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Golf Buggy Trippin' with Matrix

Author: Jo Vraca
Thursday, September 13, 2001
Over the years, drum'n'bass has had its fair share of heroes - from Goldie to Grooverider, Dom and Roland, LTJ Bukem, Ed Rush and Optical, Fierce and of course the producer of the moment, who can lay claim to redefining the genre, Matrix.

For Jamie Quinn, perhaps better known as Matrix and sometimes known as Optical's little brother, producing music is a passion, regardless what genre you want to slap it into but he does affirm that, to the UK, drum'n'bass is a major force in the industry. "In a way, I guess drum'n'bass is like the British version of hip hop; that's where it originated." And, as with hip hop, the drum'n'bass community is a tight one. "In terms of people like me, my brother, Ed Rush and the guys out of Bad Company, Fierce and Trace, we all see each other quite a lot. We sometimes play at the same thing. At some of the London clubs, I'll go down to one of them and there'll be a bunch of people who I know; some are producers or DJs. To be honest, we started doing this just because we all enjoyed it and now we can't really believe our luck."

Quinn, who is now 25, has come a long way since the day, nearly a decade ago, when a school friend gave him and brother Matt a pirate copy of a computer game which fortuitously happened to also contain a music program. His interest developed from a mere fascination for the music they were listening to at local, underground raves and making on their Commodore, to become the driving, hypnotic drum'n'bass sounds that the UK is famous for today - from his first releases on Formation through the copious remixes including Ed Rush and Optical's 'Lifecrisis', the momentous 'Convoy/Mute 98' release on Prototype. With his early 2000 debut album, 'Sleepwalk' on Virus and his engineering work for Goldie and his seminal label, 'Metro' which is, as Quinn puts it, a low-key affair, this is drum'n'bass, Matrix style.

Tell me about your last visit to Australia.
I loved Australia. Its weird because it's about the furthest away I could travel without leaving the planet but it felt the most like home out of all the places I've been. It's the middle of summer this time. It's gonna be a bit more of a holiday as well - I'm going up to the Barrier Reef to catch some sunshine for a week after the gig in Melbourne.
You like to dive. Did you do any diving while you were last here-
Yeah, the promoters of the gig I did in Perth took us out one day. Just before we went out the guy who owned the boat showed us the jaws of a 15 foot Great Blue Shark that he had killed after it tried to attack him. We're not really used to that kind of shit down at Brighton beach so it was kind of scary! But I loved it. I can't wait to go again when I'm over there this time.
What has 2000 brought you-
I've basically been DJing non stop since I put my album out at the beginning of the year so it's been cool to see some new places. Also been doing some production work with Goldie for his next album. I haven't been in the studio that much this year but right now I'm working on some new tracks with Fierce and Ryme Tyme. In fact were going in tomorrow night to finish some stuff off.
At what point did you decide to make drum'n'bass-
I don't know. I just found myself doing it, it just happened. When I first started getting into club music, house is really what was happening in the UK at that time. People were taking house music which came out of America and putting their own slant on it and that's where drum'n'bass came from, I just followed that evolution. I used to go to a lot of shady illegal raves out in the countryside over here.
Do you like to vary your sound and workload-
Yeah definitely, you get bored otherwise. That's why I took a bit of a break from being in the studio -too much cabin fever!
Last time we spoke, you said that if the perfect house or techno tune dropped into your head you'd have no hesitation in attempting it. Have you toyed with non drum'n'bass sounds lately-
Yeah I'm thinking about some
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