Can you explain your journey to become a producer? When did you start making music? And was there anything or anyone that particularly inspired you?
Growing up I was surrounded with music. My parents had a pretty cool record collection and there was always something playing at home. My mum had loads of motown and disco on vinyl and my dad had a lot of rock and funk stuff. I was given a Casio keyboard when I was about 5, it had a very basic sampler on it so you could record a sound, then play a melody with that sound across the keys – this became something of an obsession, I used to take it everywhere and annoy everyone with it. I learned piano for a while, but didn’t really start writing my own stuff till late in high school. A bunch of mates would get together and jam, piano and guitars and stuff. Eventually one of us got a copy of Cubase and an E-MU sampler, we would run it through an old mixer, sequencing samples with MIDI and recording instruments in as well. I was listening to a lot of hip hop and garage at the time, and wanted to learn how to create the kinds of rhythms and sounds I was hearing in that music.
How was last year for you? Any highlights you would like to mention?
2014 was something of a turning point for me. I made the decision early in the year to start promoting the music I was making more seriously. I put out a couple of demos online, and started to contact some of the DJs and blogs I had been following for a while. I had good feedback on some of the tracks and shortly after got an offer from SoSure Music to release two of the tracks. Throughout the year I spent a lot of time in the studio, writing and also got to collaborate with some really talented people. I went to ADE for the first time in the autumn, which was a lot of fun. It was a great atmosphere – loads of people involved with music, so it was great for networking. I definitely want to go back next year.
Your One Life release has just dropped on SoSure Music. How did you end up working with the label?
I’m really happy to be working with SoSure, I’ve been hanging out with one of the guys there for a while now. They’re quite new on the scene as a label, but the guys at the helm have been involved in the industry for years. They are passionate about creating a distinctive imprint, with a classic sound and image. While at the same time building a community of artists that can expand and evolve, and push each other creatively.
Can you tell us more about the process behind your One Life release? What equipment did you use? And what sound were you trying to achieve?
One Life started out as an experiment I was making on my old computer. I was working on a really ambient idea, that was just a couple of arp lines with some washed out reverby synths on top. There were some vocal takes that Alo Lee recorded for another song in the same key, which ended up not being used. One of the backing vocals had a really cool melody that harmonised perfectly with the track.
In terms of both producers and labels who would be your dream collaborations?
I’d love to do a track with Monte from Germany, he’s got a real authentic 80s vibe going on. And I’m a massive fan of Claude VonStroke and his label, it would be amazing to work with them one day.
What plans do you have for 2015? Any more releases or events lined up that you would like to mention?
This year I’m going all out. I’ve been working on new material that I’m really looking forward to start promoting. I’m DJing at the SoSure label launch party, so I’m excited about that.
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