ska invita
back on the other side
A couple of Stingray mixes here
For FACT as Urban Tribe
http://soundcloud.com/futurityworks/urban-tribe-fact-mix-by-dj
For RA
http://soundcloud.com/futurityworks/dj-stingray-ra-podcast-190
Stingray interviewed in the Wire here
http://thewire.co.uk/articles/4131/
aha....
You didn't seem to produce under the name DJ Stingray for a long time. Is that correct, and if so, why did it take so long to use that name?
S: Well I'll tell you the story behind that. After the first Detroit electronic music festival, I was contacted by the late Mr James Stinson. And we discussed being a tour DJ for Drexciya. We're talking somewhere around 2003. So shortly after that I was contacted by James Stinson, we talked and we went back and forth with some things, and he gave me a lot of records. Due to his untimely passing you know, obviously I discontinued with Drexciyan DJ Stingray. And my original intent and purpose was just to go out as a Drexciyan tour DJ. But again with his untimely passing, things change. I still had DJ commitments that we had already signed to, so I continued for a while more, and then later on I dropped the Drexciyan, just started DJ Stingray. Partly as a homage to him, and then partly as it it gave me a new identity and a new avenue for expression. Because I love the uptempo style, so-called electro style. To me it's techno. And it gave me an outlet for expression. And so I stuck with it and that's why I started producing under that name seemingly so late.
D: I wonder if you can ask you about the Drexciyan connection so to speak. Were you aware of their work when you were contacted by James Stinson?
S: Oh absolutely, I was playing Drexciya stuff in hardcore motorcycle clubs in Detroit. That's a secret that a lot of people don't know, that a lot of guys around Detroit were playing one or two Drexciya tunes here and there. But in one of the hardest clubs in Detroit, it was a motorcycle club, it was pretty hardcore, I would get by playing a lot of Drexciya tracks there. I was already a fan, and I was already playing the music back when they first came out, and I had known Gerald and James because I worked in a record store in the late 80s and early 90s called Buy Rite music.
So I was selling their music as well. We'd buy like 50 of them or so and put them on the shelves and we'd sell them to people. So I was already familiar with James and Gerald long before they started Drexciya. I met them, talked to them, we argued about somethings.... We argued because one of their first pieces, I think it was "Glass Domain", and I was telling them the count from the beginning of the song wasn't even. You know, it didn't come in on like an eight or a 16, it came in on like a five or a seven. And I said you shouldn't do that cause DJs are not apt to play it if the beginning isn't even. And we argued about that, but it wasn't a hostile argument. And I had told Gerald this, and the next day him and James came back in the store and we kind of argued about it, and that's how I met James.
D: What did they say about that, when you said their tracks are irregular?
S: They were like, 'man, who are you, you can't tell us what to do,' and I'm like, look man, I'm just telling you, I sell these records to tons of DJs that come in, I know what they buy I know what they like and I'm telling you, this is what you do, XYZ. And we went back and forth, and at the end of the day we just shook hands and it was over with and we were cool.
For FACT as Urban Tribe
http://soundcloud.com/futurityworks/urban-tribe-fact-mix-by-dj
For RA
http://soundcloud.com/futurityworks/dj-stingray-ra-podcast-190
Stingray interviewed in the Wire here
http://thewire.co.uk/articles/4131/
aha....
You didn't seem to produce under the name DJ Stingray for a long time. Is that correct, and if so, why did it take so long to use that name?
S: Well I'll tell you the story behind that. After the first Detroit electronic music festival, I was contacted by the late Mr James Stinson. And we discussed being a tour DJ for Drexciya. We're talking somewhere around 2003. So shortly after that I was contacted by James Stinson, we talked and we went back and forth with some things, and he gave me a lot of records. Due to his untimely passing you know, obviously I discontinued with Drexciyan DJ Stingray. And my original intent and purpose was just to go out as a Drexciyan tour DJ. But again with his untimely passing, things change. I still had DJ commitments that we had already signed to, so I continued for a while more, and then later on I dropped the Drexciyan, just started DJ Stingray. Partly as a homage to him, and then partly as it it gave me a new identity and a new avenue for expression. Because I love the uptempo style, so-called electro style. To me it's techno. And it gave me an outlet for expression. And so I stuck with it and that's why I started producing under that name seemingly so late.
D: I wonder if you can ask you about the Drexciyan connection so to speak. Were you aware of their work when you were contacted by James Stinson?
S: Oh absolutely, I was playing Drexciya stuff in hardcore motorcycle clubs in Detroit. That's a secret that a lot of people don't know, that a lot of guys around Detroit were playing one or two Drexciya tunes here and there. But in one of the hardest clubs in Detroit, it was a motorcycle club, it was pretty hardcore, I would get by playing a lot of Drexciya tracks there. I was already a fan, and I was already playing the music back when they first came out, and I had known Gerald and James because I worked in a record store in the late 80s and early 90s called Buy Rite music.
So I was selling their music as well. We'd buy like 50 of them or so and put them on the shelves and we'd sell them to people. So I was already familiar with James and Gerald long before they started Drexciya. I met them, talked to them, we argued about somethings.... We argued because one of their first pieces, I think it was "Glass Domain", and I was telling them the count from the beginning of the song wasn't even. You know, it didn't come in on like an eight or a 16, it came in on like a five or a seven. And I said you shouldn't do that cause DJs are not apt to play it if the beginning isn't even. And we argued about that, but it wasn't a hostile argument. And I had told Gerald this, and the next day him and James came back in the store and we kind of argued about it, and that's how I met James.
D: What did they say about that, when you said their tracks are irregular?
S: They were like, 'man, who are you, you can't tell us what to do,' and I'm like, look man, I'm just telling you, I sell these records to tons of DJs that come in, I know what they buy I know what they like and I'm telling you, this is what you do, XYZ. And we went back and forth, and at the end of the day we just shook hands and it was over with and we were cool.
