Auf diesen Abend war ich gespannt. Ich hatte Tim für den montäglichen "Bag of Goodies" eingeladen. Ich kannte von ihm bisher nur seine Produktionen und daß, was Daniel mir über ihn erzählte: "...er ist ein Party-DJ, er rockt das Haus...".

Tim Love Lee legt so auf, wie er produziert: funky, unkompliziert, vielseitig und... er hat eine Schwäche für schöne Pop-Musik, egal ob Jazz, Ska, Funk oder Rock. Beim Auflegen arbeitet er hart, er flickt sein Set zusammen und dekoriert die einzelnen Stücke mit kurzen Soundeffekten. Das Endprodukt ist nicht immer perfekt. Es ist wie eine großzügige, selbstgebackene Torte mit vielen verschiedenen Zutaten.

Großzügig ist auch die Tummy Touch E.P. . Tim erzählte mir später, daß diese E.P. in England sehr gut ankam. Sie wurde sowohl von den Chemical Brothers als auch von Cold Cut für ihre jeweilige Mix-CD ausgewählt.

Montagnacht, die Torte ist fertig, Tim ist erschöpft. Mein einziger Vorwurf: ich hätte ihm beim Backen ganz kurz helfen sollen. Nächstes Mal!

---

ouk: Who are you at first: a producer, music player or selector (DJ)?

LL: My best passion is to make music, so... to be a musician or producer. Djing is fun, it’s a lot of fun. It’s a good way of making money, it‘s easier to make money djing than making music, but I also run a Record Label.

ouk: Tell me something about beeing a producer and running a record label.

LL: Having a record label is like running a business, it’s like having a shop... you know, I have to design work, to organize between product and distribution... . A record producer is somebody that sits in the studio guiding the music.

ouk: "Confessions of a Selector" is your debut LP. Why "Confessions"? Did you hide something?

LL: :-) ... there was a series of movies and of books called "Confes-sions of a Windowcleaner" or "Confessions from the Pop scene" and so on... they were like smutty silly books, a kind of soft porno like Carry on Movies. In England they were very succesfully in the sixties and seventies with many really stupid jokes, you know about big tits ... really childish. Anyway these are an old series called "Confessions" and they were written by Timothy Lee and I have to share the name with the author of these ridiculous, smutty books and films ... so that was it really. "Confessions" also because I am taking other peoples music, music samples ...

ouk: I recognize in your samples "Wack, Wack" of the Young Holt Trio and "Respect" by Aretha Franklin. These are old jazzy, really funky samples and they surely represent your musical roots ...

LL: ... yes, that’s my favourite music and I’ve been listening to those records for a long time since I am 13 and I started buying records and I still listen to those records ...

ouk: Tell me ... one record that you have always in your record box when you are DJing.

LL: The Tummy Touch E.P., that I’ ve made, it’ s the third record on Peace Feast. And Joan Jett and the Blackhearts "I love Rock’n Roll" ...

ouk: oh ... okay! :-) ... last night it really was a surprising style break you know ...

LL: Exactly!

ouk: I think your way to play music is very british...

LL: Yes! ... mmmh ... what do you mean with british?

ouk: I mean very ... eclectic?

(* Selecting what appears to be the best from various doctrines, methodes or styles or composed of elements drawn from various sources (Webster’s Collegiate Thesaurus, 1976) )

LL: :-) ... that’ s like practicing on the piano!

ouk: Now tell me something about your record labels: Peace Feast and Tummy Touch, and ... why these names?

LL: Okay! The name "Peace Feast" I’ ve got from a poster of the 1960’s. Peace Feast was the name of a music Festival ... like Woodstock ... and I used to write on flyers for my parties "this is a peace feast", so ... "Tummy Touch" is the name of a poem by Vaughn Bodé.

He is a famous comic artist, his comic "Cheech Wizard" is very popular and he also wrote a poem called "Tummy Touch"... about girls. One of them was Tummy Touch and she is my favourite... and when I started doing a nightclub, I called it Tummy Touch, and it is also the name of my first record, that I did on my own: the Tummy Touch E.P. . It’s named after the nightclub, because this is the kind of music that we will play. And then when the time comes for me to set up another record label, I’ll just carry on the name "Tummy Touch"... because I adore to use it!

Now Peace Feast doesn’t exist so much, it maybe puts out one or two records a year ...

ouk: Which are the differences in music between Tummy Touch and Peace Feast?

LL: Tummy Touch has been a lot more Disco oriented, it’s for people listenig to house music or... for club Djs. Peace Feast is a little more difficult to categorize. Tummy Touch, you know is more accessible ... I think ...

ouk: Many years ago you left the guitar pop side of music, I mean Kathrina and the Waves ("Walkin’ on the sunshine" war der Hit gewesen und Tim spielte die Orgel) to begin a career with club music. Why did you do that?

LL: Well ... it wasn’ t really like that ... I played in bands and also in different types of bands. I played in funk, jazz bands, I had rock bands, pop bands...

ouk: ... in London?

LL: No, in Cambridge first and then Notting-ham. I have only lived in London for two years. So I played in bands since I was 15, and then when I was 19, I started DJing, and I have always been into dance music, black music, soul, funk music. So when I started DJing in 1989, I was playing house music in house clubs, but made money by playing in pop bands like Kathrina and the Waves ... so at the same time I was still a DJ ...

ouk: ... so you were in Oxford, in ...

LL: No, I brought up in Cambridge. I was born in Cambridge and then I lived in Zimbabwe for 4 years and then I went to school in Cambridge...

ouk: ... and then Nottingham?

LL: Yes. I went there to study music ... and I was there for 6 years and then I moved to London.

ouk: Why Zimbabwe?

LL: My Mum is from Zimbabwe ... so my sister, my Mum and Dad, we went there...

ouk: Now tell me something about your typical work day in London.

LL: Well. I have the office at home, in a ... it’s like an industrial unit, warehouse space in the East of London. This is a very trendy, but ... it’s a very happening area, it’s not quite trendy yet ...

ouk: ... I know that you are living in front of the Blue Note ...

LL: Yes, there are many other nightclubs and a lot of good bars, a lot of recording studios, record labels ... things like that ... but it’s funny, since there are no shops. It is an old industrial area ... it’s cool. So my office is in my home, the record label is there too. So I get off my bed and then I gonna get a coffe from the local coffe bar. I read post, I make telephone calls, I sit on my desk running a record label, I have a lunch, I carry on running a record label and then generally I go out DJing or just getting drunk in the evening ... and since I live and work in the same place, at home all day, I have to go out every night, I need to see other people and talk ...

ouk: If you want to have a good party or just good time, where do you go?

LL: Not so far away from home, I go to the 333 club, this is at the end of my road. It is the best club in London!

ouk: Are you DJing there?

LL: Yes. Once a month. We are doing our own nightclub "Tummy Touch" together with Faze Action, the Idjut Boys and the Groove Armada. The Groove Armada are artists on the Tummy Touch label. They are two people and they have a new LP called "Northern Star" ...

ouk: ...basically you are living in one street in London?

LL: :-) ... pretty much ... well occasionally I go to the supermarkt ... to Soho to buy records.

ouk: In which clubs are you DJing?

LL: In the 333 club, in the Dog Star ... I played there for a while ... In London there are no other places where I am playing regularly ... I just organize little parties in London ...

ouk: I know you’ll be in Brighton on saturday ...

LL: Yes, after Brighton I’ll be in Bristol, Manchester ...

ouk: Is this your first visit to Germany?

LL: It was the first time for me to be in Germany as a Dj.

ouk: Your impressions about nightlife in Germany.

LL: Well ... it’s not the same as in England. People, I think get a lot more drunk in England ... it’s more relaxed here, somehow in Germany, it seems to be more social. In England people seem to go out just to go wild ... nightclub is a place to go wild ... but it is nice...

ouk: Did you find difficulties to present your style of playing music in Germany?

LL: :-) ... oh ... I don’t know? ...

ouk: I mean the reactions were surely different ...

LL: ... yes, sure. And it is never easy to play away from home, even going to different towns in England. Maybe it is easier if you want to play the same music. If you do a pure drum ’n’ bass set people respect that and understand that. It is harder if you want to do something else ... to be eclectic...

ouk: :-)... oh, yes! very eclectic! Were there some "strange" reactions, when you suddenly played "I love rock’n’ roll"? Did you play it always, during your small german tour?

LL: I didn’t play it saturday, in Frankfurt, but I played it friday, in Munich. I played a completely wild set there, much wilder than last night. People loved that ... I think, it was brilliant ... I don’t know ... I was so drunk :-) Yes, I think it was really good.

ouk: Tell me something about the music scene in London?

LL: Which kind of scene ... eclectic?

ouk: Yes.

LL: Well Tummy Touch is the best club ...

ouk: :-)

LL: ...there are certainly many other good clubs in London, but if you are living in London you are just staying in your area: You know it takes two hours to get to the other side of the town ...

ouk: ... there is not so much interchange, movement ...

LL: No, for me it is not necessary. Anyway, certainly some people are travelling everywhere ...

ouk: Tourists?

LL: Yes! They are going to all the nightclubs.

ouk: Do you have some fave DJs?

LL: Joe 2000 of the Runaways, he was DJing in Germany. He is brilliant. All the guys of the Idjut Boys are brilliant too. Norman Jay is very good. Ross Allen. Dj Harvey ...

ouk: ... some Djs, that you don’t like ...

LL: Anyone who claims to be eclectic and plays only some drum’ n bass and trip hop. To be an eclectic Dj you need to have a large record collection... knowledge about music.

ouk: Your favourite food?

LL: Well I like italian food, and at the minute spinach is my favourite food.

ouk: Do you believe in aliens?

LL: :-) ... I can’t believe you ask me that question! Aliens??

ouk: Yes! Do you believe in aliens?

LL: I refuse to answer this question ... because somebody asked me that before ... No, I don’t believe in aliens! I had an interview in Florida with american guys, they were making a movie about british underground, eclectic music and they asked me like two questions about music and then ...

suddenly asked me if I would believe in aliens, and they spoke about aliens and spaceships for about twenty minutes ... they were completely mad. Maybe there is some kind of message in my music?

ouk: :-) No. We always ask this, not only you.

LL: Okay!

ouk: I think I’m done now ... or maybe you want to tell me somemore?

LL: Maybe about my new beard? Moustaches?

ouk: (wie konnte ich das vergessen!!) Oh, yes! sure! I know that you brought back your moustaches from South America ...

LL: No, not really ... I had big moustaches before I went to South America, but I got quite serious about it in Latin America. That is my other hobby: facial hair!

ouk: Did your journey in Latin America influence your actual, musical taste?

LL: No. I mean I love cuban music and since I’d been in Latin America I love the other kind of latin american music as well ... like brasilian music, but since I’m back , I’d never heard this kind of music again, this music doesn’t influence my music. But spiritually, I think, I grew up a lot ... ][ Emanuela "edl" de Luca

Current top five:
-Marlon Sea: Disco del mar
-Dem 2: Destiny
-Groove Armada: Northern Star LP
-anything on "Essay Rec."
-Bel Air Project: Dark Jazz

All time fave Lps:
-Herbie Hancock: Headhunters
-Miles Davis: Kind of blue
-Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: Deja vu
-Don Blackman: Don Blackman
-Cassandra Wilson: New Moon Daughter