CONTROVERSY: PETE HERBERT

Just as the summer heat was killing us all, Controversy decides to pop up again and taunt us with its beauty for a night full of greatness this Saturday night (13/2/2010) at Roxanne, Melbourne. As we like helping friends here at the blog, we are happy to put out the good word of this spectacle, like usual. Oh and here is the main bit you have been waiting for: Controversy/Roxanne is proud to present UK’s tropical-cosmic-disco wonder Pete Herber. Read the blurb:

Controversy is back with another night of disco and heaving futuristic electronic funk. 2010 sees controversy return with a series of exciting touring acts First up its: PETE HERBERT. The LSB, Reverso 68, Frontera, and Bakazou are just some of the monikers under which London native Pete Herbert releases his futuristic take on disco. Founder of Superdiscotecca records Pete had remixed artists as varied as The Juan Maclean, Badly Drawn Boy, Ilija Rudman, Low Motion Disco, The Pink Monkey Flowers and many more. Pete divides his time these days either behind the wheels of steel at clubs and parties around Europe or in the studio working solo or with friends on their various musical projects.

With local support from: CHESTWIG (Controversy!) OTOLOGIC (Thee Pet Shop / Sorry Grandma) FRANCIS CHANG & SUPERHANDZ (Thee Pet Shop / Kids Who Speak No Words), CRYSKNIFE, ON & OFF + more…

Purchase tickets quick-stat at Moshtix here. Tickets will be available at the door on the night but for $20.

Pete also had some time whilst down here to answer some questions:

PATCH: Howdy Pete! How you been buddy? How you enjoying Australia thus far?
PETE: Howdy there. Yes having a great time, some great gigs, and loving the weather..

PATCH: So you are a native Londoner. How is life in London? Cold and miserable?
PETE: Yep that’s why I’m here! Hopefully by the time I return it will have stopped snowing..

PATCH: Please tell me all about your (now defunct) little vinyl emporium, Atlas Records.
PETE: Well we shut it over 8 years ago unfortunately, after the rents went through the roof. It was a small independent shop in Soho in the centre of London, where we specialized in leftfield music. At the time there weren’t many record shops like that about so it was a great place to hang out and meet people too, besides all the hot tunes..

PATCH: You have traveled near and far on your journeys. Two questions here: what is your most treasured place you have visited, and what is your most memorable DJ gig?
PETE: Yes have been lucky enough to travel lots in the last few years, some memorable spots were getting to check out Moscow, a pretty crazy city but a great club scene there, and people were really up for the party! and playing recently on the Sancho Panza Soundsystem at Notting Hill Carnival, the loudest system I’ve ever played on!

PATCH: When did you first develop a passion for music?
PETE: Back when I was at school in London, me and friends used to be really into the pirate radio stations that were about then, and swapping cassettes of shows, I guess from there, would go up to the record shops on Saturdays and wait for the new import 12”s to turn up.. Then managed to get a job in a record shop.

PATCH: So, were you a DJ before you started producing?
PETE: Yes indeed, the production came later, a natural progression I guess, after selling and playing other peoples music so much, I was always wanting to try my hand at it..

PATCH: When did you first get into the DJing side of things? How did you start, who taught you, etc. ?
PETE: I think it must have been when I was about 17 and from working in the shop, but I didn’t get more serious about it until I had my own shop a few years later..

PATCH: Now we’re going to get nitty-gritty. You are notorious for having many projects, aliases and such which span across many record labels. Would you be ever so kind to go into detail about each project/alias?
PETE: Bakazou: Actually just me, and haven’t used this name recently as I decided it was probably just better to use my own name! and stop confusing people!

Reverso 68: A project from myself and Phil Mison, we’re currently working on some new tracks, and its vibe is dare I say it of a more Balearic nature, aimed at the dancefloor. We first released on my label Specialist Interests about 6 years ago, then signed to Eskimo Recordings and have also done a fare few remixes along the way, so probably the most prolific of my collaborations. We also produced an album under the name Frontera for Danish label Music For Dreams a few years ago, on a more laidback home listening tip.

Bushflange: Gosh this was my first go at production way back with a friend Nik rapaccioli, who went on to work with Leftfield, and was also my partner in the record shop, a mixup of anything we were into at the time..which was about 17 years ago…

Optimo/Optimus: A project from a few years ago, we originally released stuff under the Optimo name, before a certain club night in Glasgow started putting productions out, so when that happened things got rather confusing so we changed our name.. We did some great remixes of Playgroup, Minimal Compact, Kylie Minogue etc before the name change, but unfortunately never really got the credit for them..

LSB/LSB Edits: This is me and Baby G from Barcelona, on a disco/edit/rework vibe. We did some releases also on Eskimo as well as setting up our own label for straight up edits, Superdiscoteca…Always going for the dancefloor jugular!

PATCH: Then, of course, you produce under your own name and have releases/remixes out on such great labels as Redux, Rekids, Under the Shade, etc. However, a huge success of 2009 would have to be your “Yo Drums” release out on your co-owned ‘Maxi Discs’ label. Can you go into more detail with the release and also this record label?
PETE: Maxi Discs I set up with friend Dicky Trisco, to release music we were inspired by from fvourite club tunes and sounds over the years and mixing it up with more recent productions..hence maybe sometimes some old school house, Chicago, disco sounds..

PATCH: Maxi Discs isn’t your only label as there is also your ‘Specialist Interests’ label. How did this label come about?
PETE: I wanted to see how a label really worked, so thought the best way was jump in at the deep end and start my own..
It was great fun, and it meant I could put out some of my own productions..

PATCH: What does the Pete Herbert studio consist of? What wonders are included in your arsenal?
PETE: I keep it pretty simple, have laptop, will travel!

PATCH: In a sentence, how would you describe the Pete Herbert sound?
PETE: A heady mixture of tropical disco, balearic house and Belgian beer.

PATCH: Finally, what’s in store for the future Pete?
PETE: Well if I finally make it back to Blighty, I’d like to try my hand at an album this year, and also finish off some new Reverso 68 tracks – its been about 4 years since we released any of own material. Also seek out some new material for Maxi Discs to work on, so any tracks to check out are welcome!!

MP3: Pete Herbert – Red Room
MP3: Walter Meego – Forever (Escort Remix – Pete Herbert Edit)
MP3: Marius – Disco Drummer (Pete Herbert Version)