The man behind the sonic engineering of many of Sasha’s biggest hits, the electronically adventurous Charlie May is bringing his futuristic dance music to Australia for the first time. Highly respected as a producer and DJ alike, Charlie May (AKA one half of prog house duo Spooky) has garnered a reputation as an innovative trailblazer in the dance music world, responsible for some of the genre’s most important evolutionary steps.

With the forthcoming release of a slew of new tracks, remixes with the likes of Way Out West and Delphic in 2010, and his finger always firmly pressed on the pulse of the clubbing community, Charlie May is certainly a must-see for all dance music fans this month. ITM sat down with the legend that Is Charlie May prior to his tour kicking off this weekend.

You came out of the very early days of rave culture, having no doubt been inspired by the legendary London clubs of the 80s and early 90s. What are some of your fondest memories of those days?

Well, it was all very exciting to have just left school and the next thing you are up all night listening to Weatherall or Knuckles playing music that was so new and somehow subversive. It appealed to every rebellious fiber in me… But overall it was the sense of community the whole scene brought with it, and the idea that everything was possible. This was a beginning, and nothing that had gone before mattered except your record collection, which could now be recycled and resampled into a new sound that your parents were guaranteed to hate. It was punk for nerds in a sense.

Alongside your partner-in-crime Duncan Forbes you ventured into your own production with Spooky. What drew you to the deeper more “progressive” sounds?

Both Duncan and I were heavily influenced by early American house and techno as well as classic dub from Scientist, King Tubby etc. The ‘UK rave’ sound that was popular at the time seemed to have more in common with rock music, which we were keen to avoid, being as we were a couple of ambient production geeks. The whole William Orbit and Guerilla Records sound was very much a West London thing as well with its local West Indian influences.

And who were you earliest musical influences?

I was bought up listening to classical music and learning to play piano from an early age. I can remember hearing Roxy Music’s Flesh and Blood in stereo on headphones for the first time and thinking they were there in the room with me, and unbelievable sound. Mainly it was post punk bands like The Police, Bowie, Talk Talk and just anything on the radio since we were miles from a record shop.

Little Bullet remains one of the pure classics of that early era. The track featuring on two of the most revered dance albums ever recorded, _Renaissance: The Mix Collection and Northern Exposure 2. How did that track come about and did you know you were on a winner?

It started life as something completely different, as is often the case. We labored with it for ages and it wasn’t really going anywhere. I don’t exactly remember how, but I think we had some studio time booked and just had to come up with something. That’s when the chords appeared and it took shape. We added the vocal last of all and did the various mixes probably all in one mental three-day session with no sleep. Otherwise the studio would cost too much so we would just stay up until it was done. In those days there was no hard disk recording, so no mix recall – you did it all in one go.

As the scene continued to explode in the mid 90s, Spooky became renowned for its live performances. What can you remember about these shows and how important was building a particular atmosphere for you?

We played a lot as part of the ‘Megadog’ shows with bands like Orbital, Drum Club, System 7 and Aphex Twin so you can imagine the laughs we all had. Living on tour buses for weeks and heaps of gear to carry about. No laptops, just racks of kit that didn’t always survive. We played many of the big European festivals including Glastonbury when dance music was relatively new as a live performance. I remember going to Prague with Fluke as pretty much the first live techno acts to head East. That was special.

*Spooky became the ‘go to’ guys for remixes, reworking some of the biggest artists of the time such as Svan Vath, William Orbit and Lush. What drew you to remixing tracks and were they any particular favorites?*

I love to do remixes, I always have. I always wanted to do an album where every track is a remix of the previous tune. Would it become more diluted and bland as it progressed? But I think the remix thing is open not so much abuse, but more misinterpretation. I used to do a lot of remixes just for the money, I still do, when really it is about getting a great angle on a track and showing it in a different light, possibly even improving on the original. I think that’s what a lot of major labels back in the 90s wanted to achieve by throwing money at remixers. In some cases it worked though, and you get the classics that we all know and love. I was fortunate to have worked with two amazing remixers, namely William Orbit and Sasha. Both approach remixing very differently, but with amazing results.

As the 90s rolled on into the millennium, your collaboration with Sasha grew into an incredibly successful partnership. You worked on absolute classics such as Xpander, Belfunk, Airdrawndagger and more recently Seal Clubbing. What fuelled this desire for the two of you to work together and for such a long period?

I think we created a really good vibe when we got in the studio together which just meant we’d keep doing tracks without ever thinking we were really working together. But it was interesting just to hang out and hear all the music we were into. Plus Sasha would usually rustle up a roast chicken with spuds and all the trimmings at about 2am – that’s probably the only reason I stuck with him. Ace cooking.

You have been moving back and forth between Spooky and your own solo projects, how do the two differ both performance wise and musically?

The main difference is that one is collaborative and one is not, so they complement each other well. I like to do both. I really believe in varying work patterns occasionally because it always gets you used to adapting and being on your toes as much as possible in the studio. I hate to just vegetate in front of a computer screen when I could be plugging in a load of patch leads. Working alone means you can be much more experimental or extremely conservative, whatever you feel like doing. You have to allow yourself the luxury of doing something without any good reason except for fun.

You are travelling to Australia to play a number of club dates as well as the Rainbow Serpent Festival, what can people expect at a Charlie May gig?

I have really enjoyed playing this set out so far. I try and keep it flexible so that i get to improvise a bit, but it depends on the venue and crowd as to what I’ll play. I can tweak it in a few different directions which is cool too, I’m not just doing the same thing over and over. But i hope it sounds good in Oz, for sure.

Having been there from the beginning to help shape the ‘progressive’ sound into what it is today, what does the future hold for Charlie May?

Well I feel very fortunate to be able to do what I do, so all I hope is to be able to make a living out of music for as long as I can really. I’m completely unemployable by now anyways!

Charlie May’s Australian tour dates:

Jan 23 – Shape, Perth
Jan 25 – Rainbow Serpent Festival, Melbourne
Jan 29 – Brown Alley, Melbourne
Jan 30 – Chinese Laundry, Sydney
Jan 31 – Empire, Brisbane