High Contrast (aka Lincoln Barrett) is an interesting bloke. A teetotal vegetarian from Wales, he signed his first record deal in 2000 and hasn’t looked back since. His debut LP True Colours was released on Hospital Records in June 2002, paving the way for a move onto the international DJ circuit and the status of being remixer of choice for many.
Following that, in autumn 2004 he dropped his second album High Society, featuring the anthemic singles Twilights Last Gleaming and Racing Green. It went down well with both critics and heads alike…

What are your favourite spots in Nottingham?
I like the bar that’s downstairs in the Lace Market. I think it’s called Dogma. I’ve played there a number of times with Hospital Records. Also Detonate nights are always good fun!

What do you listen to when you’re chilling out at home?
I don’t really chill out. Most of the time when I’m at home I’m on a computer, working on a tune or doing some work on music videos. I’ve just been doing them for my own singles, but I’m going to be doing some for the other guys on Hospital.
When I listen to music it’s just sitting there at the deck going through piles of old records I’ve bought at shops. The main time I hear contemporary music is just through the radio in the car, but a lot of the time I listen to classical stuff when I’m driving.

Which classical stuff?
Anything really. Coming from a film background like I am, I find that classical music is very kind of visual music and I find parallels with drum’n’bass with it. From Beethoven up to Bartoch.

Can you draw similarities between DnB and classical?
Well yeah, I can, but then I’m kind of out there on my own planet. I see it as similar in terms that they’re not structured like songs, but more based around peaks and troughs in the music.

Are you going to be voting on May 5th?
It’s this Thursday? It’s a tricky one. I’ve come from a very left wing background and have voted for labour in the past, but I’d find it hard to vote labour now after the war. So I’m probably going to have to vote Green.

What’s your favourite breakfast cereal?
My favourite breakfast cereal is probably Crunchy Nut Cranberry, but I also like muesli. I’m quite a healthy person. I’m vegetarian and I don’t drink. I don’t even drink coca cola.

If you could change one thing in drum’n’bass what would it be?
I would love it if all clubs had a wicked sound system where it wasn’t just the very low end of the bass and the very high end that were coming through. I wish that in all clubs you could have the full frequency, because a lot of the time if you have what is quite a musical track, the elements that are not the drum and bass get lost in it. A lot of the time it’s loud, but you’re just getting the very high and the very low. The bit you lose is the mid frequency, which is what you feel and where I think the beat needs to be.

If you could work with anyone on a track, who would you choose?
Probably Missy Elliot. I just think she’s got a wicked voice and she’s an interesting and groundbreaking artist. She produces as well as raps and she fuses hiphop and drum and bass in an unusual way. I think a lot of things that people have tried aren’t really pushing it to its full potential. On my album Angels and Fly I was trying to get a real drum and bass feel…

What new producers are everyone talking about?
This year they’re probably talking about Logistics and I’ve particularly liked these relatively new guys from New Zealand called State of Mind who do some more melodic things and some really heavy dancefloor tunes as well.

Nottingham Forest FC went down this season. Any thoughts?
What have they done to the Forest? What the woods?

No. The football team. They got relegated to the third division of English football.
I know nothing about football. Sorry…

Do you think America will attack Iran?
If they have any chance to, I’m sure they’d love to attack anyone. They’d be well up for that. They’ve probably had it on a list for a few years?

What influences you outside of drum and bass?
Films, Architecture, Classic Fm, Whatever man… it all goes into the mix.

 Do you enjoy making your living as a DJ in the UK?
Yeah. I’ve found that in drum’n’bass that people seem to be the safest. I’ve been to house nights and people were just a bit arsey, a bit too much attitude. In drum and bass everyone has been really down to earth and sound generally. I expected people to be a bit more primadonna, but most people are down to earth safe guys.

What’s your ideal DJ set length?
My ideal set time is probably two hours. I find it quite hard to find enough tunes that I love to do more than two hours, unless I was starting to play older tracks as well. That would be the ideal thing for me.

High Contrast MySpace
Hospital Records website



 

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