Two full years after 'Working Nights' Trus'me now delivers his second studio album, 'In the Red', which impresses as a refined and matured effort. Trus'me's art of selecting samples and editing grooves is complemented by the talents of artists like Paul Randolph, Amp Fiddler, Dam-Funk or Pirahnahead, who lend their gifted musicality to the varied selection of tracks contained on 'In The Red', ranging from deep house over soul to electro-funk.

What comes naturally - an interview with Trus'me

It's been two years since 'Working Nights'. Now you're new album 'In The Red' is coming out shortly, can you tell us a bit about its gestation?

Well, over the last two years I kinda lived off the back of 'Working Nights' - it just kept on selling, so I didn't really have the urge to make any new music really. I was on a high with all the music I was given with Prime Numbers - artists like Linkwood, Fudge Fingas, or Reggie Dokes were constantly giving me fresh music, so I had fresh material to play and Prime Numbers was growing. I felt like it was time to step back for a second.

So when did you actually start working on the album?

I wanted it to be more of a natural process, so I started to work with musicians like Amp Fiddler and Randolph when they passed through Manchester, whether they'd be on tour or be working with with other artists. I wanted it to be more natural, no deadline and have it finished when it was finished.

You collaborated with quite a few Detroit artists - Amp Fiddler, Randolph, Piranhahead. How did these collaborations come about?

It was a bit of them reaching out to me and me reaching out to them, just because we're obviously making the same music and I'm supporting them. Different artists I worked with on the label, did remixes for, and I was actually playing in Detroit quite a few times and hooked up with these people. That's the way it always works - people like Motor City Drum Ensemble or Move D are people I met on tour and got on with. We found that we're similar minded and got similar goals in what we're trying to do. So, like I said before, I tried to make sure it's a more natural process, rather than forced and someone telling me I had to do it in two weeks, as you don't really get good results that way.



The way you worked on 'Working Nights' was to often take a characteristic sample, often samples known to insiders of soul and funk music, and work on the basis of those samples and add live instrumentation. Did this process change - this balance of working with samples and live musicians?

On 'Working Nights', I took the source and, like you said, I worked around it, with musicians on top, to create something new. For the 'In the Red' I wanted to embrace things that were in my mind, ideas I had while I was DJing, different sounds I heard and different concepts. So I got musicians in early to play along with the direction I wanted them to go in. You'll also find that there's quite few different interpretations and covers on the album, which is essentially my progression from sampling.
Sampling and doing covers is for me is essentially the same thing, because you're taking the source of an original track and are trying to make something new. But this way you have more control over the sound and you can take the likes of a punk disco track and make it into a really sleazy 80s boogie version, which I did with Dam Funk. With a sample you can really only go that far, while with covers you can come up with something completely new, using only the essence of a track, which is quite exciting.

So 'In The Red' was a progression from an album made by a DJ to a more musician-like approach?

When I made the first album, I was really a DJ's DJ, and I was making music that I could DJ with. For the second album, I wanted to make music from start to finish, that journeyed through an hour and went through different genres and styles. Music that you could listen to at home, at the office, at work, but which quite happily sat in the club as well. I wanted it to be more widely appealing, essentially be what an album should be, which is not what a lot of people do these days. It's a concept that I also bring to my label as well - if you listen to Linkwood's 'System' album, it's lots of different styles on there, but they all have a cohesive sound. It sounds like one package, it's got Linkwood's sound to it. For me that's essentially what an album is - it's a collection of different styles and genres that is one sound.

You have been working with artists that have been collaborating with Kenny Dixon Jr., and your sound has also been compared his in the past. Are familiar with Kenny Dixon's famous, and somewhat controversial, quote telling 'white suburban kids, sampling black music all the time' to 'try some rock'n roll for a change'?

Yeah, I've met Kenny, he actually played at my album launch. I've been told several different stories about this quote, but I've heard it from his own mouth as well. It was more an angry reaction to an event night he went to, which was a big techno event. He apparently turned up with some of the original founders of techno and they wouldn't let them in on the guestlist. It was a bit of a disrespect thing. With the likes of me, I acknowledge and know where the music came from, it's a completely different ballgame. It's not that I'm trying to recreate his sound. I want to embrace it, cause it's obviously an influence to my sound, but I'm trying to develop my own sound as well. I don't only work with American samples - I've sampled lots of Rock 'n Roll in my tracks and also African records, which were produced here in England. There is no blueprint that I use, it's just something I'm feeling at the time.



One of the stand-out tracks of 'In the Red' is 'Sweet Mother' - is that based on a sample?

It's a combination of lots of different things in there - not something I particularly want to give away. I've actually worked on this with Kon, from Kon & Amir, he's also known as one of the kings of digging. He's a friend I got really close with and it's a track we were always going to work on together, but he actually fell ill while we were working on the album. I dedicated this track to his mom, who died when he was younger. So it's kinda special track for him, it embraces our friendship together. We always communicate - we live in different worlds but in the same world as well, so we share have a common respect for each other. The vibe of the track is quite different. It relates to 'Shake Your Body' off the first album as well, that kind of afro sound - it's one of my favourites too.

Strength in Numbers

With Prime Number you are releasing quite a few new artists from the UK - Linkwood, Fudge Fingas, Wireman.

At the minute I'm trying to push UK artists with the label, some are from Scotland, some are from the down-south, some are from Manchester as well. It's not something I'm particularly trying to stick to, but I'm just finding it to be a lot easier to work with UK artists. I can relate with them and talk on a one-on-one basis. But I've also worked with Detroit artists as well, like Piranhahead and Reggie Dokes, and German artists, with Motor City Drum Ensemble and Move D. I like working with people that are similar minded. With the whole Detroit crowd - we just have this common understanding between Manchester and Detroit - we visit each others city and they kinda look alike and the vibe is the same, it's just easy to relate with each other. And obviously the UK thing is just the same. You build a collective with a direction when you work closely with people that are from a certain area, and you can build this together and create our own sound, which is the Prime Numbers thing.

What are your current plans for Prime Numbers?

We have Fudge Finger's album coming up, also a third album from me in May, a possible collaboration with two other artists, which I can't really mention yet. A really good EP with Fudge Fingas, a really good EP with Discrete Unit, more material from Linkwood. So things are looking pretty promising.

I take it that you're an avid collector of vintage vinyl, am I right?

Yeah you could say that (laughs). Vinyl is something that's really important to me. It's my way of finding new music. The likes of youtube and all this is great to discover new music, but I don't feel like I possess it and have gained the knowledge until I bought the vinyl and read the cover and played the record for myself. It's something that will always be in my heart, when I'm buying new music or old music as you would say.

What section of your collection would you say is the closest to your heart?

Well I kinda went through phases. When I first started out I was just buying lots and lots of hip-hop, I was completely on a Tribe Called Quest, Jay Dee, Dwele kind a tip. Through hip-hop I found jazz, through the samples - I would say my biggest collection of music now is jazz. Jazz as in jazz that represents the kind of beat, the hip-hop, the deepness kinda thing. Then I slowly progressed into soul, and soul went into boogie, and boogie went into disco, and through disco I found house, and then the whole Detroit movement took over. And then I've slowly gone back round and found reggae and Brazilian and afro beat and rock 'n roll and folk.... my taste is pretty wide these days.

You will definitely be DJing a lot after your album comes out. What can people expect that haven't heard you before?

I have this little saying - keep it in the past, present and future - I like playing music from the past alongside music from the future, and hopefully people can't tell the difference, because it's just the quality of music that matters. I like it when people come up to me and think a track is new, because I've played it next to something new, and I can tell them: 'No, this is 20 years old!'. It's something I always try to do, just to show where we come from and where we at now. That's one of the most interesting things to do as a DJ. You can get people jumping and dancing to a record that's a bona fide classic, next to something new, and if that thing's yours and you get the same reaction, then even better. That is when you're becoming a DJ, in my opinion.

What is the one vintage record that you have always wanted to get your hands on?

There's millions! I can't really think of one off the top of my head right now. To be honest it's mainly Brazilian records I'm after. There's plenty of disco 12"s as well out there, but I won't give any names away as I'm looking for them!