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Features
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| Introducing NEM3SI$’s new label Infinite Resistance! | | Mindbenderz talk ‘Lord of the Rings’ and fishing, as well as the creation of their new album ‘Celestial Gateway’! | | Iono-Music artists One Function, Eliyahu, Invisible Reality and Dual Vision talk Robert Miles, kids, dogs and vinyl, while we chat about their current releases! | | Luke&Flex talk influences, the Irish rave scene, why Flex wears a mask and Play Hard, their new EP out now on Onhcet Repbulik Xtreme! | | Lyktum expands on his new album ‘Home’ – talking about his love of storytelling, creating new harmonies and the concept behind his musical works. | | Pan talks getting caught short crossing the Sahara, acid eyeballs and tells us Trance is the Answer, plus shares his thoughts on his latest release 'Beyond the Horizon' - all from a beach in Spain! | | Miss C chats about living with the KLF, DJing in a huge cat’s mouth, training her brain and the upcoming super-duper Superfreq Grande party at LDN East this Saturday, 16th September! | | NEM3SI$ - I Live for the Night – talks superficiality, psychopaths, and bittersweet success, ahead of a plethora of evocative, emotional, and passionate upcoming melodic techno releases! | | Psy-Sisters Spring Blast Off! We talk to DJ competition winner ROEN along with other super talents on the lineup! | | Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast! | | Shyisma talks parties, UFO's, and Shotokan Karate ahead of his upcoming album 'Particles' on Iono-Music! | | SOME1 talks family, acid, stage fright and wolves - ahead of his upcoming album release ‘Voyager’ on Iono-Music in February 2023! | | The Transmission Crew tell all and talk about their first London event on 24th February 2023! | | NIXIRO talks body, mind and music production ahead of his release 'Planet Impulse' on Static Movement's label - Sol Music! | | Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project | | The Psy-Sisters chat about music, achievements, aspirations and the 10-Year Anniversary Party - 18/12/22! | | A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden | | Earth Needs a Rebirth! Discussions with Psy-Trance Artist Numayma | | Taking a Journey Through Time with Domino | | New Techno Rising Star DKLUB talks about his debut release White Rock on Onhcet Republik! | | PAN expands on many things including his new album 'Hyperbolic Oxymoron' due for release on the 14th April 2022 on PsyWorld Records! | | Psibindi talks all things music including her new collaborative EP 'Sentient Rays' on Aphid Records, her band Sentience Machine and 10 years of Psy-Sisters! |
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Interview with a born and bred scouser - GUFFY
Reported by Wiggii
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Submitted 29-11-04 22:18
Lee McGuffie better known as Guffy on the dance scene, started buying vinyl at the tender age of 10 and started taking an interested in the early House sounds in 1990. Guffy decided enough was enough in 1996 when he kept on buying compilation cds that he only like 50% of the tracks on them. He decided to get a set of decks and bought some Soundlab DLP3's and Numark 2002 mixer having never before even attempted to mix 2 track together let alone used a mixer and two turntables. For the next two years he was a bedroom DJ, trying to define his sound and perfect his skills on the decks.
His lucky break came in 1998 when he worked behind the bar in a club called Jaspers, which played mainly cheesy music with the likes of “Come on Eileen” and “Dancing Queen” being regulars playing over the speakers. As the promoter new he was a dj, he was asked to cover a half an hour slot one night and decided to put an end to all the cheese and played a Trance set which went down well securing him weekly bookings over the next few weeks. Things really started to look bright with him being offered the main 90 minute slot of the night and soon a monthly promotion started up there called Revolve with Guffy being resident and the likes of JFK playing and a Renaissance tour night to top it off!
Shortly after Guffy moved to Middlesborough in 2000 he was asked by a local promoter to play at Stimulate, an after-hours promotion in a club called Area 51 where he was soon made resident and soon became a familiar face on the Sheffield circuit.
Fast forward to 2002 where he broke onto the London club scene, after a very successful career up North, where 4clubbers, which Guffy part owns, hosted the top room for Frantic’s ‘Unity’ night at Camden Palace. His set went down such a treat that Frantic asked him to play the opening set in the tent they were hosting at the Creamfields festival. Having played yet another blinding set there, Frantic invited him to play main room at Camden Palace for the 4clubbers 2nd birthday in November ‘02 and having excelled again he was asked to play at the likes of HHA, Convergence, Timeless and Chemistry. The following March saw him become the first Frantic resident since Andy Farley and played Frantic nights both at Cream, Ministry Of Sound and Tidy Weekender!
After signing with Nukleuz, Guffy’s djing carrer seemed destined to reach ever greater heights. Since then he has played for pretty much every big promotion from Glastonbury through to Judgement Sunday in Ibiza and The Venue in Istanbul (Turkey) and has been working hard in the studio and well as writing for Mixmag….
The list goes on and on and on with this truly talented dj, producer, writer and all round nice guy. We were lucky enough to get a few minutes of his time to asks a few questions and find out a little more about him.
Hi there Guffy. How are you on this fine Winters day?
Hey, I am well thanks!
So I understand that you mix a whole range of music genres from hip hop to hard dance. Can tell us a bit about how you got mixed up in the whole music biz and how long you have been mixing?
I’ve been mixing for nearly 7 years now but playing out for about four of them. I’ve been collecting vinyl since I was about 10 years old with old 7” records and been into dance music for as early as I can remember. I really got into DJing when I used to sneak into the old Pleasuredome raves to see Carl Cox back in 92/93 when he was playing hardcore. I could never decide what genre I really loved the most so ended up getting into everything. That’s kind of carried through to my DJing now as well. I play tech-house through to trance and techno whatever sounds good really. I got into playing out through a local club like most people but then Good Greef took me on way back when they used to be called Totally Mashed. From then I went onto becoming involved with 4clubbers.net through my good friend Salvador; it escalated from there.
You pretty much took the hard dance scene by storm. From playing very few events in London to a few times a week for all the big promotions and then you got snapped up by Nukleuz! Was this all a shock to you or were you expecting it?
Yeah, that was all a bit mad and a little ironic too. I’ve never played hard house so to get signed up by Nukleuz was a real surprise. Nukleuz were prompted to listen to me by my friend Salvador and they got me to play my techy/trancey warm up stuff for the opening set at Creamfields. I moved to London last year to pursue everything and began playing regularly for many London promotions, eventually becoming resident at Frantic.
I had a really amazing year with NukIeuz and Frantic but in order for me to be able to pursue everything and take the next step, it was clear that I would have to go my own way and follow some new opportunities that have arisen. So I’ve recently parted with Nukleuz but I’m very grateful for Will and Lisa’s support over the last year. I’m really excited about 2005 already.
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You play a very unique style when it comes to your hard trance/dance sets that get everyone going big time and is refreshing to hear. How would you describe this sound to those clubbers who haven’t heard it?
I’ve plied my trade in the early slots of a lot of hard dance promotions in the last year, meaning that I can play stuff that’s a little different and risky. It’s hard to say what my sound is as I’ll drop everything from tech-house, techno, trance but it has to have some sort of groove to it, that’s what warm ups are all about. Too many people think that slowing down harder stuff so it’s slower is suitable for early slots but it just sounds awful. Chunky and funky for early doors I say. The good thing for me is that I can play a whole host of clubs because my sound is not pigeonholed to one genre. That’s meant that I’ve been able to play at a whole host of places like, Creamfields, Frantic, Judgement Sunday, Glastonbury, Good Greef, Passion and the Ministry of Sound to name a few.
You have been spending a lot of time in the studio producing tracks that are being signed by the likes of Nukleuz and Tidy. Is this why we have not seen you playing at many promos over the last few months?
For the last few months I’ve been getting my head around production with my own studio. I’ve also been doing some tracks with friends such as Ingo, Scott Mac and Greg Brookman, which all recently came out. My first one got signed to Tidy, my second to Scott Mac’s label Limit and my third to Nukleuz so it’s not a bad start. My dates are filling up already for next year so it’s going to be full steam ahead again with the DJing as well.
All the ladies I have spoken to say that you are cute! Why do you think this is?
You tell me! Maybe they’re after some guest lists places, hehe.
You have just bought out a ripper of a tune with Greg Brookman that is a little different to most of the stuff being produced at the moment. What influenced this sound and can we expect more quality tracks like this in the next few months?
Bring The Funk is a cool tune, Greg’s superb in the studio and knows how to get what you have in your head out into a studio. It’s a mish-mash of all the stuff I love and heavily influenced by my love of the Dutch sounds. There will be more stuff on the way as I’ve filled in loads of studio dates for December!
Can I have a cdr with all them on it?
A few JD and Coke’s on the night and there yours J
Out of all the promotions this year, which one by a big promoter would you say you have most enjoyed playing at and which new promotion do you think is going from strength to strength and support the most?
It’s really hard to pick one. Good Greef has been superb this year as was playing two sets at the recent Escape Into The Park festival in Wales – Hard House Academy is always a great gig too. For the smaller ones, I’d have to say that Hard South in Brighton is amazing and of course BASIC which really took me by surprise when I first played it a few months ago!
You played in Finland a few months ago. How did that go and was it your first international appearance?
It was in Helsinki with BK and it was superb. It was in a massive factory type place and it only went dark for a couple of hours, that really bends your head. It wasn’t my first international as I’ve played Judgement Sunday in Ibiza as well as some gigs for Good Greef in Magaloof as well as a Nukleuz tour in Turkey.
What international event would you most like to play at and why?
I would love to play at the Berlin Love Parade. I hope that the next one goes ahead as this year was cancelled. It would be a shame if that stopped. I’d also love to play at Dance Valley over in Holland, it’s supposed to be amazing to play at.
Now that you are a budding producer, who out of the world’s top producers do you most look up to and harvest ideas from or are all you ideas unique?
Marco V has an amazing sound that he has developed with his studio partner Benjamin Bates. Many refer to that sort of sound as ‘The V sound’, which is true testament to anyone that has made it their own. In terms of my sound, your always going to be influenced by your peers but it’s having that ability to add something extra. That will only come with time and experience though.
You used to live up north and moved down to London because you were being booked to play here nearly every weekend. Was it a hard decision to make and do you have any regrets?
Yeah I’m a born and bred scouser so moving to the big smoke was a huge move. It wasn’t just the fact I had loads of gigs down here it was a case that opportunities both personally and professionally where more prominent so I definitely have no regrets.
What course do you see your career steering most towards in the future; mixing, producing or both?
It will definitely be both I think. There are very few DJs that can make it without production. I was the first to be signed to Nukleuz with production so it can be done but it’s much easier with it now. The buzz of playing out can’t be matched by sitting in a studio but then the buzz of a tune of your own is amazing.
You co-own a clubbing website. How do you find the time to mix, produce, run a successful website and have time to yourself?
I’ve had to take my foot of the gas with 4clubbers recently but I still do what I can. If we could get another 8 hours into the day then I’d be really happy. I work for Mixmag as well as work in an advertising company in London so my week is jam-packed – the best way I think!
Quick fire:
Are you single?
Yes, for the first time in 7 years!
Do you smoke?
Nope, never have.
Fav drink?
JD and Coke.
Do you own a dog?
Nope, would love a white Boxer though.
What headphones do you use?
Sony MDVR700’s
Thanks for your time Guffy.
No problem J
Thanks to Guffy for his time and Habittz Inc for the use of their photo's.
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Other Features By Wiggii:
An audience with Paul Maddox
10800 seconds with Mr Simon Rutherford before his world exclusive 3 hour set
Interview with a new hybrid dj & producer - Kutski
Interview with a UK hard trance legend - Steve Blake
Interview with The Greek - EL GREKO
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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