Egebamyasi interview – “It’s not a money making exercise, it’s just a record-putting-out exercise”

He’s no yoke

Excuse the pun, but Mr Egg – or Egebamyasi as he’s been known for many a year – has been up since the crack.

“I’ve been up since 7am, been doing music,” he tells Juno Daily when we Zoom him at his equipment-filled base just outside Stirling. “I’m creative during the day,” he tells us, “but once it gets dark it fades, so I have to make the most of it.”

Making the most of it is certainly what he’s doing. Some artists, having clocked up an incredible 40 years of action recently – even if he says “it doesn’t feel like that” – might be tempted to slow down and put their feet up somewhat. Not our man Mr Egg.

Just a brief look at the Juno site will show you that his output as Egebamyasi – named after the revolutionary third album by Can – is, if anything, speeding up as he hits his fifth decade in the game. After featuring on labels as esteemed as Soma and Finitribe’s Finiflex (among many, many others), played live as the guest of one Andrew Weatherall at the legendary Sabresonic night, been remixed by Lenny Dee and even collaborated with Erasure, he recently launched a new label with fellow Scottish act Foxtrot, under the Foxbam Inc banner.

The idea started as a vehicle to bring new artists who’d DJ-ed or played live around Edinburgh to the public’s attention, giving them their first vinyl releases. Foxtrot was due to make his debut alone on 001. But the pair realised the best way to do that was to line the new talent up with more established legends on various artist affairs, giving the newbies exposure to a much bigger audience.

“We could be using the vinyl to just record ourselves, but having various artists involved makes it a wee bit different.   But it’s a multi genre label, it’s not just a techno label.  The first thing I put out was just a banging piece of hardcore at 172bpm and the second one was a bit of garage.

“The idea is to bring present and past legends, along with some up and coming new artists from Edinburgh or Europe or wherever that we can connect with.  We’re doing it off the good will of other people, there’s no money involved here, but it’s not really about money, it’s not a money making exercise.  It’s just a record-putting-out exercise.”

Mark Archer (of Nexus 21/Altern 8) was brought in as guest on the first one, 001, and BRZ – “a couple of guys from, somewhere in Holland, forgive me for forgetting where” guested on 002.

003 was a slight variation to this theme, being Egebamyasi’s ‘It’s An Acid Thing’ EP, although again a big name – Marcos Salon aka Outlander – was brought in on remix duties. Along with ‘easyAcid – 40 Years Of 303 (1984-2024)’, put out by Dutch label Flatlife, it formed part of the 40th anniversary celebrations last year.

“It was originally destined to be on Dizzy records but it didn’t quite work out,” he explains, “and one thing led to another. Because we had the Foxbam label we thought let’s put them on there. That’s the good thing about having your own label, you can put out what you want.”

Release number 004, meanwhile, slated for release on May 19, features true UK techno royalty in the shape of Gez Varley, one half of original bleep kings LFO and a long established solo artist as G-Man.

“Gez will basically be the guest on this one,” he tells us. How did the link up come about?

“I cannae remember how we hooked up,” he continues with trademark candour. “I certainly never saw LFO live, it must have been via Facebook.  We have a few friends in common.  But I mean who doesn’t know the Warehouse song (LFO’s ‘LFO – Leeds Warehouse mix)’, you know?  There’s certain artists that, over the years, you know from buying their music, even though you’ve never met them.

“But it was fantastic that he was up for getting involved.  Every song of his could be a landscape, or a soundscape perhaps.  I just wish I could be better at describing it  – that’s where the record reviewer comes in I guess – but it’s this swirling, spacey, cascade of sound. So there’s one from Gez, one from me, one from Foxtrot and one from a guy in Italy called Vikkei.

‘Mandubchester’, the EP’s Egebamyasi tune, which features alongside originals from Vikkei and Foxtrot, is somewhat of a departure, marking new musical territory for Mr Egg, a hybrid offshoot of dubstep that he’s pioneering and naming ‘wobblestep’.

A lifelong garage fan, including the days before UKG was even a thing, he was switched onto the thrills of the more experimental end of dubstep by discovering the producer and former Groove Chronicles member El-b via YouTube last year. It opened up a new fascination with the likes of Digital Mystikz, Caspa and others of a similarly underground dubstep ilk.

“I’ve been into garage since the early 90s but I never knew what it was about. He does sort of garagey beats but with a very modern twist, with dubstep sounds on top and shuffling rhythms. It’s a different dubstep – the more dub-slanted dubstep with a warmer sound to it, not just the grating digital noises that some of it has.”

He’s amused to look back 40 years to 1985, when part of his early equipment set up was a Korg Polyphonic keyboard. “Thinking back to then I was actually producing ‘wobblies’ but because that wasn’t the area of sound I was moving into, I never really pursued it. It didn’t sound like unique sound to me then, it was just a noise that wobbled! If I’d only had a musical insight into the future!”

As one of the founding fathers of the UK acid house scene, we’d probably argue that he didn’t do tooo badly on the ‘musical insight into the future’ front. And although he’s finding the omnipotence of the acid sound a tad wearing – “it’s kind of everywhere, it’s at saturation point” – we haven’t heard the last of Egebamyasi the acid act.

“I’ve still got an acid set, it’s not like I’m never going to do it again, but I’ve just got excited about this stuff. ‘It’s An ACID Thing’ won’t be the last acid record I make, but there’ll probably be less in future.”

What about the label’s plans beyond 004 in May, then, beyond the launch party planned for Edinburgh’s Voodoo Rooms in early May?

“Well, after 004 it’s obviously 005,” he laughs. “That’s meant to be Fox’s debut 12” on his own, so he needs to get his finger out and do three or four tracks!  Knowing the way he works – he’s more of a DJ than a live act so he works quite differently to me – it won’t be soon and that may end up being 006 or 007.”

But working with Foxtrot and having two rather than one people shape Foxbam is invaluable, though, he says. “He’s the guy bringing the new guys through.  His taste in music is quite different to mine but that’s quite good because we’re both bringing something different to the table. There’s other artists we’ve got in the pipeline, so the plan is move on with the legends and the newbies and see where we go and what happens.  Hopefully introduce a few more unknown Edinburgh artists.  Just see where it goes.”

Ben Willmott

Check the full Foxbam Inc catalogue on Juno by clicking here