Introducing: Mark Radford & His Audio Rehab Label

Holding Saturday’s prime time slot of 10pm – 12am, Mark Radford is one of those DJs who’s influence on the tastes of Rinse’s listenership is probably a little bit underrated. Journeying out of the malaise UK funky left in its wake, he’s sculpted the parts of the techier spectrum of house music he liked into something that he, as a DJ with a background in much more bassline focused music, can himself relate to. And he’s proven with his radio show, his Rinse:018 mix CD and his own fledgling Audio Rehab imprint, that there’s a real and clear demand for this type of music across London and the UK. With an appearance in Room Three at the forthcoming Rinse FM Easter Party on Thursday 28th March and some exciting news concerning his Audio Rehab label heavy on our mind, we skyped the man himself to introduce his associated output a little better. So… tell us about your Audio Rehab label? Basically I started it in June last year. The fact that I’m on Rinse means that I get music before it gets sent to anybody, especially the UK artists, and with how much the deeper, techier end of house is blowing up everyone was sending me their music and I just thought, rather than me passing it on to someone else, why don’t I just start my own label? So that’s what I did, I formed Audio Rehab and it’s kind of just exploded. I haven’t even had to work at it. I got a distribution deal and I’ve got the music coming out of every hole in my body, I’ve got so much music at the minute. We just had the tenth release before Christmas. We were doing a release every two weeks because I didn’t really have the money to throw at marketing and we just wanted it to grow organically and let the music do the talking. The label is actually now officially an imprint under Rinse, so they offered me a management deal with the artist and with the label, so from now on they’re gonna deal with all the promo and the following of their brand will feed into Audio Rehab. To be honest, I don’t really know what I’m doing with the label... I’ve been around labels for years but my thing is DJing and producing. I mean I quite easily could’ve carried on where I was but when it comes to having the right contacts and getting the bigger people to become involved quickly - rather than say waiting for perhaps a year before they take interest - I know it needed someone to come in and take that part of it off it. I guess that’s what Rinse can offer now really… Exactly, they’re getting taken a lot more seriously as a multi genre station rather than just grime and dubstep. The fact that I’ve got the prime time show on a Saturday shows that they’re serious about pushing the house sound as well. It definitely seems to have exploded further over the last three years. How long have you been on Rinse now? I started on Rinse in March of 2011. I’ve been through every genre of music since dance music started in the UK [laughs]. I used to play on Weekend Rush years ago under the name Dubplate, playing jungle and drum & bass. I played on Kool FM for a little while, I played on De Ja Vu for a little bit playing garage and I was playing on Unknown FM playing house for about a year before Rinse got involved. They could see what I was doing, my residencies were going well and I was working with a few different promoters in London and they could see that with the right sort of a push it could go in the right place. So they came after me [laughs]. It’s a very nice position to be in. I’ve got a very specific sound that I push. Because my first love was jungle and drum & bass for me it’s all about basslines. It very bass driven but for me it’s got to have musical content with it. I like rhythmic basslines. I’d spend hours and hours on the internet looking for the right kind of tracks and then I started putting these sets together. I’ve always been a DJ but I was always following a trend, like my idols back in the day were like Randall, Jumping Jack Frost, Kenny Ken and them boys and for garage it was like Dreem Team and EZ and I was always aspiring to be what they were. I didn’t even necessarily think to myself, I’m gonna start something and it’s gonna take me to where I wanna be, I was just experimenting with a sound. I think that’s the way it starts for most DJs though who get successful in something… Well, I guess you’re just gonna put so much more time into something when you’re learning about it at the same time… Exactly, it was a new thing for me, I didn’t know the music. I was still finding it out and finding what I liked within it and it just so happened that everyone jumped on and loved what I was doing with it and it’s creating a whole kinda scene as it were. So what’s next for label? Are you gonna carry on pushing the same sort of stuff? For me the whole point of it is to let it grow itself. I’m working on my own album as well which’ll hopefully be out at the end of April/May time. So it’s just about pushing the quality music. I get sent about 100 tunes a week so it’s a great position to be in. Catch Mark Radford playing in Room Three at the Rinse FM Easter takeover on Thursday 28th March. Info/tickets.