Area 709

In dance music circles, few artists cast as large a shadow as Richard West – aka Mr. C. He was the frontman for the groundbreaking pop-dance act The Shamen in the 1990s, before opening up one of London’s best-known nightclubs, The End. For more than twenty years, he’s been at the very front of the dance music scene. As a DJ, his sets are legendary – with a style he himself describes as “super fun and super sexy, but deep and twisted at the same time.”

As we catch up with Mr. C, he’s in New York, working alongside production partner Francis Harris on the flip-side of an upcoming release on Get Physical Music, the popular Berlin-based imprint run by M.A.N.D.Y., DJ T. and Booka Shade. “We’ve done a really cool track called Anti-Sailing that Get Physical has just signed, and they need a track for the other side, and so hopefully this will be it,” he explains.

But for as much hard work as Rich has been putting into production in recent days, he’s certainly not been lacking in recreation, either. “The past few days have been sick,” he gushes. “Thursday I was in Atlanta playing with Michael Scott at a really cool night, and Friday I was at a new club called Muse in DC, which was a whole lot of fun – getting way too drunk and having way too much fun, really. Saturday I got back into New York and DJed at Save The Cannibals at Rebel, and after that went and partied with the Moon Harbor crew… Black Market and those Cheap Sunglasses boys did a crazy warehouse party that I managed to get out of at about 2PM on Sunday. From there I went on to Bar 13, partied right through that – so I didn’t get in until after lunch time on Monday.”

At 43, Richard West has spent his entire adult life neck-deep in the nightlife of underground dance music. Along the way, he’s learned a thing or two about how to stay healthy, happy and energised despite the mental, emotional and physiological demands his lifestyle has placed on his body. “It’s called a positive mental attitude,” Richard begins. “That and transcendental meditation. Those are the two key things.”

As Richard sees it, the key to understanding one’s self lies in understanding the mind-body-spirit connection. “We’re in control of every single cell in our bodies, if we choose to take that control,” he says. “I think that daily meditation and being absolutely positive and eating the right foods makes a difference – it really does. I don’t eat shit, period. I eat all organic food, I drink lots of water, I drink lots of juice, I take Royal jelly, I take plenty of antioxidants and vitamins and so what goes into my body during the week is really healthy stuff. I think being in control of the physical element of your body mentally is key.”

Also high on Richard’s list is meditation. “Meditation fixes everything,” he explains. “When you meditate, when you open that channel to the creative intelligence, you can really be in control of what your body does. I think that’s really important. Meditation, eating well, taking the right supplements, and being positive, all of these count. If you’re negative, that causes stress, and any kind of stress that you have puts pressure on your immune system. My immune system works really well, and that’s due to having a positive attitude and to taking the right supplements.”

“But,” he cautions, “you also need to know when to take the time out, when to go on vacation, to kick back. You need to know when to do that, and if you do, then you can have extended weekends – if you look after yourself during the week and you get plenty of sleep to catch up and you have a positive attitude, then you really can have a balance that works.”

It will come as little surprise to anyone who has followed Mr. C’s career over the years to learn that Richard West lives his life by design, rather than by chance. “You really can map out your future by knowing what’s around the corner and making it so by doing the right things,” he observes.

“There are always people that are going to be interested in how I do it,” he says, “and I’m always happy to share that information. Only yesterday, I put up a meditation technique up on Facebook – and people are already coming back to me saying ‘thanks, this has come at just the right time, I was just looking for a technique for how to meditate.’  To me that’s what it’s all about – and people are always interested, people always want to know. Spirituality is a huge part of our lifestyle, and through spirituality we can map out our future.”

“I was always super-positive,” Mr. C recalls of his youth. “That was something that was naturally installed inside of me. As a kid I didn’t know what it was. I was kind of misguided as a child and in my teens. But when I was seventeen my stepfather gave me a book on the power of the subconscious mind and taught me how to meditate. That was the start of something really good for me.”

“When you know that you can do this creative visualisation, and then put in the work to make that visualisation a reality, then that’s a real turn-on. That’s a real buzz – and it’s something that I’ve been able to keep with me for my whole life.”

But for as much as Richard’s beliefs are spiritual, he’s quick to explain that they’re independent of religion. “It’s a technique,” he explains. “Positive thinking, creative visualisation, and meditation is good for everybody, regardless of where they’re from or what religion they are. With meditation, its about going to absolute and complete nothingness – so when I’m talking to people about it, especially people who are non-religious, I don’t even like to call it meditation. I like to call it a pause – because that’s really what it is.”

We are so bogged down by thought for our whole waking life,” he continues. “Our thoughts are all based on the problems of yesterday and the solutions of tomorrow, and they distract us from what’s real – and what’s real is the moment. If you can live life in the moment, and notice the cherry blossom that’s coming on the tree, and feel the breeze against your face, and the sun shining on your face – that’s real life. That’s really living. If you can use this technique, and you can incorporate it into mapping out your future in some way, then it can only be good for anybody and everybody.”

“Anybody can try creative visualisation. Anyone can think in specific detail about what they desire, and then make an effort to go and get it. Anyone can learn to go to a point of nothingness by concentration on the five god-given senses, and then reach a point of meditation, and open a channel of communication with the creative intelligence of the universe, then it doesn’t matter what background you’re from, or what country you’re from, or what religion you’re from, you can do that, absolutely free of charge, and start to map out your own future.”

Our next point of discussion is on how Richard’s ‘life by design’ approach has guided his own professional music career. We begin by exploring his early career with The Shamen, discussing Richard’s journey from rave through radio to the present day, and my wondering aloud if there was a specific ‘turning point’, either from underground to commercial, or back again. “I don’t think there was a ‘turning point’,” Richard begins. “Before I was with The Shamen, and before we did all this pop music, I was making deep, underground, forward-thinking dance music – and that’s what I’m doing right now. I think the creative purpose, and the visualisation, and certain decisions about which way I wanted my career to go commercially, were instrumental in The Shamen being successful as much as [bandmate] Colin’s vision and thinking. So there was never a real turning point in terms of going back into something more creative, because I believe what we did was always creative, even with the more commercial ventures like The Shamen.”

But if Richard’s life in the 1990s was The Shamen and his life in the noughties was The End, it looks like Richard’s life for the next decade may well be not just in sound, but in moving pictures. “I’ve been pushing in a different direction artistically,” he explains of his recent creative activities. “I’ve been learning spiritual psychology and the art of acting. I’ve been studying it for five years, in fact. That’s going to take me into another commercial venture that’s going to blow up in a completely different way altogether.”

To Richard, success in the coming years will come as the fruit of his continued focus on positivity, belief in self, and hard work in the right direction. “As I’ve said, anybody can do this,” he says. “Anybody can make a decision about what they want to do with their life and push for that and go and do something about it. If you ask a question, you will get the answer. If you have the question ‘I want to find out’, then you will find out. That’s the bottom line.”

Mr. C plays Habitat in Calgary on Sunday, April 12th, with support from Area709’s Matthew Belleghem.