Reported by Joanna McEwen
/
Submitted 11-07-07 21:48
You know you’ve got a bit of a beast on your hands when the DJ in question lists his favorite drink as import absinth. A man who likes to party indeed! And where better to party than at Party Proactive on the 1 September with… shall we give you another Clewz?!
How about this: he’s played to 2000 capacity crowds and events including Tidy Weekender, I ♥ VC, Twist and Insekt alongside luminaries such as Nick Sentience, the late RR Fierce, Andy Farley, Karim, Paul Glazby, Judge Jules and Paul Maddox amongst many others. Got it yet? There’s also the fact he’s produced a worthy amount of tracks including those with D.A.V.E. The Drummer, Alex Calver and Nick Denton with releases on top labels Tripoli, Tidy, Toolbox, Neonate, Brain Damage and Blue Cubed and been featured on compilations including Tidy Euphoria, I ♥ VC, Hard House Update, Toolbox Volume One, & Winter Enchanted. Phew! But then throws a question mark over it all by listing among his influences Justin Robertson, Deep Dish and Claude Von Stroke! Any idea just who is this enigmatic musical maestro is?! The name’s Clewz. Tim Clewz.
Hola, Tim. We’re really glad to have you on board for this next party. Everyone I’ve spoken to about your upcoming gig has nodded their head and commented on the quality of your music and how much they enjoy your sets. Always nice to confirm your instincts as a promoter!
So tell me, as the first question to dive into, you’re booked to play your style of chunked up, funked up house but from your past list of achievements, I’m thinking some people are going to be a tad surprised! What’s the story there?
It’s quite possibly me just getting soft in my old age, haha. In reality it’s a case of tastes evolving over time. I was always into the funkier sound even when I was doing the harder edge. After a while I started getting a bit sick of the harder sound and decided to concentrate on the funky techno side of things. This then led me into the world of tech house, which in turn opened the gates up for other forms of house such as progressive and tribal.
I found with house that I just get more out of it creatively & it’s given me a new spark of enjoyment. With the tunes there’s more room to breathe & which allows you to be more imaginative production wise. Break the mould if you will. Plus when I’m mixing it I find myself having much more of boogie than I ever did before.
You’ve just had a release on Tidy which is a known hard house label, why are you still releasing harder music or is it just that vinyl productions are slower than your decision making?!
Is that the Mistakes remix you’re on about? Actually, I did that like a year and half a go at least. I think most of my signed tracks have taken ages to come out, but it’s a sign of the times sadly. I think labels are counting more and more on getting money back from their previous release before embarking with the next one. Would be hell of a lot easier if people stopped file sharing.
Are there any harder releases to come?
Well there a few unreleased tracks of mine but whether they will ever see the day of light is looking doubtful. My heart just isn’t in that type of music anymore.
Your latest productions have been snapped up by the Firefly label, which releases anything from techno to house and breaks. Which of those genres does yours come under and when will they be available to buy?
Yeah, those tracks were borderline between techno and tech house. Not sure when they’ll be out as of yet but fingers crossed soon. Bit out of my hands really
Are these under the name Clewz? I’ve read that you’re also working on a house project with Scott Cooper called Cantaloop?
Sean, who manages the label, was suggesting that it might be an idea for me to release them under an alias or possibly my real name. (Tim Clowes by the way). This was because the sound I play as Clewz is now much more house based.
Ah, I’d forgotten about that Cantaloop track. It was something Scott and me were messing about with one day. It was the first time I’d attempted a track without an engineer. Andy Farley played it on his Ministry of Sound radio show, which I was quite surprised about. I did get started on another one with Scott but I think we’ve been both too busy to finish it.
It’s a risky business changing styles of music, though you can find heart in the fact Christopher Lawrence, who played for Party Proactive at the Antiworld Festival, did just that, from progressive to hard trance, and is now the world’s number four! Nice. Have you found resistance from either the hard or the house camp or is the music doing the talking for you?
Well I pre-empted that there would be some problems with me using the Tim Clewz name as that’s more known for the harder scene so this is why I dropped the Tim. It’s sort of a subtle way of showing of changed my sound I suppose. Haven’t seen much in the way of resistance yet although you do get the occasional funny look when I mention my past! I have thrown my all into the house sound so, yeah, like you say I’m letting the music do the talking. In fact when one of my friends who isn’t into the harder sound heard me play my first house set they commented that they were truly “outstanded” by the transition.
You’ve been producing since 2004. Are you now engineering as well?
Yeah, last year I made the decision to try and teach myself how to do it. I bought my self a Mac and a copy of Logic Pro in November. Since then I have spent many an hour locked away honing my skills. Must give a big shout out to Paul Maddox at this point. I learnt so much off him when he was engineering for me. I’m regularly putting my new efforts up on my music myspace page so feel free to check it out sometime.
How different is it to create a house track as opposed to hard house or techno?
I’m finding its requiring a lot more thought and imagination to start off with. With the harder stuff it was very loop based and sort of stuck to a bit of a template as once you deviate too much from the path it’s no longer hard house. With house I’m using more individual hit sounds and trying to make the flow of things a bit subtler. With techno it’s such a wide field, so it’s a tad difficult to compare properly but there are a lot of similarities with the funkier end and house, in particular tech house.
You’re from Sheffield. What’s the scene like up there as opposed to London? We keep talking about it being a global music community but sometimes we don’t even know what’s going on in our own backyard!
To be perfectly honest it hasn’t been in the healthiest of states up here for quite a while now. However I have noticed there are a few nights starting to spring up here and there which do look quite promising indeed. Keep your eyes peeled people, Sheffield might be making a comeback
You also list Valentino Kanzyani as one of your influences who is, of course, playing on the same Party Proactive line up on the 1 September. How does it feel to be playing not only in the third best club in the World, Turnmills, but before one of your musical heroes?
When Kate (Red Artist Management) told me I was like ‘bloody hell’. I was literally in awe. It’s always been a dream of mine to play at Turnmills. It’s got to be my all time favourite club. To be on the same line up as Kanzyani though is just unbelievable. It’s like the rum soaked cherry on top.
To give us a glimmer of what we can be expecting to boogie to during your set on the 1st, could you list your top three tunes of the moment?
*rummages through cd wallet* Mighty Dub Katz – Magic Carpet Ride 07 (Claude Von Stroke Sucker Free City Edition), Soul AD – Get All Hot (Silicone Souls Darkroom Dub Mk2), & John Creamer – The Healing (Saeed Younans full vocal mix)
Thanks, Tim. You’re going to be the perfect start to what promises to be a pretty darn perfect party!! Oh, and mine’s a double…
Photos courtesy of Tim Clewz. Not to be reproduced without permission.
PARTY PROACTIVE PRESENT GETCHA FREAK ON
SATURDAY 1ST SEPTEMBER 2007
TURNMILLS – 10PM TO 6AM
Oooh my, my, my, things are getting heady.
Are you ready for the steady turn of things a little loose?
It’s time to Getcha Freak On, People - be your own Decider
of who is what and when is when and how the why is used!
That’s right my fabulous Party People, summer may be past its zenith but you know the time is always right for us to shake that something loose. When we put this line up together and looked at the final result we knew we were on to something that truly was unmissable and haven’t stopped looking at the flyer since we got it printed! The last party had something magical about it and I know this party on the 1st September is going to do us equally as proud. But only if you come and join us to Party of course Because as much as we can provide the best music our imaginations can muster, its you guys who make the Party. Thank You to all of you who’ve made it down to our events over the past four years. We’ve had some crazy times putting on this party of ours and meeting some, if not all, of you always reminds us just why it is we do this – because we Love To PARTY!!! And so, without further ado, we at Party Proactive would like to Present to you – GETCHA FREAK ON!
In global demand, Valentino Kanzyani (Slovenia), Recycles his Loops to rock the techno.
Festival highlight, Eskimo (UK), leads all imitators with his genre bending hard psytrance.
Proactive residents Andy Farley (UK) and Pete Wardman (UK) deliver in style their different yet equally satisfying, perception changing, quality hard house.
Danny Freakazoid (Switzerland) bites the bag from Deep Dish and Sander Kleinenberg to shake his deep and dark house.
My Digital Enemy, so hot they squeal, revel in the energy of their grinding electro with a heart.
To which add the support of Kris Angelis (DTPM), Clewz and an eclectic throw of London’s best and you know your freak is ready to be tweaked.
Come Colourful, Courageous and Ready to Party!
Flyer:
-
Region:
London
Music:
Trance. Hard Trance. Tech Trance. Psy Trance. Nu NRG. House. Deep House. Funky House. Hard House. Prog House. Tribal House. Vocal House. Deep Techno. Funky Techno. Techno. Breaks.
DJ's:
T1: TECHNO / PSY TRANCE / HARD BEATS / PROGRESSIVE
From: Toomzon 11th Jul 2007 22:06.39 Good stuff mate... Im hoping to make it along to this!
From: paul jackon 11th Jul 2007 23:50.12 Its going to be the best event yet, really cant stop thinking what an awesome selection of djs and Tim is going to kick proceedings of perfectly!
From: Mizz_behavinon 12th Jul 2007 11:34.25 I just cant wait for this party, Tim Clewz, Kanzyani and Eskimo, an unbelieveable line up!! Particularly looking forward to hearing how Tim's music has changed As for Sheffield - it will make a recovery!! The north never dies!!
From: Disco Divaon 12th Jul 2007 11:49.55 Fab interview & this party looks set to be bloody awesome
From: Jacobon 12th Jul 2007 12:23.29 I am really looking forward to hearing what Tim comes up with for the opening set...If your top 3 records are a good indication of it, then we're in for a treat!
From: Mizz_behavinon 12th Jul 2007 12:46.27 Is he doing the opening set then?
From: paul jackon 12th Jul 2007 13:50.22 yep clewz to open - followed by joanna and then valentino
From: Closeron 12th Jul 2007 15:51.51 Another awesom event coming up from PP
From: Jennie Bon 12th Jul 2007 20:06.39 Loved all Tims stuff esp when he played at twist will def be making the trip for this!
From: dimitryon 13th Jul 2007 13:17.29 Good stuff from Tim, will be there for is set for sure
From: anushka007on 16th Jul 2007 15:07.06 Looking forward to it another PP another wicked night out ... I cannot wait!
From: ~deleted5181on 17th Jul 2007 12:19.11 Well done Tim. I love your electro sound and I really wish you'll produce some more hardhouse in the very near future x
From: *cheeky chick*on 18th Jul 2007 07:18.25 Its been a while since ive seen Tim play so looking forward to it.
From: andyandyon 20th Jul 2007 12:59.21 This guy's production never fails to impress me in some way, once again PP brings a person with great talent to their party.
From: Clewz.on 26th Jul 2007 09:09.51 indirect link to my new demo here guys
http://www.bangingtunes.com/forum/topic/t77554/
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by
their respective companies. All other content is (c) 2001-2025 HarderFaster.
![[HarderFaster] - Work Hard, Play Harder!](/images/mainbanner_top1.gif)
Is he doing the opening set then? 
another PP another wicked night out ... I cannot wait! 