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Nick Muir: Take That, Gary Glitter & Digweed’s Missing Link - Skrufff.com

Reported by Tristan Ingram on May 7, 2008

Though he’s best known as the production guru/ collaborator behind John Digweed’s progressive house outlet Bedrock, Nick Muir has enjoyed a lengthy career as a pianist taking in gigs with the likes of Take That and Gary Glitter. Hugely experienced and equally articulate, he’s clear about his own role; that of DJs like Digweed and the enduring differences between DJs and rock stars.
“Dance music doesn’t really play by rock rules, one of which is that you're supposed to be young and good looking. If you're standing in the spotlight in full view then to give yourself an even chance it’s best you don’t have wrinkles and a beer gut,” he points out.
“But in clubs the whole process is conducted in half-light so it ain’t so important. Of course it comes into it, but let’s face it, if the one of the qualifications for being a successful DJ was physical beauty half of ‘em would be out of a job; No offence fellas - I'm aware I'm no Brad Pitt,” he laughs.
Image issues aside he’s equally clued up about business issues, pointing out ‘another crucial point here is that DJs are not dependent on their own creative output as far as the material they play out is concerned.’ 
“IIf a band stops writing decent songs then it’s game over, but if a DJ is worth his or her salt then they need never run out of decent material. In fact the more established they are, the better chance they have of getting half decent exclusive tunes ahead of the pack,” says Nick.
“Also, DJs’ careers do not depend on being bankrolled by record companies. With bands, especially these days, as soon as your sales graph peaks then you're dropped. That means tour support, advances, infrastructure etc being whipped away in one fell swoop. DJs are one step closer to being behind the scenes than bands and are consequently a little less vulnerable to the whims of an A&R man.”

 

“There's plenty of room for fresh talent, which abounds,” he added, “But you’d better be keen if you want to compete with the Digweeds of this world ‘cos they take what they're doing very seriously and they're bleedin’ good at it.”

Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): Starting with your career right now, on your potted biog you write ‘the last couple of years have been a reality check especially for producers like myself who don’t venture behind the decks’: how difficult is your situation right now?
Nick Muir: “Well it’s not easy, but then it never was really. I have to say that I'm lucky to have had such a long-standing association with John (Digweed) as he's been working at the highest level for so long. His profile is such that pretty much everything he works on gets a great deal of attention. Also, material that we released many years ago is still being sold all over the world so that all helps. But I'm never quite sure where my next paycheck is coming from and the change in the industry has increased the paranoia that fact induces. I'm used to staring down the barrel of a gun in that respect though - it goes with the territory.”
Skrufff: Just how much has the financial return changed from producing/ releasing tracks?
Nick Muir: “For a while it was extremely rare to be able to get an advance on a track if you were releasing it through a small independent. That never used to be the case. And I did notice that remix fees plummeted about three or four years ago when the file-sharing thing suddenly became an issue. I would say I'm making about half what I used to make about five years ago. But I have to say that’s due to a lot of things: personal circumstances, the situation with the labels I've been involved with etc. Also, the situation is improving. It’s as much to do with getting your own shit together as it is with the state of the industry. It’s easy to blame stuff on outside influences.”
Skrufff: When did you realize the change was seismic?
Nick Muir: “It seemed to me that a sense of panic set in which spread like a virus. Suddenly the industry could no longer ignore what was happening with illegal downloads. It went from being an annoyance to being a big problem (for the record companies) in a very short space of time. It hit the independents hard first off because the margins are low - loads of them simply went out of business.”
Skrufff: Now that there are literally thousands of people putting out tracks: how much has this raised the standard? How much is greater competition a factor?
Nick Muir: “The standard varies wildly. The production costs of digital only release are nothing like those for vinyl or CD so the quality control has suffered as there's not so much at stake. But my experience is that the standard has gone up. If you want to make a track that people are interested in then you have to try a little harder. There's different ways of sorting the wheat from the chaff now - charts, playlists etc. and it’s not really in the interests of the download sites to upload dross to their sites. After all who wants to spend their time trawling through a load of demos? It just puts people off.”
Skrufff: What’s stopped you personally from venturing behind the decks?
Nick Muir: The reason is because I'm a piano player and made my living playing keyboards for quite a while before I got involved in producing dance music full time. To me it seemed like changing instruments - and it wasn’t something I felt comfortable doing. If I get on stage it’s to play keyboard. Also the job of the DJ is fundamentally different to that of the musician. DJing is as much about getting the atmosphere right as it is playing music. You have to have a great objective sense of what makes a good record without getting too bogged down in the technical aspects. I tend to think the best DJs are not the ones who have musical training or who are proficient on a particular instrument. Getting a 5 hour set to make sense is not really about what notes are playing. Besides I want to listen to the music and have a party.”
Skrufff: You started your career in the 80s as a jobbing musicians: seems very unplanned: was it?
Nick Muir: Kind of - although there was a thread involved in so far as I was always trying to get bigger and better gigs. But in the course of doing that I ended up in some very unexpected situations - not always what I would have wanted.”
Skrufff: You toured with Gary Glitter and said on your biog that no-one had an inkling of his paedophile activitie: what was he like as a boss- as a person?
Nick Muir: “Touring with Gary Glitter was a surreal experience. I mean you can’t really take a man in his fifties who wears platforms and a wig very seriously. He was fair with us and some of the members of the band remain firm friends of mine. You can imagine the laughs we had. But we had no idea that he was a pervert. I guess it’s not something you shout about.”
Skrufff: How much was his behaviour different from everyone else on the tours (ie in terms of groupies? Were there many around Gary Glitter tours?)
Nick Muir: Groupies? On a Gary Glitter tour? No there weren’t (laughing) - He was in a long term relationship at that time and we didn’t see him much apart from at the gig.”
Skrufff: What did you make of the teenage girls throwing themselves at Take That? How conscious were you- and people on the tour? – of the risk of girls turning out to be under 16?
Nick Muir: Touring with Take That was also a surreal experience, but quite exciting ‘cos they were just starting to break big. In fact, I credit their entire success to the brilliant intro tape I knocked up (laughing). I couldn’t take it seriously though - I was just starting to get some results with my own club tracks and used the bit of touring I did to help pay for my career as a producer of dance music. Nigel Martin-Smith managed that band with an iron fist. There was no contact with the fans apart from in a very organised and supervised way. He knew he had a goldmine on his hands and made sure he didn’t let anyone fuck it up. We didn’t last in the job; they were being marketed as a wholesome boy band suitable for school kids while we were wandering from gig to gig half pissed with spliffs hanging out of our mouths - hardly surprising we were sacked really.”
Skrufff: You’ve been engineering for Digweed for years, what stopped you from putting yourself forward as the main man- and taking the plaudits/ finances that he did? (have you ever regretted it?)
Nick Muir: We have a partnership where the lines have always been very clearly drawn. John DJs and he works with me on his own productions. If I wanted the career he's had with all the associated plaudits then I would have had to play things differently, try my hand at DJing, for example. Basically I have no idea how John does what he does in terms of workload. He works unbelievably hard. It’s not an accident that he's achieved what he has. It’s hard work and good judgement. He's incredibly tenacious.”
Skrufff: Seems like you’ve lived your life as an artist all the time: did you ever seriously consider getting a straight job/ giving up music?
Nick Muir: “It’s a running joke with my wife and I that when things are looking bad I start talking about going into teaching. I wouldn’t last five minutes. I've been making music for money for a lot of years and to make a change now doesn’t make much sense. Things can get tough but I've become a bit addicted to the ebb and flow of the job and knowing exactly what’s going to happen two, five and ten years from now would depress me, I think.”
Skrufff: What’s been the closest you’ve come to getting a straight job?
 Nick Muir: “When I left college I worked for a music publisher for a while after which I applied to the BBC to get on their assistant studio manager’s course. I got through the first round but didn’t pass the second stage. It was at that time I decided to try and pick up work as a player. I haven’t thought about doing anything else since.”
Skrufff: What’s the key to creating a great song: does everybody realistically plunder ideas from anywhere and everywhere and try to recreate them in their own form?
Nick Muir: “Yes of course people listen to other stuff and incorporate ideas into their own work - but this can happen to a greater or lesser degree. There's no substitute for sitting with your instrument (in my case a computer and  keyboard) and trying stuff out. It’s the happy accidents that sometimes work the best but you're never gonna’ come across those unless you're trying stuff out all the time, trying loops together in various combinations, changing sounds, editing stuff in unexpected ways, adding samples, treating them etc etc. Plus you have to have the ears to know when you've come up with something half decent.”
Skrufff: Do you believe in magical inspiration?
Nick Muir: “I think inspiration can happen in a way that seems magical yes - but the old adage about 10 per cent inspiration and 90 per cent perspiration is certainly true when it comes to writing decent tunes.”
http://www.myspace.com/nickmuirbedrock 
Jonty Skrufff (Skrufff.com)