Digital. You imagine the man immersed in a dark studio recess surrounded by silent black boxes and blinking LEDs as he evaluates faders, switches, levels and a sound like no other. Then there’s his array of studio speakers… we’ll come to that, as well as a story about the time the classic ‘Deadline’ went off a little too hard.
Lately he’s been busy, and what better way to delve into the Digital domain but by talking about the new release on Ingredients?
Let’s start with ‘Archive’: it comes from many angles, not just regarding production but you feel actual ERAS when you listen…
I had already signed ‘Shaka Zulu’ to Ingredients so after a conversation with Clive Ingredients about the flip we decided that I should do a dirty break beat-led track. So I dug down deep into my samples and record collection for vibes and decided, ‘You can’t go wrong with a bit of Tramen and the Paris break!’
The fact that I got a 12 on Ingredients is an achievement because Clive (Ingredients head)is very particular about tracks he signs so it was a bit of a mission sorting a 12! Clive liked ‘Shaka Zulu’ straight away but he took an age on ‘Archive’ because he didn’t get the middle section but he got into it after he played it out. I think before then he’d only played it on laptop speakers and my bass-led tracks sound rubbish unless they’re played on a proper system!
Do you see the computer element in music good or bad, mentioning laptop speakers?
I’m not sure if it’s a good or bad thing. I enjoy sub bass and that comes from my reggae and soundsystem background. Don’t just listen to dance music at home: go to a club and hear it how it’s meant to be heard.
Do you enjoy Ingredients’ output as a fan, yourself?
I love a lot of tracks on the label. Response is an artist who catches my ear as he makes simple but effective tracks and he’s not afraid of breakbeats! Spirit and I are working with him at the moment and we’ve signed a track to V.
Speaking of Spirit, what’s your day-to-day communication with him, considering how far back you go?
Spirit and I probably speak every other day. We do our own thing too so we’re both easy going with arranging studio time together because he’s only a short drive from me. He comes to my studio to eat all my chocolate.
And your studio… could you tell me about it?
My studio is not what you imagine ha ha. I have a number of common things like the Native Instruments Maschine, Tla Audio m1 Valve Mixer, Rode Ntk Mic, Nocturn 25 Keyboard for hands on Automation and everything runs from my AppleMac via a UAD Apollo. The UAD Apollo holds a lot of analogue sounding compressors, delays and reverbs and combined with the Tla Audio mixer they give me a sound I’m happy with.
I work with samples and soft synths mainly from Rob Papen, Spectrasonics and Native Instruments. The soft synth world is all new to me because I’ve only really used samples up until 2010 so I’m having a bundle of fun! All this equipment would be boring to me if I didn’t have several different sets of monitors to play around with because I might be a bit of a speaker geek. I have:
– ADAM S3
– ADAM A7
– TANNOY Little Gold Monitor
– TANNOY Berkeley
– TANNOY Eaton
– ROGERS LS5/8 corner speakers
– TANNOY SRM 15
– TANNOY NFM 8
– CELESTION 662
– TANNOY T225
– AKG LSM 50, 3 pairs
– AURATONE, 4 pairs
– TANNOY Devon
Plus I have a few pairs lent to friends around Ipswich…
Back to your soundsystem upbringing, here’s a random thought: could dubplate culture come back?
I’m not sure because it’s too expensive.
Now to ‘Shaka Zulu’. I am thinking of the 70s with this one, what inspired it?
I had the bassline for ‘Shaka’ first and after I added the drums. I thought it sounded a bit tribal so I did the vocal myself ha ha. Yeah you’re probably right because I always have a small 70s dub fix every week.
You ever feel need to make albums? I was/am very very partial to the Dubzilla. Or is an album a different thing entirely, something to beapproached as an organism in itself?
I certainly do feel the need to make an album but that’s probably because I’m from that era of actually buying albums as opposed to going on Itunes and just buying the one track from an album you like the most. Back in the day when I bought an album I’d probably love a particular track but in the end I’d get in to most of the album but there’s so much music around nowadays I’m not sure the other tracks would get a chance. When I do 12 bangers I’ll do one.
Speaking of bangers, no Digital fan will rest until we hear a tale that involves ‘Deadline’.
The first time I played Deadline in St Neots, Cambridgeshire it went off bigtime. The crowd went mental but there must have been a few too many elbows around because only a minute and a half into the track there was bedlam!
There was blood, glass and screaming! I hadn’t been paid so I thought ‘Hmmmm, two turntables should cover it’ so my friend grabbed one while I was packing up but as he was making his way out amongst all the craziness the promoter appeared with my fee. I’ll never forget that.
