Interview: Sub Focus
Tuesday, 19, Jan 2010 03:45
inthenews.co.uk caught up with pioneering drum and bass producer and DJ Sub Focus to talk about his new single, playing live and working with Dizzee.
Ten years ago a friend of a highly talented but reluctant drum and bass DJ handed his friend's demo over to one of the most important people in drum and bass.
Fast forward ten years later and that same reluctant DJ is one of the biggest names in drum and bass, has had a top 40 hit this year and is signed to one of the genre's most distinguished labels.
Sub Focus' story may read like a pretty faultless rise to fame but the producer is still set on progress and his latest single Could This Be Real suggests he's looking to do more than just push the envelope.
Born Nick Douwma, Sub Focus started out on the musical path early playing bass in bands with friends when he was eleven.
Although originally keen on heading to art school, Douwma quickly reconsidered after comparing his rather scant design portfolio with the growing collection of self-produced tunes on his hard drive.
His interest in dance music grew after hearing early tracks from the likes of the Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers but it was General Levy's Incredible that got him "hooked" on the new jungle sound.
And hooked he certainly was.
Sub Focus is renowned for his precision and mastery in the studio and his futuristic sound has gained him many new followers, but what inspires this meticulous approach to production?
"I think there's a real science to producing, a real physics behind getting a tune to sound good in a club; a balance of weighting frequencies," he told inthenews.co.uk.
"I did acoustics at university as well so I've always been interested in that side of things, but I like writing as well. There are plenty of really technical people out there that never get anything done, so I'm wary of dwelling on that side for too long."
He emerged from an extended period in the studio in late 2009 having put the finishing touches to his debut album.
But if you were expecting a seamless mix of wall to wall drum and bass you'd be surprised as the album has clearly taken influence from sources out with the drum and bass camp, but was it intentional?
"I've kept the album quite underground to satisfy my core fans and what I've been about until now, but I want to keep pushing in a much more eclectic direction.
"It gets boring doing the same thing and I want to feel like there's progression in what I'm writing. I listen to a lot of house music and I wanted that to be reflected in the album tracks, like on Could This Be Real. I don't just want to be a drum and bass producer, I want to be known as an electronic music producer."
The willingness of the drum and bass crowd in particular to accept new styles of music has seen Sub Focus' label mates, Chase and Status go from producing ground breaking drum and bass tracks to producing for the likes of Snoop Dogg and Rihanna. So does he have a dream collaboration in mind?
"I never really know what to say when people ask me this, but I would love to do a track for Dizzee (Rascal)."
This Friday will see him team up with live drum and bass act Pendulum at Matter and he has plans of his own to bring his DJ set into the live arena.
"I am working on a live project at the moment for the middle of this year. I've got dates booked in May with pendulum on their UK live tour so I'm putting my live set together for that. I've got loads of new technology in the studio, loads of mad bits of kit so watch this space."
Ross McTaggart
Could This Be Real is out now on Ram Records and is available from iTunes.