5 Facts / 5 Tracks: Russell Small & DNO P

Celebrated Brighton production duo Russell Small & DNO P bring you ‘Earworm’, their superb new album, featuring an incredible array of dance music royalty. Here you will find stunning collaborations with Ultra Naté, Katherine Ellis, and The Illustrious Blacks as well as a reunion with sublime Phats & Small vocalist Ben Ofoedu.

This is the sound to put a smile on your face in Summer ’24 and is a testament to Russell Small who is still bringing you those feel-good summer moments 25 years after Phats and Small’s ‘Turn Around’, together with the original electronic music prodigy of the Brighton scene, DNO P.

Freemasons Music/russellsmallmusic · Earworm

We invited them on 5 Facts and 5 tracks…

5 Facts – Russell Small

1. I started DJing at 13 years old and loved it from the get-go. I was paid really well, but it certainly wasn’t a career then. It was just something I thought I was quite good at and I had access to an extremely broad spectrum of a music through my family who were all music mad and this helped me entertain different age groups. I obviously didn’t expect to still be doing it now.

2. I had my one and only son Brett when I was 17 years old. By the time my career took off, he was 11 years old and it meant I missed a lot birthdays and special occasions when he was growing up. He’s just had his first child – a boy – and I’m just glad to now be in a position to be able to spend time with them both.

3. Before this, I had a lot of different jobs – paperboy, working on the roofs with my dad’s firm and space cadet…My first job after leaving school was with a meat packing company and I also worked at Brighton Meat Market. Most of my early jobs I was sacked from, as I was not the best at going in on a Monday after clubbing and partying all weekend…

4. During UK lockdown, I had a late diagnosis of ADHD and combined Autism. I’ve struggled with it for most of my life. At school, I was written off as disruptive, as a daydreamer, and I lacked concentration in everything I had no interest in – which was quite a lot back then. I thought I wasn’t quite right in the head… what a relief when I finally had the balls to speak to someone, at least I can now understand my ‘madness’ and some of my special powers…

5. I’ve travelled to more than 110 different countries, largely thanks to my DJ career. I can honestly say I only remember around 50 of them in any detail. Most were in a period of my life I call the lost years (During the Phats and Small dynasty). I’m now retracing my steps at a more leisurely pace and soaking up all the delights they have to offer that I missed the first time around….

5 Tracks – Russell Small

1. Russell Small, DNO P Ft Amanda Wilson – ‘To Be Real’

From our ‘Earworm’ album, a cover of the Cheryl Lynn Classic with a top vocal performance from Amanda Wilson which is starting to get traction and has been supported by the big man himself, Carl Cox, in his house sets.

2. Pawsa – ‘Too Cool To Be Careless’

Fantastic cover of Dennis Edwards and Siedah Garretts ‘Don’t Look Any Further’ which was getting hammered by a lot of DJs this summer.

3. Jaegerossa – ‘The Big Red’

Lush disco house track that gives me that readybrek glow

4. Oden & Fatzo ft Poppy Baskcomb – ‘Tell Me What You Want’

One of my tunes of the summer. A catchy vocal over a cool disco sample taken from Alexander O’Neal and Cherrelle ‘Saturday Love’.

5. Next Phase ft Helen Bruner & Terry Jones – I Ain’t Got Time (Richard Earnshaw Remix)

Originally released in 1996 on Sub Urban Records and produced by Tommy Musto, it now gets a beautiful soulful house update from Richard Earnshaw.

5 Facts – DNO P

1. My first professional DJ gig abroad was for Primal Scream’s Screamadelica European Tour, playing alongside Andy Weatherall and Paul Oakenfold .

2. Tom Gandy from Caged Baby and myself used to play together when we were kids. We are related from my mother’s side of the Family.

3. I once got arrested at an Acid House Party my brother was putting with Carl Cox in Lewes, around 1989/90. A friend of ours pretended to be a lawyer and told them I was a minor and got me released while he himself was on curfew.

4. I played at the first party to feature electronic DJ sets at the Burning Man’s festival. It was a rock festival for years run by The Grateful Dead, and they were militant that it should be only a rock event. My friends from San Francisco were making parties at the time and paved the way for all the dance stages they have today.

5. My favourite thing ever is watching my 16 year old son grow up. He’s 6ft 6 and I always told him he would never be taller than me…He is now. Fact!

5 Tracks – DNO P

1. Bootsy Collins – ‘I’d Rather Be With You’

I love that track particularly because the style influenced so much of the Snoop Dogg and West Coast hip-hop sound and style.