UPFRONTBEATS

We feature Play It Down and Circus production resident Lewis Boardman. His tracks have been growing in popularity over the last few months, with Radio 1’s Annie Mac and B Traits pushing them out across the air waves to the nation on Friday nights. Lewis has put out some serious material on labels such as Deslot, Circus, Play It Down and Luciano’s Cadenza records. His remix of house legend Kings of Tommorow and rising star Hector Couto ‘These Emotions ‘ (Lewis Boardman’s LA Rooftop Dub) is gaining huge support from the house music scene, and is becoming one of the in demand artists.

So like all interviews lets start from the beginning, what are your early memories of the whole underground house music scene and who were your idols and heroes at the time.’

I would have to say sneaking into bugged out at nation on the last friday on the month, my mates were all a little older than me so I had to use a fake id to get in. but that was a real experience , from the sound and visuals ,to the feel of the dirty club and of course the music ! It was the first place I seen such dj’s as Roger Sanchez , Sneak, Carl Cox , H ‘ Foundation , Lottie ,Carl Craig , Felix da Housecat, X-press 2 and so on. But the people who stood out for me was the residents. Justin Robertson, who used to warm up for in the Courtyard and Jon Carter , who used to close the Annexe , he was literally like a rock star and always rocked it till 6am . Also at Bugged out is where I first heard Yousef, I did not know he was a resident on the Saturdays at nation for Cream, but after seeing him on a Friday myself and my mate Kenny would go every Saturday night for about a year just to watch Yousef in the annexe. He was definitely our idol back then.

Could you describe your DJing style and sound to our audience’

My style is and always has been deep sleazy chuggy house, nothing to banging. Ive always been a fan of the groove and building towards something laying down the
foundations in sound.

How did the whole Jesse Rose ‘ Play it Down hook up happen’

I’ve been sending Jesse tracks for years and never really heard much back, then he got in contact about a few tracks I had sent over to him. He has been brilliant ! he would call me on Skype from LA and say ok lets try and change a few bits on the track or have you tried doing this or adding a vocal here, to get that sort of direction or even feedback from a major player is really unheard of, so big up jesse!

You have put out some serious tracks on labels such as Desolat, Play it Down, Circus and Cadenza. How do you approach each track for the different labels’

It all starts with the beats and then the groove will dictate where the track ends up or how it feels, then when you play it out to friends and in clubs you get a picture of where the track should be sent. It does not always work out, sometimes labels will keep hold of your tracks for 2 years and then turn round and say they don’t want them now after you have spent a year telling everyone you have a big record coming out on a super cool label only to end up looking like a dick ‘

What was it like to feature on the world wide Radio station BBC Radio 1’s introducing program and featuring a guest mix on B traits show’

B-traits has been great and its really cool when someone who you have never met before really gets behind what you do and push’s you to a bigger audience, like on BBC R1 with mixes , interviews and playing you and your friends music on the air , I think I had 3 plays on 3 different R1 shows one weekend for my track Come On , that was a great feeling.

Could you tell us your favourite club, and why’

Recently its been Watergate , Ive been going there for years on lost weekends in Berlin so to play there was great, I played alongside Yousef / Jesse / Oliver $ and a few other djs from the Play It Down crew and its was a really great weekend . But next is Panorama Bar at Berghain, would love to play 4 or 5 hours on a Sunday afternoon in there.

You have just played at the ever impressive YOUSEF PRESENTS CIRCUS at the albert hall. What was that like to play such an event, alongside the like of Yousef, Dusky, Sasha and Ten Walls’

It was really good I played for a few hours warming up the main room before Ten Walls. I love laying down the foundations to a great night. Of course great sound and production always helps as it makes my job a lot easier if everything looks and feels good ,I feel it really translates to everyone, from the artists to the audience dancing away all night.

Could you tell us a classic track, which is still doing it for you..’

Anything from Peace Division, I have everything they made. Its always really moody and sleazy with solid beats and that always works for me.

We just noticed you have a super remix of Sandy Rivera (Kings of Tomorrow) & Hector Couto These Emotions (Lewis Boardman’s LA Rooftop Dub), without giving too much away. Whats your plans for 2015 studio and events.

With out giving too much away I have eps for coming on 8Bit, Circus, Play It Down and Inmotion NYC and trying to finish another 3 big eps for 3 of my favourite labels. so I’m under pressure to try and get everything done as I want this year to really count for me as a dj and producer!