Fre4knc beams in to take us though his killer pairing for the Plasma Audio crew, venturing right in on the production front. And don’t mention the ex…
Can you take us behind ‘Chain of Command’? It rolls out. I love how you’ve put some much effort into the details of the overall sound…
Thank you! Yes I love to work in detail. The main goal was to make something different. I tried to make a flow with many different and unusual sounds. It took me a lot of time to find the right flow, but I think it worked out pretty well.
It’s great to see how it’s getting picked up at the moment.
Where exactly do you produce, do you have a state of the art set up as it were? What are your favourite elements of this studio?
My “studio” is in my own apartment in Groningen. The first two or three years, when I started making music, I worked on an old PC with shitty monitor speakers, but in 2014 I started building a more proper studio.
I have an i7 PC, another PC for frequency analysis, a Novation 49SL Keyboard, A RME Fireface UC, SPL 2Control, Neumann Mic, Adam Audio A7 monitor speakers and Avantone speakers to check how it sounds on a shitty soundsystem.
And further many many plugins of course. I’m still searching for a Sherman filterbank. I love plugins like Altiverb and Izotope’s Thrash 2. You can make really weird stuff with these two. Further, the standard frequency analysis is helping me a lot production-wise. Sometimes you can’t hear there is some muddy low-end in a sample or VST, but you can see it immediately.
Due to that I think my mix-downs are getting better way easier.
Does this all transfer to graphic arts too? Do you work in visual areas too?
My own artistic skills are horrible to be honest. I do enjoy graphic art though. I’m always astonished by work from M.C. Escher, and a lot of tattoos from Chaim Machlev/Dots To Lines. I love patterns and abstract stuff.
I remember I did a minor on an artistic school many years ago. I was quite ashamed when I had to present what I made in three months, ha ha! In the past I was a product developer, so I’m more a designer guy.
Next to that I work a lot with visual artists for video-trailers. I really enjoy making sounds and an atmosphere for visuals.
To ‘Sinjek’, the same applies as at top regarding details in sound, & it really transports me. Do you get mental images when you produce?
Mental images? No not really, maybe I should!
I just sit down and try stuff, than suddenly there is a 32 bars loop with beats, sub, atmos and mids.
If I can listen to this loop for 30 minutes without getting annoyed I’m on the right path and I’ll try to finish it. If not, I have to change something. It’s just a vibe thing and that’s why I can’t make totally full over-energetic dancefloor bangers I guess.
I would get annoyed!
If this tune was a place, what would it look like?
I think somewhere in a dark an humid cave with loads of stalactites and stalagmites?
What’s the title inspired by?
Well, now we’re getting personal! When my girlfriend left me she was not really subtle. I was very moody and I started this project. The working title was a weird abbreviation of Schop in je Kut, which is Dutch for a certain phrase… I liked the word ‘Sinjek’ though, so I kept it, ha ha!
You’ve released on a lot of labels. Tell us about the Plasma people and your connection.
I’m quite loyal to Samurai, Dispatch and Noisia’s Invisible as they put quite some effort in to my work. But when Safire offered me a release on Plasma, and showed me his plan, it was quite easy to say yes. I love the way how they run their label.
What spots around the globe are most receptive to your particular sound? What sort of audience do you play to?
I’m getting a lot of support worldwide, but mostly from the UK, Australia, Russia and Italy for example. The crowds I play for are quite varied, especially as I play for 1500 people on Noisia Invites gigs, but also for 250 people at smaller gigs.
I love them both though as I see bassfaces at every gig.
How is D&B changing do you think? Any signposts that make you think that change is afoot?
I think the funk is getting back a bit, which is a good thing! But I also hear some EDM influences in the Beatport top 100. I’m not really into that, but I’m sure it’s attracting new heads which is good for the whole D&B scene. Most bigger events in The Netherlands are all quite heavy, so I’m a bit on an island in my own country. But it’s changing, bit by bit.
All in all I’m not following the scene that much. I just do my own thing and as long as people like it, I’m there!
Any shouts?
Shouts go to Ben Safire and AK from the Plasma Collaborative for their great work and effort. Noisia, Ant & Alex from Dispatch, Presha from Samurai, Amoss, Mindmapper, Silvahfonk, Clive from Evolution Artists, Arjen Robben and all the people who buy my music. Love you all!
