When the book is written about UK rave culture (and a few already have been) Richard West (aka Mr. C) will be prominently featured. The vocalist for infamous acid house pop group The Shamen, Mr. C is equally well known to an entire generation of clubbers who came of age at The End, the infamous London venue co-owned by Mr. C and Layo Paskin. The End shut down last year, after 13-years at the top of London’s underground club scene. And Mr. C relocated to sunny California just this month. But he’s not slowing down, with new music arriving on the hotly tipped Wagon Repair record label, as well as his Syncophant Slags project with fellow techno don Adultnapper. Here’s a sneak preview of one cut from Mr. C’s Wagon Repair release. And read a full interview with the newest Cali resident after the jump.

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Mr. C – “Dark Moon

- You’ve relocated to Hollywood recently. Why do so many British musicians come here?
I’ve actually moved to Echo Park, just east of Hollywood. Have you experienced the weather in the UK? It sucks! The weather and quality of life in LA are great, which is why I’d imagine so many British musicians or anyone else moves here. I’ve actually moved here to try my luck with acting as well as to improve my quality of life. I’ve been studying a very serious modern form of Method Acting called the Spiritual Psychology of Acting weekly for 6 years now, right up until October 2009. It’s now time to put my skills to the test.

- I assume closing The End had something to do with the freedom to move around?
Yes indeed it did. I’ve also sadly lost both of my parents, but have two more in my wife’s parents who live in Mexico, which is of course a whole lot closer to LA than London. It’s time for me to show my wife the same dedication she showed me by living in London for the last 10 years.

- Could you envision yourself opening another club, in LA or elsewhere?
Absolutely not, it’s too much of a long term venture and I’m no spring chicken. I will however be doing my Superfreq nights throughout North America. In LA, I’m going to start a monthly midweek disco night called Super Disco Freq which I plan to start the first week of March. I’m also in discussions with Avalon about doing three huge Superfreq events per year there (I’ve done three there already in the past) & I’d also like to do three or four underground parties per year as well. I’m also working out Superfreq quarterlies in NYC & Chicago. Once these three cities are happening I’ll start pushing it out to other cities but I’m already considering doing Superfreq in San Francisco & Denver.

- How did the Sycophant Slags project come about? What does the name mean to you?
I was snowed in in NYC and Adultnapper (Francis Harris) kindly put me up while I was there. We had time on our hands so decided to go into the studio together. The Sycophant Slags was then born.
During that time, we were both laughing about how so many people have their tongues firmly routed up the trendy DJs bottoms as a way to better themselves in the dance music community and it was the influence of these very slags that give us the inspiration for the name. As Adultnapper says “I knew him first and I knew him well”.

- You’ve been a star of dance music for two decades. What’s the biggest change you’ve witnessed?
I’ve seen so much change, but the biggest change would be the more cutting edge side of dance music becoming commercial a few years back. It’s always been a struggle in this industry for those with integrity or those keeping the DJ or production skills on an underground or cutting edge level. This has now changed as the real dance kids are more educated now and want to hear the good shit as opposed to lowest common denominator trance etc which is now mostly listened to by the kids, which, let me add, is still an introduction to dance music, as terrible as it may be.

- Is Ebeneezer still good?
Good question. Safrole, which is a vital ingredient of MDMA has been made very difficult to come across & therefore so much more expensive. This has led to the manufacture of cheaper E with cheaper ingredients which in truth are pretty crap. There are however discerning chemists that are happy to use the more expensive Safrole, who realize that there are those of us that are happy to pay considerably more for the hit they desire. So yes, Ebeneezer is indeed still good when he does on the odd occasion go raving.

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