Malux has unleashed the fracktastic pairing of ‘Turbine’ / ‘Fonk’ on Bad Taste and we started off on the momentum front as it seemed only fitting, given the insanity of both the cover art and music…
How’s 2016 been for you?
Don’t know about the rest of the year but January has been pretty good so far! Been pleasantly surprised with the response with the first single and excited to keep up the momentum.
How does this artist approach/name differ from Skope, your other guise?
Malux is a way for me to enjoy more dance floor and energetic sounds, D&B has always been a highlight for me in my sets so it was natural that I started making more and more of it.
It also means the Skope stuff can go a bit more weird and less set on the dancefloor.
Can you tell us how you linked with the Bad Taste crew?
Yeah, I had worked with Kloe there before as Skope with Caliber Music. So she was open to hearing some of the drum and bass and thanks to her we have been planning this release for a while now.
First off what is inspiring you right now? You are completely inside the music.
A lot of things really, there is some great music across the board around at the moment, both new artists and familiar ones. Always love to see what tracks Noisia put in their radio shows, both halftime stuff and the D&B.
Also in the studio I’m getting inspired by analogue and outboard gear a lot; I have been experimenting with building processing chains in the real world to get a more human/organic sound.
And what inspired ‘Turbine’?
I think I’ve always loved triplets, just a little bit cheeky, and I wanted to lead with a good energetic dance floor track and thats what I set out to do with it.
And… the cover art!! Wow, it’s epic. How was it conceived? It’s not something you see every day.
I had nothing to do with that I’m afraid. I absolutely love it though. I think he captured the vibe perfectly without any direction from me! These are the guys responsible for that.
Take us into the flip, ‘Fonk’…
Again, high energy was the idea.
I think it started out with the weird ARP on the intro. I wanted a more musical and detailed intro for this one and had a lot of fun working on the synths for it.
And speaking – yet again! – about inspiration who are your heroes in D&B?
That will depend on what day of the week it is. I jump around and listen to lots of different styles of music so I’m always inspired by different things.
And drum and bass is no exception, so many sub styles and like lots of them. Heroes are probably obvious, Noisia, Phace, Mefjus… they go without saying!
Also into DLR and Break and the more rolling sort of stuff, then the tech stuff like Signal and Brain Crisis.
Disprove is killing it lately as well.
Loads more too, I’m hearing good tunes across the board these days.
So what sort of things will you draw live? Do you play out?
Not yet as Malux, although speaking to agents so hopefully before the year is done. You can expect more like my Bad Taste podcast…
Lots of high energy tunes as we’ll as a few rollers, plus lots of new and forthcoming material!
What tune is in your head right now?
This…
What’s next this year… what you got planned? Any new gear on horizon?
Lots of singles, EPs, collaborations, free tracks, trying to keep the flow of music constant basically. I’m spending a lot of time in the studio at the moment so lots to come this year.
Love my recent purchase of the Sherman Filterbank, a great new studio toy which is hours of fun.