SB81: with a name like that you realise that D&B hasn’t changed. Not at all, ever. It’s the same autonomous force as ever, the same singlular, nameless vibe that simply works.
His Sculptures ep is now looming large and ominous on Headz – check the tracks titles! – and so we dug in.
Hi, I love the atmosphere on this one. For me it’s late nights, rain, dank city streets… first off where you based?
Thank you! I’m based In Wolverhampton.
What if anything influenced ‘Sculptures’? Or is it organic and nothing influenced it? I love the synths. The DELAY on the synths even. It’s pure magic this tune.
I think the general influence on ‘Sculptures’ was from the initial samples I’d collected from a few old Metalheadz releases. Goldie gave me free rein to go through the back cat.
I’ve always been inspired by tracks that have a dark, moody but nice kind of vibe all at the same time, and I guess that is what I’ve tried to push on this one.
Where can we find you playing out this style? I want to be in the spot that plays this, a big cold PA doing it justice too.
My next gig is in London for Soul In Motion on the 2nd December. I do have three or four bookings under my Nolige alias but that is for the more Jungle side of things. I understand that I’m fairly new to the scene again with me using a fresh alias and a different sound, but basically I’m screaming out for more SB81 bookings because it’s a bit of a shame that I don’t get to showcase the more fresher/future sounding stuff that I’m loving at the moment.
Who in the scene is inspiring you?
I do try to not get too influenced by other artists because I’d like to take my own journey with the music. But… the artists that I’m feeling the most are dBridge, Blocks & Escher, Om Unit, Kid Drama and Digital.
‘Final Cut’ kills me, it’s bloody slate grey. Yes.
I remember with this one that it flowed very quick and natural when producing it. I love it when music comes together like that because I think you really do get a part of your soul down and lose yourself when you are in the moment of not thinking too hard about what you are doing.
Out of all the tracks on the EP I do like this one the most because it’s going in a direction I’ve wanted to go in for a while; in a sense that it is a bit more stripped back and minimal to my previous tracks.
‘Never Mind’ is a jittery one, you’re out there looking over your shoulder with this one!
This one, like ‘Final Cut’, shares the same kind of sentiments in terms of letting myself go and trying to see how deep and different I can take things. I’ve always liked to play with beat patterns and try to get a bit creative with them because for me it’s the backbone of a track and the vibe pretty much stems from that.
People have said that it has an Optical vibe to it, but I didn’t hear that until someone said it, which is nice to hear because I’m a massive Optical & Matrix fan of their early stuff.
The Virus guys are the producers that essentially inspired me to go into production in the first place so I have a lot of respect for them.
So how did the Headz linkup happen?
The linkup came from me sending a certain unofficial remix I’d done of an old Metalheadz release. I knew Dan who was working with them at the time and he said he’d pass it onto Goldie, but I’d not heard anything back for about two weeks, so I decided to sent it again but this time straight to Goldie instead; I got a not so pleasant response back. Which is fully understandable to be honets ha ha.
Luckily I’d got four other fresh things at hand so I sent those over too. Luckily G liked them straight away and that was that basically.
Last words on the ep? It’s a f*cking mental ep.
I’m just really happy to see this release get out there and to finally get on the main Metalheadz label with the artwork, which I must add I supplied… an image I’d taken of some artwork I was working on in college at the time. That was a nice thing to be able to add to the release that I appreciate Headz, for letting me get involved.