FD is long established as not only a far-ranging D&B producer, but as a super-collaborator – note his recent excursion with Lenzman premiered on Friction’s recent Radio 1 show. He’s recently delivered The Visits ep with Script which continues not only his stream of full-blooded & unique D&B but with, well, visitations by some other welcome names: notably the mighty System. First things first…
FD I have to ask if I’m the right track with that title, the inspiration behind it?
‘Locked Out’ on the ep was written on a visit back to London, and ‘So Real’ was written when Mark visited me in Berlin. One of the other tracks was written with another good friend when he visited me and so when thinking of a title, I wanted to come up with something that showed the EP was me working with friends, as well as me on my own.
‘Locked Out’? There’s got to be a story…
Yes… I was back visiting my Mum and Script was coming over to do a track. When he arrived, he wanted to go for a cheeky smoke in the garden. As we went out, he shut the door – a door that can’t be opened from outside! Our only option was to try and break in but the only unlocked window was at the top of the house, the third floor. Luckily for us, the neighbour had a ladder in his garden, so I sneaked over the wall, grabbed it and got up to the flat roof, where I had to jump up to the window. Luckily I made it and pushed the window up and got in! Thanks Mike!
The tune itself had several incarnations – we had an idea, scrapped it, had another, scrapped it – and then when this one started to form, with the mid bass hook being the key, we knew we were onto something!
There’s so much variety in the ep, how did it take shape?
Well, Ant had heard ‘Locked Out’ as Script had sent him a clip early on. He already knew he wanted to take it so I then sent him a couple of other tunes. He liked ‘Bleak’ and so we spoke about doing an EP. I sent over a few more bits and he liked a couple more, so then it was starting to look like a solid idea for an EP.
Two tunes remind me of some really ‘welcome’ phases of D&B. In one I get an echo of the fat sound you’d hear at The End about 2008, and in another an older echo of ‘liquid’ from about 1999. Is it just me?
Ha ha, I don’t know, I don’t think it’s just you though. The 1999 liquid one I can guess – ‘So Real’. Mark and I decided to do a tune together during Sun And Bass 2011 I think and we were talking about how we felt there was a total lack of musical stuff being made or played, that harked back to that era. It’s an era we’re both really fond of and certainly for me, grew up on – and so we wanted to try and do something that reminded us of that. I guess we succeeded then!
But yeah, totally a fan of other eras, I started listening in 1996, so I’ve been really lucky to be about when some great tunes from other times have been about.
Do you enjoy production, have fun with it?
It really varies. I’m not a natural by any means and have had to work hard to get my tracks to a point that I think they’re ok. I was also really quite deep into the music when I started making tunes, so I had really high expectations of what I wanted to achieve, only to feel mortified at the results I came up with!
Once I became more comfortable with making tunes, with my ability, I started to enjoy it more. And if I’m in the right mood when I sit down to it, or something just really flows out, yeah, I’m having a whale of a time!
I guess it harks back to the question about The End: your sound would be perfect for a big-hearted spot like that, soundwise…
Great that you say that as I think my love of D&B became really cemented when I started visiting The End when I was 17. I absolutely loved that place, every visit was so exciting, queuing for bloody hours, dreading my fake ID getting rejected and then the elation of getting in, walking down those stairs and through the doors.
I used to just stand at the back of the main room for hours on end, only leaving the dancefloor to fill up my water bottle at the fountain as you could still smoke inside then. I think The End and the parties that I went to there (Logical Progression, Ram, Hardware etc) really honed my taste, made me fall in love with the music – and so sure, I’d love to be able to recapture that feeling I had then, in my music now.
You talk about Mark and your work, how did it come to pass you’d work together?
I met Mark when I moved back to London in 2006 where he became a staunch supporter of the Medium parties I used to help run, being a resident MC for us. He was one of the first people to hear my early tunes and was always massively supportive and offering really helpful advice. I’m a huge fan of his music, in fact think he’s one of the best drum and bass producers around at the moment and so when we first talked about making a tune together (at Sun And Bass 2011 I think), I was super up for it.
And on topic of collabs, what are some big collabs you’d cite over the years?
Marcus Intalex & ST Files
Ed Rush & Optical
Code 3
Break & Fierce
Mist:i:Cal
I could talk about music and influences all day with you… what’s a ‘big’ album, the session of which you’d have loved to have been at?
Wu were massive for me – Liquid Swords and 36 Chambers being probably my favourite LPs. So yeah, that would be sick.
Also: a friend made me buy Music for the Jilted Generation when it came out – I had no idea who Prodigy were at the time – and I fell in love with that LP, maybe one of the first electronic records I really experienced. I would’ve loved to see Liam Howlett write that, the number of ideas and hooks he crammed into every tune.
I have to dig deeper into your past: any exclusive Guilty Pleasures you have?
A couple that stick out at the forefront of my mind right now would be some pretty cheesy 70s and 80s numbers. ‘Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometimes’ by The Korgis – I put it in a mixed genre mix I did to promo this EP. I love it because I loved the version Baby D did in the early 90’s, another one of my first electronic LPs. It’s pretty cheesy, but I think it’s sick too – it’s super catchy and proper tugs at you.
To wrap up what is happening for 2014?
As for 2014, plenty more music – I’m really enjoying writing at the moment and I hope plenty of this will see the light of day – there’s already a few things that are cemented and a few more that hopefully will be coming soon. The first of those are a track with Collette on the new Sunandbass album called ‘Look Through Me’ and a track with Lenzman called ‘Joanie’s Theme’ on Platinum Breakz 4 on Metalheadz: both out early 2014 so keep an eye out for those!
