Yung E has stepped in with his unique mindset and background to create his own signature sound in the form of ‘Cosmic Dust’ and – there’s that word again – ‘Mindset’. His cerebral, fibrous, synapse-shaking beats have already appeared via Basher’s Proximity, and he’s set to drop something mid-Summer via another new imprint too. But in the meantime let’s find out about this fluid batch for Nurtured Beatz… and on a day of a spectacular, crystal clear eclipse it was only fitting to go in on a spacey level, let’s face it.
You’ve got a really great take on D&B here with ‘Cosmic Dust/Mindset’, tons of ideas and style. What sort of D&B bug bit you, what do you favour?
I find I have many influences inside D&B; the likes of Ed Rush and Optical and the Wormhole album, Konflict type vibes.Also stuff outside of D&B including dubstep, techno and even Hans Zimmer haha.
I’ve always been into the more techy, darker sound of D&B but also like making more musical stuff sometimes. I just try to write what I like and not watch too much what the scene is doing with new trends.
I’m more of a underground person. I do always find myself going towards the darker, techy bits.
You have a Dubstep pedigree and there’s a great crossover here: while some D&B people love going downtempo to a dubstep BPM as it brings different dynamics, something similar can be said for you as you step UP the tempo to 170…
I love making dubstep because of the tempo differentiation from D&B’s fast pace; there’s a lot more space with drum hits reverbs delays in dubstep.
Although, I feel that the more dubby DMZ type vibes of dubstep has lost its soul in recent years, I like what Proxima is doing – his stuff is spot on! On the other side, I do enjoy making D&B – Its the tempo, the groove and funk.
The possibilities are endless. It can be so advanced-sounding yet so sparse and minimal sounding too. It’s always good to write a bit of dubstep, house or techno to change up the tempo up every now and then. But for the moment, I’m just writing D&B.
You mention some faves, what other D&B do you like?
There’s loads! I like all sorts: more techy stuff. I’m into anything from Mefjus, Noisia, Gridlock, Xtrah and Safire but I also like Ivy lab. I love their stuff! There’s so much great music out there these days it’s hard to listen to it all.
What’s in the box right now?
Got some Ivy Lab, Cern, Gridlock, Nurtured beatz bits and pieces, Xtrah, Safire… But I really like to play classics too, stuff like Ed rush & Optical’s remix of ‘The Shining’.. Things like that.
‘Mindset’ is a fave; I love the flow of this and can imagine this in just the ‘right’ sort of club, with that sneaky low-ass bass!
Thanks! Glad you like it. If I can recall, I wanted to start a very minimal type track. Not many elements as I find some of my tunes get too cluttered sometimes, so I wanted to strip it back and just make the core sounds as good as I could.
I always start with the beats and just bits of EQing. I always have to get my beats right before I move on to the next stage of the track. Then I think I wrote the bassline. I wanted it to be a nice subsonic type sub bass didn’t want too many mids in there. Then I wrote more pads fx type stuff. I was on a vibe.
It just came together with ‘Mindset’ and it rolled out pretty quickly! It usually takes me ages to finish tracks but this is because I prefer to spend more time with them.
Attention to details is key for D&B.
What themes do you like to work with in music? I’m noting the titles.
Yeah, a lot of things really. Anything to do with spacey, sci-fi stuff. I get a lot of samples from films, using the sound effects. Plus, I also like to record foley samples and field recordings to get more organic sounds so it sounds less synthetic.
We live in the biggest sample library there is!
I watch lots of TV series and spend time scrolling through the internet looking for odd samples that I think I can use for my tracks.
Also, a lot of my bass sounds come out of my analog mono synth which I do a lot of my sound design on, which is great for bass pads leads and effects.
In love with ‘Doppler’, the BC exclusive: can you curate this killer? This is prime 3am material
Thanks for the kind words! I’m really happy with how ‘Doppler’ came out. I wanted to do something with a different drum pattern I’d not used before; throwing stuff off the grid to give groove and swing. I wanted a solid kick as I was going for that minimal vibe again.
Funny you should say about the 3am vibe as it was most likely made at that time in the morning! I’m always up at early hours making music as I can zone in and get less distracted.
I wanted the bass on ‘Doppler’ to be weighty but also for the beat to compliment the bass, so I made it work with a kick pattern. I just experimented really, moving things around. I like to add fx, pads, riser, etc, after or a little bit more foley vinyl crackles or analogue hiss type things.
I normally start with a 16 bar loop: get that sounding phat, then progress it more, add extra percussion or more sound design. Plus, I have to mention what the great master Shane the Cutter did for the EP!
I always get professionals to do my mastering as it’s a lot more than just sticking ozone on your master out ha ha! The pros will always do a better job than you will at home!
Now, to that cover. So much is sort of digital throwaway material but this… ! It’s really something else.
Yeah, the cover is sick! I love it! It looks really cool. I’ve gotta say massive props to Gregg Hooker for the artwork: the guy’s hugely talented and I was really happy with the whole project
What’s in store for 2015, what’s next Yung E?
Future means more good music! My production skills have improved but you’re always learning new things so I plan on just getting better with my production and hopefully there’ll be lots more music from me soon.