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[ No. 65 ] Dom And Roland
As it happens, Dom is the son of an opera singer father. The Londoner himself had counted on studying architecture until he discovered music. Dom dropped out of school. He enrolled in a studio engineering course while working as a barman to pay his way. He used his earnings to buy a Roland 760 and started to cut drum 'n' bass. How his dad did worry... 'I think at first he took it all as a joke and thought I wasn't really doing anything with my life, but he's quite proud of me now. He's probably jealous that I travel more than he does,' Dom deadpans. Dom's early releases surfaced under Nico's Saigon imprint. Dom went on to sign to Rob Playford's influential label, Moving Shadow. Along the way he has also embarked on fruitful collaborations with (among others) Playford, Goldie and Optical. It turns out that Dom's musical roots lie in hip-hop and house. What was it about drum 'n' bass that attracted him? 'I followed it through the progression,' the jet-lagged DJ recollects. 'Back then all music was just dance music and you got breakbeats and four-on-fours being played in the same set, and then it split. In England it went into house and hardcore... And I've just followed it all from there. I was DJing hardcore. I virtually decided that I wanted to make the tracks as well, and by that time, it was drum 'n' bass.' Last year Dom put out his long overdue first album, "Industry", on Moving Shadow. 'I always wanted to do an album, because it gives you a chance to do tracks that you wouldn't release as singles,' he says. 'The album has helped me, my singles sell more, and I get a lot more dates worldwide.' These days the term 'underground' is a precarious, fluid one, as Dom is all too aware. Yet he remains fairly close to the grassroots of drum 'n' bass. He is enjoying the low-key attention and has no great desire to crossover in the same way that Grooverider, Roni Size and Goldie have done. 'I'm quite happy where I am. I enjoy myself. I get to travel, see the world. I wouldn't want to be busier than I am now because I'm quite busy as it is. I work four days every weekend and then I've got three days in the studio before I have to go away again, so it's quite a hectic lifestyle. I don't get much of a social life! So, yeah, I quite like being underground.' How does Dom feel about the growing tendency for drum 'n' bass to be used to soundtrack advertisements? Dom isn't averse to the idea, although he is aware that bad examples could degrade the scene as a whole, especially by potentially misleading newer listeners. 'I don't mind the idea of using drum 'n bass for adverts. I just think the drum 'n' bass they use is very cheesy and I think that you could make some classy adverts... People don't do it. They just go for the real shit stuff, which I don't quite understand!' Dom discerns at least one direction that this almost decade-old movement is taking towards the New Millennium. 'There's been a resurgence of hardcore sounds in drum 'n' bass recently -- probably people trying to relive their childhood,' he chuckles. 'The production gets better all the time with the technology getting cheaper and more accessible to people. It's much easier for kids to make the sort of music that you hear from all the top producers... So I think you'll probably get a lot more people making it and obviously the standard will be a lot higher.' He himself adheres firmly to the dark, moodier hardcore style -- for now, at least. 'All my tunes have a phat beat. I don't like happy basslines too much. I like quite a dubby bass. And, yeah, I like a bit of a musical element as well.' Dom has just completed a heavy studio stint after a brief hiatus, during which he upgraded his studio equipment. A new EP is due soon. He has also remixed an Art Of Noise track and is still hoping to do some more mixes for Madonna's Maverick imprint. Dom may even soon record a jungle opera tune with his dad. 'It might work out... It would be a different angle, definitely.'
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