DJ Vadim

The journey to DJ Vadim’s house and studio involves a trek through a suitably diverse and bustling enclave of East London. Nestled between schools, sari shops and market stalls, there is an unassuming front door that belies the collection of music history contained within.

The internationally renowned hip-hop producer has lived here for seven years now, having moved from his favoured West London for ‘economical reasons’. He continues to produce his many different projects from his basement studio, a studio that he often generously lends to his musical collaborators. A veteran producer on the international hip-hop scene, his latest release ‘U Can’t Lurn Imaginashun’ shows his creative energy is far from waning, despite being treated for ocular cancer last year.

Leading us into his home, the banter between the personable Vadim and his gregarious co-habitants flows, but as we settle in the garden to discuss his musical career his demeanour becomes much more serious, as befits the man they call ‘the hardest working man in hip-hop’.

Photos by Danny Wood

You release a lot of music under different aliases. Do you tend to work on all of the projects at the same time or do you tend to write each album, one at a time?

It’s all at the same time because some times the projects are a bit incestuous. People kind of veer between the different projects. It’s not like I make music on demand, it’s not like someone says ‘Here’s fifty thousand pounds, you must make this and give it to me in a week’s time’- if that did happen then I’d concentrate on that. So because it’s free and I’m open to do what I want to do I tend to work on lots of bits and pieces at the same time.

Right now I’m still doing promotion for the new album that just came out (‘U Can’t Learn Imaginashun’, BBE) and I’m also recording three other albums. One is another DJ Vadim album, which is going to me slightly more reggae. There’s gonna be an album with Pugs which is going to be more soulful electronic hip-hop, and then working with a singer from Africa called Sena. I’m also putting a CD together of remixes I’ve done over the years.

If you’re putting so much time and creative energy into all these projects, do they have an outlet- do you speak to your label in advance or just crack on with it anyway?

I haven’t spoken to anyone in particular but I have several labels, like BBE and Ninja Tune, that would jump at releasing anything that I give them. I released the last album on BBE because Ninja Tune had the previous album and it felt good to do it with them. When you work with independent labels it’s not really a money thing. When you’re Kylie Minogue you’re in a bidding war between the three, four, major labels- the winner is the one who comes up with the best package. On the independent music scene it’s not really like that, ‘cos there isn’t that much money. Sometimes different labels will offer the same money, so you have to look at other things- what kind of promotion they’ll do, what kind of profile they have, whether you like the people [working at the label], all these little things. And it just felt good with BBE.

When it comes to starting a song, do you switch the MPC on and get going straight away or do you have a routine where you settle in more gradually?

There isn’t really a routine. I’m always checking emails. I get soooo many emails a day and doing Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and Reverbnation take up so much time- I don’t know how I do it all and still make music. Three years ago I never did those social websites and now I’m subscribed to four of them. And it is very time consuming. I have a lot of stuff coming in that needs to be dealt with. I do it alongside my music but sometimes my mind won’t be focused so I have to take the laptop away and concentrate on the music at hand. Ultimately I’d love to have a personal assistant who can answer all that kind of stuff and I can just get on with the music.