Interview: Adam K & Chris D
Last year we took Five Minutes With High Maintenance following the release of his hugely successful Never Enough EP. As it turns out, he’s not High Maintenance by name alone; his perfectionist production standards have seen him in studio lockdown for the best part of 2013, gearing up for his latest killer 5-track EP on AudioPorn, Watching Me. As a producer who loves an uplifting vocal, we decided to chat to the man himself about his latest release and the music that fills him with nothing but positive vibes!
“I tell you what, 2013 has been probably one of the best years of my life to be honest!” he grins. “With the EP stuff really kicking off I’ve had a couple of plays on Radio One and 1Xtra which has been wicked. I threw out a release on Monstercat and I’ve had a lot of big artists coming to me asking about remixes. It’s just kicking off all over the place and I’m having a really great time. Even the gigs have been unbelievable – I did one in Paris at Cabaret Sauvage with Delta Heavy, Metrik, The Upbeats + more, and it was completely sold out before we even arrived. We were all stage diving. I was chatting to some beautiful French honey and I fell off the stage in front of about 2,000 people, so yeah this year has been positive vibes so far!”
Wow, that’s some year to date and we’re only in September! So talk us through the latest EP?
Okay so I did a track with Mediks to start off with and I really enjoyed working with them. We’re good mates so it was fun and I think both of our styles meshed well together. The beautiful vocal on Watching Me is by Georgina Upton and she was great to work with, too.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mamiu56fJ2o
Another track, Smash Brothers is available for free download from my Facebook page and it is receiving an amazing response. I probably shouldn’t have given it away for free. Haha!
Let You Go has another amazing female vocal from Katie’s Ambition who’s doing great things at the moment. Katie’s just performed at Global Gathering, so big up to her.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhNe655w5hA
You’ve also got The Future and Different Worlds which are more downtempo with a more of a dubstep/drumstep feel to them.
So you love a collaboration then?
I do like collabing with people a lot more now! I’ve just released a track with an artist called Muzzy which came out about a week ago on Monstercat and is doing well in the download stores.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUgO0AdKmdE
I’m also going to be doing a remix for Muzzy and another one for a guy called Razihel. The female vocalists on the EP are really talented and are all doing big things at the moment. We were joking in the studio about how hot Georgina Upton is, but if you can’t marry her then getting her to appear on your track has to be the next best thing, haha! I’ll definitely work with Katie’s Ambition again for sure. I literally send her a track and within a day she’s smashed out an amazing vocal on it.
So after having such a great year so far, what’s coming up?
I’ll be heading back to Paris for another gig soon and I’m playing Frequency in Brighton in October. I’ve also got a BBC 1Xtra mix on September 11th with Crissy Criss on his Drum & Bass Mix Show and I’ll be heading in for an interview about my new Watching Me EP and to talk about my exclusive guest mix.
Sticking with the positive vibes – what do you listen to or get up to away from the studio and D&B in general?
I wish I had something really exciting to come out with but all I listen to are my own 16-bar loops! I don’t get a chance to listen to much else at all. To be fair I just love spending time with my mates, it doesn’t matter if I’m at a gabba rave or wherever, as long as I’ve got my mates around me, I have a good time. I listen to quite a bit of French Electro when I get the chance and pretty much everything coming out on AudioPorn too.
A true AudioPorn star! So what we’d love to know are three tracks that give you that positive feeling. It can be any genre, any era – Go!
I’m a D&B head through and through and nothing makes me feel happier so it’s gonna be that vibe!
Sigma – Summer Calling (Tantrum Desire Remix)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swdI_jImlfM
I picked this because everything that Tantrum Desire does I want to put in my positive vibes list! The Taylor Fowlis vocals that Sigma got down have a really happy, bouncy vibe and the synths just make me smile, but still make me want to party hard. It’s a rare thing to get right.
Substantial Error – Sunshine (Mattix & Futile Remix)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgbtJZiTVG0
I picked this because they’re my mates haha! Nah, only messing, it basically will always remind me of last summer, living in Brighton with Xilent. I think the lyrics in the track really speak for themselves. I heard it before the last AudioPorn podcast that I did and it had only just been sent through to me. I fell in love with the track straight away and threw it straight into the podcast. Everyone needs to hear this tune!
Shock One – Home
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTAtYBcVIV0
It makes me feel like everything’s going to be okay! It’s probably by association. The first time I heard this we were driving about in my mates car and we broke down, and this was the track that was playing so it gives me that reassuring feeling!
High Maintenance – Watching Me is out now
