Judge Jules' Split Personality -Who Wants To Be a Boring F**ker-
Author: jonty adderley
Saturday, May 3, 2003
As Radio 1's simultaneously most loved and loathed superstar DJs Judge Jules has long know the upside and downside of speaking out. Polarising opinions from the very start of his career, the former LSE law student has long concentrated on serving his army of devoted fans and damming the rest, such as the purist techno types he continues to rile.
"The axe I've always had about techno is that they never dare to move outside their perception of what their genre is and I don't think that's a very challenging perspective," he told Skrufff's Jonty Adderley.
"It's good to challenge yourself."
Which is exactly what he's done with his Hi production partner in crime Paul Masterton, on the duo's debut album Split Personality, a record of two distinctive parts. Spread over two hugely different CDs, the album ranges from radio friendly ballads featuring the mournful voice of Boy George to the banging 138bpm hard dance music, Hi Gate (and Jules himself) are currently best known for.
"At 138bpm, it's difficult to create songs that don't end up sounding quite cheesy, because they're so fast. So you have to look to alternative genres."
Jules was chatting in the Highgate studio he co-owns with Paul Masterton, himself a highly successful producer under his pseudonyms Yomamda, Amen UK, the Candy Girls and others. And while Jules was loquacious, Paul was contrastingly quiet, happy to let Jules lead conversations.
Skrufff (Jonty Adderley): You've called your new album Split Personality, what came first, the music or the title-
Judge Jules: "We we're originally planning to call it Schizophrenic then Gerry Halliwell called her album Schizophonic so we wanted to steer a steady course away from her. We also thought the title might be a little 'near the knuckle' (sensitive) for anybody suffering from 'mal a la tete' (madness). We were looking for a more sympathetic title."
Paul Masterton: "And musically we wanted to avoid that route of just banging out an album of 12 dance tracks, we thought what's the point- We preferred to work on loads of different styles of music and to take a little longer."
Judge Jules: "I've also seen lots of my friends who make uptempo tunes, and they always seem to stick in their chosen genre when they make albums and I don't think that's what all the best albums are about. When we were both growing up, regardless of our individual tastes, you'd hear records with those old cliched peaks and troughs and hills and valleys. Also, from a personal point of view, I've got a son and I want my son to grow up and listen to it in five or ten years time and not be ashamed of what his Dad's done. Creating something that's a little longer lasting is more valuable to both of us than achieving instant sales."
Skrufff: Both the Boy George ballads stand out on the album, how did he get involved-
Judge Jules: "I've known George for years from DJing, having played alongside him countless times and he's the one person I know that even my grandparents would recognise. He might have had his peaks and troughs of fame but ultimately, he's in a different league of fame from the world we inhabit- he can't walk out the front door without being recognised. That's not the main reason we went for him though, there are other people who are that famous whose voices I detest, he was just the very first person that we both instantly wanted to hook up with.
His voice is really emotive and gorgeous, and he's also so unaffected by the fame thing, he's so nice and normal that he was right. We sent him the first instrumental, the one that became Out Of Fashion, and before he'd even said 'Yes' he'd already sent it back, written and recorded. We struck a chord with him in terms of the music."
Skrufff: When you created Out Of Tags