Interview: MR Scruff

Abbas Ali chats to the legendary Manchester DJ, producer and purveyor of fine teas.

Ninja Tune’s Mr Scruff is in buoyant mood ahead of a full Summer of DJing across the Europe. Reflecting and getting his gear ready on a quiet week at home in Spring, we note that currently, Europe’s skyways are strangely, ominously empty. "Hopefully, I’ll make it to Greece. There’s lots of volcanic ash in the air", he says. The DJ is off to play in Greece in the coming days, then across Britain, Amsterdam and the US in the coming months. As we reflect on this year, it’s clear he’s excited about the prospect of a packed Summer schedule.

"All I’ll be doing in May is DJing and sleeping. It’s nice just to get that into it for a month, that you just get properly on one and immersed in it" Clearly, here is a man who enjoys his job. "Same as in the studio... it’s just an opportunity to get focussed, try out loads of new stuff, and push it forward." It’s a long way away from stacking shelves at the Burton Road Kwik Save in Manchester for the quirky, passionate DJ who is famed for his esoteric tastes, long sets, and... tea?

"It was just something you don’t expect, something a bit quirky", explains the DJ, known to his Mum, wife and mates as Andy Carthy, of the first time he began to take a stall selling tea into his legendary ‘Keep It Unreal’ clubnights. "We found it was something that made people chuckle a bit, but it got to the point, three or four years ago that we were selling so much tea that we had to start our own company ‘Make Us A Brew’". Such antics say a lot about the Stockport DJ’s love of building things from the grass roots, and his attention to detail: it’s all Fairtrade, and they started off with a "really nice Assam", for those crazy tea lovers out there.

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On a more musical note, we inevitably discuss the sad closure of one of Manchester’s most enduring venues, the Music Box / Jillys. The two combined venues have been around for some 40 years, and hosted Scruff’s ‘Keep It Unreal’ nights, as well as legendary club ‘Electric Chair’. "There’s been a lot of legendary club nights there over the years", Carthy says, mourning the club where he had a lot of his best nights. "Basically, every new venue that opened in Manchester is probably a bit smaller than Rockworld, and has better soundsystems, and the facilities weren’t befitting of big names".

The venue was also famed for being the place that Factory Records boss Anthony Wilson discovered Joy Division at an early gig. Carthy praised it in the highest possible terms. "I’d say from the mid-nineties onwards, the Music Box was Manchester clubbing, and I’d say so a lot more so than the Hacienda. In terms of being a legendary venue the Music Box was pretty much it for me in Manchester. "

When we move onto his work, it’s clear that Mr Scruff is passionate about getting the details right, and it something of a traditionalist, as it emerges. "I grew up with music as a physical object, and I ‘m still very attached to that". Clearly, the past decade has seen a move away from this, and the emergence of software based DJing systems, and so, I ask for his take. "A lot of people who play on Serato, and other software based Djing systems, I think their DJing has got worse".

Ever the purist, Carthy airs his concern at tendency of DJs to tamper with music when they have access to such technology, comparing their efforts to egregious 90s dance medley outfit Jive Bunny. "For me, if I’ve got an amazing 15 minute record, you’re going to get the whole 15 minutes. There’s no way I could improve on, say, a Fela Kuti record".

If such comments reveal a passionate love for music, this is something that transmits to a loyal fanbase, and it’s one that he enjoys a special relationship with. In his home city in particular, he notes, "I find that there’s a big student population in Manchester, so there are lots of young people. Then there are people who’ve been coming to see me for the last 15 years. I find that people who start, never really stop coming". It’s easy to understand why, as the legendary 'Keep It Unreal' nights do sound like debauched fun. "There are a ridiculous amount of hardcore regulars at the Manchester residency, all who are into really interesting music, and all of who know how to have a damn good time."

Catch Mr Scruff supporting Ian Brown at Manchester's Platt Fields Park on July 11th.

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