BIOGRAPHY
Two (or Cru), is usually better then one, a fact not lost on the Southwest’s answer to the new school UK Jungle movement, the Run Tingz Cru. A tip-top, one-stop, Junglist boutique, the Run Tingz camp have every corner of the scene well and truly nailed… A killer production outfit, two consistently solid record labels, a clothing line and a globally recognised brand of events. Get to know: Ed (G.Tactix) and Parker (LXP) are the Reggae-roused rave veterans behind the Run Tingz operation.
Two dedicated Bristolian Junglists, each armed with well over a decade of experience in the music industry, they were inspired to contribute to the scene that’s given them so much as DJs over the years. Mentored by Jungle legends the Serial Killaz (Congo Natty / Ganja), they established their label in 2010 and have been turning heads ever since. Their manifesto: to create original Jungle / Drum & Bass compositions featuring some of the very best Reggae and Jungle vocalists old and new. Since their bold inception they’ve recruited the very best in the game.
From Topcat to Tenor Fly, David Boomah to Blackout JA, Solo Banton to YT (and not forgetting their girls Lady MC and Lady Fyah), they’ve consistently aimed for the top and scored themselves a series of unique, original and contemporary Jungle releases. No bootlegs, no messing: Run Tingz have meant business from day one. Each of these impeccable studio creations are released through their two in-house labels: Run Tingz Recordings and Run Tingz Digital. Releases such as ‘Born Inna Babylon’, the Serial Killaz collaboration ‘Murder Ya Sound’ and ‘It’s a Junglist Ting’ have driven the Run Tingz Cru to the top of the D&B charts, winning them rave reviews in the music press and a live appearance on BBC Introducing. More recently they’ve uncovered the delights of Capitol 1212’s iconic ‘Don Man Sound’ (which earned them support from Radio 1 and Kiss FM) and recruited legendary toasters Cowboy Ras Ranger and 2Nice on ‘My Sound’, a next-level Jungle release featuring an original production from V Recording’s Aries and Gold. Massive tracks, bold-as-brass labels and road block events to boot: Run Tingz have been delighting bass audiences with their high-impact stage shows.
Previous live exploits include Glastonbury, Shambala, Glade and Electric Picnic. They’re set to perform to 10’000+ people on the iconic Arcadia stage at this year’s Boomtown Festival and are mainstays at St Paul’s Carnival, Europe’s oldest Caribbean street party. Eschewing the average D&B DJ and MC combo, their incendiary live shows have gained notoriety from as far afield as France, Poland, Spain, Czech Republic, Austria, Greece, Switzerland and Sardinia. Make no mistakes: Run Tingz Cru are playing an international game. Three years deep and now a household name in modern day Jungle, 2013 is set to see the collective up their game once again… Already a firm favourite in Bristol, London and Brighton, their nocturnal club rampages the ‘Run Tingz Sessions’, will add two new cities to their 2013 calendar.
The Run Tingz Cru have recently been signed to the on-point Boom Agency and they’ve got a release schedule (with a new project set to drop on a monthly basis) that quite frankly makes 2012 look lazy! The tip-top, one-stop boutique is well on its way to becoming a global hypermarket, so hold tight… and watch your bass bins!
INTERVIEW
You recently played in Glastonbury where you had the honor to share the stage with Goldie. How was the Glastonbury experience for you and which moments will you always treasure?
Glastonbury was wicked as always, to be honest we were part time playaz this year as we literally hit site at about 14:00 on the Sunday afternoon and we were back in Bristol by 05:00 Monday morning, saying that we smash two of the best sets of our careers so it was actually one of the best Glastonbury experiences we’ve had. The live show we did with YT in the Common was the best show’s we’ve done with him to date and performing in front of 10,000+ people only an hour later on the Hell Stage is an experience that would be difficult to put into words, well, epic is the only way to describe it!
Legendary “junglists”, Serial Killaz, mentored you. What made them such great mentors and what was the greatest lesson they taught you?
Tobie and Graham collectively have more experience that pretty much anyone in the scene and have given us so much support and guidance over the years its impossible to tell you the greatest single lesson we’ve learnt. If I had to name a few it’s stay grounded, believe in yourself and always stay true to the cause. The production knowledge we’ve learnt from G has been priceless and it’s safe to say Run Tingz wouldn’t be the same without them.
When it comes to jungle, what sets it apart from commercial forms of drum & bass?
It’s completely subjective but in terms of the music we’re known for it’s clearly the Ragga and the Reggae influences that set it apart. Some of the lyrical content is conscious in terms of the message, potentially even political and this tends to differ to the slightly “safer” lyrical content of a lot of commercial music. It’s a fine line tho cause it’s only takes a couple of the main stream radio DJ’s to jump on the whole Ragga Jungle thing and suddenly it’s “commercial” so to speak.
Run Tingz Recordings stays true to producing the best jungle tracks time after time. How do you insure a constant improvement in your sound, which will satisfy any junglist’s hunger?
We always try and push ourselves in terms of the production but hopefully any producer would say that. For us there is a fairly wide range of styles within the Jungle and D&B spectrum so we try and represent a good cross section of the music with the tracks we release and the artists we’re signing. Josh (J.Man) has a completely different style of production to Ricky (Rick Tuff) for example but it’s all Jungle and the styles compliment each other really well.
Ed (G.Tactix) recently got accepted to study his BA Honors in Music Production. How would furthering your studies contribute to your already booming career?
To be honest I don’t think you can ever stop learning and the opportunity to be part of a huge community of up and coming producers and vocal artists is going to do wonders for the label and our long term plans. We aim to have our own recording studio set up by 2014 and music production is only a very small part of the course, I’ll be trained to engineer in studios like Rockfield and Toybox and that sort of opportunity isn’t something that falls into your lap every day.
“Run Tingz Remixes Volume One”, which features names such as Serial Killaz, Top Cat, Blackout Jah and Run Tingz Cru, is the latest EP on your Run Tingz label. Why did you choose to feature these particular artists on the album?
Well, when we started the label we were slightly wet behind the ears in terms of our production but the tracks we recorded with the vocalists you’ve mentioned were anthems in their own right and we felt it was time to give all the first releases a revamp and breath life back into the tracks which is exactly what it did. All the artists on the EP are essentially signed to us so it was a big label showcase in that sense, the only exception was Northern Lights and they stand out for us as one of the best production duo’s in the scene at the moment. We play their remix of “Walk and Skank” in nearly every set so on request the Informer remix was heavily inspired by that which is fairly obvious to hear.
Run Tingz Cru has an EP to be released later this year. Tell us about the EP and are there any surprises that fans can look forward to?
The Cross Roads EP is due to be released in the first week of September and will be promo’d in the next couple of weeks so keep your eyes peeled for that. It’s a 4 track EP we’ve done with long standing label vocalist Blackout J.A. and in terms of surprises it’s some of his best work to date and I think will turn a lot of heads. In terms of our contribution to the project we’ve steered our track in a slightly more bass influenced direction so it’ll be interesting to see what response and feedback we get but it’s been smashing it on the dance floors so all’s looking good at this stage! Keep your eyes on our website www.runtingzrecordings.co.uk and all our social networks for updates on the release and keep your eyes peeled for some very exciting projects that we’ve got planned for Autumn / Winter 2013.
Thanks for listening. Ed & Parker (Run Tingz Recordings) xxxxxxxxxxxxxx RavingFox
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