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 The
first time I heard about Harry Russell aka
Harry The Bastard was when a new record label
named Statra Recordings sent me an unbelievable compilation entitled
"Harry The Bastard presents... Club H." Of course, I wasn't exactly
sure what to expect so I took a look at the tracklisting - and
was convinced in a heartbeat. Many of the tracks on this deep
and beautiful compilation were some of my deep house favorites
as well, and the songs I didn't know became instant favs of mine
after uncountable listening sessions. So who is Harry The Bastard?
Well, I want to invite you to find out more about Harry by yourself.
But before you read the interview, please make sure to check out
Statra's Web site, where
you can listen to the entire CD or single songs from it. I can
only hope that the success of this CD will encourage Harry to
release more records and CDs like this, because he definitely
knows what he's doing. And we depend on some guidance nowadays,
with the truckloads of new releases that hit our local record
stores every week.
After listening to Harry's CD, I trust his music taste completely!
DJ MG
November 1999
The following interview was conducted by DJ MG in October 1999:
Where are you born, where do you live right now,
and how did you end up becoming an import record buyer for North
America?
I was born and grew up back in New Zealand in a small place a
couple of days swim off the coast of Australia. I grew up there
and got involved in the music industry through a total love of
what was going on at the time which was Punk Rock. Lovely stuff,
full of the same sort of energy and freshness that house has these
days. I skipped NZ in '85 and moved to London where I started
to study advertising. Then I met an old NZ school friend who was
working as the warehouse manager for Rough Trade, and he was looking
for staff, so I took the job coz I was broke and woke up one day
thinking "Do I really want to make a living selling shit like
soap and beer for big corporations, or do I wanna turn people
on to someones' art and help them make a living out of it?" So
I got to start selling records which I really enjoy doing. I get
a total buzz out of it, it's fun, it's fulfilling and it can be
a total fucking laugh.
Enough of that and back to the biz... Rough Trade started getting
heavy in the dance music in around '88 taking on labels like Big
Life (where Coldcut and the Orb emerged of) as well as Rhythm
King (Mute), BPM (which was Tony Thorpe's label) and Gee Street
as well as the big chart busters like Bill Drummond's KLF. We
had this rocking dance department run by Dave Lee and this other
guy called Tommo, and both went off to set up a label called Republic
that took on the good garage grooves back from the Paradise Garage,
repackaged them and sold them to the UK. The next step for me
was to move to the States where I live now, Chelsea New York.
On one side of my apartment is the hotel where Sid Vicious killed
Nancy Spugden, and on the other side is the Tenth Precinct where
he got booked, and in the middle is Club H.
Please describe to us how your job works?
Basically, now I work as a buyer for an import and domestic wholesaler
which takes a ton of work. What we do is really choose what we
think we can sell in this country and what people are looking
for. Most of the time this is done with either samples or one
sheets, but at least one day a week you gotta spend listening
to stuff down the phone, which can be a bit of a chore: wrong
speeds, wrong mixes and salespeople not knowing where the meat
of the track is. Usually I look for who produced it, who mixed
it, the label it is on, what number it is in the catalog (e.g.
#1 on a new label with no names behind it is gonna be a hard sell
whereas #5 on an semi-established label with someone you have
heard about or read about may generate a little more attention).
It's a little like looking for a gold object in a bucket of shit,
really (to quote Mr. Weatherall). But you gotta chuck your personal
taste out the window and look at a track for its sales potential
and buy accordingly. This can be very embarrassing when you pass
on what you think is the biggest pile of shit you ever heard and
next week everybody wants it, or you buy a ton of something that
completely knocks ya head off and nobody gives a fuck. Face it,
if everybody had the same taste in the world it would be pretty
boring, so let's appreciate that.
Do you have some favorite artists and labels,
or do you never look on vinyl stickers?
Yeah I have, but the list would cover two pages of the Web site.
There are the trancers like Lieb, the techno boffins like Mills,
the housers like Webster and just really anybody who is both innovative
and groundbreaking at what ever style they see fit to channel
their energies into. As long as it's good and not just some fly
by night producers who try to whatever is the cool sound at the
moment, then they deserve the fullest respect.
Do you remember a case/cases where you made a
record successful here in the States?
The answer gets a resounding No! I could never take credit for
another artists work, but if it's good I like turning people on
to it. I can voice my opinion of something I feel is good to someone
who works behind the counter at a record store or slip it to one
of the DJs who comes out to the warehouse every once in a while
and hope they respect my advice (which quite often they do). But
ultimately it is the crowd at the clubs, the DJs and most importantly
the folks behind the counters who really make things work in this
country. So major respect to all of you.
Club H is a biweekly listening session in your
own flat. Please tell us a little 'bit about these sessions?
It really kind of evolved around being a meeting place in Manhattan
that was central to everything that was going on. I kind of live
in the club area and with friends in Brooklyn, Long Island and
Queens or guests coming in from overseas or in the States it seemed
like the only place to group up before going out, and regroup
after a hard night out and chill and listen to what was here.
I got around 4000 12"s with a bigass stereo and, most important
very tolerant neighbors. 24 hour deli's across the street with
every beer you could imagine, trippy lights and a lot of cushions,
blow up aliens, fish tanks and all right smack bang in the middle
of Manhattan. You can fit around 12 people in this place so go
figure. I just hope none of the tolerant neighbors move out. If
they do then I'm really fucked (or the new ones are! Peace thru
superior firepower if you know what I mean).
Do you or others mix during these sessions?
Whoever is left standing...
Can you tell me more about Statra?
You said it. We're a bunch of mates on a mission and a mission
to end all missions at that.
From what I read about you in the press release,
you are also into Rock. How did you get infected with the kind
of quality deep house which is featured on the CD and during your
Club H sessions?
I have very deep feelings about House. House is like a large
monster with tentacles that suck you in, let you go in different
directions then bring you back to the source of where it all came
from. House spawned some of the greatest artists today, and while
a lot of them have dabbled in areas like drum'n'bass, techno and
trance, I think it is very difficult for these people to resist
sitting at home in the studio and knocking out a fucking good
old banging houser. Likewise, I think that a lot of the younger
producers today will grow and hear something what the founding
fathers have come up with and it will absolutely knock 'em off
their ass and all they will want to do is make something that
good. This sort of stuff I really look forward to getting my hands
on as both a distributor and something I can thrash here at 4
in the morning. I want it all to look forward and sound fucking
excellent and by God I wanna hear it.
Thanks a bunch for this interview!
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