BassSteppa
Minos DarkBox
Reg.: Jan 2007
Location: circles of hell
Posts: 6081 |
new interview with the godfather of dnb:
Interview DJ Hidden, Musicincontrol.nl, 07-10-2009
Diehard fans of the darker and harder styles do not need an introduction to DJ Hidden. As a
part of The Outside Agency, he has been going at it with Eye-D ever since 1996 and from
2003 onwards they have been running the great Genosha Recordings label as sublabel of
Cardiac. However, Noël Wessels solo career has really taken a big flight towards the better in
the last couple of years. After the very well received debut album ‘The Later After’, there is a
new CD coming this month called ‘The Words Below’. Time for Musicincontrol to ask him
some questions!
First off, tell us more about your album The Words Below, for instance where did you get
the inspiration for the title and tracks?
While I had released a lot of 12 inches before The Later After, it was still quite a challenge to
write an entire album. I was happy to see the release getting good reviews though. The
tricky part when creating an album is that the tracks have to both work individually and
simultaneously have to be part of a larger story. When I wrote The Words Below, I decided
to literally continue the tale I had initiated with The Later After. The first album tells of a
protagonist's thoughts and doubts regarding his visions of a possible future. The second
release is a submission: the main character accepts the madness and thereby enters the
world of these visions. Its title "The Words Below" can be interpreted in various ways: the
story of the subconscious, the story hidden in the music or quite literally: a story that was
being told after entering a hole in the street's surface in a far future as seen on the artwork.
In the end, it is up to the listener to decide whether he or she wants any sort of explanation;
any sort of story below the surface.
When first listening to some samples of the album and judging by the things mentioned on
the Ad Noiseam website, the tracks are a bit more dynamic than its predecessor. To what
degree has your style changed or evolved?
In the two years it took to write The Words Below, I learned a great deal of new tricks with
regards to production - so on a technical level, I do hope this release is a step ahead of its
predecessor. In coherence with the story of this release, on a musical level, I have been
aiming for a sound that feels "more secure", in order to bring certain feelings of both the
"protagonist" and myself to the forefront. In the past, I used to aim for music that was closer
to the work of others; nowadays I prefer to go my own way and create music that brings
forth my vision of the various genres I work with. Some may say that my sound has always
been different anyway - and they are probably right... but I do feel I have a better grasp on it.
Was it hard to live up to the expectations of the Later After? Do you even take such
expectations into consideration?
My only starting point with this new album was the idea of continuing the "story" of its
predecessor and making sure a lot of this would be drum & bass. Feedback, in the shape of
reviews, forum posts, and simply verbal communication is definitely something I keep in
mind - but over time I have discovered you can never please everyone. Ironically, the
aforementioned response to songs can also be quite different from the one you get from
people on a dancefloor. I have tried to create a balance which hopefully will be received well
by as many as possible.
About the genre itself: drum & bass is rapidly gaining popularity. Is this more or less a
logical result because the productions are growing in quality, or do you think it is due to
the scene trying to (again) push itself away or revolt against the more mainstream
approach of other styles which are very present these days?
I am not that involved with the popularity of a genre, to be honest. It is, so to speak, all
around me so it had not really occurred to me. Production quality in general has improved a
lot though: if you compare a new track to one made 10 years ago, you can clearly hear the
difference. Both the percussion quality as other various elements you often hear in drum &
bass songs have gone up a lot. This is directly related to the quality of the tools used to make
music: nowadays a good computer, a sequencer program with a bunch of good vst plugins
installed and a good set of monitor speakers can get you further than a studio crammed with
hardware. The harder variants of drum & bass definitely have a tendency to rebel against
the mainstream. During the last couple of years, a lot of producers have been inspired by the
drum riffs you often hear in metal. Some producers, like myself, get classified as "breakcore"
because of that.
Do you keep track of what your drum & bass colleagues in the genre do? Are you
consciously trying a different approach than the others?
On a production level, there is always something new you can learn - and often, you do this
by listening to tracks of others. What is particularly striking in, for example, the drum & bass
scene is what happens when a certain producer introduces something "new" to his or her
work. It usually generates a wave of productions based around the same concept. I do not
believe that there are a lot of musicians who are completely oblivious to these kinds of
trends.
Although some people know me solely for my harder stuff, I do not think that is the only
thing at which I semi-consciously attempt to sound different from others. While my tracks on
the one hand characterize themselves through hard percussion and dark sounds and
atmospheres, I also try to add melody to enhance their story. It always makes me feel great
when people tell me I should be writing music for films because it is my goal to write music
that is as visual as possible.
If we look at your latest couple of releases (not taking into account the Quadrilogy EP) and
see that Eye-D is actively producing solo as well, could we say that (both of) you are
focusing more on solo projects rather than The Outside Agency, and if so: why?
Not really! Besides the Quadrilogy EP, we have released four records this year including the
first on our new sublabel Genosha One Seven Five. The second and third releases have been
scheduled and will hopefully both come out this year. We are also working hard on a new 12
inch for the "mother label" Genosha Recordings and we'd preferably like to release a new
Scenocide CD this year. The "Unconquerable Man" remix just came out as well and we have
got some guest appearances planned on Smackdown Recordings, TNI and a few to be
announced labels.
We are essentially trying to keep a nice balance between writing hardcore and drum & bass
tracks. That way, we keep ourselves focused, are able to have a broader perspective and we
are hopefully capable of making music that does not repeat itself unnecessarily or gets stuck
using a particular template.
Genosha One Seven Five has started recently as well. You have mentioned multiple times
that it will contain a mix of different styles (Drum & Core) and atmospheres. How different
is this from your latest couple of releases such as Hells Basement?
Ever since the beginning of our careers, Frank (Eye-D) and myself have been involved with
both drum & bass and hardcore. Back in 1996, we were already mixing the two genres
during dj-sets. After the first downfall of dark hardcore, around 1999-2000, we primarily got
involved with drum & bass and discovered that, besides noticing certain similarities on a
technical level, there were also a lot of differences. Thanks to the first promo files, among
other things, hardcore became more appealing to us again and we discovered that the
various newly acquired techniques were very applicable to our interpretation of the genre.
Concurrently, we noticed the drum & bass crowd becoming more open-minded which
directly resulted in tracks such as The Resonators and eventually Times Like These. In the
same year I wrote Times Like These, Frank, along with Fracture-4, wrote a track called
Manhunt. The success of all three aforementioned tracks made us think more distinctly
about a label specialized in pure cross-over material. Since we wanted to keep Genosha
Recordings hardcore, we decided upon a sub label instead. At the same time, all sorts of
labels asked us to do similar tracks for guest releases and after wrapping up those, we
started with the sub label. Hell's Basement and Reality Collapse both were simply finished
before we had solidified One Seven Five; they could've ended up on the first release just as
well. Basically, the label is a logical step: especially since we have been involved with this
particular cross-over for such a long time you could see us as two of a small group of
founders of the genre. A label enables you to elaborately shape your vision of this genre.
Actually, we are not planning on sticking with a pure mix all the time on Genosha One Seven
Five. Sometimes, the balance will tip in favor of one genre and next time, it will be the other.
The only global factor will be the speed (BPM) and it will be our aim to deliver tracks with an
emphasis on high quality production. It is not always as easy as it might seem to create a
track that combines the best elements from both genres: when you are capable of distorting
a 909 kick properly, this does not mean you can get along with breakbeats, hoovers and sub
frequencies... and the other way around. Our big advantage, I believe, is that we've always
done both - and while we (thankfully) still learn new stuff all the time, our production skills
have gone up proportionally. The challenge now is to create records and tracks which sound
new and unexpected and continue to evolve in terms of style.
__________________
BASSINTOXICATION - Management
DARKBOX RECORDINGS - Management
--> <--
for booking MINOS (DubStep):
roman.steindl@gmail.com
SKYPE: DarkBoxRecordings
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24-07-2009 - 10:47
