Gammer. As the man himself explains in this very interview – it means ‘old lady’ if you look it up in the dictionary, interesting case in point if you consider that this Hardcore DJ prodigy was (and in some cases still is), a boy when he first stepped up to the plate for Hixxy in 2002 at the tender age of just 17.

In five years, he has achieved superstar DJ status within the realms of upfront UK Hardcore playing numerous sets back to back with long term collaborator, teacher and friend – the legendary Dougal and; it is through this partnership that he has achieved a number of high scoring Vinyl and MP3 download releases on Essential Platinum alone, not to mention his various remixes that have appeared on a series of sell-out Hardcore compilation albums including Hardcore Heaven, Clubland Extreme Hardcore, Ministry’s Hardcore Euphoria and many more!

He’s played everywhere from the confines of a small back room rave right up to the massive grand epic stages of some of the World’s biggest events, promoted and produced by a selection of the globe’s most prolific promoters including HTID, Hardcore Heaven, Raver Baby and our very own Fusion and is now gearing up for his own solo label project, Muffin Music. He also loves a bit of Hard House and has recently worked closely with the “King of Hard Dance”, Mr Andy Whitby on a number of releases under his real name, Matt Lee.

As we frantically count-down to Fusion –Force 5 – The 16th Birthday this Friday, we invited Matt back to ours to join the birthday pre-party here at Fusion HQ, to have a few words about himself and this weekend’s activities…

What inspired the name Gammer?

If you take a look in the dictionary, ‘Gammer’ actually means ‘an old lady’; I’ve always aspired to be an old lady.

I’m intrigued – how did it all begin? As a DJ, Producer and supporter of the great Hardcore movement?

Simply by chance, Dougal was a friend of the family, he heard something I did messing about one day, and things developed from there

Your working relationship with Dougal (both as Producer and DJ) is one of legend, what made that bond so unique – why is it; in your mind such a great partnership?

I don’t know why its so unique, we just ‘click’ in the studio, whenever we write anything, our ideas just seem to flow out in heavenly synchronousity (is that a real word?). On top of that we like reading books, taking walks together and eating protein bars

What do you remember of the first time you ever DJ’ed, where was it and what music style?

First time I ever DJ’ed was in the bottom room at Sundissential, Hixxy asked me and a friend to cover for Brisk, and I bricked it - but had a go anyways. I even had Whizzkid doing (MC duties on) our set!!!!

First tune I played was ‘Technorocker’ by Kaos and Ethos, which is a nas hard crazy tune, then played some freeform and worked into the more uplifting stuff like ‘Higher Than Heaven’, ‘6th Gate’, ‘Paradise’, etc.

You have produced a lot of material for someone of such a young age; you literally must have started producing at school! How is it that you can produce so much and yet keep the quality of your productions so high? How many records have you made in total to date?

Persistence in all honesty, and nothing but! I mean I’m never completely satisfied with my productions ever, it’s only in the last year that I’ve been happy with anything I do. I listen to what’s going on and try to match the quality, its hard work but if you want something bad enough…! As for records… err dunno! Over 100? (Laughs)

You don’t just produce Hardcore do you? We hear you’ve been working with Andy Whitby quite a bit on some Hard House projects?

Yea I’ve done a few bits with Andy; I’m really into the Hard Dance side of things at the moment, not just the bounce but the trancier stuff as well (from the likes of Technikal and co). Two of our tunes got to Number 1 in the DMC charts (‘Mind Blowing / Everybody’s Free’)

Me and Andy are working regularly at the moment to churn out loads of stuff for our new joint project; I’ve done some solo bits which are doing the rounds- (Matt Lee ‘How Many’ has been signed to AWsum, Andy’s label). He’s been uber supportive of me wanting to do some Hard Dance stuff, nas!

Who are your heroes, who is it in Hardcore or music in general really that you look up to and is there anyone that you would love to work with in the near future?

Peter Gabriel always makes me rush! As does Re-con and Scott Brown, Ephexis make me wet also. I’d love to work with pretty much everyone in the scene; Scott is at the top of the list however.

What is Muffin Music? And whilst we’re on the subject – Blueberry or Chocolate Chip?

Muffin Music is my new solo project; for no real reason other than it’s just something I wanted to do. Expect pretty much all my solo releases to feature on this label, hopefully some unreleased remixes too and the odd random stupid release here and there!

Oh yea… Muffins… Lemon and White Chocolate, from Costa ;)

What are your thoughts on the transition from buying Vinyl to everything being about downloads and how does that affect your work?

Its something we’ve all embraced, Vinyl sales are down but that was always bound to happen, new formats come along and people move along with the times. It doesn’t affect our work too much; most of our listening audience comes from albums and events.

It’s also our 16th birthday, what did you do on your 16th and – what have you got planned for your set at our 16th?

Probably got drunk somewhere (laughs) - my set Friday will be full of Hardcore Techno-Smack, pretentious broken beats and 1970s Jazz!

Thanks Matt - the ‘Spelling & Gammer’ check is complete! You can catch Gammer back to back with Dougal at Fusion – Force 5 – The 16th Birthday this Friday at Club Ice in Westbury.

Interview By Jon Brown

Thanks to Daf, H100 and TGPromotions-com for the loan and use of the pictures!

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