I had a bit of banter with First Lady of Metalheadz Storm about Red Bull, Valve, sheep
and doing it for the ladies – ahead of her set in the awesome Essence of Chi Arena at
the mighty Moondance Summer Festival @ SeOne London on June 16th, alongside
Logistics, Marcus Intalex, and the likes of Andy C & Red One, Mampi, Friction
“Bassline” Smih, Grooverider, TC and Clips in the Son of Dance Room...



 What are you loving at the moment Storm?

At the moment I am loving anything by Spirit, DKay or Digital and the Rufige Kru album.

You've been involved with Red Bull's Music Academy on several occasions. How did you
get involved with the project and what was the whole idea behind it?

Well obviously it was not my idea. The whole concept came from a couple of German guys
who were already involved with different dance music scenesand they decided to bring this
whole teaching concept to Berlin in 1989.

Since then it has grown and grown, and now I think it is in a great position to help its
students really have a great learning experience and take away something valuable
to their careers.

The way I got involved was that one of the guys who came up with the original concept was
an acquaintance of mine, and at that point in my career Kemistry and Storm were seen as
a very professional outfit who you could learn something from
and so we gave our first lecture.

It has been a joy to work with the Red Bull Music Academy Crew.

You also spent a period of time as Valve Recordings' press officer.
Why did you leave the position?
Did you learn a lot from being in that job?

I left this position as it did not work out for me. I think you learn something from every job
you do. I learnt not to believe all you hear, and also trust issues for me are important and
if you can't trust the people you are working with then there is no point.

Can you pinpoint a year in your mind which you would describe as your best year
to date? What made it so?

I love every year I am on this earth, and after the sadness of Kemistry departed this earthly
plane I count myself lucky to be here. Of course all my years with Kemistry were my favourite
and if I hadto pick a year where our lives and careers had all fallen into place was the year
we signed to do the K7! album DJKicks, and that also for me was too my worst year .We had
just finished all our promotional tours for this album and all dates were amazing then after
our USA tour was the time of the accident so 1999 was a double edged year for me .





Bringing us up to speed – what have you been up to lately?

Lately I have been spending time concentrating on Feline, a female DnB night run by women
for women. We play in London on the first Wednesday of the month at Herbal, and we have
just completed two nights abroad one in Milan, Italy and the other for Blade Runnerz in
Budapest Hungary....both nights were fantastic. We have a nice selection of residents -
alongside myself are Flight, Miss Pink and Alley Cat, then our MC s are Chickaboo
Deeizm and Ayah, and we open the earlier slots for newer DJs to get a chance
 ....so far so good.

Goldie's back with a new album shortly and Metalheadz the club night is returning
in a sense. What's the gossip on both of these developments?

Goldie is back as Rufige Kru as an artist, not Goldie - the distinction seems a bit blurred out
there - but whatever the Rufige Kru album is wicked totally on form, a proper DJ album, all
about getting it in the mix. The club is still very successful - it's all down to the fact that
Metalheadz has some fantastic DJs

What would you like to achieve by the end of the year?

To get Feline merchandising up and running and taking it to the next level

What do you feel about the current state of drum 'n' bass?
Do you feel there is a certain malaise in certain parts of the scene at all?

I don't think it is malaise. I think a lot of the newer people I encounter in the scene want to
walk before they can run all this “make one track and you’re a DJ” is nonsense. It seems
like no one wants to work for anything or earn their stripes and this is a shame and belittles
what this scene has achieved.

I don't believe my music is throwaway. It has survived for years, so I get very unhappy when
I see newer people disrespecting it and this culture with promoters booking someone cause
they made a tune not because they are a good DJ. I mean are promoters that silly that they
want to pay someone who is only interested in the adulation of the crowd and not to give
crowd value for money or even play what the crowd wants to hear and has paid someone
to play, not very well at all? These kinds of promoters I don't understand, but it seems to be
the way in this country all like sheep following each other. This is a shame and doesn't show
all the fantastic colours that DnB covers.




You will be playing for Essence of Chi in their massive DnB room at Moondance's
Summer Festival at SeOne on June 16th in deep dark London Bridge. When did you
 first hook up with Essence of Chi?What's their vibe all about for the unitiated?

I first hooked up with Essence of Chi a few years ago now, and from the moment I first
encountered their crew ‘til today it has been an absolute pleasure working with them.
They have always treated me with the utmost respect and that is not so easy to find.
I love their music policy....that they try to give all the different colours of DnB in one space.

What does Moondance mean to you?

Moondance is like a tradition for me. It was a dance I always went to when I started raving.
I always find the dances with a history behind them always bring good people interested in
having a good time with like-minded people, and I think Moondance has all this and more
to offer . I am so looking forward to playing and seeing lots of smiling faces which again
I always see at Moondance.

Full details on Moondance can be found here:
http://www.ehmproductions.com