Charlotte Birch hard house interview for Frenzy26th of February 2007 - interview copyright of Frenzy Charlotte Birch is one of the top female DJs in the hard house scene and down the years has been resident for the mighty Sundissential, had numerous vinyl releases, promoted her own clubnight, and even has time to hang around with morning chatshow host Jeremy Kyle. Frenzy caught up with her with her for a quick chat in advance of her playing at the Firestation in Bournemouth on the 17th of March. 1. Hi Charlotte, just to get us started could you give us a quick rundown of the following please: your location, star sign, favourite TV program, and whether or not you have any pets? I’m in Walsall, which is near Birmingham. My favourite program is 'You’ve Been Framed', I laugh myself stupid at that! And I have a hamster called Woody. The other night he escaped, climbed the stairs, got into my bedroom and woke me up eating a packet of crisps under my bed! It scared the life outta me!
2. We’re guessing you’re quite a busy bee as you DJ, promote your own night, and have plans to produce your own clothing range... so do you ever get a chance to go out clubbing or socialising yourself and if so what sort of places do you go to? I don’t have time to go out that much, and to be honest, as I spend half my life in clubs I probably choose not to go clubbing when I’m not working. I normally end up having a party in my cellar and invite a few mates round and get on the decks at home! Haha... so not that different really! Apart from that I’m not a bad cook and love to get all my sharp knives out, and my herbs and spices, open a bottle of wine and pretend I’m on a cooking programme... sad but true. 3. When you play for Frenzy and Defective on the 17th of March we will be sharing the venue with two hardcore promotions, Destiny vs THC. What’s the most hardcore thing Charlotte Birch has ever done? I’ve done hardcore events before, and I played for Slammin' Vinyl which was awesome. Apart from that I think the most hardcore thing I’ve done is battle with the Chinese on the dance mats whilst I was touring Australia! I can do all the levels on Maniac, I love it!! I am a hardcore dance matter! Hehe!!
4. You’ve released a number of hard house tracks down the years and dabble in production as well as DJ’ing. Do you have any records in the pipeline at the moment and if so what’s the current Charlotte Birch sound? I think my last count was about 25 releases but I've not done anything new for a while. I still do have a couple of unsigned tracks at the moment which I may put on trackitdown.net and will most certainly be putting on my MySpace website. The tracks were done a while back now and I was saving them for my label Dropzone. I’m booking a studio date soon with Ingo to produce some dirty house and electro tracks next. I’ve been playing it for a while now and am absolutely loving it! Don’t worry though as still like to bang it out too! 5. You started your own label a couple of years ago called Dropzone Recordings. Are you still releasing vinyl tracks on this label, and what are plans for it now as vinyl seems to be suffering a little with sales? We decided to wrap up Dropzone after just four releases. As you say vinyl sales have suffered massively and it is a very expensive way of getting stuff out there. With all the hard work of running label, I decided it wasn’t worth it. I'm still going to produce though and let other people have my tunes for their own labels.
6. The question we always ask our guests at Frenzy is what are your top 5 tunes of all time? And they don't have to be hard house... My top 5 would have to be;
7. Frenzy is renowned for the old skool classic hard house sound from around 1999 to 2002. You were DJ’ing around that time so must have an opinion on whether the older style of hard house was more fun back then? That’s what we think, but what’s your take on it? I love my classics! I definitely believe clubbing was far better back on the day! But I suppose all older people do! It's a bit like my mom and dad saying they used to have more fun than us young ones. I think old memories of fantastic clubbing nights and music will always seem better. I definitely think the music was more fun though. It's all gone a lot more serious now.
8. Who is the most famous person you've ever met and how, and also is there someone you haven't met yet that you would like to and why? I would have to say my most famous friend is Jeremy Kyle. He is married to my best friend Carla and I am a godparent to his daughter. I get the full Jezza treatment every time I go stay with them! For example, "What are my problems..." etc etc! He scares the life out of me! He’s exactly the same on telly as he is in real life! 9. The gig your playing for us is being held in a converted firestation, which has a very shiny fireman’s pole (one of the more popular features of the venue). What’s your favourite emergency service and why? Don’t tell me that you’ll have me sliding down it after a few beers? My best emergency service is the 24 hour Spar shop near to my house. Fantastic when you’re having a party and have run out of beer and cigarettes. It’s save a few lives in my house I can tell you!
10. Is there anything else you might want to tell the Frenzy hard house massive that's coming up for you this year? Well, I’ll be playing in Dubai when I go out there on the 19th of March and also touring Australia with Nick Rafferty in September! He reckons to save us money on tour that I will have to share a room with him... Nice try I say! 11. Finally, what can the Frenzy and Bournemouth crowd expect from you on the 17th of March? Do you have any surprises in store for us all? I’ll be delivering a mix of new and old stuff, probably quite hard with a sprinkling of classics!! Oh yeah whilst coming down your fireman's pole! Hehe. See ya on 17th! Charlotte will be playing for Frenzy on the 17th of March 2007 at the Old Firestation in Bournemouth so check our forthcoming events for more information. Charlotte has her own website which can be accessed at www.myspace.com/djcharlottebirch. |
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