‘There is a certain cinematic, evolved style there that I am very interested in’
Akinsa – along with Blancah + Apostroph – has dropped the ‘Black Rain’ on your patch of jungle. At night, big torrents of it, clattering on the foliage. It’s via Onset Audio, home of luminaries such as Projekt 22, Demo, Bioritm.
Hi, Akinsa, what are you doing right now?
Working on my second album, Ascension – finishing off a handful of collabs, and a darker, more experimental ep – a few sneaky redubs – and a long time coming EP for Dust Audio… Moon EP.
Tell us when you started the work for the Black Rain ep… and what inspired the title? Work on Black Rain started in the spring, and grew into an EP as the collaborations came together. The title is inspired from the movie, Black Rain.
Take us behind the title tune?
I was heavily inspired by The Untouchables and the tribal, dub sound of D&B over the last few years. I wanted to make a track that pushed my production levels with percussion and dub techniques.
‘Black Rain’ is the result – It helped that I had Apostroph’s samples too, as he is a very talented producer. The track came together really quick, and we ended up with about nine versions, but as is usually the case, one of the early ones was the best – overworking things is easy to do.
The overall vibe is very dense. Are you doomy by outlook or do you simply just love deep music?
I am very optimistic, even in current world events – we always find a way! I also love deep music, in fact the new album I’m working on – a double album – I want to experiment with a darker and more experimental aesthetic.
I am really inspired at the moment by artists like Blanca, Torn, Shiken Hanzo and the NSA and Come Meditate crew.
There is a certain cinematic, evolved style there that I am very interested in.
To expand: I think it’s simplistic that people assume this is ‘dark’ music… to me it’s simply painting with a different array of colours.
Dark music can quite often be the most beautiful.
I have always liked music that evokes emotions and I honestly think some of the best electronic music is being created right now by a handful of very talented artists.
There can be a certain freedom in so called darker music, and think it just reflects current consciousness of the “mainstream” and its insanity.
Darker music is a space where we as artists can be honest and express our feelings in a world that has become increasingly fake, manufactured and soulless. I am more than happy to explore the terrain of this sound, it really is a beautiful landscape.
You have touched on it, but who are some of the people you have collaborated with?
I am lucky to worked with some of the most innovative and talented artists in the scene right now. Ahmad, Torn, Blanca, Dyl, Out of Fuel, Swayz, Concealed Identity, Antangonist, Paragon, Apostroph and forthcoming I have something with Cid Poitier, which I am very excited to be part of.
Take us into ‘Last Words’? & both dubs here?
‘Last Words’ is something I’d been working on for a while – a collab with Blanca. I really wanted to work with Blanca as his sound is so detailed and has a granular texture on his distortions that are just outstanding. Again we did several versions of the track, back and forth while he was travelling.
It started as most of the collabs I do: with a small sketch and pack of loops and samples I send off to the other artist(s). He really ran with the percussion sounds and the mid range bass and sub I sent.
It was literally a few hours work once he sent it back for me to do my part on my version. He then wanted to do some more work on it, and went in a different direction.
Which is something I really encourage when I do collabs, for the other person(s) to completely change it and go somewhere else.
So the end result was we both did our dubbed versions of the original. Blanca really made everything come together on both those tracks – was a very rewarding experience.
Wrapping up, tell me some artists that have really inspired you… like really got your pulse racing…
Always so many to list – but here are the main artists that always release great music. In D&B… Photek, Jonny L, anything on Samurai Music, Goldie, Shiken Hanzo, Ruffhouse, The Untouchables, Loxy, Spirit, Seba, Paradox, Digital, Clarity, Blocks + Escher, Ibunshi, Indigo, Homemade Weapons, Flatliners, Ink, Pessimist, SNTS, Developer, Perc, Clouds, Emptyset, War. There’s also Tommy Four Seven, Ansome, Karenn, Headless Horseman…
… and Nine Inch Nails of course!
Any shouts?
Yeah, Blanca, Torn, Come Meditate crew , NSA crew, Seth at Onset, Dan at Dust, Hanna Wiggins, Om Unit, Shiken Hanzo, Loxy, Vaughn, anyone that has supported and bought my music, and always my partner Cass and my daughters Storm, and Phoenix. Thanks.