Interview with The Time Frequency founder Jon Campbell

“Give me real love, give me what I need and together we can take it higher,” those uplifting lyrics were just the beginning for the dance phenomenon The Time Frequency, who celebrate the 25th anniversary of that hit this year.

For that song featuring the distinctive vocals of Drumchapel singer Mary Kiani, above, was released by Jive Records and the band were propelled to the forefront of Scotland’s music scene, a position they have maintained for more than two decades.

But then again it is easy to understand why they have stayed on top, having spoken to their charismatic founder Jon.

“The thing about all my songs is they are not written like a dance record,” Jon, above, said.

He continued: “I don’t have a pile of beats which I just put music to. I sit and write the songs on a piano.

“That is why we have had longevity. If you take away all the dance music, there is actually a song sitting on that noisy techno stuff.

“That is why our music has not been off the radio for more than 25 years.”

TTF, as they are known to their fans, were formed when Jon called it quits as frontman of 80s synthpop band Thru The Fire.

Jon said: “I realised very quickly that trying to be Simon le Bon from the East End of Glasgow wasn’t going to happen for me.

“I was already making dance music and I wanted to take it further.

“I had to make the really harsh decision of what did I want to do with my career? Did I want to keep singing in a band that might not make it or do something which came natural to me?”

He continued: “Now I made my first demo and at the time I worked in a clothes shop in Goldbergs who had a DJ.

“I used to give the DJ my tunes, and people would come up and say what is that tune?

“I thought, ‘Oh I am on to something here.”

The band, which also features keyboard player Paul Inglis, began touring clubs and playing raves in the city. Their hard work paid off as their techno anthems became more and more popular.

Jon said: “The whole thing was kind of premeditated because I wrote it down in a piece of paper.

“I worked out in advanced what I was going to do. I also knew that I had a distinctive style of production and writing.

“I am just fortunate that I put out my first record, I made it myself from the gig money that I got.

“I knew that through gigging I could eventually build up a following to get enough money to go into a studio to make an actual record and that is what I did.

“The next record I wrote in my tenement in Dennistoun was Real Love and that got signed to a major label straight away, and the rest is history.”

Mary Kiani, above, was the first voice for TTF and she sang with them for a year before Debbie Miller took over.

Debbie, however, died after a battle with cancer and now Australian songstress Lorena Dale is the voice of the band.

Jon joked: “People think that we are some 90s rave act who keep changing our singers. We don’t.”

He added: “It was unfortunate what happen to Debbie as she would still be singing for us to this day.

“I spoke to Mary about four years ago because she was wanting to do some shows with us.

“But a lot of the music we do now is EDM so it is different from the music Mary would be doing.

“It is hard to explain but Mary’s vocal was very much of a time in terms of style.

“It is a great vocal but it wouldn’t be right for the later stuff that we do.”

Regardless of who is fronting the vocals, songs like New Emotion and The Ultimate High seem to strike a chord with audiences and Jon thinks he has figured out why.

He said: “When I grew up in the East End of Glasgow, I was a very very poor individual.

“I had no money, I had holes in my shoes and everything.

“Music for me was an escape, and at that time in the late 80s, start of 90s, there was lots of Glasgow bands in the scene who wrote about how hard the struggle is for the working class man.

“But I grew up in absolute misery so I wanted to put a smile on everybody’s faces. I suppose I’m a working class antidote to depression.”

Their music has stayed current thanks to the support of Clyde One DJ George Bowie, above, who features it on his GBX Anthems every Saturday.

“George has been great for us,” beamed Jon.

“I always say to George, ‘thanks man,’ and he will say ‘don’t thank me, it is the general public. I don’t have a say in the matter.”

It is that same public who have gone crazy for the band’s single Come Alive which is featured on their new album Futurelands.

They will showcase the music from that album and their original hits when they play their biggest gig to date at the Braehead Arena on Saturday, June 16.

“Our biggest achievement is about to come - playing the Braehead Arena,” Jon said.

He continued: “Initially, when we started the biggest gig that we could do in terms of an audience was Barrowlands. But I decided in 2012 to totally knuckle down, take this seriously and see how far I could take it.

“And we sold out Barrowlands in 2014 and 2015, sold out the o2 Academy in 2016 and 2017.

“Now here we are 2018 and we have sold twice the audience of the o2 Academy already at Braehead arena.”

He added: “There seems to be a community thing going on at our gigs. People are bringing their kids and it is a party.

“It’s a celebration and our songs are about trying to put a smile on people’s faces. You need to keep smiling in this life you know.”

At 47, Jon seems content with where he has taken TTF. He has achieved what he set out to do and that is all he ever wanted.

He explained: “You associated rave and dance music from back in the day as being throw away stuff but New Emotion, Ultimate High, and all these songs - they really matter to people, they are a big thing in their life. What a brilliant job I have got.”

He continued: “For a wee band that has not made it that big in the rest of the world, we are doing all right, we are pretty good.

“In fact I don’t want to get any bigger, I am happy the way it is.

“I couldn’t have hoped for it to go as good as it went, to ask for anything more would be greedy.”

Tickets for TTF show at Braehead Arena are £35 plus booking fee, available from Ticketmaster and Tickets Scotland. Limited tickets left.