And it is written that in the Spring of 2014, that the one like Supreme Being has strode forth & handed down to us the Loco ep, and of one of the tracks He spoke that it was in fact “More interesting than Doughnuts and Costa Cappuccinos with a bit of Slayer”
If you’ve come to this page from non-D&B areas you may want to move on. You won’t understand any of this, particularly the part about Bass Creation. No, really.
When did the Loco ep come about sir?
I’d say around September/November last year but the track ‘Closed Doors’ was earlier in the year as it was about a break up I had around February time and I decided to stick it on the EP to show people there is actually more to me than loud noises and tinnitus inducing music ha ha
Did you set out to define tracks distinctly primed for the live arena, with the Loco ep?
Well to be honest when I first started producing releasable tracks that’s exactly what I would aim for. But I think when you start maturing with yourself and with creativity everything just becomes about whatever happens in the studio.
For the past couple of years I have made a lot of deeper tracks, some more festival friendly tracks and even House music and a bit of Hip Hop. The best thing to do is just go with the flow and see what comes out.
Could you name a tune and talk us through it in terms of when it came about and what the sessions were like?
I’ll pick ‘Marching Powder VIP’ as it’s more interesting than Doughnuts and Costa Cappuccinos with a bit of Slayer which fuelled the other tracks.
Basically the original came about when Myself & SubZero were stranded on Christmas when he didn’t venture back up North and my family was off somewhere.
I’m sure we were flicking through the channels on the box and got bored so we popped into the studio without any intention of actually making a full track together again, we threw in both of our Drum Kits onto the page and basically mashed them together and it had a really cool step to it then we both made a Bass each and got the Mic out and did the “Yeah” vocal for it. Beautifully sang if I must say myself without the aid of auto-tune.
The riff and rythm of the track just flowed naturally.
The VIP?
The VIP was when we were bored of playing the original but knew it had some more juice in it somewhere to make it more Aggy but we decided to make a new Kick from it and step up the drums a bit more to give it the more raw appeal and SubZero found this really cool sample talking about “100% Cocaine B*tches” and dropped that in and then the VIP was born.
I read that you love the technical side of things. I know the basics only and have to ask, isn’t bass just bass? How does it attain a sort of ‘scientific’ level?
Yeah it IS just a bass but you can tell a ‘five minute Bass’ or a preset compared to one someone has spent hours, even days on to sound the way they visioned it; it’s just like saying “Isn’t a Cappuccino just a Cappuccino?” If you stick a gingerbread shot in it its more than a cappuccino.
I actually take great pride in my synthesis as it separates a producer from another and this is why a lot of producers are sounding the same as each other lately due to preset packs and certain tutorials that pop up. There is a lot to synthesis, maybe more than most people in D&B know, it is basically the same as layering up a drumKit when you are creating one for a track. In the synth you have oscillators and the more of them the better as the sounds you start getting are more crazy with multiple oscilators all working at once to create one sound.
There is more to it but you can link FM to PM and then you can route it back around to each other so it has a constant loop between the Oscilators and then you get onto the Mod Matrix to start shaping the sound you have just Layered up and that is where the possibilities are endless: from one layered sound you can get 1000s of patches from it just by assigning an envelope to one oscillator or even sticking some pulse width on it or all of them but then you can even shape the envelope that shapes the osc and so on and so on.
You go in deep in this dept…
To be totally honest with you I have used up entire days in the studio just having fun with synths and creating new sounds with techniques I have never tried to hear what the outcome is. I’ve been thinking about hitting up one of these Sample Pack companies and showing them some of them to probably release out there as I have thousands of sounds, atmospheres and pads I have made that I’ll never use. It’s one thing that this scene lacks a lot lately down to these preset packs though and that is creative sounds as it is so easy for producers to just load in something that ‘Someone Else’ has created and cheer about how big their balls are.
What’s more technical aspects of D&B are you into?
Everything. I love doing it all from choosing which sample hits – Kick Drum, Snares to layer – are going to work. But the main thing that really grinds my gears is layering the snares, it’s like my arch nemesis! On the subject, I’ve been working on some more tracks with Original Sin and hopefully if he stops hiding the tracks these will see the day of light ha ha.
It annoys me slightly how quick he can sort a snare out: it takes me hours and he’s just like “Oh no just drop a little out of 700 out of that one and shit that one up by 2” in a Wake & Bake state of mind and it fits spot on.
I’m sure he has ears of a puma puma puma!!! (That was off Thundercats by the way… I’ll get my coat). Basically if anything you do creatively becomes a chore or starts feeling like it is actually work then you should STOP! You have to be as open minded as possible to do any of this and seriously enjoy it even when things don’t turn out the way you wanted it to it’ll just be something you can brush off as a learning curve.
So Loco is out on Image Audio, what’s next for the imprint?
What’s next?! Well I am currently writing another EP at the moment for Matrix & Futurebound’s Viper Recordings of which I am really excited to get out there once I have finished faffing around with mixdowns and I think it maybe my new home for my music. We’ll just have to wait and see what they think to the final product. Also as I mentioned earlier I have done a few collabs with Original Sin and they are pretty much finished so we will wait and see where they go.
any shouts?
Just want to thank God, Original Sin, SubZero, Taxman, Jaydan as they let me into their studio after I lost my old one. Also Modified Motion as he has helped me out a hell of a lot in tough times and hes a good guy for doing so.
All the promoters out there that have had me out to their shows Especially Jeremy & Erika over in LA: they put me up a lot last year. And finally my agent Jon at Nu Urban for putting up with me: he’s recently became a father but I think all of us on the agency definitely prepared him for FatherHood after looking after us all ha ha.
