DND meet DBT
With the hype surrounding Daniel Bedingfield's new single reaching it's pinnacle, we meet up with the production team that after hearing basic audio samples of his work, tracked him down, added a little of their production magic and made the biggest garage record ever! Since then they have had numerous successes with both unknown and established artist's, I caught up with them at the local watering hole to find out a little more……..

Artist : DND

Real Name/s : Dean Wilson, Arthur Smith, Andy Colver & Andy Rutherford

Previous Occupation/s : Too many to list and reveal!!

Time in industry : 8 years (DND 3½ years together)

First Project (Remix or Own Material) : Some dodgey white label

Most Recent Track : DND " diamond rings" 2002 DND mix

List Of Own Releases : Daniel Bedingfield "Gotta Get Thru This" DND "got myself together" 2MG "back in my life" 2MG " easy when you want to" 3 PLAY "Girl in the taxi"

List Of Remixes : Kristine Blond "you make me go ooh" The Reelists "freak mode" Smoke2Seven "been there done that" Beverly Knight "shoulda, woulda, coulda" London Dodgers "down down bisness" Blazin Squad "Standard flow" Sweet Female Attitude "tell me" Pluto "can I get a" Evi-Dence "you'll never find"

Most Successful Track (Own Release or Remix) : Daniel bedindfiel "gotta get thru this" No 1

Date of Own Label Established (Include Number of Releases to Date) : (3yrs) & 13 releases to date

Future Releases / Remixes: Ja Rule "down 4 u" def jam Ashanti "happy" def jam The Reelists "My First Time" The Insidaz "Ladies Man" DND "Pick it Up" Vincent J Alvis "Body Killin"

What (In your opinion) is the best tune you've ever made? Why??

Without a doubt, "Gotta get thru this", it's a once in a lifetime tune, there are producers that have been in the business 10 - 15 years and never had a number 1 hit, it was a one-off track that we were very fortunate to work on.

How did you meet Daniel Bedingfield?

We heard a raw version of the tune through a friend of ours at Soundzone in Basildon, we tracked him down and signed him for £1,600. At the time no-one wanted to know, we took it away and re-produced it, got Daniel to write an extra line and the rest, as they say is history!!

James Dean?? Where's the DND remix??

We signed a 2 single deal with Daniel of which "James Dean" is the second, so legally and technically we do own 50% of James Dean. As and why there is no DND remix of 'James Dean', you'll have to ask him that! He has full artistic control, so he chooses who he wants to remix his material.

Do you dislike any of your work?

Of course there are things we look back on, wondering what we were thinking when we produce them, but we won't name any names!!

Will you remix anything you are asked to?

Over the last year we have rejected just as much as we have taken on, we receive on average 5 demo's a week of all different styles for remixes or wanting to be signed to our label. We just try to make sure we reply to everyone, even if it's not quite what we are looking for we would rather tell people where they are going wrong, tell them where their material is weak or they will never get any better. We never had that, there will always be people in the industry that will just be rude or ignore your calls etc, so now when they come asking for us to do something for them it comes back on them, we don't forget things like that.

Is there anyone whose material you would never remix??

Never say never! If it's the right song and we are allowed to do what we want with it then we will remix it!! Recently in an interview we were asked if we would remix Britney Spears? You cant say just no I wouldn't, just look at what The Neptune's did with "Slave 4 U", they took it away, stripped it bare and made it raw, completely changing her image, so yeah if we were allowed to do what we wanted, make it raw, how we want it then yeah, we would remix Britney!

4/4 or 2-step?

Definitely 4/4, 2-step is just broken beats at the end of the day

4/4 garage has had somewhat of a revival recently. With you being one of production teams that have pushed the 4/4 sound through 2002, do you Do you think the garage sound will change again??

On the underground the sounds are always changing, currently everything is becoming more and more minimalist, Wiley - "Eskimo", Dizzy Rascal - "I Love You", these are the tunes that are very big on the underground, where as the cross-over tunes like "Gotta get thru this" are struggling to get heard. Hopefully Garage will become more like some of the US styles of music, where the production is of an unbelievable quality. Most of their producers have been around for 20 years where as in the UK most of the production teams have only been around for 6. Maybe in 15 years UK Garage will be produced as well as US RnB and Hip Hop is now. Where as 4/4 is concerned, we will keep pushing the 4/4 sound and hope to start a record label solely 4/4 releases.

How many names do you use? (Aliases)

We have a few other names and labels of all different styles which we persue seperately, but not as DND! (8 Labels)

Where do you think you'll be in 10 years from now?

Barbados hopefully!! Maybe DND as a label will not exist but we definetly intend continuing with DND Management, DND publishing and as a music production outfit. Collectively we are looking to move more into the American style of production, gaining the ability to create the sort of quality production you hear on the from some American artists, we aim to be one of the top produces in the world not just the UK!!

What are your musical influences?

We all have influences from different styles of music, we are all into something slightly different, Arthur comes from a techno background and brings in some very obscure sounds, I'm (Dean) from a very housing background, playing house music for the last 8 years, Andy (Rutherford) brings in the slightly more pop edge and mainstream while the other Andy is again from a house background but slightly more obscure. Although not all of us work on the production together all of the time, a mix will never leave the studio without everybody being involved at some point.

What do you think about the future of Garage music?

Well it's not mainstream, that's for sure. At the moment it's all underground again with the crossover tunes struggling to get played. Maybe when another big tune like 'Gotta get through this' comes along it will all change again? I don't think that UK Garage will go away, it can't it's too big!! It'll be interesting to see how well 'Gotta get through this' does in the US, if it's a big success then it may open the floodgates to the popularity of UK Garage in the mainstream again. US Hip Hop and RnB DJ's are already playing it, they drop it from the top within their sets and it's also currently sitting just outside the top 100.

Blazin Squad, What do you think of their switch from Garage to Hip Hop with Crossroads???

I think they will do really well with it, I think that everyone who calls themselves a 'Garage act' has got be very diverse, you've got to be able to turn it round to a little bit down tempo RnB or Hip Hop style because that seems to be the only thing selling at the moment.

Who would you like to work with in the future?

Hundreds of people, Mis-teeq, Craig David and a lot of the US artists.

DND definetly seem to be the busiest production outfit in the scene, with their own label, management company and even talks about a compilation album things can only get bigger!!

Soon to launch www.dnd-productions.com