Interview met Smurf

Q. Who is Smurf and were are you from?
A. I am Glenn Shearer from Newcastle, North East England

Q. Why did you choose the name "Smurf"?
A. Becuase I am small & blue off course ! Around 1990 when I was saving up for my first set of turntables, one Sunday morning I went to an outdoor market with my parents. We were stuck in a traffic jam as many other cars were leaving at the same time and listening to the radio. The Smurf theme song came on and I thought that it would be funny if a DJ played that song as the opening record of a DJ set as it would make people laugh. So, I decided to call myself DJ Smurf.

Q. What do you do for a living?
A. I am a belly button & elbow worshipper. When I am not doing that I am a Systems Administrator for a computer company working with UNIX & Oracle operating systems

Q. How did it all started?
A. Papa Smurf met a Smurfette in Smurfland. He took her behind a Mushroom and put his blue pipe into Smurfette's hairy blueberry pie and then injected her with his blue goo and they gave birth to the evil terror Smurf !
I was into electro, breakdance & early hip-hop in the mid 1980's and towards the end of the 1980's I was listening to a weekly radio show on a Friday on Radio 1 called Jeff Young's Big Beat. I was into rap bands like Public Enemy, Run DMC, LL Cool J, De La Soul, Big Daddy Kane etc and the radio show played all the latest hip hop, soul, RnB & house music tunes. Then I started hearing something called 'acid house' on this radio show and I thought it was crazy ! All the high pitched ear piercing sounds got me hooked, so I started seeking out these records and buying them with the little bit money I was earning from delivering newspapers. I discovered a specialist record shop in Newcastle and was buying 2 or 3 records a week and it was there I saw flyers for illegal warehouse & acid house party's. So, I started going to these party's in 1989/90 all by myself as all my friends were into bands like Erasure & The Pet Shop Boys. I always liked the harder or noisier type tunes that were played and the acid house progressed into the Belgium New Beat & early Detroit techno sound, so I started buying these records around 1991 - 92. Then all this 'stompy' music came over to the UK from Holland. Hard beats & nasty noises which became know as gabber (or gabba as we English named it). In 1994 I made a tape of the craziest gabba there was and gave it to a local promoter & DJ called Bass Generator. He put me on at a party called Judgement Day playing after Lenny Dee. I mixed in slower techno records on the wrong speed with gabber and Smurfcore was born ! After that I started to play all around the UK and then the first European bookings came in 1999.

Q. What music style do you prefer?
A. My preferred style is noisy industrial speedcore/terror. But sometimes it is not possible to play all this style in 1 DJ set. It all depends on the location of the party and what time I have to play so I try to play a mixture of party terror/speedcore mixed with the noisy stuff and a couple of hits.

Q. Which music genres have your interest besides Terror and Speedcore, and why these styles?
I can listen to all types of electronic music and also a bit of heavy metal. Anything that has a lot of energy to it I can listen and dance to.

Q. How did your love for terror develop?
A. Just from what I said earlier. I've always like the crazier end of the dance music scene, progressing from electro to hip hop to acid house to techno to gabber to speedcore & terror !

Q. What is you're desire in terror or speedcore?
A. To try & get as many people as possible listening and dancing to our music as possible. Educate people, ease them in gently from other softer styles of music without forcing the music down there throats.

Q. How do you explain the increasing popularity of terror?
A. I think the music is getting better. At one time it was just fast for the sake of being fast with nothing more to it other then a machine gun kick drum. A lot more thought and creativity is being put into the records and a lot more people are appreciating that and coming to a party to here the good records, rather than to jus get off there faces.

Q. Which good quality must a dj have according to you?
A. An ability to work and feed of a crowd and not just to play music to there friends or other DJs at the party.

Q. At the moment we experience an enormous boost in the terror scene. What is the possible cause of this sudden popularity increase in the scene on national and international level?
A. Everything goes around in a 10 year cycle. 10 years ago gabber was huge in the UK & the rest of Europe. As the music progressed it split into many genres & styles: hardcore techno, terror, speedcore, breakcore, experimental etc and people went there own ways and a lot wouldn't attend parties of mixed styles which created a smaller scene. Now, there is a new generation coming into the scene. In the UK, the young kids get into hardcore usually by listening & going to happy hardcore parties and as they get older and they grow up, there music tastes change and hopefully they will come to the hardcore party's.

Q. Which party will be in your memory for ever, and why?
A. The party's that will stay in the memories are the few that I can remember where I haven't been drunk ! hehe, no. It has to be Thunderdome 2004. When I first heard gabber & the Thunderdome CD's I never thought I would be going to a Thunderdome party never mind playing at one! Thunderdome is the biggest hardcore rave on the planet and every hardcore DJ wants to play there. It was such an honour and a privilege to play there and that will stay with me forever.

Q. What was your peak and your depth point as a DJ?
A. After 10 years I would say Im at my peak now. With playing outside of the UK 1 to 3 times a month I have never been so busy. My lowest point would be in the late 1990's. I was playing every 2 months at a club in Scotland called Nosebleed. It was an amazing place. Full of crazy Scottish party people. Excellent sound and DJ box. Whenever I used to play there they would buy me a bottle of whiskey ! Once time I drank almost the whole bottle before I had to play and had to get carried to the DJ box. Needless to say I put in a very bad performance and I never played at that party again for over a year. I was gutted. Now I only get drunk after my performance !

Q. What do you think of the new talent and do you think that these DJ's should have more opportunities?
A. Like I said earlier there is a new generation coming into the scene now and hopefully they can bring some new idea's with them. Its best for these up & comings to go to as many party's as they can and get to know the pormotors and the people there. Make themsleves known and hand out demo's. Dont keep asking for bookings. If the promotor wants to book you, they will book you. I get a bit sick of friends asking me to get them bookings at places. As far as I can remeber I have never asked for a booking. I beleive that people should pay ther due's - attending & supporting party's, that way yuo get to know the poeple better. If the promotor see's this maybe they will give you a chance to show what you can do.

Q. How do you choose your records and do you imagine the entirely set in advance?
A. I usually plan my sets for each party in advance. As the tempo can range from 200 BPM to 400, it's good to have a rough idea of what I want to play and at what point to play it. It's also nice to know that the next record you are going to play will fit in and mix in with the one you are playing, so there are no clashes of sounds, words or melody's. I like to mix in pop records with terror so sometimes this takes a while to find a terror record that will fit over the pop record perfectly ! if I have not planned a set in advance, I will have the records in my bag ordered by the tempo, slowest at the front and the fastest at the back. That way I can find record more easily and make a set flow.

What records I play entirely depends on the party, time I am playing and who else is on the line up. If there is someone one the line-up who I think will play similar records to me, I will play something that they would maybe not play and I won't play any records that another on the line-up has made. If I am playing early. I wont play too fast so people don't get too tired. If Im playing last, I will make sure the last 20 minutes of tunes are hits or tunes people recognise so they can go crazy for the last part of the party. And the last track has to be a big tune !

If I am playing in a party which has mixed styles, i.e. hardcore (new style gabber), I will try to play a lot more records with a melody or funny samples to keep the people who like the slower stuff interested instead of battering them with noise.

Q. Where do you prefer to turn and why?
I dont have a peference as I enjoy everywhere that I get to play.

I love playing in Scotland as the people are all out for a party and go out to enjoy themselves. Playing outside of the UK is great and its nice to think that people in other country's will pay there money to come to see you and they appreciate it a lot.

I also love playing in my hometown of Newcastle as I can roll home when Im drunk and its nice to sleep in my own bed on a weekend !!

The only places I dont enjoy playing are where the DJ monitors are poor. A DJ's job is to mix and sometimes it is impossible to do just that when we are given shit tools to work with. This makes us look bad to the party people when they here fucked up mixes when 70% of the time its not our fault. Alsom while Im moaning, why does almost every mixer in Holland not have a crossfader ??

Q. Which record labels are qualitatively the best?
A. Some of my recent favourites are: Hangers Liquides, Canadian Speedcore Resistance, Kotzaak, Cerebral Destruction, Roffcore, 6HateU, Goddess Of Disaster, Noise Factory, System Corrupt and some of the harder stuff on Neurotoxic.

Q. What do you think of the present terror productions and what should change according to you?
A. Some of the terror party's have too much speedcore. I love the music but sometimes it gets too much for me when you get battered with machine gun music for 8 hours non stop ! I think to make a party a success the music has to build up to the speedcore, maybe with Industrial hardcore (140 - 160 BPM) at the start for when people are arriving in the venue, metting friends, getting drinks etc. Build it up from there, 160 - 200 for the next hour and then 200 - 220 for a could of hours, then maybe a speedcore set, terror, more speedcore and classic terror/speedcore for the last hour.

Q. What was the first record you bought and do you still have it in your collection?
A. The first record I bought was Stand & Deliver by Adam & The Ants in the early 80's. I was only about 10 and can remeber on the night time when I got it, Mama Smurf was in the bath upstairs and when I heard her coming down the stairs, I put the recor don and jumped from a chair shouting 'Stand & Deliver' wearing a zorro mask, cape and plastic sword. She nearly pooped herself.

Q. Which record is always in your record box?
A. Cuntface by Nasenbluten !

Q. What was the first party where you have preformed?
A. The first club I played in was a club called Walkers in Newcastle on New Years Eve 1992. I used to go there every Saturday and got to know the DJ. On this day 2 other DJ's hand't arrived so he asked me if I wanted to play so I had to go home and some records. I was so nervous. My hands were shaking and it was the first time I had used Technics 1200's before. The first record I played was Everything Starts With An E by Ezee Posse !

Q. How many records did you collected through the years?
A. Gosh. I have about 2,000 in crates on my bedroom floor and have bought & sold many many more. Maybe about 8,000 in total !

Q. What kind of ingredients must a good record have and where do you pay attention to when you buy a record?
A. A funny sample, silly melody or noise that will stick in your head, something that people on the dance floor will remember.

Q. What is jour top 5 of all times with regard to records?
A. Oh, I hate these questions !!

Pleasure Game - Les Signuer Des Tenebres (Old Belgium oldksool track)
Joey Beltram - Energy Flash
Nasenbluten - Cuntface
Hardcore Fiends - Comply
Motorhead - The Ace Of Spades

Q. In which countries did you perform (turn) and what was the experience?
A. I have played in: UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Holland, Belgium, USA, Canada, Italy & Switzerland.

Im a pretty easy going fun loving person so I've had all good experiences everywhere. The worst experience was loosing my records in Germany. They were stuck in Berlin and didn't get placed on the connecting flight to Hamburg so I had no records to play at the party !

Q. Do you prefer to turn on a big party ore a small party?
I like to think that no party is bigger than the other. I treat each party the same and practice and prepar for each one whether it be for 50, 500 or 5,000 people.

Big party's usually have better equipment (DJ monitors etc) but sometimes you are away from the crowd and feel lonely in a DJ box. I get more nervous playing at a small party as more people are closer to you and watch wnat you are doing more closely, but its nice to have people around you to interract with them and for them to pass you beer !

Q. With which artist would you ever like to cooperate and why?
A. I dont get much time to produce records these days with having my regualar job and being away most weekends.

Q. How are you compared to the use of drugs at a party?
A. Drugs are part of the whole clubbing scene. If people are going to take drugs at a party I would say to them be safe. Don't take too much. It only takes one stupid person to spoil it for 100s of others. Keep the trippy drugs that affect your brain for the after party or at home.

Q. What do you think of pogo at parties?
A. When I see that happening it makes me want to stop playing my records. I hate this entire Nazi thing. It is hard to tell if these people are real Nazi's or if they are just following a clothing fashion. Let's hope it's only the clothes they are in to.

Q. What are your plans for the future?
A. I really need to make time to get some more tracks made. I've been planning on getting a record label up & running for many years but have never had the time to do so.
I also need to pay of all my debts to make this happen !

Q. What is your favourite drink ore meal?
Drink - diesel snakebite (lager, cider & blackcurrant). Jack Daniels, Parma Violet flavoured vodka
Food - Anything hot and, spicy

Q. What is, until now, your nicest (funniest) experience as a DJ?
Oh dear, there has been so many ! Every month we had Judgement Day in Newcastle in the mid to late 90's. This was always one crazy drunken party and backstage was always a good laugh. I once was so drunk I took off all my clothes and DJ'd naked, dressed up as Smurfette (with a 6ft long wig, blue skirt & top) & 100's of other crazy things.

The Industrial Strength European Tour in May 2002 was funny aswell. Driving around Italy, Austria & Switzerland in 2 camper vans for over a week was crazy ! By the end of the tour our van was a wreck. Tables were broke, the ladder to the roof had come off and someone had blocked the toilet with a massive shit, oops !

Every time my mad Scottish friend Boony has came with me outside the UK has been hilarious. We get so drunk and take over every venue we go to. Everyone in the party will know who we are by the end of the party. There are so many funny stories to tell. You're best checking out the party Reports section on my website http://www.GeordieGabbaMafia.org

Q. How do you think the scene will look like in 5 years?
A. In 5 years time it will probably be quiet and then will start up again in another 5 years, but, it is mine and other artists' responsibility to keep it going along as we can.

Q. To which persons in the Terror scene goes your respect?
A. I have respect for everyone in this scene who is doing something to keep it going and making it stronger.

Q. If you heard tomorrow that you only had several months on this earth, what would you try to realize in the last resort?
A. I would try to hide inside Kylie Minogue's toilet so every time she went for a shite she would be shitting into my mouth.

Q. In the past years you often performed in the Netherlands, with Thunderdome as one of the peaks. What was it like to turn (perform) fora 15.000 people?
A. Thunderdome was like a dream come true for me. I said earlier that its the biggest & most well know hardcore party on this planet and every hardcore DJ would love to play there.
When I got told I had been booked I sat down for about 40 minutes just staring at my computer screen in amazement. When I spoke to the organisation, they said they wanted me to play for the last hour becuase they saw me perform before and liked the way I interract with the crowd and wanted me to send them home smiling i started to get really nervous. The weeks leading up to the party I was scared to leave the house incase something happend to me and I could make it to the party. On teh day of Thunderdome I was so scared. I had to take lots of tablets to help me stop shitting. When it was my turn to play, i climbed up the ladder to the DJ stage and looked out at all the people and must of had the biggest smile on my face that anyone had ever seen ! I was nervous until I had played my first 2 records then I just started going crazy and the response from everyone was overwhellming !

Even for weeks after I kept saying to myself “Fuck! Ive just played at Thunderdome!”

Q. What is jour favourite equipment?
A. I like to play the vagina and the boobies. Technics off course, decent monitors that can be controlled via the mixer and a mixer with a crossfader ! !

Q. Do you have tips for starting producers?
A. Try to make your tracks DJ friendly, ie, make them easy for a DJ to mix as we are more likely to play them out if that is the case. Nice intro with kick drums instead of strating off with something crazy.

Q. What do you prefer, produce or turn (perform)?
A. Always to perform. Thats when yuo see the finished product. I love to entertain and amuse the crowd.

Q. On which party would you like to turn (perform) and why?
A. I would love to play at Megarave, Masters Of Hardcore & Hellraiser as they are the other big party's that hardcore DJ's dream about playing for.

Q. Which equipment do you use and where did you start with?
A. I have a pair of Technices 1210's and a Numark mixer at home. I started of with a HW Interntional mixer (I think) and a pair of belt drive Soundlab turntables. My adivce to anyone starting out Djing is to save for Technics. They are the clubs industry standard and are used in 90% of clubs & party's. It can be difficuilt if you have been using other turntables and have to perforom on technocs for the first time at a party.

Q. What was your first encounter with Terror music?
A. I had never some across the term 'terror music' until I came to Holland. IN the UK it is know as hardcore gabba or hardcore techno. I have been into hardcore music since before it started so I have seen it progress from gabber into hardcore techno/terror.

Q. What is according to you, your best number till now and why?
Now afterwards, would you like to change anything about it if you could?
A. Do you mean record produced ?? It has to be the Fuck Me Geordie track that was on the Newcastle (Australia) v Newcastle (England) EP on Strike Records. The pressing isn't very good and for some reason the first 8 beats of the track are missing ! When I get some spare time Im going to remix this.

Q. Who is your big example (Producer/DJ) and why?
A. Do you mean inspirations ??
Lenny Dee - this music wouldnt be here if it wasnt for him.
DJ Freak - he took industrial hardore to a new level,
Loftgroover - the first big name speedocre DJ in the UK, mixing speedcore with heavy metal
The DJ Producer - Amazing DJ everytime since the mid 1990's.
Bass Generator - For my first gig and for Judgement Day.
Scott Brown - Stayed with hardcore even when it was at its lowest point (even though he's a cheesy twat, heh)
Scooter - For being hilarious and not taking music seriously.

Q. How is the scene in England?
A. The hardcore scene in UK has been up & down for years. It was at its peak from about 1994 - 1998. There were 2 or 3 big party's every month, Rezerection, Helter Skelter, Fantazia, Judgement Day etc all with happy hardcore & hardcore techno area's. The happy music got too cheesy and the hardcore starting getting faster and everything went downhill. The magazines covering hardore music dissapeared and others stopped reporting on hardcore as it wasnt cool anymore. The big DJs dissapeared or started playing techno or house. Only a few of the hardcore DJ's remain from those days, these are the people who have a geniune love for the scene and have helped keep it going.

One of the main problems in the UK is finding a venue for a party. As soon as you say “hardcore” there is very little chance of getting the venue. So, most party's are confined to small venue's of about 100 people and it is therefore difficult to bring in artists from outside the UK becuase of travel expenses. And also because party's are bigger outside of the UK, most DJ's get paid a lot of money and promotors cant afford to pay what they are used too.

Also, most clubs have to close at 2 or 3 am so people from outside of the area sometimes wont travel.

But, things are looking up. Scotland has always been hardcore and there are lots of hardocre dedicated party's there now, Twisted, Impact, Audio Autopsy and other small party's bubbling away.

England is still much more happy hardore orientated. With hardcore/terror usually being catered for in a small room with a shit sound system at a happy hardcore party.. There are not many hardcore dedicated party's for terror. Only the occaisional Species party's, Sick & Twisted and also Live Evil.

Q. Is there finally something you want to share with the readers of this interview?
A. I would like to say a big thankyou to all the people of Holland who have given my such great support since my apperance @ Thunderdome. When you come out to a party, come to the party to party, thats what a party os for. Not to act like your the hardest person there and to cause trouble. Everyone stay safe, healthy & happy !