Finna catches up with Goldie for a few words on what’s been happening with Goldie of late and what's in store for us on the upcoming tour of Australia and New Zealand

So what been happening over in UK in the life of Goldie?

Dan I have loads on at the moment, we just had a new born arrive in the past few weeks which has been absolutely amazing, lately I'm in the Bikram studios practicing yoga nearly every day of the week. We are also four tunes into the new Goldie album which is due out for release very soon, so it's a great time to be touring with loads of new music coming about and also in support of my recent Fabric LIVE CD which has had a massive response.

What’s been happening with your art? you've been quite prominent in that area of your life lately.

I have just finished a nice new graffiti piece with my boys T.A.T. crew from New York in the Bronx who have been over here in Bristol doing a show, we linked up last week and did a piece on a handball court down in Sydney Rd in London, there's pics of that floating around online somewhere.
It's really weird, after first making waves in Jungle and DnB almost 20 years ago now as Goldie I'm probably more active now than I've ever been to be honest, I've been doing alot of stuff with ted.com doing a lot of lectures and conducting orchestral pieces, the last 3 years in particular has been quite an amazing journey for me.
I came from a scene that absolutely blew up in the 90's and I really just spent my time partying and going mad for a good 5 years then one day I woke up and just thought it's time to start looking after myself and get on with it.

Around 7 years ago I wasn't in the best place within myself going through a divorce and some personal issues, the divorce that cost me an absolute fortune, oh well you can't replace money with happiness!
Life is really interesting right now, drum and bass is still here, I've been doing a lot of art lately, things have gone full circle kind of like back when I was 18 again. My paintings have been selling really well in the market.

I’m just so happy that I can wake up every morning and do whatever i feel like doing, whether is writing beats, sculpting, making some jewellery, doing a graff piece on writing a score, its great to be here. Truly the one thing I've realised over the last few years is that I have become the alchemist I've always wanted to be. Regardless of dnb, working in film and everything else, I have been involved with urban art for 26 years, 7 years ago I was in a really bad space and back then I didn’t even think I was gonna be here anymore.

Nobody was really understanding the music at that point, then dnb went global and started going a little commercial for me and I wasn't really into it, the point is you can be as underground as you like and make cutting edge music but you're always going to be faced with that old scenario - you can't have yin without yan, I think the whole world is balanced in that respect, you just can't expect everyone to understand your music.

I think that’s the just the thing with every genre, whether it house music, dnb, dubstep, techno or whatever at some point they all blow up and get saturated and then punters move onto the next new thing, it's just the nature of electronic music.

Metalheadz has been going strong for 17 years now, what do you look out for when signing up new music?

Drum and bass music is more diverse now than it ever was, which means to stand out in this genre you really have to do something different as it's been here for a long time now, same as anything really - if you wanna be a skateboarder you're no good if your not coming up with different tricks. There are some very interesting artists out there, the first that come to mind would be Jubei and Lenzman. I really look for people who know how to use the software, electronic artists can get scared of songwriting, some producers would think "oh we don't wanna do too many full on vocals coz it might sound cheesy", i don’t agree with this its the way you work with the sounds you choose.

A good example of this is Concord Dawn ‘Don’t Say The Words”, its a great song with a good song structure and the track has lot of integrity, you just gotta be trailblazing in this game! Once again it's about finding a good balance of creativity whilst having a good knowledge of the technical side of things, a good balance of these has the formula for a big tune. I feel if you produce underground music for 15 years and know the music and production back to front and then you decide to go out and make a commercial track to make yourself 200k then good luck to you! However for young crew that jump on and start trying to make commercial music and cash in with no history or knowledge of music well that’s not my cup of tea really, each to their own there's nothing wrong with that if that’s what you believe in.

As far as Metalheadz go we are coming up now to our 100th release and there’s always been an emphasis on quality and versatility, Metalheadz was at the forefront of an era of drum and bass that has no doubt shaped the music to be where it's at today, the label played as a platform for all of these artists in the 90's such as Doc Scott, Peshay, Ed Rush, Optical, Photek, Grooverider and Source Direct to name just a few.

Metalheadz was to create some common ground where the artists had the opportunity to create full artistic integrity without having to compromise and that’s what Metalheadz is all about really, the artists know that if they come to me and have a project forthcoming that if the project happens they can do what they want, to be honest this may not always be the best business model and can be risky, but its also a business model that people will remember in 20 years time which is why we are still listening to Platinum Breakz and those sort of albums that laid the foundations for years to come.

Tell us a bit more about your acting role on screen and how that came about?

Well I've been acting for bloody 45 years of my life son! from the minute I got out into this world, life itself is one big act isn’t it! On a serious note my screen debut was alongside David Bowie in "Everybody Loves Sunshine" which came out in 1999, since then I've appeared in a James Bond movie, had a role in Snatch and done a whole bunch of docos such as Bombing which featured Afrika Bambaata. Coming from my life something has always been documented in some shape or form.

I’ve been working on a screenplay for the past 16 years that hopefully will be coming thru in the next year, I feel like I have the knowledge now to be able to do it.I feel like I’ve always lived life in the documentary aspect, I'm some kid who’s files are locked away in a locker somewhere by social services and people are still writing about that kid they called Goldie.

Loving some of the new sounds from Rido being released on Metalheadz atm, it's a bit of a different vibe for the Metalheadz we know.

Rido is definetly a bit of a different vibe for Metalheadz and some people I play it to the sound goes right over their head and they don’t understand it, but they just need to keep listening. Rido is a phenomenal producer. I opened my Fabric LIVE mix with one of his tunes titles titled Twisted that has just come out on wax

What can we expect music wise on this tour?

Very fresh beats in the bag for this upcoming tour, it’s been 5 years since I’ve been out so a lot to catch up on! I love the way parts of dnb have gone completely leftfield again almost pushing the sounds back towards the underground. I love playing good long sets which gives me the chance to go right through all of the different styles and through the era's I’m feeling within the music at the moment. 
Jubei and Lenzman are the ones to watch this year, with new albums coming out on Metalheadz very soon, there's loads of new music in my crate and this is reflected by the amount of new releases coming through on our Metalheadz label as we speak. It's really a strong time for the label which means the sets are always full of fresh beats.

Thanks for your time Goldie, we look to forward to catching you in a few weeks across the tour of Australia and New Zealand

Big ups Dan see you in a few weeks.

Goldie plays the following dates for BBA this coming September

Perth - Friday 16th Sep

Sydney - Saturday 17th Sep

Adelaide - Sunday 18th Sep

Queenstown - Wednesday 21st Sep

Wellington - Thursday 22nd Sep

Auckland - Friday 23rd Sep

Melbourne - Saturday 24th Sep