Agent 86
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Agent 86

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This Friday, New Guernica helps Melbourne’s DJ Agent 86 (aka Nigel Reynolds) celebrate 25 years behind the decks. For two and a half decades, Reynolds has been a widely reputed genre expeditionary, throwing hiphop, house, techno, rock, pop, funk and whatever else he feels like into his DJ sets.

“My music taste has never been dictated by genre,” he says. “It’s only ever been dictated by a sound. What I mean is, if I like a track, I like a track and I’ll play it… and if I don’t like it, then I won’t play it. In recent years I’ve appreciated more feel good music, but growing up it was songs with a melancholy or rebellious edge that I liked. To that end, hip hop probably had the greatest influence on me of all.”

Reynolds started DJing in Adelaide in the late ’80s, which was where he stayed until moving to Melbourne in late 2000. Prior to this, Reynolds and his parents lived in rural South Australia. His dad wasn’t the slightest bit interested in music, but his mum would “constantly have the ghetto blaster going in the kitchen.” However, his mother’s taste didn’t appeal to him, so he sought out music through other means.

“I would listen to the radio,” he says. “I never watched television and I really only listened to the radio. Obviously, the radio had many different genres. I don’t know if that was an anomaly. I just didn’t know.”

Back in the late ‘80s, a DJing career wasn’t unheard of, but it wasn’t the glamourous vocation kids flock towards nowadays. At the time, the Adelaide club scene was “totally underground,” but there was enough going on for Reynolds to know it was his calling.

“When I was 16 I went to a club and heard acid house for the first time and it blew my mind,” he recalls. “Within six months of going to my first club, I wanted to be a DJ. Once I started, it was a runaway train. I knew I’d found my job. Within a few months of having begun, I’d left school. I just dived into it straightaway and immersed myself in it.

“My first gigs weren’t in a pub per se, but they were in that sort of environment,” he adds. “I’m thankful, to be honest, that the owner of the tavern not just acknowledged my interest in it, but encouraged it.”

Staying relevant in any discipline for 25 years is a feat that shouldn’t go unnoticed. To emerge from a barren environment and climb to the top of the ladder, like Reynolds has done, is a testament to his unwavering commitment to his craft. With regards to a DJ’s essential role, there are stacks of differing perspectives. Some believe it’s about educating the audience, while others maintain the DJ is subordinate to the audience’s wishes. Reynolds tows the line between these two extremes.

“My feeling towards DJing has always been to express myself, and at the same time try to please the crowd,” he says. “It’s give and take. The crowd needs to hear some of my selection, whether they like it or not. Depending on how they respond, then I will give them what they want a little. That doesn’t necessarily mean a song that they know, rather a song that you know that they’re likely to enjoy.”

Reynolds’ determination to make it work since day one has led to support gigs with the likes of Kraftwerk, Jeff Mills, Kavinsky, DJ Shadow, Fatboy Slim and Booka Shade, among others. Attaining celebrity status, however, has never been a primary concern.

“When I started, the DJ scene was vastly different to what it is now,” he says. “There was no way I could ever tell that I was going to be supporting artists like James Brown and Moloko and stuff like that.

“I never got into this for fame. If anything, I shy away from fame. I don’t like being photographed, I don’t really like being the focus. I much prefer the music to be front and centre, not me. [Being] fame hungry comes at a cost and most of the time that cost is musical integrity.”

Joined by old comrades DJ HMC and Kiti, this Friday’s 25 year anniversary party will be a night to remember, but it’s by no means a send off. DJing remains Reynolds’ fulltime job and he’s not likely to switch professions any time soon.

“I feel like I’ve reached the point of no return now,” he says. “I’ve been doing this same job for so long that it would be very difficult for me to change careers now. And I’m not sure that I need to. I love this job and I’m not bored with it, because the music keeps changing. Everything single day there’s a whole world of new music available. My job’s never boring.”

BY AUGUSTUS WELBY 

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