Friction is on fire. Not literally, although the flames are fairly close to lapping at his ears. No, Friction is absolutely at the top of his game and has been for quite some time. In the drum’n’bass world where the top flight DJs stick to their pedestalled positions like Gladiators gunning for glory, the Brighton star has managed to climb right to the pinnacle of the genre, even giving Andy C a run for his money.
But just seconds after our cover shot is taken, Friction is nearly ablaze for real. The Garage Studio crew – in rush to get the set ready for the shoot – have fixed the wallpaper using highly flammable spray mount and within a blink of the eye they whole thing has gone up in a flash. Friction – or Ed as his gran calls him – has been told to look nonchalant and he carries it off until he gets the signal. And which point he wisely legs it across the room while the fire extinguisher comes into action.
It shouldn’t be more than he can handle though. Ed is used to keeping things edgy. Despite playing massive crowds he always opts for three vinyl decks – not easy when you’ve got a trio of different high tempo breakbeats going at all angles. He’s a man who likes to keep the performance in the art of DJing, so is the choice of three decks just to keep the excitement of living on a knife-edge or does he like that level of control over the music?
“A bit of both really,” he says. “The three deck thing came in because I was trying to do something different, push the mixing up a level. It’s really worked – I’ve noticed a couple of other drum’n’bass DJs are now taking that on. It’s cool, it’s part of the show.”
It’s been enough to win him numerous awards, exploding (no, again, not literally) with a rash of Best Newcomer titles soon after he arrived in 94, grabbing Legends Of the dark Black warm up slots when he could. One of the things that makes him start out is the enthusiasm that he puts into every gig. A perfect example is a recent gig at Pukkelpop Festival in Belgium, where despite going up against Metallica and Bloc Party his performance was highlighted in a video of the best eight artist of the weekend.
“It was amazing,” he says with deserved pride. “That despite the fact that I’m just a DJ playing records.”
Well, that’s not really true – he’s not just a DJ playing records, he’s taking them apart and rebuilding them as he goes.
“If I’m playing tracks that everybody knows then I’ll try and do something different with them and make them sound transformed so people aren’t bored,” he explains. “So the tune is dropping but they get a slightly different take on it.”
If you haven’t caught him with his Shogun crew at his intimate gigs at Audio yet, it might be time to book the day off work or college. One Thursday a month Friction is bringing the biggest stars of drum’n’bass to Digital in line-ups as diverse as his own sets. The first one is sees Fabio, Noisia and Commix join the man himself. It’s an echo of Shogun Audio’s famous nights at The End, sadly drawing to a close with the shutting down of that venue.
“It’s a shame that the night at the End was massive, Ed says. “But it gives us more scope to focus on the new night at Digital. I think it’s going to be great – I think it’s going to be a really big night and I can’t wait for it.”
So what about that photo shoot then. Is he really the man of steel the pictures paint?
“I think the photos tell a different story, because I look really calm but in my mind I shaking with fear,” he admits. “I’m 31 now so I have to be a bit more loving of my hair.”
Shogun Audio at Digital Monthly Thurdays
