We chat to Jay Cunning, a man who has been involved in the dance music industry for many years, his multi genre record label Sub Slayers has recently celebrated its 50th release, so to mark this milestone occasion we caught up with Jay to find out more about the label and ask him about his career and a few other things!
How did you get into DJ’ing? Did you catch the music bug at an early age?
I wasn’t one of those kids who started playing vinyl at 3, in fact I had pretty shit taste in music until I started listening to pirate’s in 1988/89 when I was around 14 or 15 and that’s when I got hooked! Pretty soon after I got my first set of decks which was a wooden all in one unit with no pitch – totally useless to be honest but I didn’t care as I was able to start putting 2 records together. From then on me and my mates got a pair of belt drive Soundlabs and tried to teach ourselves to mix, again we were totally useless but high on acid & weed we didn’t care. It wasn’t until 1993 that I learnt to mix and bizarrely it was while I was in New Zealand for the year with no turntables, I spent so much time listening to mixes working out when DJ’s brought tracks in that when I came back in 94 it just clicked, to this day my mates are convinced I was away for the year mixing it up!
What was the 1st piece of vinyl you ever bought and where from? Do you still collect vinyl?
The first credible tune I bought was T99 Anasthasia on XL and would have been from Woolworths in Wembley where I grew up, but the first record I probably was either the Axel F theme tune or Kylie!
I still buy vinyl now, mainly tunes from 88-99 that I either missed out on back in the day or the copies I have are battered! I’ve always had a great passion for records and still play vinyl on some of my KoolLondon.com shows. Vinyl will never die.
Can you remember your 1st proper gig, and what have been some of the stand out sets you have played in your career?
The first proper paid gig was at Trinity bar in Harrow with my mate Roy around 94/5, we got £50 between us for playing from 8 to 1am and we were bricking it before hand but after the first couple of tunes (and pints) we were away!
As for memories, wow there really are so many but a few would have to be:
– Resident at Ram Records at The End for 4 years until it closed
– Playing Exit Festival in Serbia
– Any gig at The Tunnel club in St Petersburg
– Playing a classic jungle set at Glastonbury
– Government in Canada, the clubs got a 13’000 capacity!
– Esparrago festival in Spain, probably one of the biggest audiences I’ve played to.
How did you get into radio and eventually onto Kiss FM? Your weekly show ran for 4 years, can you tell us some of the standout moments from that time?
I’ve been on radio for as long as I can remember starting on out Dj Luck’s pirate station Lush FM back in 1998, then Groovetech, Ministry Of Sound, Breaks FM (which I part owned), Kiss FM and now Kool London. It’s an honour to be part of the station that I grew up listening too!
The Kiss FM days we’re just amazing with so many great memories, off the bat interviewing Liam Howlett (The Prodigy) is right up there as well as finally getting to meet my old raving DJ heroes Slipmatt, Ellis Dee, Rat Pack & Micky Finn.
How long has your show on Kool been running, and when can people listen in to you, and what sort of vibe is the show?
I’m pretty sure it’s been 5 years now and it’s been such an amazing journey, the team behind the station are bang on it and growing up listening to Kool it’s amazing to be a part of it now. Music wise it’s something different every week! It might be old skool hardcore, upfront D&B/Jungle, Garage, classic Jungle, all depends on the vibe on the day really!
The show is on every Friday from 5-7pm UK time on www.koollondon.com but I also stream the show on my On The Rise DJ Academy page. (You can check them out by clicking here)
I also upload the shows to my Mixcloud account. (You can check them out by clicking here)
What was your vision when starting the Sub Slayers label back in 2009?
I’d describe the label overall certainly as an underground one that has championed and supported various artists and styles since we launched back in 2009. I started the label while I was on Kiss FM doing the Breakbeat show and I was starting to get drawn towards tracks like Noisia’s remix of Omen (The Prodigy) which has the energy of Breakbeat but the rawness of Dubstep. At that time Breaks was struggling to keep itself fresh and I’ve never been one to moan and complain so I started speaking to a few artists about forging a new style of 140BPM music that took influences from Jungle, Breaks & Dubstep which later on became called Future Jungle.
As the years went on the label progressed and we started releasing more 175BPM music whether it be Jungle or Drum & Bass or somewhere in the middle it was all about the underground vibes. We’ve never really stuck to one tempo as for me that’s too limiting, it was all about music that I liked that fitted in with the ethos of the label.
We’ve also rebranded our look for the 50th release, I felt it was time to freshened up our look!
What can you tell us about the milestone 50th release and the artists on the E.P?
The 50th release for any label is a great milestone and Christian (Toronto Is Broken) came up with the idea of doing 2017 VIP mixes for some of the labels biggest releases. I loved the idea as it remind people where we’re from while at the same time showing them what we can do now.
I contacted all the artists with the plan and the EP is the final result that we’re very proud of! There’s a few tracks on the EP that I would love to have gotten on there but it just wasn’t possible for various reasons but I’m really happy with how it’s turned out and the support has been amazing!
What will be the main focus of the label in 2017?
2017 is all about the bridge! Imagine Drum & Bass is one island and Jungle is another one, Sub Slayers is the bridge between them
I might put out more D&B tunes sometimes and other times straight up Jungle but the focus is all about the bridge between the two styles. I really loving the merging of these two genres!
Can you tell us about your PR company ‘On The Rise’ that you run with Terry Hooligan?
We’ve been running for over 4 years now mainly servicing underground music from D&B to House, Bass to Jungle for the likes of Viper, Technique, Caspa & Rusko, Maxim (The Prodigy), Todd Terry and many more! It’s been a big journey for this side of the company getting great music out to the masses!
You also run a DJ Academy under the ‘On The Rise’ banner, how did this come about, and what is typically involved in the courses you run?
The academy has been running just as long but we made a big push with it at the start of 2016 and 1 year later it’s thriving! Both Terry and I wanted to give back to the next generation and we do so mainly with 1on1 lesson teaching everything from vinyl to USB, controllers to scratching. Our students are wide and varied from 16 years old to 60, male or female it’s a really diverse background of people we teach! We do group courses but our main lessons are bespoke 1on1 so students get exactly what they want and the learning rate they are happy with. Check out our site for a full rundown here
What has been one of your favourite pieces of music technology in recent times?
Ohh, not an easy question to answer as there have been so many great bits of kit being introduced into the DJ world but if I was to pick a fav it would have to be our Pioneer Nexus 2 CDJ & Mixer set up, such amazing advancement in tech mixed with amazing sound quality!
Can we expect some new music from yourself any time soon?
At the current rate I’m not due to release a track till 2025! I did my first tune in 1996 ‘The Situation’ then in 2005 I did 2 tracks then not again till 2015 when I teaming up with Nicky D’Silva so every 10 years! In all honestly I’m not patient enough to be a producer, I’m a DJ and that’s my main passion.
Is there anyone in particular you would like to work with as a music producer and as a record label owner?
Interesting question, I’d like to go back to the early 90’s and work with some of the old skool producers. Of the producers out there at the moment I rate a lot of them but as I say I just don’t have the passion to get in the studio and make music. DJ wise I forfilled one of my ambitions which was to do a back to back with Ellis Dee which I did at raindance around 5 years ago, we also just got back together for another session on my Kool show which was amazing! (You can check it out here)
Finally, Is Sub Slayers going to be putting on any events in 2017?
Maybe, promoting is important to get the label and artists out there but from putting on events over 10 years ago I know how much hard work it is and the timing just isn’t right as when I do it it has to be proper! Never say never!
For all things Sub Slayers/Jay Cunning check out the links below.