Gremlinz has teamed up with Jesta – that’s them above, a unique photo too, incidentally – to drop ‘The Axe’. The fact that such an act is coupled with a mention of a ‘White Dove’ is pretty hardcore too.
[Check the Paradox Music show at the end for more precision choppage too, it’s staggering: crank it up.]
Hey what’s new you two, I feel you’ve been busy.
Gremlinz: I guess you could say that, especially as of recent. Along with the Paradox release, I have an EP forthcoming with Ink & Ahmad on Tempo as well a track on Hospital’s Future Sounds of Canada EP.
Ruffhouse & I have also started up our own imprint ‘UVB-76 Music’ last year which is nearing its fifth release!
How have you changed in recent times would you say? In regard to beats etc.
Gremlinz: I’d say overall, my approach to production has shifted quite a bit. Lately, I’ve really taken to exploring a lot of new production techniques and sound design. Since Jesse/Jesta has been actively making music again – he took a bit of a hiatus to focus on his clothing line ‘F as in Frank’ and do the family thing – we’ve both had a lot of fun nerding out with plugins and Logic.
Jesse was one of the first people to sit down with me and show me how to make beats and he also has quite some experience under his belt as a producer… the late 90’s early 2000’s saw him release music as a member of Catchin Wreck on TOV and MC Fearless and Toronto’s Ruckus’ ‘Hustlin Beats’.
Picking up up certain inflections in this music re the tones, the samples, the breaks… is there a certain era in D&B which is inspiring you OR is it a case that this music is just a natural outpouring, with no references really.
Gremlinz: My favorite era was definitely the Mid 90s – early 2000s. All the stuff coming from Reinforced, Metalheadz, Prototype, 31 Records, GLR, Renegade Hardware and others. Really spoke to me and has always been very influential.
There’s no doubt that some of my inspiration draws from that period; however, a big part of making music to me is just letting things flow naturally.
Jesta: Gabriel and I came up in the same era. We were big in Jungle in the early 90’s and were in a crew together, with some other close friends. In 2014 I decided to get back into producing, as I needed a creative outlet.
Gabriel helped bring me back up to speed as the technology had completely changed.
Considering we came up liking the same artists and sound, we work very naturally together and since we are really close friends… the workflow is very smooth.
Can you take us into ‘White Dove’?
‘White Dove’ was a bit of a journey for me. We had ‘The Axe’ done and had been sitting on it for a little while but I was struggling a bit to come up with a flip. I wanted to do something special but was feeling a bit stuck.
After some thought, I decided to revisit a break that had been used on ‘Nibiru’ but go in with a completely different vibe.
I love the rawness of the break and really wanted that to be the emphasis of the track. Around that time, one of my friends Brad aka DJ Lush and I were going through loads of early 90s warehouse music which also influenced the vibe of the track. The pad that comes in midway is a nod to that era.
Need to also shout Nick from Ruffhouse, who helped me think of the name.
What about ‘The Axe’: I love the energy in this, the flow, and imagine this live.
Gremlinz: Initially ‘The Axe’ started with a break that Jesse put together. He brought the project by and I expanded on it with the ethereal vocals and melody. The rest of it just fell into place. We weren’t really trying to do anything specific at the time with it and we just kept feeding off each other’s ideas and it just evolved into the final version.
‘The Axe’ had the vibe of a live jam session while we were working on it.
What music’s in your head on the day to day? Got a few things that you like I can embed?
Gabriel: Usually listen to a lot of Soul, Jazz, Hip Hop, some rock, Dub, Reggae, as well as tones of mid to late 90’s Reinforced, Metalheadz & Prototype D&B especially to and from work. Like the below.
‘Rascalz ‘Really Livin’
Tunes from Sci-Clone like ‘OD’
Betty Lavette ‘Only Your Love Can Save Me’
LeRoy Hutson ‘Lucky Fellow’
Jess: I listen to lots of jazz in my car, lots of early jungle / hardcore also (93-94). I also listen to lots of early to mid 90’s east coast hip hop… Black Moon, AZ, Nas, OGC, DITC and so on.
Any album from any era: which studio session would you have liked to have sat in on?
Gremlinz: Rascalz Really Livin’. This album is one of my favorites of all time; DJ Kemo being a producer I really looked up to.
It woulda been sick to see witness how all those smoked out grooves where put together. Honorable mentions would be 4Hero Two Pages and Jazzanova In Between.
Jess: Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall. This was an album that I listened to as a kid, as my folks played it allot. It was so well produced and I would have liked to see the creative process and the technical aspects of this production… mixing, processing, recording techniques…
Any shouts?
Ink, Loxy, Clayton, Yoko, Paradox, Rumbleton, Ruffhouse, Skitty, Overlook, Clarity, Doc Scott, Storm, Amit, Randall, Presha, Goldie, Ant TC1, Adred, Rhyan Paul, Nucleus, Seba, Chris BMT, A Sides, Mantra, Double O, Threshold, Digital, Spirit, Nomine, Antidote, Mako, DLR, Total Science, JJ Frost, Hydro, War, Acid Lab, Aspect, Mystic State, Silo, Landlord, Drewzal, Suffer, Levrige, Danga, Rohan @Bassbin, dBridge, The Untouchables, Mental Forces, LXC, Heath at Warm, Outer Heaven, Simon Shreeve, AxH, J:Kenzo, Youngsta, Sleeper, Leon Switch, Jubei, Yovtek, Klim, Djinn, skeptical, Dup Phizix, Strategy, Thelem, T-Man, Collinjah, Khanage, Lush, Marcus visionary, Rene LaVice, Mutt, Outlook, Stranjah, Kat, Adrian Go, VC, UP, Keaton, Bryan Gee, Stretch, Kyrist, Akinsa, Artilect, Naibu, Raj at @Hot Stuff, Lee Garden, Swattow, New Sky, Nabby & Warren, our families & all our friends.
PM033 Paradox Music Vol.22 Radio Show