'Endorphins' feat. Alex Clare (Preview)
There’s no doubt that every genre within the blanket term “EDM” has blown up over the past few years. New artists seemingly pop up every day producing amazing music. In the midst of new artists that people struggle to recall in the back of their minds, acting as if they could recall them all, lies a few that everyone should rightfully know. Sub Focus is one of those. That name, is a household name in every bass fiends mind.
When we cruised down to Miami in March, we had an interview set up with the legendary producer/DJ. Unfortunately the craziness of Ultra and WMC got the best of both of us, and we were never able to cross paths. Thankfully we have the internet at our behest, and we were able to still get a virtual sit down with this legendary artist. So, without further adieu, here’s Sub Focus:
TMN: It is really an honor to be able to interview you today. Our blog started in 2009 and we remember distinctly how much we enjoyed ‘Sub Focus’, your self-titled debut album. A lot has drastically changed bass driven music, give us your thoughts on the current scene of Dubstep and Drum&Bass music and where do you see it going in the next couple of months?
SF: I feel like that time was the early days of producers like us making multi-genre electronic/bass music. Its been really cool to see that movement continue.
Its always hard to predict where it’s going but I think we are starting to see a reaction away from the more noisy maximalist side of the music into sparser more spacey material. The rise of trap and deep house is an example of this movement in the music.
TMN: One of our favorite tracks last year has to be without a doubt, “Out The Blue” featuring the amazing vocals of Alice Gold. Any plans to collaborate with her again, can you tell us a little more about any upcoming releases you have set for this year?
SF: I haven’t made any more songs with Alice, but we may well get in the studio again at some point, I love the way our collab came out. My next single ‘Endorphins’ features Alex Clare, and is due out on May 12th, then I have another single coming out shortly before my album due in late Summer. I am in the finishing stages of my album at the moment so am doing lots of last minute sessions and all nighters at the moment to get it done right.
TMN: Your live performances continue to evolve and get ever more technical, they are absolutely amazing. What has been the biggest challenge in putting everything together?
TMN: We know you enjoy producing on stage, and not just playing back your tracks for set. Can you tell us more about this process and the kind of software you use on the fly?
SF: I have covered some of the hardware above but software-wise it is as follows: For my live sets I use Ableton Live and some bespoke patches I have that run on the Lemur platform for iPad. Within Live I have a very complicated project running the individual parts of my songs with some of the synths (Like NI’s Massive synth for example) playing live so I can vary the parts on the fly. I also play parts, trigger fx, re-edit samples and re-do beats all within the software using keyboards, iPads, drum pads and more.
TMN: Walk us through your creative process, what tends to come first the melody? The rhythm? and on average what is the life cycle of a Sub Focus production?
TMN: In your long and illustrious career, you’ve played all over the world. What are some of your highlights?
SF: There have been a lot of very memorable gigs – Glastonbury 2010 when I played with my first live show was a real highlight, my current residency at Amnesia in Ibiza has been great as its been an ambition of mine for a while to do that. The first EDC in Vegas in 2011 was also great, there are too many to mention really.
TMN: Have you ever had a moment in your career where you’ve stepped back and said, “Oh shit” at something that just happened?
SF: Probably doing my first official remix for The Prodigy back in 2005 – a couple of months before that I had just finished college then my career started to take off.
