The choicest cuts

DJ T-Bone will play his set of R&B and hip-hop at The Mix tonight

Justin Timberlake was talking to DJ T-Bone once about press interviews. “After a while,” Timberlake told him, “they’re like…” and Timberlake banged his hand repeatedly on the desk in a slow rhythm. “ the same questions all the time, you know exactly what they’re going to ask”.

Sadly, this is DJ T-Bone’s fate as well. The first question of every interview he will ever give is already written in stone. You see, T-Bone is a scientist. He’s studied pharmacology and immunology. He’s planning a PhD but he’s also developing a career as a mixer of tunes.

So there it is for every journalist — the perfect opening question, a good warm-up to the interview and perhaps lead for the story.

Degrees and pharmocology and immunology. You must be the most educated DJ on the circuit.

I’ve heard that said before (laughs modestly). People don’t believe me [when I tell them]. The DJing started at university.

So when you went into university you had no idea…

Well I was into music… even now people ask me, “What do you do”, I don’t always say DJing because I have a career in science. I say I’m a scientist and DJing has always been like a side thing.

Even so, that balance must be hard…

It comes with time. I’m used to balancing. Right now I’m just DJing — taking a break. It feels a bit strange to be just DJing, but it also feels a bit strange just working in science. I’ve always had the two, so for me I feel more balanced when I’m doing both.

What stage are you at on the science?

Well I’ve got a masters degree and I’m contemplating a PhD. I have a masters in immunology. I’ve worked in hospitals and companies as a scientist. I’m into forensics, so possibly might go into forensic science at some stage.

Will the balance shift then?

When you do the whole science thing it’s kind of hard to take time off work to do tours or shows.

Do you travel a lot?

I was in Holland [recently]. Christmas, New Year time I did a southern Africa tour — Botswana, Namibia, Johannesberg. Been to Thailand, Kenya, all over Europe. Been to a few.

What were your musical influences?

Grew up listening to hip-hop. Old school — NWA, Big Daddy Kane, LL Cool J — lot of West Coast hip-hop. Then slowly started moving to East. It was only later that I started listening to R&B.

Did that come with the DJing demands?

No it was my personal preference. In those days I wasn’t a DJ — I wasn’t playing clubs but I used to buy records — it was more for my listening pleasure.

So it’s all on vinyl?

Yes. Believe me it’s hard — I’ve got a bad back right now. (Referring to the weight of records when transporting them.)

What styles do you play?

If you can be extremely diverse with your music, the reaction you get from crowds is a lot better, because you could be playing a crowd that has Arabs, South Africans, Spanish. I predominantly play hip-hop, R&B and reggae, but on the CD (released for The Mix), I’ve got Arabic songs mixed in there. There’s Kenyan songs in there, South African…

What I try and do is compile, but I still have the R&B, hip-hop base.

What about remixing?

I don’t do remixing so much — I try and do my own personal remixes in a studio where I take an a capella song and put an instrumental behind it. Or… I’m quite good friends with Craig David, so I can get people like him to do their own remixes for my songs.

They will, may be, rewrite their song and put my name in it — in England we call that a dub plate.

A lot of the DJs do this — they get ragga artists to sing the song again and put the DJ name in it and use them in battles against other DJs. It’s like a special.

So you’ve made a compilation album for The Mix.

Yeah, drive you a copy, definitely. (He did, as soon as the interview was over.) It was more to try let the people know the kind of things I do here. Also, it’s a good way of promoting myself and the club. May be we can get to the stage where we are doing different volumes every few months.

It educates the crowd to music as well. I can come and play things off the CD, and because the CD has been out and about they’ll be familiar with it.

Do you use any live elements such as scratching?

Not too much — it’s good to do it every now and then. I can do it, but it’s not a major part of my show. People enjoy it, as long as it’s not overdone.

Certain places they like it. In South Africa they love it. I’ve got a record that has all these weird sounds — from doorbells to people biting food — so you just find a sound and scratch on it.

You’ve come to Dubai a few times. What were you expecting the first time?

I’d visited Abu Dhabi before I came to Dubai and everybody was oh Dubai Dubai Dubai Dubai. I thought Abu Dhabi was cool. So when I came here I thought the people will probably know a bit more about music. Generally speaking you don’t tend to go anywhere where people like just R&B and hip-hop. You generally find people like a variety of music — it doesn’t matter where you go or how much you think your town might be muscially influenced.

When I come here I even play Madonna, Holiday — all kinds of things. I find the crowd to be quite lively — they come out to have a good time. In London it’s not always like that — you get a lot of problems in the clubs — a lot of fighting and shootings. New Year they were like four shootings in different clubs.

So even in London you wouldn’t have to specialise?

Nowadays. Back in the day it was slightly different because the music was more underground. You could say R&B and hip-hop were quite specialised. But now, R&B is pop music, hip-hop is quite pop. It’s not as specialised as it was, so therefore the people that it attracts are not as specialised as they used to be.

So do you like that? Would you rather that you could specialise?

Good question. (Laughs.)

(Carefully). I’d prefer to DJ to a specialist crowd — because you can bring in new music and they’re not like “ah what the hell’s this — let me go”.

They’re generally up for hearing new music and they know the music, they know the old songs — it’s not a case of what’s on MTV or what’s on the box.

A few DJs and performers I’ve spoken to have talked about the challenge Dubai presents because there are so many different kinds of people and influences. It’s often difficult to find the rhythm.

I like it, I like it. Personally I learn more about music. I’d never learn about Arabic music if I wasn’t exposed to people who wanted to hear it. So when I go back to London now, I play Arabic music in some of the clubs and the people come up to me and are “where did you get that?”

I went to Kenya and brought Kenyan music back to London and Kenyan people went crazy. And as a DJ that’s your greatest tool, you can be very unpredicatable. If you’re in a club and you’re thinking oh it’s going to be house all night — and then you hear your homeland music — it blows you mind.

It must be a challenge to stay ahead — how do you do it?

Being unique. Doing your own thing. It’s very unorthodox — I try and think what can I do that’s a little bit special. I bring in different styles of music — the selection of music, how you mix music together.

What’s the reaction on the scientific side of your life to the music side? Do you have people askin