I am the real DJ Q.
Glasgow East End boy turned house DJ.
Judge Jules . . . I'd like to strangle that c**t.
"Music is my Life," says DJ Q, also known as Paul Flynn. Its about anonymity, about letting the music speak for itself. Because thats what counts. Paul Flynn isn't "old skool" or "nu skool" - he's true school.
In the beginning, Paul Flynn was just like any other kid growing up in Cranhill on the East Side of Glasgow. Acting wide, perfecting his patter and hanging out on turf that wasn't run by gangs like the CYT or Skerryvore. At home, his mum used to play classics by Earth, Wind & Fire, Gladys Knight and George Benson but it wasn't until he was 12 that he really connected with music. "Back then it was Public Enemy, Eric B & Rakim, NWA," he remembers, "those were the things that hit me first of all."
And then, at parties around Cranhill and Queenslie, he began hearing house music. Tracks like 'Can You Party' by Royal House and Jolly Roger's 'Acid Man' were breaching the charts and he started to feel like he wanted to get deeper into this new thing. He found himself a part time job delivering newspapers and saved up until he had enough to but himself a set of decks. He bought records by LFO and Unique 3, picked up on the hip house scene coming out of Chicago and taught himself how to mix.
"I found myself in a musical wilderness after that," he says. "ALl the European stuff started to take over and I didn't think it was that good. The Chicago thing had dried up and there were only a few records coming out of Detroit. I bought all the releases on RetroActive, things like that but it was a strange time for me."
In 1992 he travelled to Edinburgh to hear Derrick May play. "That was amazing," he grins, "It showed me how good the music really was. He was playing records bu Lil' Louis and Larry Heard, things like 'Videoclash' and 'Can You Feel It', the original 'Sueno Latino', all that kind of stuff. It was totally inspiring. I came home after that, and the only thing that came close to that feeling was Psyche's 'Andromeda' so I played that over and over again until I could get some money together to buy some of the other records he'd played.
Soon afterwards, Paul picked up a slot on a local pirate station, NHS (National House Service), playing the kind of tunes which matched the feeling he'd heard in Derrick May's set. He also hooked up with Terry and Jason from Pussypower, playing the warm up for their weekly night at industria. It was there that he met Carl Craig for the first time.
"Carl played his first gig in the UK at Industria," he explains. "For me, he is really one of the most inspiring producers in the world, so meeting him was special. I guess its like being a jazz fan and getting to meet Miles Davis.
When the 'East End Tracks' EP came out on the Gemini Label, Carl Craig was one of the first DJ's to spot its potential. But others, including DJ Pierre (who placed it in his end-of-year-chart), were quick to pick up on its fusion of white-hot disco loops and cold, spacey Detroit futurism too. And while dancefloors around the world were turning on and tuning in to his music, Paul was back home in Glasgow still sticking with his day job as a suspended ceiling fitter and working on his tracks at night.
"If I could make people feel the way I felt when I first heard, say, Joe Smooth's 'Promised Land' or BCF's 'Please Stand By' that would be the ultimate," he says about his music. "To make tracks that are timeless, that can touch people - that's really what any producer wants to do. But its my number one priority..."
Listening back to the first DJ Q single .. - the exceptional 'We Are One' - it's easy to believe him. It's an inspired classic full of bright, impossibly brilliant moments and an irresistible disco groove that mixes up the poetry of Willie Hall (another Sub Club regular) with wild horns and low-slung bass. Significantly, Hall's peom is a paean to the underground, a celebration of house culture and a pledge of allegiance. "We do not seek your adoration," he declares over Flynn's killer loop, "your respect is all we seek, for that respect will help our movement to sustain." It's typical of the way people in Glasgow view their music; maintaining a healthy cynicism for the hype and glossy commercialism of the mainstream, they prefer instead sounds which have class, integrity and emotional depth. Sounds, in fact, which have a lot to do with the values that Paul Flynn invests in his music.
Its a Glasgow thing - say what you mean, don't mince your words, don't take any shit. And Flynn is Glaswegian. He's very down-to-earth, very straight-down-the-line.
His pull towards the underground is strong - his dislike for the pretentiousness and commercial side of the scene even stronger. He believes in doing things for the right reasons, as he says "PUT SOMETHING BACK IN FOR THE DJ'S INSTEAD OF FOR MAKING MONEY."
True to his word, Flynn has done tracks for local labels Glasgow Underground (as Q) and 'Under The Counter' (as Paul Flynn). He aslo conjures up new tracks for his B-sides instead of lazily slapping an album track or remix filler on there. "When I do a 12 inch" he explains, "I do three totally different tracks 'coz I'm fed up of buying a 12 and getting four mixes of the same thing! Vinyl is so expensive, people should get a bit of variation. If you can't get the mix right for the first time on one 12, whats the point?"
The boy who used to fix ceilings with his hands is obviously happiest when hes tearing roofs of with his music.
I am the real DJ Q.
Glasgow East End boy turned house DJ.
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