Page 34 - Zone Magazine Issue 008

feature interview - uk
andy meecham aka bizarre inc.
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Andy Meecham is no stranger to success as he was once a member of the now legendary ‘Bizarre Inc’ who rose to fame in the heady heights of early Rave cultures halcyon days in the UK in the early 1990’s. Andy joined Bizarre Inc, in 1990 and along with Dean Meredith and Carl Turner they went on to make some of the biggest tracks to have to come out of those musically diverse and creative times,
The anthems ‘Playing With Knives’ and ‘Such A Feeling’ are tracks that still get played in old school sets to this day (I should know as I still play them). The band later took a more commercial route and in 1993 with Angie Brown as the featured vocalist, they brought out the cross over track ‘I'm Gonna Get You’ Which was a commercial success on both sides of the Atlantic and went to number 1 in the United States Hot Dance Club Play chart.
In 1996 Carl Turner left the band and Dean and Andy went down a more commercial path and released their third album ‘Surprise’ with Angie Brown as a member on vocals and also writing some of the songs and they released three more singles: ‘Keep the Music Strong’, ‘Surprise’ and ‘Get Up Sunshine Street’.
The band finally split in 1996 and Andrew Meecham and Dean Meredith worked on solo projects for a few years then after individually signing to Kingsize Records they eventually went on to form ‘Chicken Lips’ in 1999. They worked as a duo then until 2006 and in that time they
released a number of leftfield house releases.
As a side project in 2003, Andy formed The Emperor Machine and signed to DC Records. This gave him a chance to explore more experimental sounds where he worked predominantly on just one synth, the Roland SH-3a. He was with DC Records up until 2009. After leaving them he concentrated on remix work for the likes of such heavyweights as Moby, Daft Punk and Royksopp and he also carried on performing live.
The call to release good music was too much though and when Andy met up with vocalist and songwriting partner Michelle Bee in 2013, they signed to Norman Cooks legendary Southern Fried label in 2015. They released three singles and one album together under The Emperor Machine guise, while as a side project and after finding a box of Bizarre Inc samples, Andy also signed to Erol Alkan’s label ‘Phantasy Sound and released another album.
Most recently The Emperor Machine released an EP on UK label Nein Records in 2015 and at present Andy is busy in the studio writing a new Emperor machine LP which is due out in 2016.
We caught up with Andy Meacham and asked him about his long and varied career in dance music:
You were lucky enough to witness the blossoming of the UK Dance and Rave scene in the early 1990’s, are there any particular memories that have stuck with you?
From a personal point of view being on top of the pops and earning lots of money!!
unfolding of the rave scene was quite a thing to behold. Not a lot of people realise that I observed things from a sober and straight perspective, never having dabbled and never been tempted to do so. It gave me a unique perspective, and actually I am probably one of the few people who were there, that actually remember being there.
Shelly’s in Stoke and Quadrant Park so many places. What I remember most are the people.
The people were really consistent. There was no pruning or preening that can be present today. Whatever the reason for it, and I don’t believe it was just the mind altered state of the people, the music really united people. If you want to get political it really felt like a movement, like a kick back against the institution. It couldn’t be further from punk but the anti-establishment nature of it was really unifying and invigorating.
You started as a DJ before you were a producer, did you have a musical background at all?
According to my school music teacher “Andrew has no musical ability”. I was brought up in a house full of soul Disco & Funk my parents both worked in a glue factory. They both, and my sister, loved their music and my Dad had an obsession with technology, whether it was Hi-fi TVs or CB radios. My career as a DJ started at 8 with a push button tape recorder, continued at school when myself and Dean were fierce competitors in our selling of mixtapes to our school friends before it all got a bit more formal and official after I got (blagged) a job at Stafford’s only recording studio at the time - Blue Chip.
Professionally we were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, and the
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34 ZONE-MAGAZINE.IE