Skip to main content

60 Seconds With... Rico Tubbs

Finnish phenomenon Rico Tubbs (Riku Pentti) is blowing away all-comers with his boundary-breaking, genre-hopping productions.

Leaping from funky breaks to B-More, and ghetto house to rave with aplomb, Tubbs' music is a real shot in the arm. Everyone from Switch to Deekline, Tayo to Crookers have been playing the massive club crasher 'Gangsters', and now the full fat longplayer 'Knuckle Sandwich' – out late June on Menu Music - is ready to rain down on us like a shower of blows. We snagged him to get more details...

How did you come up with your unique sound?

"It's difficult to break it down. I always like to combine stuff, I like different genres. It's always been interesting to me how jazz can combine with rave, for example - not obvious things to mix together. I like to see if I can get all my favourite music to work together without a hitch."

Who are some of your biggest inspirations musically?

"First of all, all the funk stuff which starts with James Brown. Then The Prodigy, and LFO, they're how I found electronic music."

Does it feel good to have people from across the board playing your tracks?

"Definitely, it's been really amazing to see how diverse the support has been, to get props from more than one genre of music is great."

What is the dance music scene like in Finland? Is your stuff well received?

"It's pretty active for such a small country. We have good clubs even up north and really active DJs and producers. Lots of people making drum and bass and dubstep, it's a very good place to be right now."

You were part of Bombfunk MCs for a time, who had a big hit with 'Freestyler'. What was it like breaking into the pop world like that?

"I joined the band in 2002 for a few years. Their biggest song 'Freestyler' came out in 2000 so I wasn't with them at the peak of their fame. But it was interesting to see how the big companies work, the pop world."

You're rocking a serious G-ed up look. Is your image important to the whole Rico Tubbs vibe?

"It's not planned, not calculated. It's quite a lot of me, but maybe with Rico Tubbs it's a little bit exaggerated. When I started making the funky end of breaks, influenced by funk acts like Parliament, it's part of that to make things weird and exaggerated. So maybe it was a little bit cartoon character in the beginning, but then that's me, I am a bit of a cartoon character myself!"

What's next for Rico Tubbs?

"I've got a tour planned for the UK, and I've got a lot of bookings going up to next year. There's a lot of interest."