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JAPANESE OVERSEAS NEWS

Riley Reinhold

international news _ 5th December, 2006

Riton & Cass’ Serious Business

Text by Jonty Skrufff (Skrufff.com)

Hyper-hip London producer Henry Riton Smithson chatted to Skrufff this week about his upcoming Kraut-rock flavoured single Hammer Of Thor and revealed that he’s re-organising his life radically as he fast approaches 30.

“It’s definitely time to make the most of things, it’s definitely the age to focus yourself and get rid of some old bad habits and start to shape up for the rest of your life and to take things more seriously,” the 29 year old producer declared.

“I’ve knocked smoking weed on the head, which I used to do a lot, I used to smoke five or six joints a day every day for 15 years. I stopped about a month ago and actually it was dead easy, I thought it wouldn’t have been but it was,” he said.

Henry added he’s also considering settling down at some point with his long term girlfriend Heidi (the Canadian co-owner of Phonica) though stressed he’s not embracing clean living entirely.

“I’d still definitely smoke a joint again in the future but what I really wanted to do was stop that thing of sitting there in the afternoon thinking ‘I’ll just smoke a joint’ then being stoned for the rest of the day, every day,” he explained.

“I felt for a long time that I had to do that to make music, I felt I needed to sit down and concentrate but it’s not the case at all. I don’t need to do that.”

His newfound maturity matched that of UK progressive house turned electro-house whizzkid Cass (of Cass & Slide and now Cass & Mangan fame) who told Skrufff this week that the birth of his child forced him to dramatically restructure his work-life approach..

“The pressure from having a baby comes from a need to be successful which can be very inspirational in one way in that it gives you that framework,” he said.

“If you’re self-employed you don’t have to get out of bed if you don’t want to, but you need to have that drive to ensure that when you could be out having a drink, instead you’re working all the time,” said Cass. Having a baby really reinforces that need.”

The one time progressive house star enjoyed global success in the late 90s and beyond through his Cass & Slide partnership with Pete ‘Slide’ Martin (now one half of Coburn) though struggled after taking time out when his father died.

“I cancelled loads of gigs and didn’t write any music and then wondered why no-one wanted me to remix anything,” he recalled, “You can disappear very, very quickly.”

Nowadays he’s thriving again with new collaborator Tom Mangan though admitted that he nowadays equates his music career with gambling.

“It’s like playing cards, you sit down at the table, you’re playing cards and your pile of chips is getting smaller and smaller and smaller,” said Cass.

“Eventually most people will look at their chips and say ‘you know what, I just can’t afford to gamble any more’ and they go and do something that supplies them with a regular income. And they get up from the table. But as soon as you get up from the table you can never win a hand. If you stay you never know. Sometimes you can win with a pair of Aces. But you have to be playing- ALL the time,” he added.

Riton’s new single 'Hammer Of Thor' is out on Tiefschwarz’ new label Souvenir. in January


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