Roni Size | |
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 Roni Size at the Savoy,Cork, 2005 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Ryan Owen Granville Williams |
| Born | (1969-10-29)29 October 1969 (age 55) Bristol, England |
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| Years active | 1988–present |
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Ryan Owen Granville Williams (born 29 October 1969),[1] better known by his stage nameRoni Size, is an English DJ and record producer. He came to prominence in 1997 as the founder and frontman ofRoni Size & Reprazent, adrum and bass collective. That year they won theMercury Prize for their debut studio albumNew Forms.
Williams, son ofJamaican immigrants,[2] grew up in theBristol suburb ofSt. Andrews. He citesreggae as one of his early influences. He was expelled from school[2] at the age of 16 and started attending house parties run by Bristol soundsystemThe Wild Bunch (a predecessor ofMassive Attack).[3] He learned the basics about music production at his local youth club,[2] the Sefton Park basement project, which provided record players, a mixing desk, drum machines and samplers.[4] He worked with his brother's comprehensive collection ofStudio One records and later set up a home studio, buying a sampler.[4]
His future musical partner,Krust, had been a member of the Fresh 4,[3] whose "Wishing on a Star" reached the Top 10 of theUK singles chart in late 1989.[5] Williams, Krust,Suv andDJ Die founded Full Cycle Records.
Aided by Chris Lewis, Roni Size founded the record label WTP ("Where's The Party At?") as part of Circus Warp. With Dave Cridge who also DJed for Circus Warp and ran Replay Records Bristol, the two would visit The Record Basement in Reading and in 1993, Full Cycle and Dope Dragon were established.[4]RCA Records employee Bryan Gee was an early admirer.[4] In 1994, when Gee foundedV Recordings, the first releases were Krust'sDeceivers EP as catalogue number V001 andAgility, the debut release of Roni Size andDJ Die, as V002.
In April 1997,Roni Size & Reprazent had their live debut atTribal Gathering. Williams created the group to perform live tracks he had been working on in the studio. The group included Full Cycle members Williams (Roni Size), Krust and Die, operating 'banks of equipment'; as well as Dynamite MC (vocals), Onallee (vocals), Si John (bass), andClive Deamer (drums) taking centre stage.[6][7]
The group's debut studio album,New Forms, was released on 23 June 1997, with singles featuring the vocals ofOnallee including "Brown Paper Bag", "Heroes", "Share the Fall" and "Watching Windows". The album went five timesplatinum,[8] won theMercury Prize, and Williams returned to the studio to concentrate on his output for V and Full Cycle and Dope Dragon.
Following their mainstream breakthrough, Reprazent had a series offestival appearances in the summer of 1997.[3][6][7] TheirNew Forms LP won theMercury Music Prize.[3] The singles from the album all featured singer Onallee, whose call for the music in "Brown Paper Bag" is a signal ravers still respond to.[9][4] The album went platinum, and Roni Size and his collaborators returned to the studio.[citation needed]
Williams subsequently teamed up with DJ Die and Leonie Laws inBreakbeat Era, before returning to Reprazent to record the second album, October 2000'sIn the Mode, which included guest vocals fromZack de la Rocha ofRage Against the Machine andMethod Man ofWu-Tang Clan. In 2001, he returned to the studio and started working with Tali, who had recently arrived fromNew Zealand on her albumLyric on My Lip. In this time, he also producedTouching Down – released in October 2002. This, his first truly solo album, included 16 tracks segued into one hour's set. He remixed theZero 7 song "End Theme" the next year. He came back to V Recordings in 2005 with the release ofReturn To V, which included vocal collaborations with artists such asBeverley Knight,Jocelyn Brown,Vikter Duplaix, andRodney P.
Williams resurrected Reprazent in 2008 with the release of adeluxe edition ofNew Forms on Universal. The reformed band included original membersDynamite MC,Onallee and bass player Si John alongside Yuval Gabay (Soul Coughing), D Product, Jay Wilcox and Pete Josef. Roni Size and Reprazent toured in some of the biggest festivals in Europe, includingBestival,Glastonbury,Lovebox,EXIT andRock Herk. As a result, they were among the nominees for Best Dance Act from theUK Festival Awards.
The band started 2009 with a tour of Australia as part of theGood Vibrations Festival.[10] Following on from this, Roni Size and Reprazent returned to North America for the first time in seven years as one of the headliners at the 2009Ultra Music Festival in Miami. They then went on to perform atCoachella,[11] appearing as the final act of the festival.
In September 2009, Roni Size and Reprazent played a gig with an orchestra and choir to mark the re-opening ofBristol'sColston Hall, collaborating with theBBC's Nature's Great Events composer,William Goodchild.[12] In addition to older material, the band played material from a forthcoming Reprazent album.[12]
Much acclaim has centred on Williams's melding of the propulsivejungle beats accompanied by live drums anddouble bass.[3] The groupRoni Size & Reprazent's drum and bass is equally blended fromhip hop,funk,soul andhouse.[3]
Williams is an avidBristol Rovers fan and turned out for them in the charity match vs rivalsBristol City on MayBank Holiday Monday, 2013.[13]
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