Petting With Pokes

The ratio of respected DJs to respected MCs today is an unbalanced tipping scale. Back in the day, you wouldn't find one without the other; the guy with the mic narrowing the distance between the DJ and the crowd. I think one of the problems nowadays is that some of them don’t know when to pipe down. A quick YouTube browse of the comments from any Boiler Room or Just Jam session will back me up- it took about ten seconds to find this choice admonition: “Why can't you just shut the fuck up? How would you think that what you have to say could represent any once [sic] of interest to anyone at this moment?!”

That’s just one of several (hundred) complaints. Bit scathing. It seems the minute an MC gets a bit too verbal over someone’s favourite track, they’re parley to a torrent of abuse from people attempting to recreate parties of yore in front of their laptops. It’s not completely game over for MCs though. There are a solid handful that have the respect of the forever critical lovers of dance music, and few more so than Sgt Pokes. Founding member of dubstep bastians DMZ, MC for Skream and Magnetic Man and all round much loved and respected humourist, Pokes flexes a kind of wit that’s garnered him his own unique fanbase. Sceptical? Spend some time with this.

For no real reason we went to a farm together and had a chat and drank canned pre mixed drinks. It was supposed to be an interview, but Pokes knows way more than I ever could about music, so it was more of an education than anything. We spoke for ages about the way dubstep used to be and the integral differences between MCs- Sgt Pokes is a wise man and instead of printing my mundane in comparison questions, here are just some of his views on music, club culture, and why boys need to stay decent in the club.

SGT POKES ON BLOWING UP

“I remember the first big show DMZ did. It was at Roskilde festival in Denmark in summer 2006. We came out on stage, Mala was taking pictures trying to record the whole thing, running around. Coki had this mental look on his face, and Lo just got in there ready to play tunes. We’d been friends for so long, it was amazing to have that experience together. It was the first time I ever thought, fuck. I’m actually gonna have to get out of the DJ booth and talk to these people."

SGT POKES ON GETTING PAID

"I had a job papering adverts onto taxis when Mary Anne Hobbs was doing Dubstep Wars on Radio One. I think I even had an agent at this point, but I kept working for over a year into all of this kicking off. I’ve never been worried about having money, I’m pretty shit with it, but it got to the point where I was needing to take Fridays and Mondays off."

SGT POKES ON PERFECTIONISM

"Almost every time I get off stage, I feel like I could have done it better. I don’t know how, and I can never watch myself back on YouTube. In my career, there’s probably been like, 20 shows that I’ve come off stage fully satisfied. I’m not a perfectionist, I’m too sloppy for that. It's hard when every show is selling out to see the next challenge. It’s easy to get complacent and that’s something I don't want to do."

SGT POKES ON GARAGE

"I really hated the club culture of garage back in the day. It seemed to be all about how much money you were worth, I didn’t like the attitude. I grew up a dedicated junglist, and to me garage was sampling all the same samples as jungle (to be fair I wrongly thought most of the samples were original to the jungle tunes).This nice, plush, pretty garage was using the same dark samples of jungle, and to me they had different connotation. I kind of felt that it was a bit repulsive. I think I was probably quite close minded musically, at the time it was just all about drum and bass and rap. But, music is contextual- stuff that didn’t make sense at one time in your life might do at another."

SGT POKES ON PROMOTION

"To me, I prefer nights that are promoted by word of mouth. I like parties to have an organic growth, and that’s kind of what the Contact night on Saturday’s going to be like- Youngsta who's running it wants it to be reliable and varied. It’s important to have nights that are dedicated to new and underground music- no glitz n glam, no bottle service. Nights that are only interested in giving you music."

SGT POKES ON CLUB DECORUM

"I hate those guys in the crowd with no tops on. It’s selfish! Who wants to be stood in front of a sweaty, half naked man when they’re trying to dance. Have some decorum. Another thing that gets me is people coming up to the DJ holding their phones. You’ve paid to come and see this set, but you’ve spent the last hour with your mobile up. So many people will do it to Skream with “La Roux” or “Midnight Request”, tunes I know he’s never going to play."

SGT POKES ON DANCING

"I’ve spoken to other people about this, and they’ve said the same thing. When we’re playing to a crowd, whether it’s to 10 or 10,000 people, I always focus on the one who's just standing still. There’s always one person who just stares, surrounded by everyone else on an eyes down thing. I do try and make them get involved a bit, but then I have to remind myself that there’s a room of people actually having a good time, and you can’t forget them. Making people dance who started off with nothing is pretty satisfying though."

SGT POKES ON PRESS

"People always confuse me for Mala. We don’t actually look anything alike, it’s just the dreads. His are immaculate! I don’t normally do the whole press thing either- people are like “who the fuck is this guy”, and I’ll just start talking and talking. I like the anonymity."

SGT POKES ON, UMMM, COOKING

"I was a bit late today because I was cooking for my mum. She made a whole roast the other day, so I put it in the slow cooker. I’m like a serial caretaker, I just try and feed people when they come round, like an Italian Nonna. I’m big on roasting meats, and barbecuing. I wouldn’t cook that if a lady was coming round though. I’d maybe go for a little tart for starters, fried pancetta, you know. That sort of thing."

Sgt Pokes is hosting Contact tomorrow, at Village Underground, alongside dubstep heavyweights Youngsta, Loefah and Icicle. You can buy tickets here.

Follow Tamara on Twitter @tamararoper

Photos By William Coutts