Mayhem [USA]

Too often people think of the UK when it comes to Drum n Bass and Dubstep, yet the good old US of A has a solid history behind the music as well. One such purveyor of the sound is a guy from the deep south of Atlanta Georgia known as Mayhem.

A man on a mission and with more fingers in pies than humanly possible Mayhem is a true powerhouse behind the music, having worked with some of the best names in the business from the mighty Noisia to KRS One.
Founder of labels Shadow Law Recordings and Aesthetics, Mayhem also runs the website 404 Audio, his own club, Transit, tours the world Djing whilst also writing and producing his music from Dubstep to Drum n Bass and even a little Electro and Booty shakin Nu House under the moniker Rrrump.
Bijou hit him up to talk about his first solo album “Into Oblivion”.

For those who don’t know you, tell us a little about yourself?
I am 27 years old, my name is Anthony Rotella I’m from Atlanta Georgia in the heart of the dirty south. I run Shadow Law Recordings, Aesthetics as well as 404 Audio and Atlanta Dubstep, which looks after Dubstep culture and music in Atlanta Georgia.

You have a new album coming out called “Into Oblivion” on your own label Shadow Law Recordings, what’s the low down?
Basically it’s a collection of Drum n Bass, Dubstep, Downtempo and a couple of interludes that really express myself as an artist for the first time. I did a single of my own stuff on Gridlocks Project 51 Label. But aside from that I have not done a single solo record, so this is a collection of exclusively solo material for myself. It expresses myself as an artist more so than anything else I have ever done.
My new album is also a collection of some of the emotions I have had over the past two years or so. It’s about everything from being in love to being in complete disgust, to being enraged, the feelings I had when my son was born to being completely happy. I have made this album like this, because when I look back on this in say 10 years I can personally relive the moments and recollect the perspective I had and remember the experiences I had through that period of my life. That is the main source behind the name, because it’s into oblivion, I just really wanted to create an album that was tangible before I pass away.

This makes sense in that you have done a lot of collaboration work over the years with a variety of different artists, who are some of the artists you have collaborated with?
Previously I have collaborated with Gridlock, I have done a lot of stuff with Noisia, including big tunes such as “Moonway Renegade” and “Exodus”, which featured KRS One, Chook, Phace & Misanthrop, Psidream, Evol Intent, & Think Tank to name a few.

You have done a lot of collaborations with some solid artists, why do you think that is, is it because you are simply good friends with these people of was it because you shared a similar ethos for the music?
Through Collaborating with a lot of different artists I have learnt a lot of different techniques in how to design sound, such as how to make your drums sound bigger and I guess, generally in how to get the results I am looking for. The biggest thing I think I have contributed to many of these collaborations is perhaps a lot of conceptual ideas, as opposed to just having a tune, with a loop, or a simple vibe with this kinda sound or that kinda sound, I think I have brought a lot more of a conceptual idea to the music as an artist and put forth something that goes beyond the scope of a tune just being a roller, or a dancefloor banger into being more of an overall concept, rather than just being a tune that will make people dance. I think that working with anyone, in any capacity is always something that is going to be synergetic, even at the worst when you are working with someone who your not really vibing with, you are going to pick up something, and have a different perspective that you would not normally have. Sometimes it doesn’t really gel, but regardless to whether it gels or not, I think producing with other people is always going to give you a different aspect towards creating music.

Do you enjoy working with other people than working on your own?
Yeah, I enjoy working with other people moreso than on my own. Mostly because I feel like if I am working with a really tight engineer like Noisia or Phace, that we are able to manifest the idea’s that we have, into something beyond what I might be able to do myself or even perhaps beyond what they would do by themselves, because I feel that bringing something like my concepts together with someone who is a seasoned engineer, combines to make something that is memorable.

Well it’s clear these artists have enjoyed working with you as they have all become good friends, So what triggered you into taking that step into writing your own album?
I think that over the years working alongside the likes of Noisia & Phace and having had a lot of input from guys like Misanthrop and Psidream amongst others has really help me to build a solid foundation towards engineering my own music, and now I feel I am at the point where I am very objective about where I want to go with my music and I feel I can finally stand behind my own music, where I am confident, where in I feel it’s tighter, where I am more confident and comfortable about putting it out there to the public.

You have always had you finger on the pulse running such a respected label as Shadow Law Recording. And with this album, you cover a number of different musical styles, why the diversity?
I really wanted to take it back to the basics with Drum n Bass, go back to what I was first interested in Drum n Bass wise from the Gecko. That time from 95-98, from great labels like No U Turn, Metalheadz, Virus Recordings, Metro, back to that vibe that sums up what Drum n Bass is for me. I want to take it back to the essentials, not being over the top with a bunch of wind up sounds that are purely made to get the dance floor off.
This album is a bit more like foreplay, where I am aiming to kinda warm people up for the dance floor and get them into a solid groove, build it up to a point which is eventually going to get them to bust a titanic load. [ Laughs] So on the album I have predominately Drum n Bass, a couple of Dubstep tracks and a few Downtempo/Trip Hop tracks, generally everything is a lot more of a deeper vibe. For me it’s more about representing what is somewhat more popular in Drum n Bass right now, and resonates with the current les is more aspect.
Taking it back to a more minimal and say timeless way, something like what the old J Majik or Goldie records were, the way they used timbre’s that just stick in your head. It’s more of a personal album for me. For example in almost every tune I have pushed myself as a artist in so many ways, such as… I have either sung on tunes or worked in little tiny obscure sounds or effects that mean something to me. You know, like Noisia and I, humping on the couch, and making a sound out of that [Laughs] Almost every track has something personal about me in there. Which is, I guess, just my way of preserving a part of myself in time. That is really what Into Oblivion is about.

One of your stand out tunes in the recent past was the collaboration with Noisia and Krs One, bridging Hip Hop and Drum n Bass, how did that all come about?
The whole Exodus collaboration came about a few years back, when I brought Nik from Noisia over to Atlanta from Holland and we were working on a track where we were both really feeling the vibe of it.
I have a really good friend called Ricky Raw who is a hip hop MC from Atalanta who is a mutual friend of Krs One, so I just put it out there, that if Krs One was interested I would like to get him on this track, because by then we had already done the half time interlude before the second breakdown and I really felt like we should get someone to rap on it. And of course, there is no one better than Krs One, I mean he is Hip Hop such a great icon. So I really wanted to fuse Krs One with Drum n Bass like Goldie had done years and years ago, which was an instrumental part of my upbringing and basically the opportunity arose and a few months after we had finished the track, I was able to get Krs One in the studio and record him for Exodus.

So what did Krs One think of the tune?
When Krs One heard the tune he was completely into the vibe of it, obviously he is into Hip Hop and Drum n Bass is not his main forte, but he thought the track was dark and fucking heavy. He asked me to give him some direction as to what the overall vibe of the tune was about. I told him the track was called Exodus and we had this conceptual idea about breaking through the status quo.
He embraced the idea and basically busted out his lyrics in two takes, he was 100% professional and such an incredible artists to work with. We were so pleased to have worked with him on such an awesome tune.

It really is an honour to work with such a respected artist.
Oh yeah it was completely humbling to work with him. To this point I have never worked with anyone that will ever eclipse working with Krs One.

You run your own label Shadow Law Recordings What was that turning point that made you decide to start your own label?
I started SLR because I wanted to have an outlet for my music, I started making music when I was around 8yrs old playing guitar, and by the time I was 11 I had been exposed to more electronic music and so I progressed to making music on my piece of shit computer my 386.
This eventually led me to writing Drum n Bass. When I first found Drum n Bass, it felt like I had found a music that completely embodied everything about my life and I was instantly sucked into it all. Towards the late 90’s I wanted to create a label to release my own stuff, but I also started looking out to find other artists who were on the same wavelength and that’s where I found Synthetix, Rob F and Impulse and it was then after listening to their stuff I realised my shit was not even ready or close to being released. [Laughs] So I started putting out records from them, and also did collaborations with them, the second release on the label was Myself and Impulse with Rob F on the flipside, one of their good friends was Kiko and they were also really good friends with MC Mecha who was a part of Synthetix and all of us together sorta formed a crew of likeminded people who were into these dark, techy, moody beats. So the label was there for us to push out a lot of these beats. I would only ever release tunes that I felt were up to the quality I wanted to release as Shadow Law and what I wanted to hear.
Shortly after we had put out a few releases, I found Noisia, at that time they had sent a few demo’s across to me on line and from hearing Noisia’s first recordings I realised that Noisia were going to go on to do some really big things in Drum n Bass. At that time I had no idea that they would take on the world of electronic music as a whole the way they have, but I knew they had something.

Well you are renown for being the one that broke Noisia amongst others into the drum n bass market.
Yeah we definitely helped to break people like Noisia, Phace and Misanthrop into the market before they blew up. But for me it’s not about being that dude that found them first, it’s more about being there to nurture and encourage them as artists and work with them and share the knowledge I had with them.
From there we built really strong relationships, like with Noisia, I started going over to Holland and spent a few weeks with them and that’s where Me and Noisia wrote “Tomahawk” which was their first release. And then while I was in Estonia playing a gig, Noisia wrote “Silicon”, which became the flip side and the first 12”. From there Noisia really took off and their production skills really increased in quality. I worked with them for a while as A&R hooking them up with labels such as Subtitles, Renegade Hardware and Cause 4 Concern to help get them out there, I never wanted to be selfish, I just wanted to help them to get out there and I did the same thing for Synthetix getting them out there on Disc4 and Renegade Hardware and Subtitles, because I had the connections and wanted to help.

You have also been a strong person behind the Dubstep scene in Atlanta, can you tell me a little about what’s happening with Atlanta Dubstep?
With Dubstep for me I kinda have a bit of a split personality, with Drum n Bass I love the deep techy kinda vibes and with Dubstep, Ironically I am completely into the wobble side of it as well as the kinda Joker Purple sounds I guess there is just so much good stuff coming from across the globe now.
With Dubstep, I kinda feel that I had learnt from all my mistakes with Drum n Bass, so I have taken some of those lessons learnt and put that practice back into Dubstep. So I have compiled a group of people in Atlanta who are passionate about pushing Dubstep, whether it be tear-out wobble stuff or more of the minimal techno stuff, so together we have come together to promote Dubstep on a larger scale.
From this we have seen nothing but success, we have built our own sound system, we have built a brand and have brought multiple artists to Atlanta that perhaps would not have been here had we not had the support of a group pushing the sounds

You are known for your fusion of Hip Hop into your sounds and you mentioned that it is something you are wanting to do with Dubstep, tell us a little about that?
Yeah as far as my long term goals I would really like to do a bit more crossover with Hip Hop and Crunk with Dubstep, we have already taken a small step with Heroes and Villains and Megan Foxxx doing a Rusko Remix, with him working at Grand Hustle we have access to a lot of great artists that are pushing the Atlanta sound, and slowly but surely we have people like Caspa working with guys like Ludachrist so it’s really a step by step thing and we are working towards bringing these sounds together a little more and making Dubstep and Drum n Bass more of a fry filled piece of greatness [Laughs]

So any plans to release Dubstep on your label Shadow Law Recordings?
Um at the moment I don’t have any plans to release Dubstep on Shadow Law because I don’t think musically it matches up to the vibe on Shadow Law Recordings, perhaps we might look at a sub-label in the future, but at the moment for me I am just looking at trying to get my own Dubstep tunes out on other peoples labels. I have a very specific concept and outlook on everything I do with Shadow Law and the type of sounds I put out with Drum n Bass and for me Dubstep is an outlet for me that isn’t part of that vision.

Tell us a little about what’s happening right now in Atlanta?
Right now, for me I have a couple of residencies, I am playing Electro, Drum n Bass and Dubstep gigs I am doing a bit of top 40 crossover with say Bassline House, Dubstep, Electro or whatever.

What no Miami Bass?
[Laughs] No! No Miami Bass, but I will drop some Two Live Crew or some booty anthems to get the bitches shakin their arse, which is actually why the project I am doing with Electro is called “Rump”, because it’s all about shakin arse.

You have a lot of stuff going on and in keeping with your workload and having your finger on the pulse, what’s the next step?
I feel like in America, we are going to have a lot more crossover. I think at the moment, Dubstep more so than Drum n Bass has the potential to reach a wider audience and perhaps stretch more musical boundaries. Drum n Bass doesn’t have the most palatable tempo for the majority, so for me at the moment I want to strip it back and take it back to more of it’s core essence and not over do it. Which I think is going to re-inspire people to getting back into it. I kinda hope that because Dubstep is more palatable to the majority that this will open the ears and minds of more people to get into Drum n Bass, which I feel will only be beneficial to electronic music as a whole.

You have recently toured Australia how do you like it?
I think Australia and New Zealand have one of the best scenes in the world. People are into the music, and the scene is vibrant. It seems like it is fresh to them, even though I am sure that it is not. People are enthusiastic about the music down here.

Mayhems Album Into Oblivion comes out through Shadow Law Recordings This May 2010 Check it!

DEEP [UK]

Hailing from Bournemouth UK One half of Drum n Bass Duo Deep & Shafie and Dubstep outfit Audio Sleaze consisting of Deep & Judda with MC Skydro. Matt Deep rolls through Sydney in an exclusive mini tour to deliver his unique brand of deep techie rollers. Having played regularly throughout the UK at Ram Records, Renegade Hardware, Drumfunk and representing for the Frequency crew. Bijou caught up with him to get deep and personal.

Is this your first time to Australia, are you enjoying it so far?
I have been to Australia back in 1999 visiting friends, this will be my first time playing out here, i am loving it so far especially getting away from the English winter.

You have been around for a while now, where did it all start for you and what was that moment of epiphany, where you just knew that this was the journey in which you needed to embark on?
It all really started when i got my job at our local record store in Bournemouth Destiny Records, i used to go there and pick up flyers for events and buy tape packs then i made the move to buying vinyl and learning to mix from there i was hooked and knew it was something i wanted to pursue further. I was lucky to get the job in the record store i used to bunk off collage to go there and luckily it has paid off.

So did you start out DJing and progress to Producing or was it the other way around?
I started mixing first then wanted to start making my own tunes to make my sets stand from the rest. I used to live with Aquasky for 3 years and watching them make tunes and meeting Shafie helped me do this.

Shafie is renoun for being an old schooler from Bournemouth, How did your collaboration with Shafie come about?
Before i was working at the record store i had a job packing tape packs for old school promoter Dreamscape and Shafie was the sound engineer at their studios so i used to go and sit in with him and watch what he was doing eventually we started actually working on tunes together and the rest they say is history.

Tell us about some of your releases?
Our first release was on One Nations Millenium cd pack recorded from their event . It was a live recording of Brockie’s midnight set and he played our track ‘Sphere’ as his last tune which gave us great exposure. Next was our release on Destiny Recordings titled ‘Moth’ and ‘Bow your Heads’ this was with another Bournemouth producer DJ Instinct under our Kryptonite Crew alias. After this we had a bit of a break as we moved to a new studio set up of Mac running Logic .
We then made a fresh batch of tunes and sent them out to a few people to see what they thought and had a response from Andy C and he wanted to sign 2 of our tracks ‘Deeper’ b/w ‘Prepare’ for Ram Records sister label Frequency Recordings. Through this release we met label mate Basher and decided to do a collaboration with him that has been signed to Teebee’s Subtitles imprint which is due for release April / May this year the tracks are titled ‘ Shivers’ b/w Imperfections’ .

So how did you hook up with the Frequency label?
The hook up actually came from us sending tracks out to people and then Andy C just so happened to be on Aim that night and he got straight back to us saying he would like to sign ‘Deeper’ and after that we wrote ‘Prepare’ for them so we had our first 12″ signed to Frequency.

For those who have never caught a Deep DJ set, how would you best describe the sounds you deliver?
I am very influenced by the early Virus / Ram sound i like to make it a bit of a journey playing brand new material mixed in with older bits to keep it interesting. I also listen to a lot of minimal techno which i think influences my sets.

So what’s your local drum n bass community like, tell us a little about what is happening back home?
Bournemouth is on the south coast of the UK and right now has some really really exciting stuff happening with local boys Ulterior Motive making some big big moves this year they are going to be huge i will be testing some of their new material out in my Sydney set. Also we have fellow Audio Sleaze member Judda who has had releases with Ulterior Motive on Subtitles and has now had his first solo release signed to kasra’s Critical imprint.I also must mention our local nights that are going from strength to strength Drumfunk and Enter.

You are also one third of the Dubstep outfit Audio Sleaze, with Dubstep blowing up globally how have things been for Audio Sleaze?
eah its been going really really well we started playing Dubstep back in 2005 at the end of our sets then we started just doing Dubstep sets and thats where we came up with our Audio Sleaze alias which is me Judda and MC Skydro . Last year we played in Ibiza for Ibiza Rocks that was an amazing experience, and various festivals aroun the UK and gained residencies at Mixmags top 10 club night We Are Your Friends plus some local nights to us. We are looking forward to Ibiza again this year plus playing Glastonbury in the Arcadia Arena which is a massive boost for us as artist’s.

What releases do you have under that moniker?
We had our first release last year on Dandy Kid Records it was a remix we did for them of a track called ‘Hustler’ and got Radio 1 support from Kissy Sell out plus other Dubstep artist’s like Skream, Trolly Snatcha, AC Slater plus lots lots more. This year we are working with jungle legend General Levy on the first Dubstep release he will be on and we are very excited to see how it comes out.

Do you ever combine Dubstep and Drum n Bass in your sets or do you keep them separate?
We used to play Dubstep at the end of our sets when it was first coming about then it took of so much we started just playing Dubstep sets separate to our dnb sets as we got bookings just for Dubstep alone.

What’s in the pipeline for the one Deep for 2010?
2010 is looking good with our first Subtitles release just round the corner plus more tunes in the pipeline that i will again be testing out in my Sydney set. More collaborations with people like Ulterior Motive, Basher, Judda, Moving Fusion plus anyone else that wants to work with us .

Well all the best, we look forward to your set in Sydney this coming Friday 19 March.

CHOOK [LU]
Hailing from Luxemburg, DJ and Producer Chook [Pronounced Schook] has been making a solid name for himself over the past few years in the world of Drum n Bass, having worked alongside the likes of Phace and Misanthrop for Neosignal, whilst releasing various tunes from such artists as Mayhem, N-Phect, Sunchase, Complex and Skynet, through his own imprint Full Force Recordings. Chook is a name on the lips of anyone who loves their music a little on the techier side. Launching his new LP Cocoon this month before he heads down under to soak up the sunshine. Bijou caught up with him to find out a little more about the one Chook.

Greetings, is this your first time to Australia and are you looking forward to it?It’s actually not the first time I’ve come to Australia. I came to Sydney for a holiday in 2005. I am really looking forward to it though, especially because it’s about 3 degrees here at the moment.

You have mentioned that you got into Drum n Bass around 2000, What was the turning point, that moment when you knew Drum n Bass was for you?
I actually got into dnb around 97. I was really into Hip Hop before that. The turning point was that I was really fed up with the whole bling-bling part of Hip Hop. So more and more, I got into Trip Hop, Techno and DnB. In 2000 I went to my first big dnb night in Mannheim (Germany). All the famous UK DJs were there, it was huge. That really got me hooked.

The Nine [2009] has been a terrific year for you, what have you been up to this year?
2009 was all about my album. I was locked in the studio for most of it. Actually I started working on it around mid 2008 and finished most of it last September, since then I’ve been dj’ing quite a lot and finishing the album.

You are about to release your Cocoon LP on your own label Full Force, tell us a little about what to expect from this album?
Well the Cocoon LP is really about what inspires me at the moment. It’s not a strictly dnb album. It’s a mixture of dnb, tech house and downtempo. For the past 3 years I’ve been buying loads of techno and tech house. It was very interesting to work on different genres of music and to integrate elements of one genre into the others. It makes you come up with new ideas and reveals new ways to approach production. So the album is a reflection of that.

You set up the label Full Force alongside your friend Radic, what is the ideology behind having your own label and how is it going?
Well Full Force has always been about what Radic and myself really dig in music, we’ve never made any compromises. If we loved the music we’d put it out. We never released stuff just to be present on the market, it was always about quality. We haven’t had a release for a year now and frankly there hasn’t been anything that inspired us enough. We both miss the funk that seems to have been lost over the past years.

What plans do you have for Full Force in the near future?
The next thing for Full Force is the release of my album. It will be released as seperate singles digitally and on vinyl from january to march. Also we have a remix single in the making, but more on that soon.

You also work in closely with both Phace & Misanthrop of Neosignal, how did you meet those guys and any more collabs in the pipeline?
The first contact was made through aim i guess. Two years ago Flo came over to start working on ‘Sculptured’. Back then he was still living on the border to Luxembourg which was quite handy. Although we both want to work on something new, we haven’t had much some studio time together, mainly because we were both busy with our seperate LP’s.

What do you listen to when you not listening to drum n bass? And what music influences your personal life?
One of the advantages of digital music is that it really made me discover the great music that is out there. I’m buying more music now than I ever did before. Most of the stuff I buy is German techno and tech house. People like Extrawelt, Max Cooper, Lee Jones, Stimming are really inspiring to me and probably my biggest influences at the moment. I’ve also re-bought my old Hip Hop collection on ITunes. All the early nineties stuff I used to dig back then.

What’s the dnb scene like in Luxemburg?
The scene is Radic and me LOL. There is absolutely no scene here.

You have been touring around Europe a lot recently, what cities have you enjoyed playing at the most?
I guess the best gigs this year were Omsk (Russia) and Köln (Germany) which still remains my all time favourite. The crowd there is just amazing.

For the tech heads out there, what’s your current studio set up?
MAC PRO eightcore, 12 gig RAM, UAD QUAD, Virus Ti and Virus B, Mackie HR824, Motu Ultralite mk3, Mackie 24 VLZ, SPL VItalizer, DBX 1066

What piece of gear is on your Christmas wish list?
I guess that would be a mackie sub.

This will be your first summer Christmas, what are you planning to do?
I’m really looking forward to catch up with some old friends I have in Sydney and probably just gonna enjoy the summer as I’m freezing my arse off back here. Also I’m certainly going to work on a collab with Cern while I’m in Auckland.

For those that are unfamiliar with your style, what can they expect from a Chook Set?
I guess anything from Phace to SOM, Cern, Misanthrop, Teebee&Calyx, Ed Rush & Optical….. etc

Thank You and I look forward to your set this Fri 18 December @ Phoenix Bar

Bijou