BEAM 1.3/ DJ TEEBEE

DJ TEEBEE
Black Science Labs Magician
Interview by Ms.E & Adam Ohana
Images by dMarie & Sigbjørn Johannessen

With an unmatched source of energy and precision, he is a master of two turntables, the production studio and Kung Fu! The music transmitting from TeeBee hits like a bold of lightning but the difference is that this it’s bound to strike more than once. Torgeir Byrkines, reigning from the icey region of Bergen, Norway, packs an arsenal of unstoppable surroundsound audio kicks for your mind to move to and your body to groove to.

Taking a minute away from his studio session with Phunckateck’s UFO! and DJ Abstract during his first visit to the America, we got the low-down on his vision of drum & bass, his camp of supportive labels and the crew of heads making noise up North.

TeeBee: I'm going to keep going in the same direction I've been going in for quite a while. I've found my little group of people that I can trust and relate to in a music way -- that aren't going to rip me off. So I'm going to continue doing what I'm doing and expand a little bit, do something with [Stasteside imprints] and expand overseas as well, because that needs to be done. I have an album ready to drop so that is the first bit that's in the limelight for me. After that's over and done with, I'm going to do some remixes and take it easy after the album's finished because I will probably be a bit worn out by then. Loads of DJing going on, I have most of Europe lined up, another Stateside tour with Thermal Recordings and I'm also going to Japan hopefully around Christmas time, which should be good.

Forever, about 12 years. I'm doing Hungar style. Five animals, five elements. I'm competing on the neational team. It takes up quite a lot of my time but I'm going to retire after the World Championships this year.

"...the yin and the yang comes inside when I do my music, for real."

There is a lot of tension in my music in general. There is a lot of fighting going on, different sounds and breaks bouncing off each other, and the bass is just mean and nasty. So there’s definitley a link. I've also done a few tracks with obvious Kung-Fu samples in it, fighting in time with the beats. The closest link is that it keeps me balanced, and that's how I like my music to be, balanced and smooth, and just one thing releiving the other all the way. It's like a big harmony held together by the breaks and the bass. Definitley the yin and the yang comes inside when I do my music, for real.

Definitely, definitely. It's not just sounds, you know? When I do music I've got images in my head, I've got pictures. I'm just trying to make the images sound visual, if that makes sense. I want to paint, but I paint with sounds rather than a brush.

Photek, directly from the source -- drum & bass. He's the one. He's the don of breaks. Basically the early Detroit sound, a lot of the ambient stuff. Future Sound of London, I really loved those guys, they've got some weird stuff goin on. I'm not really going to sum up everyone of everyone. I've got to be honest with you, I grew up with this music, and I didn't really listen to any of the oldies, you know. When I grew up I was listening to Detroit techno, the first breakbeat stuff. I've been influenced by what's around me and it's been techno from day one, basically. There's a few people that have really helped me along the way and they've been an inspiration. Rob Playford, obviously Photek and the whole Certificate 18 camp that saw the sound that I was representing, the early Ipswich sound. I try not to get influenced by anyone.

Wicked! I thought I played shit, I nearly cried when I was finished. I thought I played horrible because I had to touch the pitch, I never touch the pitch. That's the ol' challenge we've got going up North, the don't touch the pitch. You find the pitch but you don't touch the records once it's in the mix. It's got to be spot-on and you've got to know. Like, when I played at the Blue Room Americas thing, I don't know if anyone noticed but I started the mix and I ran off -- EQing the sound -- and I came back a minute later and the track was still sharp on the snare. I don't like touchin the pitch. So tonight's gonna be good. The sound down at the Basement is rockin'...

It's going to be TeeBee presents Black Science Labs. Black Science Labs is my studio, it's my little space capsule inside my bedroom. The reason why I'm doing this album with Certificate 18 is because they gave me a non-exclusive deal. I could have done one for Moving Shadow but they wanted me exclusively which means I couldn't work with other people and do the remixes I wanted and nothing like that. He made the offer for doing my album non-exclusively and gave me total creative freedom. He said, provide me with 11 tracks and I'll put them out. What you do is up to you, and that's what I'm doing right now.

That's Paul Arnold. He's been running that label from the start, the beginning of the drum & bass age. He broke artists like Photek, Source Direct, Digital -- the first material they released was on his label. He's a really cool guy as well.

There's four of us really, that is the core and a lot of people who hang around us. There's me and K -- we have been doing stuff together for years and years. He's like my little kid brother. We picked him up in about 92 when we threw the first parties over there. He was like 14 or something, maybe 13. He's basically just a kid who's into his beats and he is so talented. Guys like Laurent Garnier, Carl Cox -- people outside of drum & bass really love his music and are charting his tracks. So you'll be seein a lot of K in the millenium. The sky's the limit for that boy. And then there is Nocturne and Ionic, two other producers. Nocturne has had two 12’s out on Moving Shadow, and is slowly getting there. He's got some good bits that Adam wants for his label (Eyephunk) and I've already spoke to him and he's up for givin it to him as well. Ionic's had nothing out but he is so talented so someone is going to pick him up soon I think. So that's us. There is four of us. We're all based in the same city -- Bergen -- and yeah, we've been at it from the very beginning trying to do something that seemed impossible, but it's slighly getting together.

People thought we were nuts! Who wanted to know about speeded up breaks? No one! We were just laughed at, basically. People looked at it as rediculous, there is no way people were going to like it. But 95 came along and we were still there and people had to eat their words, basically.

The problem with the drum & bass scene is that it is -- well, it was -- a London thing. The British people like to see that it is still but it's not. It’s a global thing. So what happened was when I first started to get on mailing lists like in 92, 93, I just kept the contact going with Rob Playford and with the guys from Rugged Vinyl, especially, and as time grew I got into my production and started sending them bits. They were interested in my stuff but they didn't want to tell anyone I was from Norway.

"The beats have got to be tight, the bass has got to be loud and phat and basically it has got to be an interesting piece of music for a full-on seven minutes. A lot of the UK-source drum & bass is basically just a tear-out bassline and a two-step beat that moves for six minutes straight. We ain't havin' that. "

So they just didn't let anyone know where I was from and just let the beats do its job. Slowly but surely I got accepted into the inner circle which is very important in drum & bass, like Grooverider, Fabio, Randall, Peshay, Frosty -- all those boys. They started playing my shit and suddenly I had all these labels asking me if I could do something for them. So the timing was right and I just popped out of nowhere basically. After that I told everybody I was from Norway and nobody would believe me but everybody knows that for a fact now and that has even given me even more respect and more admiration because I'm not from the UK. I think that has helped a lot of overseas producers see that you don't have to be in the UK to do it. Just do it right. I feel good about not being from the UK.

That's also the thing because UK at the moment is stuck in the same route. One of the reasons I think things have been going so well for me is because we try and do it with a little twist, I use a lot of time when I do a track. I can use six weeks on just a bassline, just getting all the little sounds right. What has been commented on especially in the media is the quality of the production. That's what we put as our trademark in Norway. The beats have got to be tight, the bass has got to be loud and phat and basically it has got to be an interesting piece of music for a full-on seven minutes. A lot of the UK-source drum & bass is basically just a tear-out bassline and a two-step beat that moves for six minutes straight. We ain't havin' that.

Personally I'm into head music. I am a DJ and I will always be a DJ but head music is what lies closest to my heart. So for me it's the combination of head music and body music, 'cause in this scene you've got to please the DJ and the DJ wants hard basslines and the hard beats and you've got to give it to them. But to find that little combination, bring in the atmospheres and the deep sounds, get a little soul in it, throw little bits of spoken word or a vocal into it just to make the whole thing connect. That is the formula for me. I mean, I play out and I've got to move the crowd, but I can listen to ambience for like twently minutes, straight on, no problem. So I guess the perfect combonation for me is head and body music.