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Blame
Hello Mr Blame, thanks for taking your time out for this, what's been cooking up in your kitchen this week?
Only the finest Lebanese cuisine, and protein shakes! I got out of shape with the old D&B lifestyle, so had to sort it out!
I've just finished a couple of tracks for a new label project I'm working on cunningly named "Blame Music"... I've gone for a more experimental/oriental slant on D&B
Seems you have been pretty prolific recently and experimenting with some different styles - with Batcave for example, how did that come about?
Well as you know when you're in the studio every day, it would drive you mad to keep churning out the same style of music every day, so I always try and make different tunes from the last one to keep it fresh. Batcave was something that came about from my love of 70s style cop shows and orchestral drums
Whats your fav 70s cop show?
It has to be Ironside!! Some bad bwoy breaks in there!
Where are you sourcing all these new exciting oriental/experimental sounds then? From these cop shows?
Well I've been collecting samples for over 15 years, so I've got a few nice folders with sounds from all over the place. I've started to make my own little 70s hooks from rhodes and brass sounds from my Triton - seems to do the trick!
So your still big on using the hardware?
Yeah, I've just asked my Roland Juno to forgive me for not switching her on for some time, so we're back in love again. Hahaha!
If you could turn one piece of hardware into a virtual plug in what would it be?
Hmmmmmm, good question, I guess it would have to be an SSL desk
Hahaha doesn't that come in the form of Deunde?
Yep but a real one, I guess a Roland Juno - but they have got emulations as well...it's just when you have the original, it's not the same.
So are you based on a Mac or PC, Cubase or Logic?
Mac with Logic
How long have you been on that set up? I know you started out on a Roland W30 in the early 90's right?
Yeah I had a W30 in 1990, and I've had this setup for a few years now... I love it, and it's so easy to make music with this technology. But I can't help feeling some magic has gone from the old days and old equipment, I can't put my finger on it exactly but i guess thats the magic of music.
I always wanted a W30 of those purely because Liam Howlett from The Prodigy used one! Was it as amazing as it seemed in their adverts!
Well for some reason whenever I tried to sequence anything it would all go out of time after a few bars! So I still have no idea what I was doing wrong. but 7 seconds of sample time is always amazing!
Thats plenty of time to get that T99 rave stab in there
EXACTLY! You would even speed up T99 and then slow the sample down to get the odd mentasm in as well
"Music Takes You" was the first tune you wrote right?
Well that was the second, the first was called "Death Row" on Chill records, a label from Luton. We made £40 from that release, so it was a sharp learning curve into the world of music, hahah!
Can you give an insight into some of the kit you used to create that?
Those early tracks were created on an Atari ST with Cubase, a Casio FZ1 sampler and Roland Juno synth, it was a community recording studio I used. I had to pretend I was unemplyed to use it, and the dodgy move was when the owners of the studio would see me walking around in my works shirt and tie, I would make out I was going to a wedding! Some old skool blagging
Fast foward back to 2008, are you on Logic 8 yet then? Do you like to keep up to date with all the latest software?
Well, I'm not on 8 yet - everything is working great, so I decided not to mess with anything. I've decided not to upgrade for the sake of upgrading anymore... I suppose I should at some point, plus I'm not on the new Intel mac so im not sure how it will run on my G5! It's never been easier to make tunes, so it's no rush to upgrade.
Are you big on the built in instruments within Logic? What are some of your favourite 3rd party plug ins?
Well I do use the ES2 for basses, and the EXS24 is my day to day sampler, I love some of the fx, channel eq is really useful and I always use tape delay. As for 3rd party instruments I use the Korg Legacy, and I love the waves and Sony Oxford bundles
Which Sony Oxfords? I heard the eq is amazing!
I've got the eq, comp and inflator... yeah the eq is fantastic for the whole mix. There is a slight delay on it, and I prefer the waves/channel eq to do the detailed tidying up of individual sounds...but once the track is nailed I put it thru the sony eq
Do you have a limiter over your master output?
It seems like the norm now, to have at least a little processing on the output. I feel you have to limit the whole mix in some way now... I really hate having to do it and squash the sound you have worked so hard to craft, but if you don't keep up with the levels your music wont get played. I sometimes have a chain of a few things not pushing too hard instead of one limiter (like the L3) going crazy. It seems to get the level without losing as much of the dynamics, for example, I might put the sony comp on light, then a bit of inflator, then maybe a bit of L3. A lot of people use multiband compressing, but I found I really screw my mixes up doing that!
Yeah I always think it sounds really good when I'm doing it, then listen back 30mins later and go urrrrr
Exactly!
Your beats for the last few years have been amazing, always cut through even on the shittest of sound systems. Sounds like a lot of processing going on in your breaks - is this the case?
I'm glad you like them! I spend loads of time mixing my favorite breaks with different kicks and snares to find ones that back the break up without overdoing it. I then compress it all together, and then re-chop it all up to get that vintage D&B programmed vibe
You're also an in demand DJ, what are your thoughts on Vinyl vs CD vs Serato etc?
Well it's a tricky debate. I can really admire the technology and potential of serato and CDs etc... but for me I find that it's missing that special something, the spitit of this music that we have all grown up on. It's like going to visit Lee Mu Bai and going "ere bruv, fuck the deep meditation on mount wudan" lets play mario kart!
Running a label and putting out tunes for well over a decade, who has been your fav mastering engineer over the years?
Well I've been going to Simon at the Exchange for about 17 years now! My music has grown a lot since then and Simon's still there cutting fantastic sounding stuff. I also admire Stuart at Metropolis and Beau who have both mastered lots of my music over the years.
How different do you feel your tunes sound after the mastering has taken place? Is the difference dramatic or a general polishing up?
It used to be dramatic, but now it's just really translating it in the best possible way to vinyl
Thanks for taking your time out for this interview, finally how many noise complaints have you had in your production carreer so far? hahah
Ha, hmmm... well. Sorry to say not that many! I specifically got a place that was detached so I could crank it up, and before that I used commercial studios that were soundproofed. So it's not really rock n roll mate, just a cul de sac and some lashing beatz!
for more info: www.myspace.com/blame720
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Seminars
NEW SEMINAR ANNOUNCED!
Production Tips and Tricks
Date Saturday 12 & Sunday 13 April 2008
Location Central London (Westminster)
