If you had the chance to work with any artists, from any genre and any time, who would they be? This is the line of enquiry each Work Experience session will take with D&B’s finest.
First up is Playaz man Sub Zero, who, we learn, has never had another job bar heavyweight tune-mongering. “Not really, no,” he laughs. Surely he must have done some time in one crappy job? “Honestly, no. I had to live like a fucking pauper for about 15 years but I’ve only done what I wanted to do!”
Props to that. And props to his recent super sharp shocking six-pack of slammers… Out this week, the Bi-Polar EP includes the effortlessly evil snarler Run N Hide, the soulful Broken Me and the woozy drifter Protection… A tune that’s a big hit with his family.
“Yeah my step mum says Protection is her new favourite tune,” he chuckles. “It’s great. I’m well into reaching out to as many people. Doing tracks like Brighter Days last year really opened my eyes to how far you can push things. Brighter Days isn’t really a dancefloor tune, it’s not about the big drop but with these it’s all about the mood and vibe of the track. Reactions from people like Goldie and Friction have taught me you can go a different way and people still want to hear it.”
Expect plenty more eclectic, wide eared bi-polar beats from Sub Zero soon. In the meantime, let’s check out his time travelling CV wishlist…
The Weeknd
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGfb9TkLnWE
“These Canadian guys make really crazy RnB. One of them produces, the other one sings over the top of them. They’re really really deep productions, very spacey and airy. Some of it is a bit like Burial but a bit more commercial and maybe not quite as bleak. His voice is incredible, if I could get him to lay down some vocals that would be amazing. The tones and emotions are electric! As soon as I heard him I said ‘I really want to record a voice like that!’ Ha! Good luck with that one…”
Noisia
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dJHP0brCnI
“I’d give anything to be in the studio with these three and see what’s going on! The intensity of the music… I just want to be a fly on the wall and know what the fuck what they’re doing in there! To begin with I think they were almost a bit too much, a bit too mental, but they’ve really settled into their sound and stripped it back a lot more. There are so many amazing ideas in their music, it’s mind boggling what they do, as a listener and as a producer.”
Pink Floyd
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCQTr8ZYdhg
“I’ve been massively, massively influenced by them since the age of 13. They had such a leftfield approach to song writing and go really deep. The whole approach to album writing was crazy; it was almost like they wrote a book or a movie. It wasn’t a collection of songs, it was a whole canvas. If I could go back to 1979 and work with them? I’d sign up to that definitely!”
And if that’s not enough Sub Zero action for you today… You can check out his top 10 here