Fresh, as a true Brit, is extremely polite, calm and soft-spoken, but his bright green eyes blaze like those of the tiger in William Blake's poem. The creator of the craziest melodies and rhythms conceals the beast inside him behind the mask of a quiet man.
Fresh, aka Dan Stein, is a 28-year-old musician who was awarded Best Producer at the prestigious Knowledge Drum and Bass Awards in 2003. He has already written his name into the history of drum and bass not only as a producer, but also as a co-founder of some of the brightest and most original drum and bass labels and co-owner of the unofficial centre of the global drum and bass community, Dogs On Acid (dogsonacid.com).
Given the full power of Fresh's creative skill, fuelled by his formidable imagination, one can expect nothing from him but forward movement and new ideas. Fresh's first American solo album, Bass Invaderz, released on Dieselboy’s label Human, challenges all drum and bass heads.
Dan was born in London. At the age of five, he discovered his passion for music when he began playing the piano. “I really had a strict English upbringing that was anti-music. When I was nine, my parents received a letter from the school saying that I had scored the highest number of points in a musical IQ test. The school wanted to give me a specialised musical education, but my parents did not want that. I suppose this affected my psychology and explains why I am so uncompromising and stubborn.”
“I had played the piano since I was five, but I did not particularly like instruments because I did not like being someone else's pupil.” Despite his parents' lack of support for his musical ambitions, his two younger sisters were always on his side. “I think they thought I was crazy. When I was 12, I sat at the computer all day, trying to make music with old school programs.”
When Dan grew up and became a fan of The Doors, The Cure and The Pixies, he tried to form his own band. In 1991, he turned to hardcore, which led him to discover underground electronic music. Dan got work at pirate radio stations such as Fresh FM. He met MC Moose, who helped him release an album on Picasso in 1997. Fresh's first tracks “were made using an old school program on an Amiga computer connected to an external sampler, on which I spent my entire student grant,” he recalls with a laugh.
MC Moose introduced Fresh to Vegas (Michael Wojcicki), with whom he made the track Otto’s Way (released on the label Metro, it was played by the fathers of the drum and bass scene, Goldie and Grooverider). Working under the alias Absolute Zero, Fresh wrote Colours in Noise for Renegade Hardware, then met Maldini (Jason Maldini) and D-Bridge (Darren White), with whom he recorded The Code, released on Hardware Records and becoming number one on Radio 1's drum and bass chart.
Fresh, Maldini, D-Bridge and Vegas joined forces as Bad Company UK in 1998. The first release on their label Bad Company Recordings — The Nine — was named the best drum and bass release of all time in 2003 (Fresh's track Planet Dust took third place in the Drum & Bass Arena top list). The Pulse, released on Prototype cemented Bad Company's high status once and for all. Releases on Virus, DSCI4, Ram, React and Formation followed. In 2002, the BC album Shot Down On Safari was released in North America on Dieselboy’s label Human as a double CD.
In 2003, Fresh and another drum and bass superstar, Adam F, joined forces to create the label Breakbeat Kaos, which subsequently became home to musicians such as Pendulum and Baron, who released several top singles on the label and launched the CD compilation series Junglesound. Fresh's single Mo’ Fire also caught the mainstream scene's attention: the track rose to number 21 on the UK National Chart. In 2003, Fresh and Adam F worked with Pet Shop Boys on their hit single Miracles, and a year later collaborated with several New York hip-hop and R&B crews. Fresh is the co-producer of more than half the tracks on Grooverider's album, released on Sony Records.
Fresh currently lives in Maidenhead, between London and Bristol. He recently completed a North American tour of eight cities in support of his album Bass Invaderz, performing alongside Dieselboy and MC Messinian.
On 30 July, Fresh will be one of the headliners at the city of sound, Soundtropolis. Don't miss it!
Text: Mary Ishimoto Morris (JIVE Magazine). Translated from the Russian translation by Yegor.
