Wreckless has been, well, wrecking my sleep lately with this stellar release via AutomAte. It takes hold inside and locks the door. Time to catch up with the Prof himself to speak at depth, not to mention taking some unexpected twists along the way… Slipknot, Prince, Paramore and Audio in the same piece, anyone?
Hello again. Is ‘As The Cold Hits’ about the changing world, the changing seasons, or about the world inside all of us, that we each carry and are responsible for? Sorry to get metaphysical on your ass.
Yeah man I’m so happy it translates well; it’s using the changing seasons as a metaphor to represents seasons of us changing as people.
Is this the sound of you live right now?
Yeah that sounds about right.
My DJ set is based on something my mate Necrobia told me about Slipknot. They try and play every show like it is going to be the last one they ever do. I try to take on the same mindset and play every set like it will be the last one.
So if that means relentlessly hard, techy D&B then so be it. It just means that some of the time tunes come out sounding super cold and minimal so they’ll fit in my sets.
I love rolling beautiful D&B to make and to listen to. But when you are in the dance you need energy and snares that shake bones!
What is inspiring you? Five things perhaps?
1) Writing music to a conceptual brief that has been thought about extensively before I sit down in the studio.
2) Using found sounds that I have recorded in my tracks to add a new edge.
3) Imposing limitations on my own work to force me to be more creative in the way I create my ideas and achieve particular sounds.
4) Using my hands to manipulate sounds with keyboard controllers. It was a tip from Optical and it works.
5) When I am writing I try and image the place that it will be played. It really helps.
Related: what do you know this year that you didn’t last year?
How important it is to read about your favourite subject. I have been reading so much this year on my commute. It has opened my eyes to so many ideas.
When did ‘Inhale’ come about… wow, what a killer.
Thank you very much. I had the idea to try a track that had a snare which played at three different capacities. One is close and dry no reverb, one has space and slight verb. The third has full reverb and extra layers. I wanted people to be able to hear the evolution of my snare inside a finished track.
I also sampled the beer keg from ‘Duality’ as one of the layers. Love that sound so much.
I did a special version of ‘Inhale’ that only two people have with a big female vocal over it.
I’m one of them and I’m gonna play it out live exclusively.
What books/films/music are you into right now? What’s the cultural fabric as it were?
Been reading a book called ‘Audio Culture’ which is a collection of readings about modern music. I am also reading a book about improving my vocabulary. I learnt the word ‘nexus’… might use that as a track title if a concept comes to mind.
In music I’m loving Audio’s stuff at the minute and Hybris’ new LP on Invisible for D&B. Been listening to a lot of Paramore recently and a little bit of Prince too, mixing it up.
Not got much to say about films… so if anyone has any good suggestions let me know @prof_wreckless
