Interview – Mampi Swift

The turns and tides of an artists journey through a musical genres is not always without its ups and downs, and quite often riding the wave of popular opinion stands many in good stead, but amongst all genres there are always those who eschew the pro-offered, well laid down route towards success, and there are few who have a less care of the “proper” way of doing things than the enigmatic Mampi Swift.

For the last seventeen years that he has been a part of the dnb world, the well spoken and often laconically soft intellect of this giant of the field has been doing things his way, and reaping the benefit of sticking to his vision in life.

“I just kind of don’t really care what anyone else thinks,” Swift remarks, humour glinting out the sides of the statement. “I know that sounds corny, but I never really give a shit – same as for DJing, if there’s a tune that for that period of the time which is like the biggest track on the floor I’m not going to play it because it’s the biggest track, I think it’s just a matter of doing your own thing. I think you tend to find that people find their identity in that way, instead of doing everything just for the sake of it.”

“Maybe I’ll quit at the end of this year,” Swift laughs. “It’d be a shame but it has to happen at some point – I cant do this forever.”

All humour aside, as Swift talks, a sense of an on-going journey comes out within his words. Since starting out in the early nineties, music has always given Swift the avenue to display his individuality to the world, and showcase his talents to his fans. Yet somewhere in Swifts voice there is a near sense of finality between the juxtaposition of his art and his personal life, and his integrity shines by the fact that the greater things in life, such as his relationship with his son, have risen to the fore.

“I think it was 2003 when I did my last Aussie tour, and its 2007 now,” Swift muses. “I know some people have as strategy and stuff, you know, keep the name alive and go down there once a year, and the rest of it .. well, I don’t really give a shit about that. When I get there, I’m like, cool, play the best I can play and make people dance – but I’m not going to do it all the time, because I don’t want to not see my son for that amount of time, its terrible.”

That Swift has taken the view of the bigger journey goes some way towards explaining his recent near absence in terms of releases, but within this time he has not ramped down whatsoever – instead he has spent the time honing his skills in production.

“To be honest, in the last two years I’ve learnt more and more. I’ve probably learnt last two years in the studio than I did in the ten years before that. That’s kind of made it more enjoyable. I wanted to learn more about music rather than just sort of, I always could do enough when I made a track, but now I can sort of do enough plus a hell of a lot more. Musically, like .. teaching yourself to play the keyboard, and to know music a lot better by ear than anything else.”

“What I did before was completely aimed at the dance floor, whereas I think that Music Forever., is an album to sit down and listen to,” Swift enthuses, describing his latest work. “You’ll get a lot more in listening to it that you would the first one. The first one had loads of really big track on there, and I think as an artists and a person you grow, and your tastes develop and everything else. You can do that. People don’t always appreciate that in artists, they want the same thing all of the time, and they say “why didn’t he do that like his last release”, and its quite funny.”

Swifts ability to take his music to new level of understanding, yet knowing when the pinnacle has been reached and when it is time for bigger and better things both professionally and personally is also a mark of achievement, and it is at this point that Swift now possibly finds himself.

“I haven’t had a dnb release for over two years now, so it’s sort of been in that time I was thinking ‘I’m not going to release anything anymore.’ I wanted to learn a lot more before releasing the next one, because the next Mampi Swift album that comes out, the solo album, will be my last dnb album. I won’t do another one after that. It’s not just a thought, it’s definite.”

Being so pragmatic, and having a definite finale in sight in terms of his production output, Swift gives the impression of having a near omniscience of vision over his career, which in these days of shifting priorities for him, wields a strength of presence that is undeniable. Given this, his humility over his achievements is plain to see.

“I’ve never won an award or anything like that,” Swift jests, possibly at the inanity of it all. “But you know what, there’s other people that get bothered by that sort of thing more than. It’s cool man. It would be lovely; of course it would be, just to have something there to go along with everything else.

“At the same time,” he continues, with a voice full of content, “I used to be happy as a kid playing records for my mates and just making them go “wow” you can mix, and I’ve always followed that – my whole way of thinking is to just make people dance. As long as I’m doing that I’m happy. If I’m playing out every week, that’s cool, but I can’t really do more than what I do. If I was bothered by all that, I tell you, I would have fucking gone mad by now.”