The D&B world stood still in shock earlier this year as Chris Octane and Jay DLR announced their split. With a killer album and huge reputation under their belt, no one saw it coming. Well, no one bar Chris and Jay themselves.
DLR told us all about it ages ago. Now it’s time to catch up with Octane. His new label CORE is the platform for a totally different breed of Octane beats. The debut – Synthetic/Gaia’s Dub – came out last week. And, let’s just say his studio experiments have resulted in some of the deepest and cosmic inspirations you’ll ever read on a music blog…
(Interview – Adam K & Chris D)
“I managed to find a lecture from this professor who was taking about a concept called the holographic universe which is something I’m really interested in. It’s basically the idea the mind just builds everything around you and nothing is actually there, and with everything in Synthetic being built from synthesis, that was the concept behind it.”
Wow, big things to get the ball rolling on this interview…
I know it’s deep, but that’s the whole idea behind starting CORE as a label in that it gives me a way to experiment. Gaia Dub is basically complete and utter madness and a totally different style. I tried to make it sound really earthy and natural, rather than saw and square waves mixed about, a real natural, organic song so that’s why I went for Gaia’s Dub. It’s this big, natural-sounding, weird, tribal…thing!
The sub on it sounds wicked in a club; I’m just not sure if people are going to get it. There’s so much music now and you try and listen to a lot of it, people flick through lots of tracks. If it doesn’t hit people right away they pass it over, and that’s my only concern that it might not hit people in that way as it’s a track you really have to listen to and try and understand with an open-mind. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing, but hopefully people will look back and realise how much time and effort went into creating that sound.
And has CORE been something you’ve been contemplating for a while?
I think more artists should have their own label just that you can completely remove that industry/label pressure of having to sound a particular way. A lot of labels have a niche sound for themselves but it can get a bit stale in some respects which is part of the reason for CORE. People might wonder who the hell this lunatic is, but it gets my artistic side out there so we’ll see what happens.
We’ve got a few collabs in the works as well. I’m really keen to push to work with people who are doing something a bit different and a bit crazy. I’m starting something with Raiden shortly and I’m really into his music, he’s a wicked, wicked producer.
Can you see yourself working with DLR again?
To be honest we’ve spoken about going our separate ways for a long time and doing our own, fresh things. The way it is now, we’ve really gone in different directions in our approach. I’d like to hope at the end of this year we can get together and write tracks again as our sounds now are so different that some really cool stuff might come out of it.
We could always hear each other in the track and you could hear who influenced what part of certain tunes. I think with both of our stuff coming out people will recognise the different styles that came out on our previous tracks. I’m more of a technical guy whereas Jay was more musical. I love hearing his solo stuff as well so it’s wicked that we’re both getting on it.
So how have you coped with the lonely nights in the studio?
It’s a blessing and a curse working solo because I’d be going crazy with frustration about something that I’d written in the studio saying I didn’t like it or wanted to start it over, and Jay would be there to say it’s fine, it’s wicked. We’d both come back at the end of the track and agree whether we were happy with it or not. Now you don’t have that opinion to fall back on, no one to say if they reckon it’s alright or if something needs changing etc, so I’m constantly battling with myself about what I like, so with all the experimentation I’ve no idea if I’m going too far!
Are you going to look to bring more people on board when CORE takes off? Are there any artists who get you juices flowing?
It’s not a label that’s been made to compete with the major labels or try and be the next big thing, it’s just a place for me to work some more experimental ideas from. There’s a lot of great upcoming music out there at the moment where artists have been nurtured properly and given the chance to grow and develop. L33 has got some wicked, wicked sounds coming out. It’s really original and I’ve been massively impressed with his production. A lot of the kids coming through are really talented but some are dropped as quickly as they’re picked up because every major label is constantly trying to pick up the next big thing.
And away from D&B, how do you kick back?
I’ve actually been listening to a lot of folk recently and looking for ways to expand my knowledge and influences. Folk is great for chilling out and getting away from long DNB production sessions. I’m even thinking of taking up an instrument to try and understand the mechanics of song writing a little bit better.
So we can expect some sort of folk-step soon then?
Haha, I’ll probably try it now that you’ve mentioned it!
Synthetics / Gaia’s Dub is out now. Listen and download.