Tag Archives: Interviews

Q&A – Chris.SU [FATE]

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FATE 001 artwork

Hungarian D&B legend Chris.SU gears up to launch his own Fate imprint with a double A side featuring the vocal talents of Mira on a main-room roller and a stomping collaboration with Kiwi duo State of Mind. We caught up with the man to quiz him about his plans for the label and his favourite releases from the past decade.

DNB Dojo: You’ve got quite the discography going back over 10 years with releases on pretty much all the best labels in the tech/neuro scene. Why did you choose to start your own imprint now?

Chris.SU: I wanted to have an extra platform for my own releases so I could decide what track comes out and when. It also gives me extra inspiration that I’m fully responsible for the output to be released on FATE Recordings. I think in every aspect of life the key is trying to take small steps forward, so for me this was a natural next step in my music career. I’ve seen the good and the bad side of the D&B scene over the 13 years I have been active, so I thought: why not try doing it ‘my way’?

DD: Hungary’s D&B output seems stronger than ever with yourself, Mindscape and Jade at the top of your game. How has the scene changed over the years? Any new producers on the rise we should know about?

CS: We’ve got a quite old D&B scene in Hungary, with parties being organised since 1996. Production-wise around 2003-2005 the Hungarian scene became quite exciting I think. Some people say it was a specific ‘Hungarian Sound’ back in those days. Since then some of the producers like DJ Madd or Matt-U have switched to Dubstep and some of them, like SKC, stopped making tracks. But there are always new talents trying to break through. Magical Gravity and Incident have great potential and Klay is making some tracks supported by DJ Hype on Kiss FM for example. I always say to the new producers that the key is to work hard and not to make music for the fame, girls, or whatever reasons, but only for the love and passion for the music, and if you’re patient enough, you’ll get there where you deserve to be.

DD: The first release lined up for FATE sees you teaming up with State of Mind. Given their base in New Zealand, how did that come about? Were you guys physically together in the studio?

CS: I first met the State of Mind guys back in 2006 when I was on tour in NZ with Concord Dawn and Matty C introduced them to me. Our friendship has lasted since then and we did The Burning in my studio with Stu when he was on his European Tour. I always prefer being physically together in the studio but I did my collaborations with Nymfo over the internet.

DD: Many of your tunes (including Together In The Night) bridge the gap between the heavier beats and bass of neurofunk D&B and the more melodic elements of the liquid scene. Was it a conscious choice to evolve a style that blended the two styles, or just the way you found your sound evolving?

CS: The philosophy of FATE Recordings is “fat beats with emotions” so it was a conscious choice to take that path with the sound. Friction said in his radio show on BBC Radio 1 that Together in the Night is a tune you can play on the radio or at a rave and it’ll work in both environments and this is something I wanted to achieve. You can make bangers but some of them won’t make any sense if you listen to it at home. I guess you can call it a new sub-genre…”Heavy Liquid”? 🙂

DD: Beyond the release of the first single, what can we expect from FATE in 2013 and beyond?

CS: I haven’t planned anything else for 2013 but in 2014 you can expect an EP with probably a few more vocal tunes on it. I have just released Guardian Angel with MC Fedora on Subtitles UK and I’m planning to make more tunes with her, and also with Mira, and I’m planning to make more collaborations with my friends around the globe like Nymfo, State of Mind and, of course, fellow Hungarians Mindscape and Jade.

DD: The past few years have seen an increase in the number of D&B producers releasing solo albums. Is this something you’re interested in, or do you prefer the single/EP format?

CS: A solo album is definitely on the cards but first I wanted to have a few singles and EPs out to familiarize people with FATE Recordings and what sort of sound they can expect in the future. Every beginning is difficult and I don’t want to rush out anything. For an album a lot of planning is required as the timing needs to be perfect.

DD: Of all your past releases, what’s your favourite and why? I think for me it would be between Solaris Theme VIP and First Snow, though it’s a tough choice!

CS: It’s tough to pick one from your own tracks having listened to them a million times but Solaris Theme VIP and First Snow have to be two of my most complete tracks to date. I also still like Deeper with State of Mind, Changing Slowly from my times with Tactile, and my remix of Bjork’s All is Full of Love 🙂

Check out the single below and watch out for the release from October 21st.

Q&A – DJ Presha [Samurai Music]

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With Samurai Music busy gearing up for the impending release of the epic Scope LP, we caught up with label boss DJ Presha to find out all about his passion for vinyl and what else we can expect from the label this year.

DNB Dojo: Vinyl is clearly close to your heart given the care that goes into the Samurai vinyl releases and the vinyl only releases on the Horo imprint. Can you tell us a bit more about your obvious love for vinyl and how that came about?

Presha: I have been DJ’ing in one genre or another since the early 90’s. When I started it was all about vinyl, and I had worked in record stores since I left school basically. One of my first flats was living with a Hip Hop DJ who obviously had a lot of vinyl and I caught the bug. I began distributing D&B, techno, house, garage, and eventually dubstep records in New Zealand around 1997 and over the 15 years or so I did that for, I had my addiction comfortably fed. Since I have stopped that and moved to Europe, Berlin has given birth to a new strain of vinyl addiction, and I hope one day soon I can ship over my collection from NZ to me in my new home 🙂

DD: In the age of digital DJing and Beatport many labels are stopping vinyl manufacture or cutting down vinyl releases compared to digital output, often citing falling sales. How does Samurai cope with these challenges?

P: When we started in 2007, sales of vinyl were really starting to dip, so we approached it as a packaging / art presentation challenge to make our products more desirable. Good music wasn’t enough anymore for people that were happy with digital files, you had to give them something a little bit more. This has carried on obviously and we have continued to adapt and the need for vinyl products to have some unique approach has got stronger. It’s something we really love doing and take pride in as well.

In all honesty D&B is years behind House and Techno in this department and moving to Berlin made me see how they have adapted to the new market and I’ve tried to apply their ways of presenting and packaging to D&B / 170. It has taken D&B buyers a bit longer to become as involved as the buyers in those markets are with the products but that’s changing now. Berlin’s record scene is what’s kicked my addiction into full steam again and I’m trying to use Samurai to lure others into my habit as well. I’m a pusher!

DD: If you had to pick a top five, what are your favourite vinyl records in your personal collection?

P: Oh I miss my record collection in New Zealand very much!

Samhain – Initium – Marbled vinyl edition of 15 black with white streaks
Misfits – Beware – Original UK pressing
Misfits – Walk Among Us – Original red sky pressing
Misfits – Legacy Of Brutality – White vinyl pressing
Source Direct – The Crane

DD: I made the pilgrimage to Sun & Bass this year and caught the Samurai crew throwing down over there, much to my delight. How did you guys get involved with Sun & Bass?

P: I work for ESP agency who have worked closely with Sun and Bass for many years. Alicia and Mark from ESP spoke to Stefano, Martina and the crew of Sun and Bass about me playing there when I was still in New Zealand and they were up for it. I flew over to go to the festival one year in a combined night with Samurai and Alley Cat’s Kokeshi label and it totally changed my life. That was the deciding factor in me moving to Europe and this friendship / collaboration has now blossomed into 4 years of me playing there and 2 years with our own Samurai night. It sometimes seems like a crazy dream, Sun and Bass and what it has done to change my life and how Samurai has progressed. A very good crazy 🙂

DD: How did the concept for the Horo sub-label come about and what made you decide to keep it exclusively vinyl (at least until the CD release of Scope)?

P: The idea came from needing another label for more experimental music, and of course living in Berlin and seeing all these amazing vinyl only house and techno records. The concept came from me doing a lot of research online to find a story that suited my idea. I was signing a lot of music from ASC and it didn’t fit on either of the other labels very well, so this was a deciding factor as well. Then the Fis & Tokyo prose tunes came along and it was time to start. It will be returning to vinyl only after Scope and we have 5 new Horo’s slated already for 2014 as well as the first Horo artist LP from Ena.

DD: Besides the impending release of Scope, what else can we expect from Samurai this year? Given the recent release of Lessons in Depth on Red Seal are you aiming for a label/album hat-trick?

P: Ha ha no its too late for that now. We have 3 definite releases before the end of the year, but we may sneak another one in all going well. They are:

Homemade Weapons & Gremlinz feat. Collinjah ‘After Dark EP (Samurai Music) – also features a J:Kenzo 170 remix
Homemade Weapons ‘Kintaro’ EP (Samurai Music)
Indigo ‘The Storm’ EP (Samurai Red Seal)

You can check out audio from the Scope LP in our previous coverage. Watch out for the LP dropping from September 30th on vinyl, digital and CD and get your pre-orders in at the Samurai Surus store.

Q&A – Matt McGowan

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SLICES WP MATT MCGOWAN

Deep Field Audio’s latest release comes from relatively unknown US producer Matt McGowan. We caught up with him to get the lowdown on his musical youth, the creation of Guardian Angel and the state of the US Scene. Read on…

DNB Dojo: First up, for those who aren’t familiar can you introduce yourself to the DNB Dojo readers?

Matt McGowan: I’m Matt McGowan. I live in Tucson, Arizona where it never snows but I’m originally from Syracuse, New York where it snows constantly. I’ve been producing drum & bass for about 5 years. I started sharing my music with the world on Soundcloud in late April of 2013 and here I am a few months later talking to you guys. On September 9, 2013 the third release on Deep Field Audio will be my tunes, Guardian Angel and Catharsis. My first release, Life is Waiting/On Top came out on August 26, 2013 on Brain Network Recordings. I can’t seem to come up with an alias so I use my real name. I’m 30 years old and I’ve been a musician for 27 of those years.

DD: What inspired you to start producing Drum & Bass?

MM: I think my first encounter with Drum & Bass was back in 2002 or 2003 when I borrowed the Dieselboy Project Human CD from a friend. I don’t think I even knew it was a Drum & Bass CD at the time. I was later introduced to Jungle/Drum & Bass officially by a different friend who had been involved in the scene back in the late 90’s and early 00’s. I don’t know whatever happened to him but Pete if you’re out there, thanks. I didn’t get into production until about 2006-7 when I started recording the music I wrote for guitar and vocals. I was in danger of losing my health insurance if I didn’t enroll in school so I took a class on electronic music production at the local community college and I got hooked almost immediately. My guitars have been collecting dust ever since. Drum & Bass became sort of an obsession that I never got bored of. I have a wide range of musical influences from many genres from punk to hip hop to funk to jazz to rock to classical and so on. I like the fact that Drum & Bass is constantly evolving. As technology changes, so does Drum & Bass.

DD: What’s your musical background? I understand from the DFA guys you’re classically trained?

MM: Yes, that’s true. I’m the son of two professional classical musicians. Believe it or not, I actually started playing the violin when I was three years old; my first violin was a Cracker Jack box taped to a ruler that was meant to teach me how to hold the instrument properly. I learned through the Suzuki Method which is a Japanese method that focuses on learning music by ear starting at a very early age. I’ve never known what it’s like not to be a musician and even though I don’t play classical music very often any more I still see things through that perceptual filter. I’ve played the electric bass for many years and the guitar for at least a decade. If I can hear it, I can play it. Everything I do with music is based on intuition and instinct. I didn’t really know or use much music theory until the last few years. I played in an orchestra all the way through high school. I was supposedly quite good at the violin but my passion is creating music not just playing it. I was sort of a problem child and there were many years where I got an A grade in music and failed every other class. Playing the violin was always sort of an odd quirk that didn’t really fit with the rest of my identity or how people perceived me. I haven’t played it in years but I might start again if I can ever afford to turn it into a MIDI controller.

Music is in my DNA. I also have a background in punk rock playing the electric bass. As a bass player I’ve always been into funk and reggae because the bass is so fundamental to those styles. All of my musical experience before D&B was as a performer and I hope to make use of that more in the future with electronic music. I came into this from the musical angle but not as a DJ. I still don’t know how to DJ but I’m planning to learn. I forgot to mention that I can play the saxophone and trombone too. The weird thing is that I don’t really use any of that skill with drum & bass other than my listening skills and intuition. I’m really right-brained and ADD so learning to produce was not as easy as people would think. I hated computers for many years because they were just too left-brained for me and now the computer is basically my instrument.

DD: Is there much of a scene for D&B in Arizona?

MM: There is but I’m not really qualified to comment on it as I’ve never really been involved with it. I was involved in the rave scene back in New York when I was younger. There was a big crackdown on anything and everything related to electronic music in the area of upstate New York where I lived. I wasn’t so much into the music back then and was there for “other” reasons if you get what I’m saying. I guess I was part of the problem back then. I cleaned up my act and I’m into Drum & Bass because I love the music and I haven’t had much time to check out the scene here in Tucson or Arizona in general. Somebody’s gotta come dust me off and help me escape my studio because that’s where most of my time is spent!

DD: The internet is awash with varying opinions on the rise of dance music state-side, how do you feel about the current craze for “EDM” that’s sweeping the US?

MM: I guess we were a little slow catching on to electronic dance music. We didn’t figure out how good Jimi Hendrix was until he moved to London. I guess we miss a few things once in a while.   The whole dubstep craze seems to have opened people’s eyes to EDM. I guess it’s a good thing. They don’t consult me when they decide what “good” EDM is but I’m willing to take the job if it pays high enough.

DD: Most underrated record you’ve heard this year?

MM: I honestly don’t know…hmm, Life is Waiting/On Top by Matt McGowan. Can I say that?

DD: Tell us a bit about the writing process for your new beats for Deep Field. Did the tunes come together quickly, or have they been in gestation for a while?

MM: The two tunes could not have been more different in the way they came together. They were made in succession with Guardian Angel coming first. Guardian Angel was a tune where I really planned things out and Catharsis was the total opposite. I take quite a long time to make a tune. I don’t really have any set way of doing things but I like to be thorough with all aspects. Guardian Angel started with the intro which is about the closest thing to evidence of my classical music background as you will find. It’s all sustained strings and stuff like that. I couldn’t find a break to fit with it for some unknown reason. Then the lower intensity musical stuff goes south in typical D&B fashion and the rest you’ve just got to hear for yourself. There are some sneaky subliminal sounds during the drop that nobody has picked up on so far.

Catharsis is heavier than Guardian Angel. It switches back and forth between halftime and straight D&B. It’s a different tune in the scope of things. The second drop is nice if you’re into the halftime “Drumstep” style. I think my style is constantly progressing but these two tunes are a good example of the raw type of sound I seem to prefer. I’m a little rough around the edges and it’s about putting part of yourself into the music. That’s how people know it’s you. Right now I’m really at the beginning of my career. I didn’t send out the first few tunes I finished or even the first 10 or 20. I waited a long time until I felt my music would really have an effect on people before I let anybody hear it. The events of my life have shaped the person I am and thus the music I make.

DD: If you could collaborate with any musician living or dead, who would it be?

MM: Only one, hmmm, that’s about the toughest question imaginable.  Bob Marley.

Check out the Guardian Angel single below and watch out for the release on September 9th!

Chris Octane Q&A [CO:RE]

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Ahead of the first release on his brand new label CO:RE, we caught up with Chris Octane to talk about the label, his musical approach and his dream collaborator.

DNB Dojo: I was kinda surprised to hear that you and DLR were going your separate ways after the success of the Method in the Madness LP. Was this always the plan, to use the album to launch solo careers, or did circumstances conspire to keep you apart?

Chris Octane: It was a crazy time after the album. It was never the plan to split. We didn’t have a plan. The Method LP was the pinnacle of OD and we put everything into it.  Throughout the process we explored a lot of new ideas and territory and I think we grew in different ways. That naturally led to us playing with new ideas outside of the OD project. DLR moved to Bristol to be nearer family and I think having a break from each other actually pushed the solo side further. It all seems like natural progression and I’m happy we left OD on a high. We’re both open to working together and we still have our Cymatic project. In the not too distant  future there’ll likely be new material as a duo but we’re both really enjoying the freedom of solo work right now and we’re pushing our own boundaries as individuals which is what we needed to do.

DD: Tell us a bit about your plans for CO:RE; what prompted you to launch a label of your own, and what sort of stuff can we expect to hear from the label over the next few months?

CO: CO:RE is a little place for me to experiment. The label is about my journey through sound design and music. I’d thought about it for a long time before the solo project started but after speaking with Ant TC1 and James DLR after the OD split, now seemed like the right time to dive in. I’m still very much part of Dispatch. We’re all good friends and it’s great to have the support. I can’t imagine that would be the case in any other industry!

DD: The first release on CO:RE sees a certain disparity between the two tracks, with the A side providing more traditional drum & bass kicks while the B side sees you off exploring more experimental territory. Any plans to move away from traditional drum & bass, or will one foot always be on the dancefloor?

CO: Synthetics is aimed more at the floor on first listen but it is quite deep when you study it. It’s entirely built from Synthesis and the vocal fits the idea that nothing is as it seems. I’m trying to put more depth and meaning into my work as well as a heck of a lot of engineering and hopefully some listeners will appreciate that. Gaia’s Dub has a lot in common from a design perspective but I wanted an opposing sound. Something to show my exploration and a bit of my obscure design side. It sounds quite minimal but the way everything is chained is the reason for that. It’s designed to push and pull itself and everything interacts. To carry on the natural theme I arranged it live and left in a lot of the natural hiss and pops from the circuits it went through.

Both tracks actually sit at the same tempo. I don’t think I could move away from D&B entirely. It’s engrained in me, but I’ll definitely try to push the boundaries of the norm with CO:RE. I’m also aiming to push collaborators outside their usual comfort zone. I have a few great collabs lined up and it will be brilliant to see how their artistic minds work in a no holds barred environment!

DD: Sound design and texture have always played a big part in your work both with DLR and on these new solo productions. Care to give us an insight into your creative process? What do you draw on for inspiration and how do you get from an abstract sound design to a more structured overall tune?

CO: I try to find a theme or a kind of story in the new work. Not that it’s always apparent to the listener but it gives a little more definition to the path the music will take. I have to be able to imagine what the sounds represent otherwise they’re pointless to me. It’s a nice way to explore my own mind and make music artistically. Something I can only do as a solo artist with my own imprint. But then again sometimes I can just hit something with a stick and it sounds really good.

DD: If you could pick any musician to collaborate with on a future release, who would it be and why?

CO: Aphex Twin. It would be nice to feel like I’m a little less obscure in my writing than I do now! After writing for so long as a duo / quartet  it’s quite unnerving to finally be baring myself like this. I have no idea where I’ll end up or how people will react but one thing for sure is that I’m really enjoying writing and being myself entirely. I’m expecting mixed reactions to some things but I think I need to be myself. I’m putting a lot of work into the music but I don’t want CO:RE to be anything more than my journey through everything I love about music / sound.

Check out Chris Octane’s brand new single below and watch out for it dropping via his new CO:RE imprint on May 6th!