Page 39 - Zone Magazine Issue 008

From her beginnings in illegal raves at the height of early 90's to Radio 1 and TV presenting for MTV to become a bestselling producer, Anne Savage, AKA Dumb Blonde, is one of the world’s leading ladies in dance music with a career that spans over two decades.
Anne jetted in on Saturday November the 28th, to headline an Ear Candy night at ‘The Venue, Kildare Town and I had the pleasure to sit down with her on behalf of Retro Electro Radio and Zone Magazine and interview her.
Anne thanks very much for the interview, let's start at the start, how did you actually get into DJ ing?
I was influenced by my older brothers and sisters, they were into Northern Soul and some alternative stuff, also I used to listen to a lot of punk and my sister used to do mail order records and she used to make me buy them. From that I kind of developed my own taste in music and started going out clubbing. My first DJ residency was actually at a club in Accrington, Lancashire called the Curfew Club, prior to dance music, well not house music as we know it, the DJ was going on holiday for two weeks and as he knew I was a fanatic he asked if I'd like to do it. I got loads of encouragement from the crowd, mainly girls saying it was great to see a girl DJ.
After that first experience I was just obsessed, like I would go and watch DJ's at pubs and just stare at the them the whole night and wouldn't dance. Then there was the Acid House explosion and I started going out as a raver and again, I was always the one chin-stroking in the corner and just looking at the DJ. Eventually I got my own decks and used to stay up all night playing the same two records until I could mix them together.
And which two records were they?
Pennies from Heaven - Inner City, The Cutter "Blow, a quite obscure one and yeah this was the early 90’s.
And forgive me for my ignorance, were they similar tempo songs, was there a reason why you picked those two?
I can’t actually remember what the BPM’s were. I don’t know if you ever tried to mix really early 90’s tunes. It’s really hard and a real test, anyway I persevered and then I just told everyone I was a DJ and blagged just like most DJ’s did I think. I started because I just absolutely loved the music, got the technical skills and annoyed everyone till I got a gig.
Something I find when I am interviewing DJ’s is that they generally have a nerdy encyclopaedic knowledge of music, and that obsession got them into wanting to become a DJ.
Definitely, I am and I can hear just like the kick drum from the start of the tune and know exactly where it’s come from. I’ve got
that brain now, it’s really weird. It’s like, I don’t know what you’d call it, a photographic memory but yeah I’ve got a good ear and I am a massive nerd. I can tell you where all the samples are from, from every tune, you back to the 70’s and before that.
You cut your teeth at Angels in Burnley, Lancashire back in 93/94 alongside Carl Cox and Joey Beltram, what was that experience like?
Yeah it was good because I started working at that club doing the lights, the cloakroom, the flyer run and it was a real family kind of experience. The resident, Paul Taylor who is a legend himself, really taught me how to warm up properly, he used to take the records out of my bag and said don’t play that. I had to do the first 2 hours, I got paid 25 quid which was quite a lot if you think about it and by the time I got to finish the night; I had done my training and yes I was thrown in at the deep end with Carl Cox and Joey Beltram, it was a massive learning curve.
Sink or Swim kind of thing?
Yeah 100% and you knew they were masters but I was like a sponge at the time and learning different mixing techniques. And so learning you can drop techno and house together for instance, Carl Cox taught me that and he used to DJ with no headphones. The guy is a genius and he is still my hero if you can’t tell.
Sound like that place seems to have paved the way for setting up your own label?
I used to have my own tape business, this is showing my age, and I used to have my own tape run and I used to sell tapes for Cream, all the big clubs in the North and that’s how I actually got to meet people and that’s how I started getting other gigs through that, so yeah I was doing flyers, I was doing tapes and the dance music industry in general I just wanted to be in.
You were discovered there at Angels and you went on to play at the legendary Arc gigs with Laurent Garnier, Tony De Vit etc, can you let us know a little about that?
Yeah I was spotted while i was playing at Angels by the promoter of Arc and I was made resident there, I was just fortunate to be at the right place at the right time really. He just came along, from there it was a springboard and I got my first agent and it was just a really special time at the time, to play with Sasha and Garnier who were heroes of mine.
Speaking of events and raves, you had 12 consecutive years DJ-ing in Ibiza, which were your particular favourites?
Yeah, I used to play for Judge Jules at Judgement Sunday which was absolutely brilliant. I used to play at Privilege and you
had to queue at the time and that’s a different level as it’s 10,000 people.
Have you any funny memories of Ibiza?
Yeah, you used to have to cross this gangplank to get over the swimming pool to get to the DJ box and I had these really high heels on, lost my balance and nearly went in. I had this minder at the time, Nick Turner, bless him he’s passed away and he just grabbed me and saved me from falling into the pool in front of 10,000 people.
Apart from your impressive DJ career, you have written and released music in multiple genres for various labels; were you conscious of avoiding being stereotyped to any one style?
Yeah because when I first started DJ-ing, I used to play Techno and Progressive. Then I started being booked for playing Hard Dance. I was playing two parallel sets and so I would get booked in two different clubs and then obviously there was the Hard House explosion in 2000, and this might sound pretentious, I always wanted to stay connected to my roots and I always wanted to make other music, maybe to keep myself sane. I love Hard Dance, don't get me wrong, I love the music, I love the people and what it's all about but there is another side to me and I always wanted to do that.
Can I ask you a little bit about your Dumb Blond alias, why the name?
I was actually doing Ministry of Sound radio with my friend Justin and as we are both blond we thought let’s just call ourselves the Dumb Blondes and I stole it basically and I just thought I’d say it before anyone else said it. That was breakbeat and I did quite well and toured China doing Breakbeat in some pretty cool venues. That was really good fun, I produced quite a few Breakbeat tunes as well, Lisa Lashes got me into that and that’s quite funny because she has a lot of other strings to her bow as well.
You’re in the upper echelons of DJ-ing in the UK and you’re surrounded in a male dominated Industry, did you feel you ever had any problems because of that?
I’ve got mixed thoughts as I am getting older now, I know when I first started I was a rarity being a girl. I did get dragged down back alleys by promoters which was tough but I had four older brothers so I wasn’t scared of fighting them off.
It is male dominated industry, and I’m going to mention Lisa again here as there was an interview we did with DJ Magazine in 1998 and we said we could really see big changes happening and we dug it out and actually nothing has really changed. But I made it and I think it's down to the individual and I have hadalotofhelpfrommeninmylifeinthe Industry. It’s mixed, sometimes actually I think females don’t help themselves.
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