Scartip‘s from Derby and – apart from soon releasing his Soul Monopoly ep on Shookz firing Lighterworks imprint – is possibly the first artist in D&B to channel confrontational nihilist punk icon GG Allin… cue sharp intake of breath. But don’t be alarmed if you know GG: the only trouser filling activity will be bass frequency-related, and he tends to deal in ‘filth’ of a much more practical and useful nature than GG’s too. Either way it’s MONDAY, so we should go in…
Scartip you – fittingly – have this rather incisive, blazing sound, is it honed from much live experience?
Cheers! I think it’s more from going to loads of raves when I was first getting into D&B and the sort of tracks that made me go mental played a big part in the influence.
Though playing out does obviously help with crowd reaction, as does ‘studying’ arrangements from established, seasoned producers for example Noisia, Hazard, Break, Enei the list goes on.
‘Expect Conflict’ is so ugly!
It’s just a track primarily aimed at the dancefloor; tried adding several different bass-stabs as opposed to a single rolling b-line. I can’t really remember making it in all honesty!
Well, I obviously remember but I mean can’t remember anything specifically I did, though the vocal sample is from an interview with GG Allin who was a controversial American punk artist from the late 80s/early 90s. The guy had lost the plot, used to fight with his audience and s**t live on stage so you could argue the track title was inspired by that!
What D&B through time do you love?
I think the D&B out at the moment is some of the best there’s ever been, at least since I’ve been into it which is the past decade or so.
My favourite label by a mile is Critical and I think Kasra, as well as dBridge with Exit are always trying to push the sound forward and support the evolution of D&B instead of relying on stagnant, generic, tried and tested styles.
Also artists like Fracture, OM Unit, Stray and Alix Perez are mish-mashing slower tempos and other genres like Footwork and Grime with D&B which I think is very interesting.
What’s three tracks from the past you’d cite that people SHOULD know… that maybe don’t?
Though technically not a single track, Hazard’s Machete Bass EP: very track is utter filth and reminds me of some quality raves.
HOLD UP: let’s pause and remember those tracks: ‘Machete’, ‘Trouble Maker’, ‘Killers Don’t Die’, ‘Cowards Beware’… amazing.
Noisia ‘Friendly Intentions’… say no more.
Bailey ‘African Descent’. Out of the three it’s the least well known, if you haven’t heard it, listen!
Back to the release, ‘Hear Dis’ is devious,, can you tell us more?
This was supposed to be quite mellow and ‘tribal’ sounding but then I added a few chopped up amens and then it went a bit ragga-esque!
Like the vast majority of tracks I make, try not to have a solid plan beforehand: just crack on and see what the end result is, though a lot of stuff I make never sees the light of day due to this spontaneous method… as it can sometimes sound dreadful!
Do you spend a lot of time on the tunes then or do they come about quite fast when you are in the mode? I like the ‘layering’ of sounds on this…
It’s very spontaneous: I try and get a basic arrangement done quickly then work from that. Layering bass sounds isn’t a brand new technique and for ‘Hear Dis’ especially I think there was at least five or six different layers.
So tell us some more about the Scartip studio techniques?
I use Logic X and it has a ‘bounce in place’ function which is really handy for experimenting because if it sounds rubbish you can quickly delete, tweak and try again with little effort.
I also have two projects open simultaneously when producing: one for the actual track and the other for sound design and sample building, can get quite messy doing all in the same project so having one specifically for building sounds is quite useful. A little tip there!
What else besides the Soul Monopoly is in the works for you?
Doing a lot of stuff with Sleep Less Recordings and Odyssey Recordings both of which have EPs forthcoming and an album coming out either later this year or early next year on Odyssey. A few collabs I’m not mentioning and some releases I’m keep close to the chest but hopefully some more stuff with Lighterworks!
Any shouts?
Yeah, the Mrs Rachel, Koot, Tripz, the Diffusion crew, Mc SAS, Sid from Odyssey, Leon from Chromatic, Bloom and Sublemonal promoters, filthy Gaz, all my mates who hate Drum & Bass and a special massive shout to Shookz!