Redinho's House Parties Sound Like A Guide To Fun In The New Millenium

Photo credit: Mads Perch

Despite its reputation as a boys club for punk jesters, Glasgow label Numbers take very seriously indeed the task of dragging electronica headfirst into the future. From the prog-digital wizardry of Rustie to Hud Mo's neo-Luger trap, few labels have played such an important role in defining the changing face of dance music as the Scottish collective. For all their hedonistic hi-jinx, it's starkly evident the Numbers crew have a serious eye for talent.

Redinho, A.K.A Tom Calvert is one such talent, one of Numbers' many unassumingly brilliant tech-bods pulling at the seams of electronica but one who is often at risk of being overlooked for the label's more raucous, more rock'n'roll members. Beneath that polite exterior, the talk-box-rinsing sound-lab trickster is a fearless adventurer in the studio.

The Londoner has succeeded where many have failed by managing to create a sound that is his alone. In the post-everything era where genre hybridisation in UK dance music has reached new levels of bewilderment, Calvert joins the ranks of Machinedrum and Addison Groove as one of several Brit producers able to conjure unexampled sounds from the bones of disparate, seemingly incompatible genres with real finesse and sometimes mind-bending results. As Calvert releases his characteristically undefinable debut LP, entitled simply Redinho, the Londoner chats to THUMP about house parties, Numbers, the current state of dance music and Stevie Wonder.

THUMP: Whereabouts are you actually based in London?
Redinho: South-East London. I live with my brother and lots of people in this pretty big house in Brockley. He's a musician too. My other brother lives around the corner in Peckham and is also a musician.

In your opinion, what happened in Glasgow for the city to produce so many boundary-pushing producers all at once?
Obviously something's gone on, but if I had to guess it's because Glasgow is a city with such a strong passion for music. You feel that when you go up there. The crowds are  just amazing.

Have you spent a bit of time up there?
Yeah, sporadically. I've been to Rubadub a load of times. The vibe is amazing. There's something special about Glasgow shows, especially what with the whole Numbers thing. It's a unique vibe.

Does it feel like a proper scene up there, and if so, does that scene revolve around the Numbers contingent would you say?
I dunno about 'a scene', but you do get a real sense of community in the clubs. Especially in Rubadub. There's so many Numbers DJ's who came up through Rubadub. I mean, a lot of them used to work there.

Are the Numbers crew as hard living as everyone says they are?
Well okay, let's just say that I definitely can't keep up with them. I mean, Jack in particular always amazes me. But at the same time, some of them have kids now, the older guys, so not all of them are batshit.

So back to London, what's your favourite club for partying in?
You know what, I'm really into house parties these days. We've been having loads of house parties at ours lately, until we had to stop when the council threatened us with a £5,000 fine if we had another party.

How'd that come about?
I dunno, I think it's because what we do, basically, is treat the parties like we're putting on a night. We'll have turntables, some more turntables and a band, and also we've got this big P.A. So basically it gets pretty ridiculous. To be fair, our neighbours are usually pretty cool, but someone must have had enough last time and called the police, who came and shut us down.

Do the brothers Calvert get involved in the musical side?
Ha, yeah, the Calvert brothers are out in full force; often, in fact, forming the backbone of the band.

This sounds class. 
We once had crowd-surfing in our living room! Crowd-surfing, man. Ridiculous. Then my brother's playing bass and some guy comes up to him and pours a pint of lager over his head, and they end up getting in to this really bad fight. Then there's when people start falling into the pond in our back garden.

Never great is it - to fall in a pond at a party?
Well if you knew the repugnant stench that permeates the entire house when all the shit on the surface gets unsettled… Obviously if you actually fell in there that's going to pretty much fuck your night up.

Are you a raver or more of a stay at home type? Some of your music is headphone music and some club music.
I like to make music for all types of situations. I dunno, I'm in clubs anyway, DJing, and DJing at festivals and that, so going clubbing kinda feels like a busman's holiday. I mean, when I was young I was out almost constantly, but these days I find myself craving other different forms of social interaction.

Photo credit: Desiré Van Den Berg

What do you mean "different". Are you talking about the secret underground Badminton circuit?
I'm not big in the Badminton world yet. I'm more talking about drawing. I'm doing life drawing classes these days; drawing naked people and observing the rage build up in me when I realise how completely shit I am at it. I used to love drawing as a kid, and these days I'm all about doing things I did as a kid, which is why I've got really into riding my bike. It brings out the kid in me.

Before you were into dance music and electronica, back when you and your brother were playing drums and guitar, what bands were you in to?
I grew up playing in bands with my brothers, and we started off being really into Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Rage Against The Machine, and also Pantera and Machine Head. I couldn't play Machine Head, though. Then we got into jazz and funk, then hip hop, then finally electronica.

Of course there's still a hip-hop influence in your music. What do you think of the glut of trap-house hybrids coming out of the U.S these days?
I think music in general is very open these days. And I think that when it comes down to it, creativity in the new millennium has been about taking pre-existing elements and combining them to make something new.

Why is it, do you think, that many new producers these days incorporate so many genres in their work? Increasingly, it'll be a triple or quadruple genre deal. And often, the producers who are considered the most progressive are the same ones who are combining genres, rather than concentrating on just one and advancing dance music that way.
I think you've got to make sure the track doesn't descend into some Frankenstein patchwork. When these producers are thought to have an original style, it's only because they've been able to combine their genres that bit more seamlessly. As an observer you can still break the track down into its constituent parts, but it's harder.

Speaking of original sounds, could you deconstruct "Slap" for us? That track seemed to have no precedent in music.
Well it's called "Slap" because it was just a slap bass thing. I love Flea from RHCP, but I especially loved early Flea when he used to play at warp speed on Blood Sugar… So I just got some slap bass sounds and imagined Flea going mad on it, and wanted the end product to sound like Flea times footwork.

I also hear an IDM influence on your music?
If by IDM you mean stuff like Aphex and Squarepusher then yeah, man. I absolutely love all that stuff. I mean "Slap" totally has an IDM influence. The IDM thing is harder to hear on Redinho, but one track on the album called "Shem" has a real Aphex feel to it.

What influenced you in the making of Redinho?
Going back to our chat about combining influences, the concept for Redinho was combining Stevie Wonder, who I love, and eighties funk in general because I'm an eighties baby, with more contemporary elements like bass music. A massive part of the process is road-testing new tracks in clubs and seeing what works, then going back to the studio and tweaking. Firstly there's the technical side i.e. are all the sounds really working on club speakers. Then secondly there's finding out what atmosphere the track creates i.e. did it have the right energy?

If you could produce for one contemporary pop star, who'd it be?
I don't know if he can still be considered contemporary, but it'd be Andre 3000.

What's next for you?
Next for me is touring. Some Europe stuff, but I can't divulge the details right now.

And lastly, what is it with you and the talk box? It's fucking amazing! The human voice isn't used enough in electronica production. What is your fascination with it?
Well, I grew up listening to soul music, and Stevie Wonder, as I said, and a lot of soul is very much about the vocal. But why Stevie is such a hero to me is because, in his prime, though he was an amazing songwriter, he was also really into production and open to what technology was available to him at the time, so as a result his music was actually really experimental. And that's really what I aspire to.

Redinho is out now on Numbers - grab it here.
Follow Redinho on Twitter: @Redinho
Follow John Calvert on Twitter: @JCalvert_music