Cardiff’s prolific Undersound writes the sort of layered, sinuous D&B that may call to mind another Welsh contemporary: High Contrast, at least in terms of a shared thoughtful and thought-inducing way of creating. It comes as no surprise that they’ve worked together.
We spoke about that initial meeting with HC, his prolific history and his other forays… such as for Brazilian label LuvDisaster.
First off what are ‘The Old Words’?
The title ‘The Old Words’ is based on the lyrics in the track which come from an old gospel spiritual called ‘the old ship of Zion’
This convention of cool/open-ended titles extends through your music… is D&B an extension of thought, for you? I know that sounds crass but to some ‘it’s just dance music’.
Yeah, for me the creative process runs further than just writing the tune.
I like to have a title that reflects the mood of the track and also if there’s any lyrical content it must coincide with that too. Sometimes it’s a preconceived idea at the beginning of the track, but sometimes it’ll organically grow with the track depending on a vocal.
I like having titles that provoke thought and imagery.
Any writing aids you have?
I keep a note file on my iPhone called ‘songs, albums, ep titles and cool phrases’. Bit weird, but I find you never know when something will inspire you, so it’s best to keep notes. I very rarely come up with a track title just sat in the studio. I am usually out and about and I see or hear things that I think would be a cool song title.
Do you have an example?
I had one recently when I was teaching a drum lesson and the pupil was telling me about his brother Jamie’s imaginary guitar. So I have a track on my forthcoming Luv Disaster ep called ‘Jamie’s imaginary guitar’. I might make it the ep title too.
I’ve also recently started providing background images for my ep artwork too, because I like to take photos as a hobby.
You also have a tune called ‘The Great Consumer Meltdown’, on the titles front…
I very rarely get political, but I do have my views on our society and titles like ‘The Great Consumer Meltdown’ is my little dig at our consumerist nature as a human beings. Even though we are all guilty of enjoying the finer things in life.
I’m sure people will want to delve into your back catalogue now it’s mentioned, so what are some tunes you’d cite, as an intro to Undersound?
I guess if we go with a mixed bag of recent ones, there’s:
‘Even When You’re Not There’ on Sliced Note recordings, ‘Songs of Silence’ on LuvDisaster records, ‘Broken Peace Is?’ (below) and ‘Treading the Boards’ both on Bassdrive Tunes; ‘If I Should Lose You’ on Think Deep recordings, ‘8th Sun’ on Black Reign records’, ‘Soul Testify’ on Bassdrive tunes.
If you work with LuvDisaster, will you visit Brazil at some stage?
Ha, well I’m getting married in September 2015 so me and the future Mrs Evans plan on going to Hawaii for a honeymoon… so might try and wangle a South America detour!
What music apart from D&B do you love?
Wow, I love all music, such a cliché I know but I started playing the piano at five, trumpet at seven, French horn by eight, drums by ten, guitar by twelve. I’ve played in orchestras all my life so have been immersed in classical music my entire life. I grew up listening to my Dad’s old ’60s and ’70s 45s such as Beach Boys, Beatles, 10cc and so on and I toured in a ska band for years too. Right now I gig in a band with a very talented guitarist & singer called Bella Collins.
You can check out my non D&B page for all my other musical ventures.
You go back with High Contrast and you played on his album Tough Guys Don’t Dance too, I know he loves sourcing various samples, films and ‘real’ instruments…
Yes Lincoln is a friend of mine. I met him back in 2006 after going on a surf trip to the south of France with his brother-in-law. I’ve since played guitar, piano, horns, and arranged and recorded some strings for him.
He’s definitely been a huge influence of mine.
Yes, I also love films and often look to films for inspiration for tracks and titles. I’ve recently begun composing speculative music for film and TV music libraries.
So what’s your fave ‘real’ instrument?
Truthfully – the cello. Even though I can’t play it, I think it is one of the richest sounding and most expressive instruments. However, I usually just say whichever instrument I’m playing at the time, but that is a bit of a cop out. I feel like I’m always pushing myself as a guitar player: I’ll do a gig, think I sucked, then spend six hours the next day practicing.
Got any shouts?
Ceris, Gareth Warmachine, Dan, Donovan and Louis at Bassdrive. Oliver Ferrer and the Luv disaster guys over in Sao Paulo, Andy Sim at think deep, Dan at Nexgen, Max over at Black Reign, Ash attack at Directors Cut, Gareth ‘Kooley’& Ali ‘Missrepresent’.
Undersound sc
The Old Words/Meeting by Undersound/Spyre