By: Tony Price
Tom Carruthers is a producer from Cheshire, England. His latest LP on L.I.E.S. Records is an instant classic. Drawing inspiration from the early 90’s bleep techno, the grimiest of NYC house and Motor City machine funk, “Non Stop Rhythms” is an elemental masterpiece that is a masterclass in otherworldly, minimalist production. I recently spoke with him about his new album, his recording process, the birth of his label Non Stop Rhythm, and using social media to promote music.
TP: Congratulations on that L.I.E.S. record. I listened to it at the gym yesterday. It’s incredible. I love it so much.
TC: Nice one, I appreciate it. Been in the pipeline for a while so I’m glad it’s finally out now. I think my copies arrive tomorrow.
TP: The artwork looks great, too.
TC: Yeah, it’s cool, innit.
TP: So is that a compilation of a bunch of stuff that you had either put out or worked on before?
TC: I think it’s a few tracks I already released on the label, and my label’s quite small so he (Ron Morelli) wasn’t too fussed about it, about the fact that they’re already released, but a lot of it is unreleased material, I’d say half of it is unreleased.
Tom Carruthers - “Cyclone” from the Non Stop Rhythms LP out now on L.I.E.S. Records
TP: So, you have Non Stop Rhythm, that’s your main label, right?
TC: Yep. I did have a label in 2018 called L&T Recordings, but that’s pretty much died off now. Non Stop Rhythm is my main focus. House music.
TP: I feel like I’ve seen you post a bunch of stuff with different graphics, maybe different label names. Did you have another one as well, or was it always just L&T and that turned into Non Stop Rhythm?
TC: I was doing L&T but I was more into European techno, like R&S Records, that was a big inspiration for that label. Over the past couple years, I’ve gotten a lot more into New York house music, Chicago house. I thought I’d start a new label, Non Stop Rhythm, to take you from the more house-y kind of sounds but with tempo stuff.
TP: When did you start that label?
TC: It was around February 2020, just prior to Covid and all the rubbish.
TP: You’ve put out a lot of music since then, haven’t you?
TC: Yeah, super prolific, especially through 2020. I wasn’t really working at the time, I was just focusing on my music and living off the income of my record labels.
TP: So during the pandemic you’d just be making tracks all day and then just put them out as soon as possible? Was that your goal?
TC: Yeah, just to get them out there. I wanted to be super busy. I think in one year we put out 50 releases, not all my own on the label, but from guys all over Europe, all over the world to be fair, but a pretty prolific 50 in a year.
TP: That’s wild, very cool. Did you do one 12” as well, physical? Or did you do more than that?
TC: Trying to think, I did put one out, I made up a little label called Crash Records for it for a massive house single. Pressed up a few of them and then I put out two 12” on Non Stop Rhythm. One was a reissue by Freddy Bastone, not sure if you’ve heard of him, from New York, “Corporation of One”.
TP: Yeah, that track is crazy. I was surprised when I saw that you reissued it. I was just looking at Discogs…how many vinyl records did you press for these two releases?
TC: Both of them, just 300. Kept it small, just to test the waters.
TP: Do you have vinyl distribution? Do you press them and sell them out of your house?
TC: What I’ve done is I have a digital distribution contract, with a company called Label Way. I signed that in late 2019 for L&T Recordings, and Non Stop Rhythm falls under that contract as well. I got a physical distribution contract with a company called Above Board Distribution.
TP: They’re London based, right? I feel like I’ve heard of them before.
TC: Yeah they’re based down in London. Doing loads of old school stuff so they’re on the same wavelength.
TP: That’s great. So do they do pressing and distribution? Do you get it pressed on your own and then ship it to them?
TC: No, just distribution. I’m funding all the records myself. Probably best to do that, though.
TP: Do you have plans to do more vinyl?
TC: Yeah, I’ve actually got a reissue coming out. I’ve paid the guy the advance and everything, I just need to put the order in. It’s called Exocet, “Lethal Weapon”. It’s a three-track single from 1989. Bleep techno.
TP: So it’s a U.K. thing?
TC: Yeah, it’s off a label called Catt Records, originally based down in London.
TP: Amazing. When you reach out to these older artists and talk about reissuing their stuff, what’s the response usually like? Do you find that a lot of these producers are still involved in music, or have they moved on from that? Are they happy to hear from you?
TC: To be fair, I’m into the more obscure stuff, so a lot of the guys are surprised that anyone is still interested in the music, to be honest. A lot of them are surprised and they’re fully on board. I don’t come across like a businessman. I’m just passionate about music so I think it comes off.
TP: How did you end up getting in touch with Ron from L.I.E.S.?
TC: Ron originally reached out to me, saying congrats on the label, and that he likes what I’m doing with Non Stop Rhythm. Eventually we got talking about the music and he said he’d like to put some stuff out. I was a little bit hesitant at first because that’s why I started my own label, I want to own my own stuff, but he seems legit and we got a good deal together, so I thought why not. Seems a cool guy.
TP: Definitely. I feel that more than pretty much anyone, Ron has been the most important figure in maintaining, preserving and promoting the raw aesthetics and sonic roots of dance music and electronic music in the last decade. Do you ever DJ live or are you a strictly producer and label guy?
TC: I did one mix for my mate Mario Liberti’s label Deep In Dis, I think it was 2020 I did that. Mostly strictly producing, it’s more my thing.
TP: So when you’re producing, do you usually think more so about how your music is going to hit on a dance floor or are you more concerned with how it sounds through headphones? Do you put one above the other when you’re producing and mixing?
TC: To be fair, I just go for what I personally like, and it seems to be catching on now, it’s selling, so people are obviously on the same wavelength as me. I mainly base it towards the dancefloor though.
Tom Cruv - “Work The Box 21 (Original Mix)” out now on Trax Records
TP: What about listening? I personally like to buy vinyl, I’ve always bought vinyl, but I definitely listen to music mostly on my headphones. I stream a lot of music. It is what it is. When it comes to you as a music fan, not so much as a producer, do you find that you listen to vinyl, or do you prefer the convenience of streaming music?
TC: Yeah, I listen to a lot of vinyl. I collect a lot of vinyl. Nu Groove Records, I collect them religiously.
TP: What’s record buying like where you live, and in Liverpool? Are there good record stores?
TC: There’s a few stores, but mostly I buy off Discogs. I’m not against buying records online. I’ll get what I want. I don’t want to settle for something I’m not really interested in. My collection, I’m 100% interested in.
TP: What drives your interest in reissuing music? Is it mostly to get it out there, feeling like it needs a second life? What is your thought process like when you find a record that you want to reissue?
TC: Partially that, partially to give it a new lease on life, but also, to be on my label. It’s cool to say I put out good music. If I reckon it’s good, they’ll wanna put it out.
TP: Did you do a track with Trax Records?
TC: Yeah, I put out a single on Trax under the name Tom Cruv back in April of this year.
TP: How did that come about?
TC: They've got Marcus Mixx, I don’t think he works with them anymore, for A&R, but I just sent him a few demos and he said he reckons they’d fit really well on Trax Records. Not even demos per se, just a couple new tracks that I’d made, check ‘em out, see what you think. He was like yeah, they’re really cool. I made them on one of those old 4 track tape recorders so they’ve got a lot of tape hiss.
TP: I noticed that, I love that aspect of your music. I wanna ask you some more questions about production stuff. What was your setup like during the pandemic? Obviously, everyone was locked at home. Did you have a bedroom setup? That’s the way I imagine Larry Heard making his early stuff.
Tom Carruthers - “North West” out now on Non Stop Rhythm
TC: Pretty much set up in my bedroom, yeah. I’ve got an old analog mixing desk, a couple of drum machines, a lot of it’s sample-based, so I’ll just load samples, I’ve got a massive sample library, old school, obscure sounds. I’ll just load them into the keyboard and play my riffs with them like that. I’ll chop a lot of sounds from old records, say there’s a nice bassline, I’ll chop the sound, load it into my keyboard and then play my own riffs with it.
TP: What kind of keyboard are you talking about when you say sampling keyboard?
TC: Casio, stuff like that. Nothing major. But they do the job. They’re effective.
TP: Sounds incredible. That’s the thing, these days, people are so obsessed with gear, but if you look at Derrick May, you look at Larry Heard, any of these guys in the early days of house music or techno, they’re just doing what they can with what they have. The sound of tape hiss, when you’re using samplers from the 80s that have a really low bitrate, there’s a real nasty hiss on top.
TC: Adds character!
TP: It’s amazing, that’s what’s missing. It feels like you are engaging with a living thing when you hear those artifacts. Do you still predominantly work at your home studio or do you have a place that you like to go to do work?
TC: I’m still running the same setup, stick with what you know.
TP: How many channels is your mixer?
TC: It’s an old 32 channel. I got it passed down to me off one of my dad’s mates when I was first starting to get into it. I think it’s an old Allen and Heath mixer.
TP: Did you grow up playing music or did you start making electronic music as your first foray into music?
TC: I’m not classically trained or anything. What it was, I was probably around 15 when I started getting into house music. It was all over the radio and it kind of blew up over here on the charts. But then I started to veer more into the underground stuff, did a little bit of digging, and that’s where I found the early Chicago stuff, New York stuff, and then I just fell in love with that.
TP: Do you prefer to make music during the day or at nighttime?
TC: Probably nighttime, early hours in the morning. That’s when a lot of the magic seems to happen.
TP: When you sit down to make a track, is it different every time? I personally like to start with drum programming, whether it’s Ableton or if it’s with a drum machine. Do you start off with drums or is it different every time for you?
TC: I’d say the majority of the time, it would just be a bassline and then I’ll go program the drums and then go from there. A lot of my tracks are just a bassline and drum machine, some effects added. That’s what I’m into, the percussion side of things. Drum programming, complex drum programming. Not just one bar looped like a lot of the modern stuff. Snares.
TP: A lot of your production does remind me of the Mayday stuff. I think Derrick May’s drum programming is very kinetic. His hi-hats are always so alive, they jump around and I can definitely hear that in your music. It sounds like you do have an element of hardware magic in your process, where you like to have a hands-on approach. Would that be true? Do you like to be able to touch knobs while you’re making music, or is it not so important to you?
TC: It’s more of a hands-on kind of thing, I like to have a hands-on approach to it, yeah.
TP: What do you think of modern house music? I’m talking more about the contemporary underground scene rather than the stuff that’s huge.
TC: There is a lot of cool stuff out there. A lot of young people, like myself, I’m only 22. But a lot of people are starting to get into the bleep-y, obscure kind of stuff. I reckon it’s definitely making a resurgence.
TP: That’s a good thing. What is it about the older stuff on labels like like Transmat or Nu Groove that is still so potent to you?
TC: I’ve never been able to put my finger on it, and I don’t think many people can, it’s just got the edgy, obscure, proper underground kind of vibe. Just a dark kind of vibe.
TP: I think it comes down to what you were saying, people making music and releasing it as it comes. They get to the desk, behind the drum machines and then two hours later they have something, they’re editing it down, and then it’s being pressed on vinyl.
TC: That’s the same with me. I make most of my tracks in one sitting. I don’t like coming back to it a track, because by the time I’ve come back to it I have a completely new idea. So I’m one of them, I’ve got to get it done there and then, so I’ll stay up for hours and just try to do it in one sitting.
Tom Carruthers - “Technology Grooves (Original Mix)” out now on L&T Recordings
TP: When you have all of your stuff going, do you improvise and then edit at the end to make an arrangement? Or do you go into it with arrangement in your head as you’re making it?
TC: Mostly I’ve got the layout in my head, how I’d want to map it out. I’d say I spend the majority of the time actually creating the sounds, morphing the sounds. The mix down is like a five-minute process for me.
TP: Considering how fast you make and release music, do you find yourself ever looking back at your catalogue and thinking, “oh my god, I forgot I made that track!” Does it still feel fresh to you like you’re hearing some of it for the first time?
TC: Yeah, some tracks, I’ve completely forgotten about. I don’t really enjoy listening to my own music because I know what’s coming.
TP: I feel the same way. Looking to the future, do you have any plans to perform live? If you were to do something live, would it be more of a DJ-based set?
TC: I’d be more into DJing, because realistically, that’s where the majority of the money is in the dance music industry. So if I ever wanted to make a proper living from it, I would probably veer into DJing at some point.
TP: So what’s coming up for you? Are you just going to keep releasing tracks as you make them or are you going to do EPs or albums? What’s your plan with the label and with your own music after this L.I.E.S. record?
TC: The plan is probably going to start working towards albums, say in around a year’s time, maybe a best of. Like, “the best of so far” on Non Stop Rhythm. I’m doing another release more L.I.E.S., more techno-oriented. Got a nice reissue from a guy called Ron Wells under the pseudonym Jack Smooth coming out on Non Stop Rhythm too.
TP: Did you send that to me? You sent me some reissue you were working on.
TC: I think I might have, yeah, Jack Smooth, “Break The Sound Barrier”, and the track two is “Buzz Off Music”. Really cool stuff from 1991.
TP: Is that going to be a digital release or is it a 12”?
TC: Just a digital release, because unfortunately, he lost the master tapes a long time ago.
TP: When you’re promoting stuff, your own music and your label, do you focus mainly on Instagram? What are your tactics?
TC: Mostly IG, Instagram, yeah. Send some stuff out emails to friends, I do it organic. I don’t pay for promotion.
TP: Do you get frustrated with Instagram or do you feel like it does what you need it to do?
TC: I like the Instagram format, to be honest. I reckon it’s cool, posting snippets. I noticed it’s slowly starting to grow but it’s organic, so it’s not going to be overnight.
TP: Exactly. I think Instagram’s pretty good for a label like yours. You have a strong, consistent aesthetic. Your 12” artwork is like a classic house label. Every time you see it with a little snippet, you know what to expect. You’re gonna hear a track, it’s gonna be raw, it’s gonna be good, so I think it works.
Anyway, that’s pretty much it! I just want to say I love everything that I’ve heard from you and it’s very exciting to discover a new artist, especially someone that’s just doing it for the right reasons. So, nice to meet you and thank you for doing this.
TC: Best of luck to you!
”Non Stop Rhythm” 2xLP is out now on L.I.E.S. Records