Mod
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DJ METHOD ONE: Melodic, atmospheric stuff, jazzy stuff. Mod: What's your life like? I have a full time job, and have to work on making tracks around available time. I've been into producing tracks, having my studio here makes it easy to do around my schedule. Mod: How many tracks have you completed? There's been probably 30 or so tracks. 1994 remix for Dee Lite. ... as Method One. Atlantiq is myself and Chris - DJ Kaos. Mod: How do you feel about the United States of drum 'n' bass compilation? It's nice that the compilation is out there - it's just a snapshot from a few people at a particular point in time. Mod: What about the fact that those few people are all drum 'n' bass producers from...America? We (America) are improving. When I first started spinning DnB, people were not into it. Promoters wouldn't want to have anything to do with you if your set had breakbeats in it. It took a lot of DJs who don't get credit for any of it: DJs like Dieselboy and Carl K brought DnB to America. Mod: How does a DJ/producer react to the club setting differently than the rest its inhabitants? DJs are a lot more picky than dancers. It's hard to go to a club and not mentally breakdown someone's set, or even a track. It's like taking an architecture student to a Frank Lloyd Wright building with the assumption they won't be consumed by it. Mod: How do you see the current state of American DnB producers? It's steadily improving. DnB has hit a level that parties have at least 1 or 2 jungle DJs... There's always a jungle DJ. It's not the black sheep stepchild it once was. Mod: Do you distinguish between American vs. British drum 'n' bass? I hate putting things into categories. That it's a British thing, or a that thing. It's all about the love for music. it should be a national thing. If you spin good tracks that's fine. I don't think anything else matters. Mod: How do you see yourself in the role of producer? I am trying to satisfy my needs to be creative. I am not making tracks just for myself though. Good producers are trying to satisfy a creative drive, it's not just to get signed or have notoriety - the best records come from a creative point of view. The classic records contain something different and many records are destined to be just filler. "Shadowboxing" by Doc Scott was played by everyone and then a lot of records borrowed from it... Mod: What should the public understand about DnB? One thing is that all DnB doesn't sound the same. Styles and sub-styles within it are important. What I play in my set is different from the guy before or the DJ after. It's like saying all techno sounds alike - there's all sorts of styles. Mod: What do you want? I want people to dance more! Everything when your a DJ has a context, like the time of night you play. I play more ambient stuff, so I need to go on earlier because people need to pay attention more for more melodic stuff. Mod: So what's up with Atlantiq's future? We licensed the one track for the US DNB compilation and are working on licensing other tracks to other compilations. We don't want to put out eight zillion things on different labels as I'm very protective about my music. I'd rather be patient and wait. We're trying to get on Good Looking Records in the UK...that's our ultimate goal. Mod: Any final thoughts? There's a ton of prejudice out there. Until recently, US DnB has had a hard time getting noticed - like the Forte guys. That stuff, that US producers aren't worthy of listening to. The media cover it (US DnB) like British hip hop! People in the states are definitely making tracks that stand up to anything in the UK. Distributors don't know how to deal with it so they just don't take a chance on it. Stores certainly don't take chances, and buyers see it as AMERICAN DnB. So there's quite a few hurdles to overcome. J. Smooth's last record got a good response. Then there's folks like Jamie Myerson who released stuff on Reinforced and now has his own major label deal. The ultimate judge is the quality of a tune, I just hope more & more people will be able to take chances. |