Essence Of Aura - Drum and Bass / Rave Producer Interview

August 2007

Interview with Tim, the DJ and one of the producers from drum and bass pioneers Essence Of Aura.

Essence Of Aura

How old are you now?

I am 36

Essence Of Aura consisted of three members, how did you all meet?

I was already a raver and used to help Micky, Lynas, Bam and Nev from Amnesia with tickets and a bit of promotion. Ian and James were in a band from a different scene alltogether that wasn't doing to well and I just new them from living in the same town and being out and about. I invited them to come along and see the rave scene, got them on the guest list and it just went from there really, they asked me to join the band as I was already into the scene and music.

I understand you played live at many events between 1990 to 1995 often performing tracks before releasing them on vinyl?

We made about 10 tunes during '90 and '91 which we only gigged with and they were all well received but after playing gigs for a while the scene had moved on so we didn't release any of them, it was a good test to see how we went down and we never failed to move a party… everyone always danced! Our releases onto vinyl then followed from this.

Were there any P.A.'s you did that stand out as being special?

Every party we played was special so it would be unfair to pick out any… we loved every one.

Amnesia at The Hippodrome in Manchester at the end of '91 was our first big one so I suppose that stands out a bit in the memory and The Eclipse as that was our home club.

I read that you used to run the Insomnia gigs back in the day, any funny tales or moments you can tell us about?

The Insomnia thing was just a couple of parties we did for around 250 people in the early days just to promote the music and the band before things started taking off, I think there was a bigger organisation of the same name that wasn't us.

How does it feel to now be classed as "one of the pioneers of the early drum and bass movement"?

It's nice to know that we were in the pack of the UK drum & bass pioneers. Obviously there were people like Doc Scott, Blame, 2 Bad Mice, Sonz Of A Loop Da Loop Era, 4 Hero, LTJ Bukem, Acen, Floyd Dice and a few more who started to work with breaks. Fabio, Grooverider, Carl Cox and Stu Allen were starting to play the breaks so yeah… I guess it feels cool that we were in there amongst it.

Which artists did you rate back back in the day and who did you see as the pioneers at that time?

Pioneers at the time for me was 4 Hero, "Mr. Kirks Nightmare" was a track that really stood out and used a breakbeat… that's a favourite old tune of mine

We weren't too keen on commercial labels coming in to things, the music was underground and that was where it belonged!
Tim - Essence Of Aura

You used to run your own label (Outstanding Records), do you think there was much more of a independant and creative industry in rave and jungle before major labels became too involved?

We weren't too keen on commercial labels coming in to things, the music was underground and that was where it belonged! Once a major label signs an artist there is then pressure to produce to deadlines which I believe effects the quality of the music in some circumstances. A tune is finished when it's finished, not by a date set before it's written.

What was your first release?

Our first release though was on Spooky Tunes for DJ Phantasy in '92, a 2 tracker which kicked things off. We followed that up with the 4 tracker "Destiny EP", also in '92, where we collaborated with DJ's Tango and Fallout and this was the first release on our own label.

The mighty Doc Scott remixed your track "Can I Dream", did you know him personally seeing as you all came from Coventry?

We didn't know Doc Scott that well but we would chat a bit now and again at The Eclipse and Edge as he was from Coventry and we were local to the area too, we just loved his djing and production so it was an honour that he agreed to do the remix.

What are the three of you up to these days?

We are all married with children and involved with the building trade now… Ian works for his dads building company, James is a self employed carpenter and I run my own bricklaying business.