Nick Douwma, or Sub Focus as he is better known, must be some kind of electro music super human.
Having just done a residency at globally renowned Amnesia in Ibiza over the summer, as well as playing at Glasto for the second time and headlining the dance stage at Reading and Leeds, Douwma has just finished a nation wide tour of the UK.
Following the release of his self-titled debut album in 2009, and after a 4 year wait, he has been signaling the release of his new album, ‘Torus’, with a tour of his live set which he’s currently hitting Europe with. Scene was invited to have a chat with him before his recent show at Leeds O2 Academy.
I find Douwma in a comfy dressing room, having a couple of beers and chilling out with some of his tour crew. I’m struck by how impressively relaxed he looks, considering the fact he’s only got 30 minutes before he’s due on stage. Douwma very graciously apologizes for the mess (which, if I’m honest is far less impressive than the current state of my room), offers us a drink and then is very patient with me as I proceed to ask him the following in some sort of manic fan-girl frenzy. Needless to say, Douwma comes off looking far more cool than I do…
So you recently headlined BBC 1Xtra Live which looked amazing. How was that?
It was awesome to headline the event, I had quite a few friends playing there; Chase and Status and Sky FX were playing who I used to have a studio next door to. It was nice to play with all my mates there. The performance was quite nerve wracking because I use quite a lot of kit onstage like synthesizers, keyboards and the drums so there’s a lot to go wrong and I was a bit on edge that everything went to plan technically, but it all went smoothly!
How do you feel your music has evolved since your earliest stuff in 2003?
My music has changed quite a lot since 2003, when I started putting out tunes my ultimate ambition was to put out vinyl in record shops and make some really underground tunes and that’s what I did for a few years. I loved all that and I still do. After that, my style started changing when I put out my first album in 2009, I tried lots of different styles of music not just drum and bass. Eventually on my first album I decided to put some house music and dub-step on there. I was really pleasantly surprised by the response to those tunes and so that spurred me on to do different tempo stuff. That’s the style I’m pushing now, a real mixture of difference dance music; so everything from drum and bass to house music dubstep and electronic music.
2010 was a big year for you, the first year you played at Glastonbury and you produced Kickstarts by Example which got to number 3 in the UK charts. What have been your other highlights since?
Finishing my album this year was a nice personal highlight because I’ve been working on it for the last 3 years or so, so it was really cool to get that finished. This year has been really good, I’ve done a lot of festivals; Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds where I headlined the dance tent. This year has been brilliant, it’s been quite for me. It’s been a bit mad trying to finish the album and doing all the festivals at the same time, so it’s been a mental summer this summer, spending hours and hours in the studio. It’s nice now though because I’m touring the album so it’s a bit more relaxed playing music to people, doing the UK tour. I’m doing a few dates in Europe next month then I’m going to America in December to do a tour over there and I’m touring in Australia next year with the live show.
You’ve said before that you like the challenge of a festival, trying to win over a crowd. Does that still stand, despite the fact that a lot of people are now more familiar with your sound and what you’re going to be playing?
I enjoy festivals for multiple reasons really, people are a lot less inhibited at festivals because they’ve been there for a few days. The crowd just seem to go for it a lot more and I just like the atmosphere at festivals you get a lot more than just the stages, you get all the after hours stuff and the general vibe is very cool.
Where did the name for the album come from?
The word torus is the geometric name for the type of shape on the front of the album, basically a doughnut shape. The concept behind the artwork was meant to be kind of like a monolith. With the 2000 Space Odyssey art work, the rectangular shape on the moon, no one knows how it got there and that’s kind of like the disk on the cover of ‘Torus’. I liked the idea of people finding the disk around the world in the form of this mysterious sculpture.
Hearing the album, I love the fact that you’ve got so many different sounds in there the house, drum and bass, electro. Was that something you specifically wanted to do?
Yeah, it’s hard to describe the different influences because it’s basically all my favourite types of music that I’ve tried to combine onto one thing. I’m quite into indie, electronic stuff so there’s an element of that on there especially with the track I did with Kele from Blocparty. There’s definitely a house music vibe running through the album. I’ve just combined all these different styles of music and tried to put them together in interesting ways. Even the last tune on the album with Foxes has a sort of soundtrack, electro-pop vibe sort of like an 80s tune.
Torus, the first track on the album is definitely my favorite. I was quite shocked to hear you produced it in just one night, is this right?
Yeah, a lot of the time I get really inspired when I’ve got a gig coming up and a short amount of time to put everything together so that one I wrote a while ago before the first one of these live shows at Brixton Academy last year. I really needed a new intro track and I just got really inspired one night and it all came together very quickly. When I do that it takes one night to start it but then after that I will fine-tune it for ages. Some of the tracks on the album are like that. There was a track I made towards the end of the process called ‘You Make It Better’ with Culture Shock and TC and that track was really inspired by me thinking about tunes that I wanted to play at Amnesia in Ibiza over the summer where I did a residency. Quite often I have venues that I really like and I will try and get excited about playing there, I’ll think about the gig that I’ve got and what type of song I would like to play at the venue. Different venues have different vibes. With Amnesia I wanted something with a house feel that had a big build up, that’s what I saw working at that club.
Your staging and production is renowned for being incredible technology- wise. How involved do you get with the design side of your shows?
On this tour we spent a lot of time together as a crew so we can change things together as we go along. In the live set I use motion sensors which are like boxes where I can move my hands over them in the air to make a sound. It’s a way of performing electronic music that the audience can see and it’s more interactive. With a lot of electronic music, all the instruments are basically just big machines so no one can really see what they’re doing so I try to use more obvious instruments with this show. I just want people to see that I am definitely playing something because I think with live electronic stuff a lot of groups are criticized because it can look like they’re just pressing play and miming. I wanted people to be aware that I was playing stuff. I’m trying to make it as much of a live version of me making tunes in the studio as possible.
You’re quite active on twitter and you recently had an album cover competition with your own app where people could put the Torus symbol against any background they fancied.
Yeah basically we’re going to give a couple of signed vinyl releases of the album to who can create the best Torus cover using the app. It’s being fun playing with the image a bit with the app. I’m a big fan of groups that play with the design side of their music. Recently Major Lazer have done an app as well, I like just playing with images, putting them in different contexts.
This must help to build up the Subfocus ‘brand’?
Yeah I’m trying to get across that that’s what the artwork is about. Basically the disk idea came from the disk on my first album. Then with album campaign we put the disks in 3D, the idea being the fact that my first album was very electronic and this one’s more organic using signers, so we’re putting the disk in the ‘real world’. So it’s been cool people being able to put it onto their own backgrounds. We did this for the reveal of the album as well using Google Maps, we hid disks in different locations on the map so people could find them.
I guess compared to when you started in 2003 it’s a different way to reach audiences and interact with them.
Yeah, it’s massively different. I still feel completely behind, even when MySpace came out I thought it was a bit too futuristic for me. I’ve only more recently got more into using social networks and stuff but its very much a big part of being a musician now.
The album has been out for just over a month now, how long did the process take from start to finish?
It took about 3 years. I was touring for a year after my last album came out then I started Torus. I spent a long time touring so after this, I took a lot of time off and that’s when I really nailed this one.
And nail it he did. Sub focus’ live set showcasing his new album did not disappoint in any capacity. His widely acclaimed use of technology was incredible. Keeping in line with the ‘organic’ feel to the music and design on ‘Torus’, starlit skies and galactic designs featured heavily throughout the set, projected onto 2 elevated ‘disks’ circling Sub Focus and creating a 3D effect onstage. ‘Endorphins’ was a definite highlight, with the widely recognised anthem featuring Alex Clare moving into an 80s inspired dance transition before a stomping house beat. The light show reflected the tone of the music at all times creating an amazing atmosphere and a definite club feel. However, attention was definitely on the music when ‘Tidal Wave’ was dropped as Douwma’s parting tune before an incredible finale. Dance, trance and synth sounds along side his staple drum and bass and electro created the perfect mix of Sub Focus’ ever evolving sound that was certainly on display. I can’t wait to see what Douwma will be pioneering next.
‘Torus’ is out now available to buy and download. Check out the Sub Focus website athttp://www.subfocus.com/index.php to see some awesome video footage from his UK tour, and go here https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/sub-focus-torus/id695334436?mt=8 to download the app from iTunes.