42
DRUM & BASS
ISSUE 88 / 2016
INTERVIEW:
DAVID BOOMAH
This guys been around since early. Working with some of the biggest names in the game, the singer has been focusing
on his music more these days, dropping the first multi-genred album of V Recs, and opening a new label Forward Ever. It
was only right to get him down to Guestlist HQ to talk all things Boomah with the man himself!
Oshi | Guestlist
What’s up Guestlisters, here
I am once again with another
champion. I with the man, David
Boomah - what’s happening
dawg, you good?
I’m good, very well!
Good to have you here player,
how’s life?
It’s hectic, really turbulent - there’s
so much going on it’s hard to keep
a handle of everything. But I’m
still here trying to promote good
music and pushing the vibes.
How would you describe your
current state of mind?
I’m a little disheartened, not gonna
lie. I feel like I’m on a treadmill and
not really getting to the levels that
I wanna get to. So I’m optimistic,
but reservedly optimistic.
So it’s like the treadmill of life that
every bodies on.It is, we all go
through it. I’m no different, I’m not
special I’m just a guy like everyone
else. I have to do something that
I enjoy and something that it’s not
just me benefiting from. Money’s
money - you don’t need it. We
need to feel happy, like we’re
achieving something. I think those
things are more important than
money.
The music’s strong, If anybody
doesn’t know, I’m sure they’ll be a
few people who need to go back
into the history books. If they
were, where should they start?
They’d have to go back to
about 1995 to get a real good
understanding of where I’m
coming from. That was when
jungle was at it’s peak, at that
stage I’d already been doing music
from childhood.
What were you doing before
then?
I was doing dancehall. I grew up in
Jamaica, I was there for 10 years
from the age of 9 till 19 and was
obviously immersed in reggae
music and dancehall culture.
So you came over here at 19,
where did you move to?
Balham Tooting. I linked up with
a guy called Ucap. We had a
soundsystem and we just use to
go and do house parties. That was
in 1990.
That was obviously a big time
for music here in England. As a
vocalist to come into the game
with someone like UK Apache,
that’s coming right into the heart
of the scene.
At the time he was not massively
known. ‘Original Nutta’ hadn’t
come out yet. I linked up with
Apache in 1990, that’s how I was
introduced to jungle, before that I
had no idea.
So when you came and saw
the jungle, what was your first
impression?
I thought that it was mad! I
couldn’t really relate to it. The
riddims and basslines have that
kind of reggae vibe, but the drums
are going completely nuts! It took
a couple of songs for me to really
get it. One of those songs was ‘I’m
A Junglist’ by Congo Natty and
the other one was ‘Sound Murder’
by Remarc. When I first heard
these two tunes the light came on
- jungle is wicked, I love this!
Is this before ‘Original Nutta’?
Yeah, this is all before ‘Original
Nutta’. First of all, Apache was
introduced to Shy through our
manager. He hooked up with Shy
and they did ‘Original Nutta’ and
that just blew up the whole scene.
Apache said to Shy, why don’t you
do a tune with my singer? So we
did a tune called ‘We Run Tings’.
It was out in 1995 and went to
number 1 after about two weeks of
its release date.
Number 1 of what?
I’m not trying to trick anyone, I’ve
never had a national number 1 - it’s
always been underground. To date
I’ve had 14 number 1’s undergound.
Still, it’s like this is the number 1
of the moment right?
Yeah, at the time we had Choice
FM and Commander B.
But these guys were playing your
tunes yeah?
Yeah, if you wanted to hear the
jungle top 10 you had to listen to
Commander B and Choice. It was
number 1 on Choice for quite a