Deadboy interview

The latter stages of the previous decade saw some exciting times and music develop from what was originally just classed dubstep. As a cluster of genres, sub-genres, lots of fancy words added to step and a lot of guff about stuff being ‘post’, some people eventually realised the folly of it all and just classed it as bass music. Part of that can be attributed to the genre bending exercises of one man who was originally held as the futurist of UkKFunky, Deadboy.

Described as ‘infusing the ghosts of RnB with UK Garage’, his sound cut-up vocal snippets of classic RnB’ and hit them to two step rhythms, channeling the spirit of classic house and Detroit Techno in the process and making everyone fall over the two step process again. With him set to star for Chew the Fat vs Church at XOYO tonight (Friday 30th) and TROUPE on 28th April, we caught up with him for a quick chin wag about what he is up to at the minute.

When you’re producing your records, you seem to utilise a lot of acapellas on top of your music, often focusing in a single phrase to increase its poignancy. What comes first; do you make a record after thinking of a vocal snippet or add the vocal once the record has been created? Are vocals a important component of where you want to take your music?
"It depends really usually I make a track and stick a bit of vocal on it, sometimes Ill find a bit of vocal I want to use and build something around it. To be honest I don't really think about it that much, I just always like a tune that’s got a little bit of vocal something on it, it adds a bit of humanity or something. I would like to start doing more things with vocalists I think I’m just very careful about who."

Outside of the Deadboy sound, there have been the DJ T€ARJ€RKER, RnB sets and the Hyper Black Bass project. What’s your attraction to differing pseudonyms and sounds and do you like being able to pick up other projects from time to time?
Yeah I just get bored just doing the one thing, I’m always making other things that I couldn't put out as Deadboy or wouldn't want to.

What inspires you to experiment with different sounds and genres? Are you making a conscious decision to explore new sounds or is it a natural process?
It’s just natural really, I can’t like make a ton of variations on a theme as its boring, my musical tastes change daily so it makes no sense to me to just make one type of music.

We're about to get knee deep in Festival season. I've seen that you'll be heading up to the Isle of White for Bestival. Do you have any other festivals lined up? How do big arenas compare to the more intimate gigs? Which do you prefer?
Yeah I’m doing Primavera in Barcelona and Porto, Bloc in London, Echo in Croatia. I prefer the smaller clubs of course, it’s easier to create a vibe, but I still love doing the festivals,  Sonar last year was probably my favorite show so far.

Looking forward to playing at Chew the Fat? 
Of course

What are you working on at the moment? Do you have plans to release an album?
At the moment I am working on an EP or two. Got one pretty much ready to go and a bunch of other stuff I am sitting on. I will do an album eventually I think, but the time is not right now.

Tell us what lies in the immediate future for you and your music?
More money, more problems, and more midi.

Your music incorporates such a wide verity of influences. What have you been listening too recently? Are there any rising talents to look out for in 2012?
Recently a lot of bone thugs n harmony, 90s 'ardcore, 80s synth jams. I don't know about any rising talents really, I’m sure there are but I haven't seen ‘em round here.

And finally, dream situation time. If you could back to any period in clubland history, and play at any club, who would you have playing alongside you and what record would you drop that would define the evening? Or have you been lucky enough to have had this moment in reality?
I would of course loved to have seen Larry Levan at the paradise garage. Or I would loved to have been at the dance where Sleng Teng was dropped for the first time and nobody played another record all night or something. I don't think I would play though I just would love to have been there.

Deadboy plays Chew The Fat and TROUPE on 28th April