The Revenge aka Graeme Clark Interview. Questions: Russell Parker - June 2010.

Can you tell us how you got into music and how your sound / taste has evolved over the years?

I was lucky to have parents with a pretty good taste in music. I was exposed to artists like Kraftwerk, Billy Cobham, John Martyn, Steely Dan, Otis Redding growing up. As a teenager my sister was listening to rave when I was still listening to chart stuff. I got hooked into the KLF, The Orb plus lots of early techno stuff through a compilation called Flux Trax which my mate had. Later, I started going through to Edinburgh to see Craig Smith playing with people like MAW, DJ Deep, Kerri Chandler and when I moved to Glasgow from my hometown in Dunfermline a few years later, I started going to Optimo, Pressure [Soma] and Subculture [Harri & Domenic] which reinforced my understanding of club culture to a large degree. I began to understand more about arranging music for the dancefloor and started making music with all these influences rolled in.

Disco has been enjoying a huge revival over the last few years, has soul, funk and disco always been a big part of your music collection?

I'm not a purist by any means, and so I've always had a wide selection of stuff. I've got a small collection of records, but they span all genres really.

Who has really influenced you in music both past and present?

To be honest, I have so many influences in music, and a lot of them are not even musical.

Your edits / productions have been very well received by DJs, radio and clubs all over the world, in terms of your approach to edits how do you decide on the records you are going to select to edit?

Basically, if I like something and I think it could be useful for my sets, I'll edit it. Even if it's just extending the intro and outro. It's just how you feel something could fit into the context of a night really.

Can you briefly run us through the process of creating an edit?

Very simple - find a track you like, take out the bits you don't like and keep / extend the bits you do. That's the briefest explanation! :)

As an in demand producer you have a constant stream of edits / productions being released. How long does it take you to finish a track / edit?

I probably finish a track a month at the moment. Ideally I'd like to finish stuff quicker, but I basically work on maybe 5 or 6 tracks at a time and just jump between them all. I think it's the onset of autism or OCD perhaps!

Personally I've really been digging your work with production partner Craig Smith [aka 6th Borough Project]. Can you tell us about this and some of your other projects?

Myself and Craig have worked together for ten years and we have our own individual tastes, but we cross over at so many points and it's a really enjoyable and relaxed process in the studio... although we've got a few deadlines creeping up! Very similar story with myself and Harri from the Subclub - it's just an enjoyable process even if we spend one hour making music and five hours talking about other shit. I work with Ali Herron on the OOFT project too - but it's really Ali's baby these days and he produces about 90 percent of the OOFT stuff now.

Outside of the studio, you're a busy DJ with a hectic worldwide diary / schedule, where has your most exciting gig been to date?

I played at The Civic in Sydney two weeks ago - amazing soundsystem and mixer set up - and the crowd was pretty wild - I always have fun in Australia generally.

As a producer & label owner, what's your take on vinyl versus digital DJing? What do you favour when you DJ?

I use Serato these days - but I couldn't care less what format people play on to be honest - if they rock it, they rock it.

What's your favourite tune[s] to play last in your sets? The send them home smiling tune[s]

Oooh... that'd be telling. It really depends on the night though [and how many beers I've had] - I mean, it could be a Basic Channel record or a Robert Palmer record.

Finally Graeme, we all had a great night when you played in Dublin recently. Did you enjoy it? How do you feel Dublin compares to other cities / countries that you have played.

It was so much fun - I ended up at the after party too! Bonus. Ireland has the celtic connection with Scotland so I feel at home there. And like us Scot's they know how to have a good time. I look forward to getting back soon.