Captain Tinrib needs no intro to any hard dance fan out there, but to those who are new to the scene or just interested… He is one hell of a loopy, fish obsessed DJ/producer/pirate. Of the high seas, that is! one of the seminal names in hard house, he was producing the style before there was even a name for it. . Releasing his first track back in 1991 with the Nuclear Powered EP under the Morphasis guise), it was in 1995 that he set up his now hard NRG imprint Tinrib Recordings. The rest is history, and he’ll be returning to the country this weekend for more shows. ITM tries to get some kind of sense out of the great hard house pirate of the high seas…
So Captain, you… like fish?
Do you know what? It’s funny that you should say that land lubber. There were times back in the days of yer sea dog in the UK, when I didn’t really eat much fish and didn’t go for it. But now I’ve made me voyage to the new world, I love ‘em. The fresh akaroa cod here in Christchurch is well nicer than the defrosted mother’s mank back in the UK. Then there be them there salmons over ‘ere in the South Island of The Land Of The Long White Cloud. Anyway, they are B E A U beautiful! We’re off to Cairns on May 3rd. There be fresh Reef Trout, Bugs and Mud Crabs up there!
There is no denying that your name is synonymous with hard house and the hard dance scene, with every hard dance fan being familiar with your energetic sounds and crazy performances. You undoubtedly have a lot of fun behind the decks, what is the most memorable event you have played?
There is no doubt that the last Summer Enchanted Forest yer Scurvy Dog played at about 4 years ago went off big time. They were great times. I vanished out into the crowds after me live show, even the biker gang there were into it!!! Smashing good night. Ol’ Captain Horsefucked was almost one of the last men standing. Hopefully the enchanted crew will be up for setting me full ship on stage this year in December! (Me mum is bringing it over at the end of May…) File a partition – demand the Pirate Boat on main stage! Roll Call… Book Ye Sea Dog now Enchanted…
In 1995 you set up the ever popular label Tinrib Recordings and recently set up Tinrib Digital. Obviously catering for the expanding popularity of the digital world. Can you see vinyl living on for much longer or do you see digital technology taking over?
I would say Vinyl as a format was over the days people stopped buying a vinyl DJ setup for Xmas etc about 5 years ago. Oldskoolers and labels have been hanging on to the format to the bitter end. Probably slowed progress of what is definitely happening now. Tinrib Digital – The future of hard dance is back! Don’t get me wrong, vinyl is a nice format to hold in your hand with a picture on it! Sounds good giving a warm analogue bass, but distorts and misses the very hi end though. Works for hard music well. Most of the good sound on vinyl is down to the mastering, the process to cut the vinyl master, which a lot of labels do not use now for their digital releases. If some were mastered properly, they’d sound way better than vinyl! End of the day its not about the format – it’s about the music.
You like to throw in some old hard acid sounds into your productions, how would you best describe the innovation of the hard dance genre’s that has occurred since the early 90s?
The quality has definitely improved. So have the amount of different genres, which is a bit scary now that things are quietening down on sales. Hopefully they’ll all come back together! For drums and percussion, a lot of this is down to sample CDs in the hard dance scene with great grooves. Makes starting up and learning a lot easier, getting more people involved. But most people don’t even know what a drum groove/swing is! How you gonna get ya land lubbers swinging that arse if they ain’t got no swing in the music?
Back in the day we’d program every single hit. Still do a lot now, but there are some great loops out there.
On the sounds side, everything has gone to plugins. I have kept my main analogue weapons of terror from yesteryear. The plug-in versions are so close, you won’t even notice the difference – well I can’t compare them on $30,000 Genelec Mastering Monitors anyway (Some critics must have a better setup!!!). The best feature is total recall and the ability to save the patches that you couldn’t do before. It used to involve taking a photo of the dials!
Latest weapons of choice, Arturia – Jupiter 8V, Arturia – Prophet V, Audio Realism – Bassline V2 (303,) Korg – Legacy Cell (MS20, Polysix & Monpoly) and Native Instruments – Massive. These days there are some mighty fine presets included which don’t need to be programmed from scratch like we had to do back in the day!
As for the genre, I’d say its peak was around 1998-2000. We steered away from the mainstream same old sound when our original sound we were doing 5 years previous was at its peak. We continued developing the sound rather than band wagoning. I seem to recall Blue Oyster Remix, all of Weirdo’s stuff, Show Them We Can Do This and Mother 1 were our answer at that point. As for 2008, as we speak, our previous release RIBD012 Smokescreen is No.1 on trackitdown.net for overall genres. And the charts there are registered from peeps buying from them. If we didn’t have Tinrib Digital, where we get support from people buying direct and supporting the music, we’d be No.1 for weeks!
RIBD013 – Manta 3 and The Squeeze are out now on Tinrib Digital. We’ll bung them up on trackitdown.net in a couple of weeks for a new No.1! This definitely means hard dance is here right here, right now again!!!! We’ve done it! Yer Sea Dog’s releases are pumpin’!
You also seem to have a notable sound of your own, is there any other artists or music genre’s that you feel you influence your creativity?
I don’t really listen to other peeps’ hard dance day in and day out, create it from the studio. That be why there’s more originality I guess me hearties… I’m not into copying the last DJ’s track of the moment, eye try to explore more realms and possibilities that are out there. What do you think of expanding electronic music’s sound back to being as one genre in the late 80s and early 90s? Before all the pigeon holing’ came about by mags etc! More fun with a bit for everyone.
Music I have listened to in the past 2 days… (Fitted a new sub to the Tinrib Wagon!) The Cure, The Orb, Younger Brother, Ticon 2AM, OTT, Omega 3 Lost @ Sea to tune the system! Bit lighter than usual due to baby on board!
Around 2001/02 you had a much deserved 2 year break, was this a good chance to take a step back and look at how you are going to the storm the hard scene again, or was a massive fishing trip?
It sure was a great time to reflect before connecting back onto the drip. We have big plans with Tinrib Digital and we now do it more as a hobby than a business like we used to have to do at Tinrib. It became more of a machine niggling you to make the next release on time in a certain way… When music is your hobby you’ll be creating your best work.
We’ve created our new venture www.tinribforums.com. We’re connecting all the best labels out there to a central spot where it’s easy to find the good stuff rather than sifting through loads of mediocre tracks on digital download sites for the good one that could be played out! Its in the initial stages and has had a huge response with Addiction, Carbon Recordings, Do Not Bend, Fireball, Flashpoint, Hydraulix, Kaktai & Spinball, Katipo & High Dosage, Mutate to Survive, Scum Records, The Beat Ranch, Tinrib Digital, Turtledog, Twisted Traxx, Unity and Adelaide’s own Volatile on board. More just around the corner! It’s an ideal spot for everyone to hook up, advertise, check for parties, merchandise & production tips etc. Pop by!
You have worked with many of the scenes big names including Paul Glazby, Karim, RR Fierce, Dynamic Intervention and Andy Farley across labels Vicious Circle, Tidy Trax, Do Not Bend, Blue Cubed and of course Tinrib Recordings; do you have any other big collaborations in the pipeline?
We have the new Captain Tinrib and Disturbed track half done – the follow up to Shut The F**k Up at the heavy end of the meter… Next week, we have a new Omega 3 track to finish, and then next weekend High Dosage is booked in for 4 days of carnage for a monster release. Then its live show week b4 Adelaide!!! Well busy I’d say.. The Wheelhouse is at full steam ahead.
Every set that you have played in Adelaide (and no doubt everywhere else) has been a memorable one, and has also become somewhat exciting to see how you start your set… Last set I believe was when you started with your version of Hey Mickey. Will the loopy antics continue when you take over Earth again for System 6?
Not gonna spoil the surprise me hearties. Darth Vader’s March from the 2007 Winter Enchanted has moved on now also. Let’s just say it’s very Piratey. Make sure you have the right attire for the occasion.
Captain Rinrib plays System 6 at Earth Nightclub this Friday 2nd May.
