:: BB INTERVIEWS ::

:: GENERAL MIDI ::

General Midi Has a Style All His Own Doug Vaccaro gets a taste of the dub flavour Paul Crossman, a.k.a General Midi, has always managed to master a more ‘level crunching, dub flavoured and bass fuelled musical ride’ than his peers and it is this that has earned him his fast growing reputation as the source of a great night out when he’s at the controls and as “the producer’s producer”. Emerging from the backrooms of the Bristol Club scene his slick DJ ability and an ear for a great tune have given him regular appearances at breaks hotspots across the planet such as Fabric, Chew The Fat, Blow Pop, Sounds On Sundays (Sydney), Two Tribes (Australia), Zouk Singapore, Budapest, all across the USA, Hungary, Spain, Serbia, China, Hong Kong…and teaming up with production partner Eelz, General Midi has been responsible for some of the most genre defining tunes in ‘The Westoner’ (99) ‘Daft Funk’ (01) ‘Further’ (03) & ‘You will Be Under’ (03), ‘Entertainer’ (04), ‘Bass Rockerz’ (04) & House of Funk (05). Over the last few years General Midi’s singles have been released on some of the most respected breaks labels including TCR (Rennie Pilgrims label) & Kilowatt (Hyper’s label). All of this has led to his debut solo artist album ‘Midi Style’ scheduled for release by Distinct’ive in October 2005. With early support right across the board at Club (Timo Maas, Fergie, Plump DJs, Koma & Bones, Ils ) and Radio (Zane Lowe, Annie Nightingale, Eddy Temple-Morris, Ric Groves) it’ll be well worth booking your seat for the ride, early! Hello Senior Midi! Thank you so much for taking time out of your Schedule to sit down with me. It means a lot! No worries man. Always got time for a chat- know what I mean? Most deff! So, the one question everyone is wondering about is, have you ever served in the military? I went through a phase in my teens where I thought a military career would be cool and tried to join both the army and the navy on separate occasions. I got knocked back on health grounds both times... aaah the follies of youth! Christ knows where'd I'da been now if I'd been accepted!!!!! I’m much more into what I do now. I still get to play with cutting edge technology but it doesn't kill people (that often). You've released countless original tracks and remixes, but if you had to pick one as your favorite, which would it be and why? That's always tricky; it’s like choosing a favorite niece or nephew. To be honest, I like and am proud of 98% of the tracks we've produced and even the ones I'm not keen on have been valuable learning experiences! Whatever happened with your Starecase moniker? Is it a thing of the past or should we hold our breath with the hopes of some new material? Starecase is kinda sleeping right now, all our energies are concentrated in to the Midiman. A couple of exclusive tracks appeared on Nick Warren's latest Global Underground and I think there maybe plans to release one of them on Hope in the New Year. You recently completed your new artist album "Midi Style". What was the creative direction you were aiming for with this project. Over the years a lot of ideas were collected, that wouldn't fit necessarily into a 12". It felt like it was time to open the Midi vault and to see what was inside! Maybe one or two of the tracks on the album started life that way (and it felt right doing new version of the Westerner & Eastoner) and the rest were written on the way. How long did it take you to complete it? About 14 months. What is your favorite piece on the album? Aah man! Everything on the album means something to me, I've got a real soft spot for the mellower stuff as it's a side to the Midiman you don't normally get a chance to hear. But I'm proud of the whole thing. Following an album release comes the tour to support it. Do you have any pre-performance rituals that you do before a show? Not really, it’s all fairly normal! Oh yeah, never do crack before you play. Whenever we see you in photos, you are always surrounded by women. Please tell me your secret!! Photoshop. Oh shit! You're killin' me!! So who do you admire most in the music world? Anyone who has the courage, spirit and determination to make music and put it out there. If you could be any famous American, living or dead, who would you be? Jimi Hendrix, I reckon - I'd kill to play guitar like that! Man, what a ride! It was a pleasure chatting with you sir. We're all huge fans of your work and we wish you nothing but the best in the future! Thanks man, good talking with ya. See y'all on the dance floor in 2006! :: December 2005 :: General Midi's album 'Midi Style' is out now on Distinct’ive Records so pick it up! For tour dates and additional info on General Midi, peep his website at GeneralMidi.co.uk.

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