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Words from a dubstep pioneer

Caspa plays Maxx Fish this Tuesday

The U.K.'s Caspa started in music way back in 2004. Those were the early days of dubstep, when the scene was limited to a handful of clubs around London, England. Mainstream acceptance was a few years off and Caspa's first gig paid 25 quid.

Now, he's considered one of the U.K.'s dubstep pioneers, who, was also the first high-profile DJ to play Maxx Fish's Really Good Tuesdays.

That was back in 2008 and since then, dubstep has blown right up, permeating the mainstream, confusing pop music purists and inspiring a generation of knee-wobbling 20-somethings.

At the same time, Caspa's brand of revved-up, gritty dubstep has taken to strange corners of the world. Despite the mediocre reviews of his 2009 debut LP, Everybody's Talking, Nobody's Listening, he's earned the respect of dubstep purists across North America and Europe.

Pique spoke to Caspa (born Gary McMann) recently while he was setting up for a gig at a London club. Gregarious and speaking with a thick Cockney accent that was just a little bit hard to understand, Caspa weighed in on the state of dubstep, the scene's origins in London and playing clubs in Kahzikstan.

 

Pique: Dubstep has become massive since you last played Whistler in 2008. How would you say it's evolved since then?

Caspa: I've seen it. I've been coming to America since the beginning of it all, and Canada, and I've just seen it grow, and grow, and grow. It's gotten where I thought it would be and it's just gotten huge. It's a respected genre, it's got a big following. It's cool to play now some of these clubs I played, like, three or four years ago because it's even crazier.

I love playing small clubs. They're my favourite. I'd rather play smaller clubs than big clubs. It's just so intimate. There's the energy and people can be like two feet away from you when you're DJing. It's great.

 

Pique: What was the scene in London like when you first started out compared to now?

Caspa: Over here, it started in 2001 to 2003. In America, I've been playing clubs since 2004 - no, 2005. I mean, then it was still small. It was tiny still. People didn't understand it. There were a bunch of heads that knew about it from the Internet, but it was very, very small. It just got bigger and bigger and bigger and had some great people behind it in America.

 

Pique: Do you like what's happening with it?

Caspa: I mean, as things get bigger, it's hard to sort of like everything that's going on because we try to push it to its limits and do stuff that's different, which I'm a massive fan of. I'm a firm believer in always pushing things forward and trying different things and progressing as an artist.

But it's like anything that gets big. There's stuff that I don't like about it and what goes on, but it's irrelevant because there's great music out there. There are great artists with some great tunes coming out, you know what I mean? So all that positive stuff cancels out the stuff I don't really like about it.

For me, as long as I'm doing what I'm doing, and people are respecting it, that's what's important.

 

Pique: Are there variations of dubstep emerging from within different areas of London?

Caspa: It's all pretty much the same, to be honest. And I wouldn't say London, I'd say the U.K. I'd say worldwide now. I think any differences between London and anywhere else in the world is just the artists that are involved in the dubstep (here) are the guys that started it. We're kind of doing stuff without being too worried about taking risks. Everything experimental comes out of London and it progresses elsewhere.

But I think in general, dubstep isn't a London sound anymore, you know, or a U.K. sound.  It's a worldwide sound. People know it. That's the power of the Internet. But I would say that we take the risks in London to make dubstep what it is.

 

Pique: Have yout traveled to places where the scene has not yet caught on, or is just starting to catch on?

Caspa: I've been to some interesting places in the last while. I played India, so that was interesting. There's a different sort of dubstep mind out there. In Bombay (now called Mumbai), I played. And last month I played Kazakhstan, and that was the first ever (dubstep show). It's always been, like, house (music). So that's been the underground style of music.

So I'm playing places now that you'd never think of playing, but its spread so fast and so wide now.

 

Pique: And how are they reacting to the music over there?

Caspa: It's so positive because it's like, you know, they appreciate you coming out that far to play for them. There's a lot of people that won't do that but I'm the kind of guy that will take a risk, like f--- it, I'll go out there and keep pushing myself. That's what I've always done...

I'm still trying to show people music and educate people and I think if you're one of the people doing that, you're always going to be on the forefront of the s