Feeding Off The Vibe: Ben Sims On 10 Years At fabric

As we enter our 15th year of operation we're also finding more and more artists we love have serendipitously got their very own anniversary with us to celebrate. Last year we marked one of our most prized selectors, Ricardo Villalobos' 10 years of playing here with an exclusive series of events and as we enter 2014 the next artist to note a decade of engaging people in our musical space is Ben Sims. Sims is an artist who we feel holds a grasp in the world of techno that not many people reach. His name commands a certain esteem that he's gained from a long and consistent career fuelled by his masterful approach to DJing getting himself noted for his three deck mixing technique and full frontal energy that his far reaching fan base demands of him and loves him for. Being such a prized artist, born in the UK, it's a little odd that he was noted first by the international circuit but here in Farringdon is where he came to put down his roots here and its seemed to have worked with Sims getting the respect here at home and abroad 10 years on from that breaking show. As such we're pretty jubilant to have been able to work with the techno master to co-curate a special celebratory gig under the Ben Sims x fabric banner, with his handpicked lineup taking over Room Two at the end of the month echoing his recent fabric 73 mix and setting itself up as a suitably special event within our ever evolving relationship with the techno pioneer. Obviously with such an important date coming up, we wanted to represent that to the fullest so we invited Sims in the belly of our venue to talk back over the evolution of his career, finding out why today he's feeling more invigorated and inspired than ever. I just wanted to start by getting a picture about ten years ago, when you were first asked to play at fabric, what sort of state was your career in? Were you feeling comfortable and getting regular gigs and good press? I guess the first time I played here I'd been on the international circuit for five or six years. I'd done a few of my own parties in London, but not too much high profile, so I guess it was a good time for me playing in the UK. It helped push my name further in the UK 'cause I was mainly travelling abroad and making a name for myself there. I guess around 2004/5 I was solidifying my reputation as it were, playing fabric a couple of times a year really helped that because it's a well known club. I didn't know you were internationally recognised first... I've been DJing on and off since I was a teenager. I'd done lots of London clubs, but just sets here and there. It wasn't really kicking off until I started releasing music. I literally had my phone number on the records and started getting international work and that side kicked off a lot more. I'd be playing abroad maybe five/six/seven times a month, then only in the UK three times a year. Then from early to mid 2000s the balance started to redress itself a bit. It's a different picture now - people see your name and come and see you. What was your first impression of fabric when you first played here? What did that mean to you? Sometimes it's difficult to keep up with the scene when you are never there at the weekend. I think at the time fabric had been open 5 years. I'd been here a couple of times and seen some people play and I knew I really needed to play here. I think if it was a famous club in another country it would just be somewhere else to tick off, but because London is home, I felt I needed to be a part of it. So you've always lived around London. What makes it so special? Why do you stay here? It's got so many different influences, people come from so many different points and heritages and they all meet in the middle. People move from all over the country and the world: it's such a melting pot of ideas and styles. It makes it so interesting, lively and exciting for clubs and for music. Obviously New York or Tokyo have that as well, but I've always found it important to be in and around here. So many people leave for Berlin so it’s interesting someone like you has decided to keep your roots here. I travel around so much and have for 15 odd years. The more I travel the more I appreciate being in London. I don't want to be here and switch off; I want to be energised by the city. You have been touring for ages. When you do the tours and gigs abroad, what's the production like in those clubs? Is it smooth? How does it compare? It really varies wildly. There are lots of really established and professionally run clubs, like fabric, in different countries, so there is a team working on it on the night making sure every small details is right. Then you get places where there is one guy running the venue, and he has someone working on the door... you get unique atmospheres from both. Are there any pitfalls from travelling a lot? It's much like someone complaining about getting on a tube to go to work - I understood from the start it's what I have to do for my DJ career. It's a necessity, I've never done enough in England to pay the bills, so I’ve got to do it! Sometimes it can piss you off because, unfortunately, such a small part of it is the actual set itself, or the club and meeting people. That might be like two or three hours a day, and ten have been spent in airports. Everyone moans about getting to work - at least I do something I love when I get there! I was always interested in what you've learnt from seeing other nationalities when you play out. Are there any places you feel go particularly crazy to techno when you play to them? I guess most of the places I play regularly - France, Italy, Holland - at the minute it's a really good time for it. Lots of people seem to be discovering the music for the first time, so lots of crowds are really excitable and all over it. When [techno] has a boom time and lots of people come to it, it's really exciting. Four or five years ago it wasn't the best time for the music, there weren't lots of new people coming through. You can feel that in clubs, they have this 'we've seen it before' vibe. In this ten years gone have you seen big changes? It's always a rollercoaster; there are good times and bad times. It's the same with your enthusiasm for what you do - at the moment I really love it and it feels like I'm just starting out again. It's weird to think I've been playing fabric for ten years. I played somewhere in France at the weekend and the guy was like 'the last time you played here was 12 years ago'. To me everything is feeling very fresh and I'm enjoying it so sometimes it's surprising I've been doing it this long. It's good to feel like I'm doing the circuit for the first time, it keeps me fresh. So what artists are coming through that you have been impressed by? Is that reflected in the line up you’ve helped curate for your 10 years Room Two line up? Truncate, who plays at the party, is one of the guys who definitely risen through the ranks in the past couple of years and is definitely a someone that features a lot in my sets, just great tough edged club tracks. Mike Dehnert too, a master of machine funk who's been a big favourite of mine since he burst on to the scene 5 or 6 years ago. I'm very excited by many newer generation artists - J.Tijn I play a lot of, he releases on Untold's PennyRoyal label amongst others, seriously heavy gear, Vinalog and all the Relative and Appointment crew too, I love that stuff, beautifully raw house and techno, there are literally hundreds, so many good artists dropping good music right now. You've kept to the club-scale, too, in your career. A lot of artists wanna do a huge, one room warehouse spaces when they get big. I get to do that when I travel. I like the idea of being more involved when I play in London. I don't just turn up and play and leave, I like the idea of choosing acts, curating at fabric, co-running Machine, being more connected to the night. You lose the intimate feel the bigger you get and its' a lot more stressful to put on a party like [those warehouse events]. I would play if it wasn't me doing it but because I've done my own parties for 10/12 years I like that smaller vibe where it's not just one space, one act or star - it's a party where you can enjoy yourself, it's not just work. Do you play differently in London? Some people say they can push it further than in big, main room festivals... Definitely, doing bigger festivals and stages around Europe it's so important to reach new people and do big sets. They are a lot more reactionary than playing in a small, dark club to 300 people. These days I just take as much music with me as is humanly possible and try and feed off the vibe of the people, or the event in general. I guess in my head I will always have a general idea of what it is I want to do when I'm there. It depends on all the different factors whether I actually do that or not. Sometimes I go off on a tangent and play disco or whatever. So it's still very reactionary? Yeah, but I'm not just a slave to the people and what they want. I have a vision of what I want to play but it does depend on the event and reaction to me experimenting as to whether I think it's appropriate to push the boundaries more. You are also known for your technique and three deck mixes. Do you plan them? Nowadays a lot less. In the past 18 months I've been using vinyl a lot less. I've been carrying it around with me every couple of months instead of every set so I'm taking a lot more music with me to every set and experimenting a lot more, doing things off-the-cuff whereas before, with vinyl, I had some cigarette break mixes (laughs). I knew those three went together and I'd have a cigarette. I even put the three records in the same sleeve! Nowadays I have an idea of how I want to start and end and that depends on the vibe when I get there and the DJ before and what he is playing. Sometimes I'll be like oh 'I know that record goes with this record' and I'll rock that for a couple of weeks but I'm determined not to repeat myself too much anymore. So you use USBs now? Yeah. It's interesting that pushes you more creatively. The way I used to use three turntables - a lot of the time I'm mostly playing with two, and the third is for extra stuff, loops or locked grooves over the top. Now, I'm doing that a lot more with the USBs. Some tracks I'm just playing a loop of it and building things up as I go along. I never really know what's going to happen when I start playing something, sometimes it's like 'shit, that doesn't work - loop it up, get out of that quickly!'. I'm having a lot more fun with it than I have done for a couple of years, so it's been a really exciting progression. I'm still very much a vinyl buyer, collector and I still want to play it, but I like the idea of embracing new technology. It sounds like you are really enjoying a new peak at the moment. One last thing I want to ask about fabric is your fondest memories over the last ten years. It did feel like an achievement when I played here first time. Because I wasn't doing as much in London as I would like, there was maybe a clique of DJs that played here and I wasn't on that circuit and I thought 'I need to get in there'. The first time I played I went long, there were loads of people left at the end and it was a really, really good vibe. Even though I've done lots of other parties in London, it felt like a homecoming gig, and that was really good. Also because most of the gigs in London I've put on myself, I didn't have any of those stresses and just did my thing. I'd say that was probably my favourite. Also though, the launch party of my debut album was here and that was really good. And the mix CD launch. There have been lots of pivotal moments in my career celebrated here, so it's a special place. Photography by Sarah Ginn