Never showing signs of slowing down, V Recordings brought us the Planet V album in 1999 -- with top tunes by Optical + Ed Rush, Adam F, Peshay, Bill Reily and D Product. In this new age of gloabl communication, with the groundwork that had been established early on from their base in the UK, V has made it’s mark on foriegn territories. Count on the Djs to drop the beat and dancefloor to stomp their feet! It’s got to be runnin, it’s got to be fresh, it’s got to be V, forever baby!

Ms.E: How did you come up with the name V? Does it stand for anything?

Bryan Gee: It stands for whatever you want it to be.

E: Vibe..Victory

Laura B: Did you guys have that TV series in England, V?

B: Yeah, like 2 months ago. I just saw the program and said to myself, this is crazy, you know what I mean? I hadn’t seen it for a long time, after we started the label I forgot about it. It came up on the tellie just as we were getting the album out so it was good promotion.

E: So V stands for whatevern you want it to be? That’s cool.

B: Not really.

E: Was it something that you created that was going to be all-encompassing for new talent?

B: I’ll tell you the truth, right. It was Vinyl Experience. It was a label called Vinyl Experience. Somewhere along the line, everything got dropped and what was left was V. It wasn’t really coming off the tongue right.

JJ Frost: V was cooler, man.

B: Yeah, the V was most prominent on the logo of the label so the people just started to call it V.

E: Did your tatoo come before the logo or the logo before the tatoo?

B: I got it last year when I was on the Reprazent Tour when we went through LA.

E: So the new album, Planet V. How did you guys finally decide on --what is it, almost 30 tracks on the CD? That’s a lot of new music. Did you just decide, OK, we’re going to do this big push--worldwide distribution.

B: We just do things, we like to do different things. That’s what makes life exciting, you get what I’m saying? New things, different things. We did the V Classics last year, that was 5-peice vinyl. We tried it again this time around with a 8-peice vinyl. Also, the amount of artists we had wanting to be involved with the project. It was a logical.

E: Is it all Bristol talent? Or are do you have music from other areas as well?

B: No, we have Ed Rush + Optical, Adam F on there, Peshay.

E: Who is D Product?

B: He’s the new kid on the block.

E: From Bristol?

B: Yeah.

E: I’ve heard his track played out more than any one, Faithless. And Stay.

B: Kamanche.

E: Yeah, that’s it. Is he another new kid?

B: Yeah...(cracks up)...shit.

E: He must be a pretty funny guy.

B: Kamanche is Kamanche. There will be some more from Kamanche. But D Product, he’s the new kid comin through, Jack and I have some new cuts on dubplate. It’s stormin. He’ll probably have a 12 inch out on Full Cycle and we’re trying to get remixes done of the Faithless track as well. Yeah, something different and someone to look out for, definitely.

"V...it’s not like something you can picture
but you can feel it. When you hear it, you know it."

E: You guys must have to sort through so much new material, What makes a track stand out to you? I mean, we only get mixtapes, but when we get one that sounds different, it really stands out, there’s more to it.

JJ: I think all of our records are linked in some way, they all fit in together. It’s got that vibe about it. It hits you. It’s just a vibe.

B: It can come in all sorts of different forms, all sorts of different styles. But you know it when you hear it.

E: You feel it, it’s something that you can’t really put in words.

JJ: Like Funktion. The first time we heard that, we knew it was a V record. Straight away -- guys what do you think of this? THAT is a V record. It just fit in.

"In a short amount of time you don’t notice
the changes really. I look back to when I was
playing acid, the music has changed continually
but you don’t even realize it. All of a sudden, from
acid, breaks slipped into it, then the bassline
slipped into it and it was jungle."

B: When Adam made the track Brand New Funk, you know, Adam is not linked to V Recordings. He’s got his major deal with EMI and he’s also got his independant label. But he made it, and listening back to it, he just knew it had to come to V. He talked a good friend of mine, and asked, you think Brian and Jack will put this out? And when I heard the track, it would have been something I would have wanted anyway! So it was like a two way thing, he build the track and felt there was only one place for it. That kind of says it, it’s not like something you can picture but you can feel it. When you hear it, you know it, you know what I’m saying?

JJ: it just feels right.

DMarie: It’s like you grow into your sound and other people do too.

JJ: That’s a good way to put it. Because sometimes, for example, like with Warhead, the first time I played it, at a party with like 2000 people, they were all just looking at me, like, what is this? Becasue it was so futuristic, and so ahead. You‘ve got to have faith in your judgement. With someting like thta, you’d think , well maybe it’s not runnin. But look then, 6, 9 moths later!

D: Kaboom...

JJ: It just feels right, you know what I mean?

E: It’s going on instinct really. One question that I like asking Djs is about when they are in the mix, when they are really warmed up and really in it, what are they thinking about? And the majority say, it’s like I’m almost not thinking at all, it’s like this energy, this vibe, this instinct. Like the records almost choose themselves. I mean, you guys have a selection over and above the rest of us, especially becasue you’re getting so much new material. When you’re in it, and you’re riding on that instict, it’s intensified all the more becasue you’re working with such fresh meterial.

D: Some people do think about stuff, some Djs think about the crowd the crowd.

B: I look at the crowd, I think about the crowd, but at the end of the day, I just do my thing becasue, you know, I like to know that the crowd is going to get into me not me get into the crowd. If people are going to fly me so far, they know what they want. They know what to expect. I want them to to go away feeling Bryan Gee’s world.

D: Are your sets planned?

B: Sometimes I’ve got certain mixes that I like to play, and certain tunes that are new to me and popular. I’d say like half of my set is definitely sothing which I know works, it’s where I’m at, it’s Bryan Gee.

D: Do you like playing long, long sets?

B: I’ll play, 3 hours, 1 hour. But the longer I play, the more I’m into it.

D: What’s the longest you’ve ever played?

B: Like 4 hours. In America that might not be very long.

JJ: I did an eight hours set like years ago. I was doin the Gallery, and you where doin the Carwash.

E: Tell us what was going down with you back in the day before drum & bass, before jungle. Where you part of any other sound system crews?

JJ: I was just going out doin my sets around the country in different locations, somtimes 3 in a night, sometimes 2, sometimes 1. It was just developing. The whole sound system thing was like way before -- way way back when we were young. In the dub days, reggae and hip hop, house parties. That developed into more wherehouse parties, and when we started getting into that stage, it was me and my record box ready to go.

E: So there are a lot of massive gatherings? You talk about playing to 2000 people in the UK. Does that happen all the time?

JJ: 30,000 people.

E: What? Wow.

D: Nice!

E: Is it still like that?

B: You get that in places like Germany and at festivals like Glastonbury. London, England is restricted, really.

E: How do you feel as a label with drum & bass just growing so much around the world? How is the music changing?

B: At the moment, the vibe of the music is changing with the Breakbeat Era kind of thing, where you get this injection of the funk and the vocals -- which has been missing since the Reprazent project. You get the vibe of the Ed Rush + Optical, Bad Company kind of think going on -- the music progresses so subtly. In a short amount of time you don’t notice the changes really. I look back to when I was playing acid, the music has changed continually but you don’t even realize it. All of a sudden, from acid, breaks slipped into it, then the bassline slipped into it and it was jungle.

JJ: Yeah, it’s funny, just going with it you almost didn’t notice that the 4 -4 went away. It just dissapeared...

E: Well the culture is growing so rapidly here in the States. How has it changed in the UK? Do you still have the big drum & bass parties?

JJ: We have Planet V parties, with attract from 3 to 4000 people. To me it just seems normal.

B: Right now, there is a good feeling for drum & bass, especially in the UK.

E: It’s still growing? Well the music is evolving so you would imagine...

B: It’s not the talk of the town like it was year or two ago. The talking has kind of died down, the hype in the media. Which is good. It’s steady, it’s more real.

E: You’re definitely covering ground Stateside. How have you seen the response grow from your yearly visits?

B: It hasn’t grown as fast as we’d hoped. That’s why we released the album domestically, with Ultra. Miami was great last year. Vancouver, New York, DC, always a good time. All over. Different parties, different people.

L: So do you guys listen to hip hop? Would you see that in the future, to do some hip hop projects?

B: We’re down for the whole thing, really. Jazz, hip hop.

JJ: We’ve got this label, Philly Blunt, we’ll be bringin that back in.

B: You know it all started out with us sampling reggae and hip hop tracks. But we were young, then, just starting off.We realize now you can’t do that -- but we want to continue that vibe and do it properly this time. We’ve matured with the way we approach artists that we want to work with. With the connection we’ve got going on here with Ultra in the States we’ll probably be able to start something really soon.

E: Have you considered the possibilities of distributing your music digitally?

JJ: It’s something we’re looking into. It’s something for the millenium. We’ve just got our websie up and running, www.vrecordings.com.

E: What kind of ideas do you have for using the medium to expand your business?

JJ: We’ll be doing all of our merchandising through there, selling some back catalog. There will be updates on a regular basis with video clips of our artist talking. Even my dog Levi’s on there....

E: You know, a drum & bass record in the US will sell maybe 2-300 copies at the most. Being able to get more of it out there and expand the base of people that are into it. More than anything it encourages mobility, it’s definitely a good possibility.

JJ: When you start talking about MP3 thing the distributors get so scared. It’s really heavy.

E: But one of the coolest things about it -- on the business tip-- is that it really benefits the artist more that anybody else.

B: When I see my distibutor get more than my artist out of my artist’s record, something doesn’t sound right. I’m not trying to kill the record shop but it just doesn’t seem fair that the guy who makes the record isn’t getting what he desearves. Yeah, I’m down for it. People all over the world could access your new material whereas as long as your using distributors your limited. I’m talkin the whole world. No matter where you are, the same day the album comes out you can get it. To me that just sounds fair.

The Planet V album is now available on V Recordings & Ultra

Check out Jumpin Jack Frost’s weekly program on London’s KISS100 FM, Sunday nights from Midnight to 2AM GMT