To quote the great Rider: "I don't know exactly what I'm doing...I can't describe it. It's Just a feeling I get." When I read this, I couldn't help but think that his words pretty much sum up my own experience writing music. I have been a student of Drum and Bass for about a decade. I don't know every artist, or every tune, or what label they were on, but what I do know is style. I study the dynamics, the structure, the arrangement, the colors of the music. My most enduring mission is to capture the feeling of music, while simultaneously trying to push it into the future.......
I have been writing music with computers since 1997. Starting out on tracking programs, (e.g. Scream Tracker, Fast Tracker; simple programs that allowed for early sampling and sequencing), I learned how to make songs and put them on tape. Passing them to my friends and members of my local community, I gained feedback from people in order to improve my work. It was in 1999 that I first heard some serious drum&bass, and the doors to another world were flung wide open........
In the days before the internal loops were plastered all over every aspiring d&b producer's hard drive, I spent my time honing my technical skills, trying to create hard breaks with dynamic function. Soon after, I picked up a pair of shitty Numark turntables, and starting hunting after the drum and bass sound that was evolving into the soundtrack of the 21st century. Labels like Good Looking, Planet V Recordings, and Metalheadz provided the much-needed inspiration to plow forward in a time when trance and house dominated just about every club's airwaves. The years between then and now have been filled with experimenting with production, and I have since written a multitude of tracks. Some of them aren't worth the zeros and ones that make them up, but other ones are quite decent, in my opinion.........
I didn't start out my journey with drum and bass, however. Growing up in rural Colorado, my exposure was limited to what the nearest megachain had in their "techno" section. Acts like The Chemical brothers, The Crystal Method, The Prodigy, and Fatboy Slim really whetted my appetite for heavy breaks and experimental sound. The first tracks I ever wrote were kindergarten copies of that sound. Later on, I began to feel more of a connection writing house tracks. At that point I was experimenting more with sampling pads, and pitching them around to create a certain vibe. Sampling chords in a minor key remains a signature part of my sound to this day. Eventually, I heard the two albums that were to change my mind about everything; Goldie-Saturnz Return, and Roni Size-Represent. I simply had to try my hand at this new style........
My first attempts at writing 150+ bpm breaks were awkward and clunky. I had been hearing this "Amen" thing all over the place, and I was trying to duplicate it on my sequencer. At the time I didn't really understand that it was a single drum loop and contained in itself all the dynamics and sound properties to make it what it was. Later I was to meet a guy in my hometown of Durango, who was into the same styles as I was, and he showed me the original "Amen Break," "Titan Up," and various other classic breaks that I instantly recognized as the sound I was missing in my production. Looking back, it's sort of funny and innocent how I became involved in making dnb, but these formative years had a lot to do with who I am today.......
Drum&Bass is spiritual and moving, smooth and sophisticated, or it's hard as adamantium and sharper than a razorblade........Industrial terror-beats with zero gravity soundscapes to paint the mind with interdimensional psychadelia. ........:!ATTENTION ALL DJs!:........ If you like what you hear, please contact me. I know a lot of you spin cd's, and a few of you go straight digital, so as I move toward my first official release, I'm trying to get as much playtime as possible. Peace and Respect!. -:: Shouts out to: Lawrence Nass, Knuckleball Ned of Knuckleball Productions, (KBP), Nuffsaid of Biodegradable Substances, Mr. Anderson, Evan Gifford, DJ Nikidemus, and many others involved in the music.................................2008, Stillz. e-mail me at:
[email protected]
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