 MARK PEMBER’s nom de breakbeat, MEAT KATIE nicked from the spine of a low-grade porn movie, incites question enough – so the title of his latest album, Vibrator, was bound to create interest. FRANCES STEPHENSON asks – is he just stirring?
“I immediately knew what people would think,” Pember laughs when asked to explain Vibrator, “but there’s no harm in sexual innuendo anyway. I play quite pulsating, vibrating, heads-down, juddering dance, and the name is a reference to that feeling where you’re standing outside a club and you can hear the windows rattling from the bass. It just felt right. The music’s pretty sleazy anyway, so it suits what I do.”
His unusual brand of breakbeat-based tech-funk has had a notable effect on the breaks scene. “I was number two in Breakspoll, and I was flattered, especially because I only play about sixty per cent breakbeat. That’s testament to the people who like it and to how broadminded the scene is. It’s got a lot better. Everyone says it’s worse, but if people like me can DJ all over the world, breakbeat isn’t dominated by one sound any more. There’s Friendly and Fingerlickin’, but then there’s tech-breaks like Dylan Rhymes, bassline breaks, and then the Breakfastaz, Deep Impact, and so on, and then there are people who fit in between it all. It’s diverse. Even if this is breaks as good as it can be, I still think it’s good.”
Pember is obviously not alone in this opinion. “Sometimes it can be a bit insane – when I was in Russia I can’t even begin to tell you how many photos I had taken. In the end I was just standing there and people were walking up and then walking away. I’d just finished DJing and I was really tired and no-one spoke English, so I just stood there with a million cameras and phones going snap snap and people asking me to sign this and sign that. And in Australia seventy per cent of the audience are DJs, and it’s like, ‘Fucking hell! Why can’t people just come to the parties and enjoy the music?’. You’ll be DJing and there’ll be millions of phones held up, and you’ll read them – and it’s like, ‘How R U?’. So you go, ‘All right’. Maybe instead of DJing you should have a conference. That’s what people really want to do. They want to discuss it. Music is personal to them. People analyse everything I play and ask me about it all, and, well, I just felt like they were the right records to play at that time. There’s no deeper meaning. The big thing is you can never really dismiss someone when they come to you and say, ‘I like this,’ or ‘I heard your mix,’. To some people it’s a big deal going over to a DJ, and they don’t want to bug them and harass them. They just want to say, ‘I really enjoyed that’. It’s humbling, and I have to appreciate that they like what I do. Otherwise I wouldn’t have a job.”
Aspiring DJs and simple fans alike will have a chance to ask Meat Katie how he is when he plays the Shamrock on September 16. “I love smashing a room,” he says enthusiastically. “It’s a great feeling, especially when you get a good flow on. For me it’s more about keeping the energy levels up for a sustained period – where it’s infectious, that whole thing. You know what it’s like with a few people cheering and getting down – it makes you feel good about a party, and you start listening to the music. When everyone around you is listening and having a party, it’s hard not to join in. That’s the ultimate goal.”
Vibrator is out now on Shock Records. Meat Katie appears at the Shamrock Saturday September 16. Don’t worry, we’ll remind you.
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