and hard dance music. They’re all too busy in some trendy bar in Hoxton discussing the latest amazingly engineered high hat produced by some really cool artist to realise there’s a whole exciting scene that always has been and always will be there “like it or not”, and that’s where our strength lies, we don’t need the trend setters support to make our scene what it is, because it’s already the bollox with out their help. Let the media snub us, because whilst their doing that, were in our own world having fun and doing what we believe in, and attracting 10’s of thousands of like minded people every weekend to our events and to hear our music. People are not stupid, they know what they like and they don’t need journalists or “cool” people to tell them. People vote with their feet, and they know that the rave and hard dance scene’s are fuckin doin it, and that’s why the dance floors go off year after year, regardless whether it’s cool or not. Why are the enthusiasm levels so high for it, because the music, and the energy levels at these events is exiting and fun and that’s what the weekend is all about!!!!
Do you think its fair to say that the hard dance scene represents many clubbers ‘entry’ into the world of drugs, clubs and all-night adventures before they move on to more ‘adult’ styles?
I would say it’s 50/50, you get a lot of people who discover it, then “grow up” and become way to cool for harder music, then you get people who just love it, don’t give a fuck about whether it’s cool or not and just take it for what it is: good fun.
Trekking to up to six gigs in the average Bunter weekend, you’ve seen your fair share of dance floors and played everything from intimate clubs in Ipswich to colossal outdoor raves Down Under. But which gigs have stood out as the most memorable and why?
Boy, this question and what is my favourite record of all time are the hardest to answer. When New Years Eve is done and dusted this year I would have done about 250 gigs in 2005, and have hardly had any weekends off in the past 15 years. So it’s almost impossible to pin point the standout gigs, as every weekend is so much fun. If I had to choose 3, it would be when I first started playing for Labrynth/2000ad in 89/90 when I was 15, you can’t ever beat the feeling of first playing out to a proper crowd at a proper event. Second has to be the first time I played at The Sanctuary in Milton Keynes, it was for Helter Skelter and the atmosphere just blew me away, topped with the fact it was for Helter Skelter @ The Sanctuary, I think I was about 18 at the time.
Third and I may be as bold to say it is my most memorable gig of all time, was Summer Enchanted Forest 2004 — Adelaide/Australia, 6000 people in the desert, under the stars, and it was one of the first times I dropped a full set of vocal hard dance, it was hands in the air every track, I am fortunate to have got the whole set on DVD. It’s one of them where the entire crowd clicked with what I was doing. I look at the DVD now and again, and think to my self “you know what, after 15 years I still fucking love my job!”
You come from an age where DJs got their first bookings through handing out crackled mix recordings on a battered C90 tape, not by sucking off a promoter or having an agent over hype you. Do you ever get disheartened by the amount of undue hype that gets whipped up around people that are essentially just mixing other peoples’ records? And do you think that the over-hyping can take detract from the ability to create a pure party atmosphere?
At the end of the day, we have to accept it as part of today’s scene and it’s something that has been embraced and pushed by the new generation of “industry types” No doubt the intro to this interview is gonna use some pretty big words and sensationalism to hype me up. For me, the main thing is the truth, and the only place the truth remains for a dj is when he or she is up behind them decks and delivering, and the people are moving. I would hope the majority of people who read the internet and magazines are with it enough to make up their own minds, that some one is a “legend” or “inspirational” because of the dj or artist that they are hearing and not for what they are reading.
Some people might suggest you’ve got a bit of a gob on you Bunter and you’re certainly never shy to let the world know what you think… would you call yourself outspoken?
In the early days, when I first ever got interviewed in all the magazines like Dream, M8, Mixmag[i/], [i]DJ ect, I was very outspoken, but then that’s what you do when your 19/20. Now I don’t see my self as outspoken, I see myself as some one who speaks from my experiences and what I am learning at the time.
Do you still get out on the dancefloor and give it some with the best of em? What was the most memorable night you’ve had out as a clubber this year?
I’ve had a fair few. Me and my mate Cuddles had some mad nights out in Australia this year, the best one had to be ending up on a beach party in Australia. I’ve also gotta say, as you get older, you get better at partying for longer. All you younger ones reading this, I’ll rave you all under the table any fucking day!!!!!
And what do you listen to when you’re not banging out underground rave beats? What’s on your home stereo at the moment?
My house is music, music, music. My 2 children listen to every thing from pop to hip hop. My girlfriend listens to any thing from soul to house, and at the moment I am listening to ska. You can come round to my house and some times hear music from 4 different rooms from everyone who lives here. But next week it could change. I could be listening to Adam and the Ants Jack & Katy could be listening to funky house and Sonya could be listening to Bob Marley. There’s always different music on our home stereos.
Finally with the Tasty 4th birthday just round the corner, I’ve got to ask... what’s the most outrageous birthday celebration you’ve ever experienced and do you honestly think Tasty will top it?
Tuff one, I have had some pretty mad celebrations over the years, but at the end of the day, with me throwing the Tasty 4th Birthday, I know exactly what to do to make it top the maddest birthday I’ve ever experienced.
TASTY - 4TH BIRTHDAY
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On:
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Saturday 12th November 2005
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At:
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Mass [map]
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From:
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9pm to 6am
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Cost:
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£7.50 (LIMITED PERIOD), £10, £15
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Ticket Info:
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Ticket deal – Buy 1 get 1 free
Up to Monday 31st October, tickets for this event are
£15 plus you get 1 free for every ticket you buy
You can only take advantage of this deal via :
• credit card hot line – MAD RECORDS 0207 439 0707
• direct from Tasty Events by sending a cheque or
postal order made out to Honey Pot Management Ltd,
Po Box 387, Welwyn Garden City, AL7 9AP
Standard tickets £15 from Tuesday 1st November
£10 ON THE DOOR BEFORE 10.30
£15 ON THE DOOR AFTER 10.30
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More:
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It's Tasty time, you know we are gonna tear the roof clean off of The Mass. Lisa Pin Up's in the house, K90's in the house, Nu Energy Collective's in the house, as well as a host of the freshest and most experienced dj's and mc's in the country.
Attractions
It goes with out saying, as with all Tasty events that the production for the 4th birthday will be awesome. In the 4 years that Tasty has been throwing parties we have all ways delivered the best in sound and visual entertainment and tonight is no exception.
Dress code - COME COLOURFULL & BRING A MASSIVE SMILE!!!!!!
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Flyer:
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Other Features By Allan McGrath:
Kutski gets ready for his brand new residency @ Tasty - Love Muzik
Hardcore Euphoria preview: Bonkers about Arkitech
Mark Ashley vs Eryk Orpheus: the festive show down
Freeformation Chris-Mess Rave-Up Preview With Type 1
Tasty preview with Roosta
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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Well done, Tasty definitely is one of the best parties in London - Big up ya bad self! 
Bodyslam 
