Hard Graft and Determination
Who were your musical influences growing up?
All over the place, to be honest – when I was a little kid, I used to like classical music, I got into Jean Michel Jarre, kind of like classical music played electronically. I hated pop music at that point but got into The Pixies, Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, people like them and The Cure, got me into dance music.
What is your favourite track that you’ve been involved with and why?
Forever more, on my album Nextlevelism. It was the first song that I wrote the whole song myself, usually I just write the chorus hooks or part of the song, then I’ll write the rest with others, but this is the first I did completely on my own. I love Professor Green, and The Fray (who feature), it’s really authentic and it really captured what I wanted it to be at the time. When you make music you kind of have to settle a lot of the time, I feel like that track was really close to the original vision I had for it. Also, Closer with DJ Shadow: it went through 7 different tempos in 5 minutes, which was a crazy vision that I had, but I was happy with the end result.
If you could collaborate musically with anyone ever, who would it be?
James Morrison from The Doors. I really appreciate poetry; people used to poke fun at him, saying it was faux poetry, that it wasn’t really poetry, but I just think that his lyrics are really descriptive and emotive. He’s an edgy character who it would be really interesting to work with.
You’ve been at the forefront of the D&B and dubstep revolutions, where do you think electronic music is going from here?
I think it’s probably going to get a little bit less electronic, there’s probably going to be more of a resurgence of instruments over the next few years, everything moves in cycles and there’s been a massive dance explosion over the last few years so, yeah, I think guitars will start featuring more in the top 40.
You’ve recently begun playing with live musicians, what prompted you to do this?
I put my live show together about a year ago; it’s something I’ve always wanted to do since I started making music. I signed pendulum when no-one knew who they were and brought them over from Australia, at that time I had been in the middle of making a line D&B act, but I decided to focus everything on Pendulum and pushed them towards doing that. I sort of stepped back from making my own live show for a while, I didn’t think there was room for two D&B acts like that. Since then my output’s become more diverse, and it just seemed like the right time to create the show. It’s a really immersive show that sounds as powerful and intense as the record does, but also leaves people with something to watch on stage, something that’s going to captivate people, from the lighting to the performance and the interaction with the band.
As someone who’s witnessed it from the beginning, what do you think of the huge influx in a dubstep sound – even Britney’s doing it! Has it become too pop?
I don’t think there can be anything negative about becoming popular, I think it’s kind of, people hate having things put in their face, even me, if something’s thrust in your face constantly you kind of rebel against it. However, because of that explosion there’s more of an underground scene than there was before: that popular dispersion of the music is what helps people hear about (that music scene) in the first place that prompts people to dig deeper, to become true followers of the genre.
Can you recommend any other DJs or producers to students of York who love your sound?
Jaguar Skills, he’s wicked, kind of a little bit similar in the way we do things, we play different stuff but we’re both multi-genre, Chase and Status, Shy FX, from a producer POV, Calvin Harris, Sub Focus, Flux Pavilion, Example.
What are your three most played songs on your ipod?
Probably my own stuff! But I’m always listening to my own stuff. Fleet Foxes, The Cure, classical music, Mozart, Handel.
What’s the most unbelievable thing that’s happened to you on tour?
Met a guy in Adelaide recently who was telling me about his violent past at a party, which was really strange because everyone else at this party was just having a good time. He started showing this girl how to rip somebody’s face off with a knife, and I started laughing, but he was deadly serious, yeah, it was really weird. So many strange things have happened, I can’t think of one specific one, Arizona firing guns in the desert was cool, I also got stuck in Miami airport for 32 hours with no money or food.
Do you have a favourite venue to play to?
Majorca and Ibiza rocks are always amazing gigs. It’s kind of a signpost that Ibiza is where the change is happening – it’s becoming diverse, you can play all kinds of stuff back to back, which what Ibiza rocks is supposedly about, a mix between genres and that’s something that’s new in Ibiza and they’re showcasing that.
And your favourite festival you’ve played at?
V Festival. The organisation, lineup, everything about it was really well done, I played on two stages each day, played to about 40,000 people when I headlined in the arena tent, really full on but really cool.
Which artist’s back catalogue would you delete from the archives if you could?
Nah, not really, I think that music is really personal expression, and if I don’t like then everyone’s got different tastes, I don’t disapprove or hate on other artists, they should be free to make whatever they like.
You’re an active twitter user, who are your three favourite people you are following?
Example always cracks me up, Dylan Francis is a good mate of mine, so I suppose I’m a little bit biased! Wiley’s hilarious, probably for all the wrong reasons.
How do you treat yourself after/during your exhausting tour schedule?
Probably just get drunk with everybody else, I’m well behaved when on tour, it’s all about getting the show right. I work really hard most of the time, there’s a lot of waiting around before you do something, you can’t just go off and do whatever you want. There are certain nights near the end when we’ll just get drunk and go out with the crew but tour’s pretty full on most of the time.
What track do you wish you had written?
Levels by Avicii, partly for financial reasons (laughs), it’s really wicked tune, heard it before it had a break, I just knew it was going to be massive. Calvin Harris – We found Love is also such a perfect tune.
What’s the best advice anyone’s ever given you?
Be true to yourself, be the best you can be, do everything for the right reasons.