Lowri waxes lyrical with dubstep duo Bare Noize.
Chew The Fat! are turning 14 - yes that's right - 14 this Friday 18th November. Along this long electronic road they have encomapssed a myriad of styles - from breaks to electro to dubstep - and always stayed ahead of the curve. For their birthday they wanted to throw an intimate party - swapping Cable for The Nest and making it a family affair headed up by resident Foamo. They promised two secret dubtep headliners and they've just announced Bristol dubstep damagers Bare Noize - plus crisp futurist Reso. Well done Chew The Fat! We caught up with Bare Noize for a little chat.
Tell me about your musical roots. What were your first passions?
Danny - Growing up I listened to a lot of different music from hip hop to rock and house, but the first passion for me was drum n bass/jungle. I remember hearing "Truly One" on an old tape, a mate of mine got me into spinning tunes and I was hooked. That's what sparked it.
Ollie - I remember the day when the electric guitar teacher came in at my school and gave a demo, I was like “fuck yeah I wanna do that!” I took lessons and got stuck into rock/metal music for a bit. That was definitely my first passion.
There is quite a crossover between some of the new dubstep producers and metal - the aggression, the drum patterns, the heaviness etc. There has been moshing happening at some of your gigs (especially with Borgore). Do you think the cultural gap between metal and dubstep is closing?
O- It's definitely had a big influence on one side of the genre, and when it's done well it sounds great. I think music listeners now are more open to what they listen to as a whole, and you see crossovers happening more and more in every genre of music, but go to Sonisphere and then go to Fabric and you see the cultural differences are still there.
Do you both do everything equally - DJ and produce? Or does one of you favour one of the crafts?
D - I think we both enjoy the DJing and production just as much as one another. You go through phases where sometimes you would rather be in the studio making beats and sometimes rather be out on the road gigging. That's the advantage of being a duo, while one of us is on tour the other can be in the studio.
Dubstep is getting harder and harder - how far do you think this will go? What do you think the future holds for the genre?
D - I think it's pretty much got to the point now where it's as hard as it can get without sounding horribly noisy. We get sent so many tunes these days that lack any kind of musicality because producers are just trying to make the dirtiest bass sound. I much prefer something with a good melody rather than a soulless mess of basslines.
O - I love the big energy dancefloor bangers, but 90% of what is coined 'hard' dubstep these days is just shite.
Production influences? Inspirations?
O - Within the scene for me recently it's all been about 16Bit, FeedMe, Noisia, Trolley Snatcha, 501, Subscape, Doc P. I love the studio produced sound of metal from the 90's, it's the same thing you get off on when you hear a big tune in the club, that big fat energy. One thing I always find myself listening back to is the drum recording on Machine Head's Burn My Eyes album. And anything mixed by Mark Stent, that guy is a genius.
D - As an electronic production influence - NOISIA are geniuses in every sense of the word, they constantly raise the bar with everything they put out and it just makes you want to give up.
Are your productions informed by the dancefloor? Do you write stuff especially to make the room explode?
O - Recently not so much. We've been fairly quiet on the releases this year mainly because we didn't want to get stuck into writing just brash heavy dubstep. Not that were shunning it, we love a banger but you've got to make sure that the music you're writing is what you want to be doing, otherwise it just becomes lifeless. It's been good to diversify with the stuff we're putting on the new E.P and hopefully we can show a few more sides to what we're about.
Do you think there's much of a difference between American dubstep and UK strands?
O - I think music evolves quicker in the UK. It's a smaller place so that's understandable. The differences are slight but there's definitely much more of a dub influence over here whereas in the US it's more of a hip hop vibe.
You can catch Bare Noize at Chew The Fat! at The Nest on 18th November.
Click here to return to the clubbing homepage.
Add an event
Frieze Art Fair to launch new section for young galleries in 2012
Frieze have today announced details for the 2012 edition, their tenth art fair in London. Taking place...