If the Stanton Warriors had their way, their artist album would have come out just a year after their breakthrough ‘Stanton Sessions’ mix in 2001, not five. However, the God of Breakbeat had other plans – not only wrapping them in record company red tape with Warner off-shoot 679, but allowing crackheads to bust into their East London studio a year later and swipe their hard drive full of tunes and blueprints for world domination.
Four years later, and on their own label Punks, Mark Yardley and Dominic B have finally released that album, cheekily titled ‘Lost Files’, on the flipside of their next Stanton Sessions compilation. It’s a long-awaited relief for the Warriors, who in the meantime, have had to be content with slaying the international breaks circuit countless times over. ITM’s Skip_Intro interrogated the lads about the long time coming, doing it double and how long we’ll have to wait for the next album.
How does it feel to release the double album after such a long time?
Mark: It’s just great to get it out and on the shelves and off my hard drive. It just seems to have been there for 3-5 years.
Was it getting comical towards the end?
M: You were either going to laugh or cry – and we chose the laughing angle. We were sick of having the conversation with people consistently asking ‘Where’s the album? Where’s the album?’ It was just one thing after the other that delayed the album’s release.
What were the last delays on the album? I heard there were problems with some samples?
M: We did have some problems clearing samples on ‘Blue’ and another on ‘Complex’ for the compilation. We had to re-jig them to get round those problems and pay people what they were due. I’m not going to discuss ‘Complex’. I think most people who have heard us play out will know exactly what that is [for the record, it’s A Guy Called Gerald’s ‘Voodoo Ray’]. We’re still playing the original. ‘Blue’ was a Tom Tom Club sample from ‘Wordy Rappinghood’. They loved our track.
Going back to the infamous robbery, how many files were actually lost?
M: It was about four months work but it was the start of the album. We lost three vocal sessions that were paid for. We had some good UK talent that we had on the album – Maestro, and [also] Stamina from the drum ‘n’ bass scene.
Have you invested in decent security for your new studio?
M: We’ve got fuckin’ untold amount of locks and doors that they’ve got to get through now. We don’t even have windows – we thought the best option is to cut out any form of entry so we work in a basement now. I’d rather that and shit be secure.
I was surprised that ‘Lost Files’ and ‘Stanton Sessions 2’ came out as a double album.
M: The reason for that was when you wait that long you’ve got such a backlog of material we just wanted to get it all out. We also give people the best value package because they’ve been waiting so patiently for such a long time. We just thought we’d make it attractive as possible.
Were you worried that one would distract from the other in that format? I thought it interesting that Lost Files is the second disc, not the first one.
M: Yeah, it was a bit of a toss up which one to run with as the lead, but it’s a good position to be in. We kinda went for the ‘Sessions 2’ as the lead just because of the success of the first one and we thought it’d be something easy people can grab on too. As a double whammy, they get the deeper side of what we do which is the ‘Lost Files’...
What was your aim with the artist album?
Dominic: Breakbeat for us isn’t just about gnarly basslines and drums rolls. We wanted to put some funk and soul into some of our tracks because there didn’t seem to be many others doing it. So we hooked up with a load of singers and rappers and busted it out.
Your collaboration with Sway, ‘Get Yourself High’, is a highlight. Are you working on any other material with him?
M: Yeah we’re going to work on another track – we sent him some beats so they’ll be more on that tip to come.
With ‘Shake It Up’, is the bassline a cheeky nod to Dopamine’s ‘Hold You’ or just a happy coincidence?
M: I’ve been reading some forum activity on that subject (laughs) and I’d like to make it clear there’s been no attempt to rip anyone off. It’s a bassline that works with the beat and works with the track, and hopefully it’s got enough weight to carry it as far as the ‘Hold You’ track.
The Stantons are renown for producing tracks and then keeping them exclusive before releasing the vinyl. How important is it to hold on to your own tunes?
M: The reason we get so many bookings is exactly because we do that. Of course, it helps – you get exclusive sets or at least at nine tenths of it is. In the past, we’ve got lambasted by other DJs and producers for not doing track swaps and sharing. We’ve got a lot better at I must admit.
D: It certainly helps to be able to drop special cuts especially as there aren’t always enough good tunes out there to fill a set each week.
There seems to be so many more quality breaks albums of late – is breaks finally getting its time in the sun?
M: Yeah definitely, I think it’s burgeoning to such an extent that people are investing their production time a lot more than a few years ago, when there probably wasn’t viable to make an eclectic breakbeat artist album .The time is right to try it out…
D: Not yet, there still needs to be some crossover tracks to blow the genre wide open. I still fully believe that as a style breaks is more open, innovative and accessible than other forms of music – it just needs bigger tracks. House has its Basement Jaxx’s, electro has its Mylo’s, breaks needs to hit the MTV generation with some fat booty-shaking beats – and no, that doesn’t mean selling out. Then breaks will get its time in the sun!
Does it mean breaks DJs are finally getting the quality groupies?
D: Some breaks DJs do. The girls into breaks seem to really know their music and they dance well.
What’s your aim for the rest of the year?
M: We want to get our second artist album finished – we’re halfway through. We’re hoping to release it half way through next year. We’ve got a lot of material because we finished ‘Lost Files’ a long time ago. So we have a lot of stuff waiting in the wings. Plus more Punks releases and edits.
Are you still planning to do the FabricLive mix album?
M: We’re doing that later on in the year, some time after [the UK] summer. But that’s all still in the pipeline. It’ll be a deeper, different entity – like a set we’d play at Fabric really.
So is Australia on your touring itinerary anytime soon?
M: We’ll be back in Australia for the Fuzzy Parklife tour in September and October.
The Stanton Warriors’ brand new double album, featuring the ‘Stanton Sessions Vol 2’ mix CD and their debut artist LP ‘Lost Files’, is out now through V2/Stomp.
