TIM HUGHES talks to bass legend DJ Fresh and finds him driven by missionary zeal

HE may live a life of private jets, helicopters and Cristal Champagne, but today DJ Fresh is enjoying something altogether more relaxing – a nice cream tea.

The turntablist, producer and purveyor of electronic dance music is ensconced in a tea shop in Burford with friend and fellow drum & bass star Adam F.

“We are chilling out in the country,” says Fresh. “I’m having a day off so came out to see my old mate for tea and scones and to discuss the finer points of drum & bass.

“We have found a nice little tea shop to spend the afternoon. However, the woman serving us is completely deaf so we are having to rely on her lip reading.”

Fresh, known to his friends as Dan Stein, is a huge name in the world of bass and dubstep, playing all over the world to crowds of thousands of clubbers all in love with that heady mix of frantic breakbeats and heavy bass.

A member of the drum & bass outfit Bad Company, he runs a record label Breakbeat Kaos (with tea-drinking buddy Adam F), and much of his work, including track The Nine, released when he was just 21, has been voted the best in the world by bass fans.

Describing himself as a creator of “crossover bass music”, his career has seen him work with everyone from Pet Shop Boys to Pendulum and fellow DJs Andy C, Grooverider and DJ Shadow. But for his latest album, the appropriately-titled Nextlevelism, he has again raised his game, with star-studded collaborations from the likes of Dizzee Rascal, Professor Green, The Fray, Rizzle Kicks, Ms Dynamite, and Juliette Lewis. Oh... and a pair of little tracks, Louder, featuring Sian Evans from Kosheen, and Hot Right Now, with singer Rita Ora, have the honour of being the first UK dubstep and drum & bass tunes to reach the top of the UK charts.

On Wednesday Fresh brings his show Fresh/Live to the O2 Academy Oxford. The show sees the DJ on keyboards, backed by a full band, with drummer, guitarist, singer and MC, recreating Fresh’s studio tunes in a live setting.

For Fresh, who admits to spending most of his life travelling between gigs, it is a special date. Earlier this year he moved to the outskirts of Oxford, making this a hometown show.

“I really love it here,” says the Berkshire-born DJ, who previously lived in London and New York. “It’s a great place to live and chill out. And Oxford is good too, with nice old buildings, great restaurants and bars and loads to do. I haven’t been to may gigs yet, though I did go to a club, The Bridge. Someone on the door recognised me and we got free Champagne all night, which was all right!”

Free drinks aside, Fresh is a grounded guy who admits he would rather go unrecognised. “I don’t like it at all,” he says. “I’m a quiet laid-back kind of guy and find it a bit awkward when people come up; I don’t know what to say. Some people deal with it but I find it a bit weird.”

“When I’m on stage I feel comfortable because that’s what I do. But in real life, when I’m wandering around in random clothes, it’s different. I feel like a rabbit in the headlights.”

“I try to remain relatively unassuming and don’t want to live a crazy lifestyle. But with everything that has happened over the past few years, it has become hectic. Every day I’m in a different city in the UK or Europe and often the only way to get between gigs is by helicopter or private jet.”

Fresh’s love of electronic music goes back a long way, all the way to the playground.

“When I was at school I was given a tape of an early jungle rave and I was blown away by it,” he recalls. “It sounded so futuristic and like nothing I’d heard before. I loved the idea that one person could make it. I wanted other people to know about this music I loved – and that has been my mission since. I never really wanted to be a DJ, I just wanted to make music and pass it on to people who hadn’t heard it before.I am a musical missionary, 100 per cent.”

And, he says, the scene has never been stronger, with the once underground drum & bass and dubstep sound well and truly part of the mainstream, cropping up in the charts, on TV shows and adverts. “The core drum & bass scene has been growing around the world for a really long time and is still as lively as ever,” he says.

“It is now part of a bigger bass movement and has become much more open.”

Judging by the crowds packing his nights, he seems to be right. So what can clubbers expect from a Fresh/Live show? “They seem to have become synonymous with moshing,” he says proudly.

“My whole thing is about positivity and high energy, and letting people go nuts for a couple of hours.”

So what does a DJ listen to when he is not in the booth? “Lots of things,” he says. “But not drum & bass and the stuff I play at nights. After all, it is nice to have a break!”

  • DJ Fresh plays the O2 Academy Oxford on Wednesday.
  • Doors open at 10pm. Tickets are £8.05 from ticketweb.co.uk