RS: Where do you see the drum and bass movement going right now?
Dieselboy: You never know, there's so many styles in drum and bass
that everything is heading off in like a hundred different directions.
Every now and then someone will kind of come in with some new flavor
or some new influence. It would be hard to like specifically pinpoint
like the direction it's heading. In my bag right now, I'm playing
really amazing futuristic-sounding techno, hard drum and bass and I
also have some really good mellow drum and bass. There's such a good
variety that it's hard to say.
RS: When I think of drum and bass I think of you, Aphrodite,
Roni Size, and, of course DJ Rap. She's been experimenting with other
genres and playing House, and on your Dungeon Masters Guide you are
working outside the drum and bass genre. Have you been doing any
other work outside the drum and bass world?
Dieselboy: To be honest, in the past year/year and a half I haven't
done a lot of production, I've only really done one remix for a friend
of mine's label, Gridlock. But as far as experimentation, I'm going
to work on a new CD and I'm definitely going to get into having
remixes done of other genres of music, just like with the Dungeon
Master's Guide. I find it interesting to play around with different
influences when it comes to drum and bass. As a matter of fact, I've
spoken with a friend of mine whom I'll be DJing with next month in
Atlanta, the guys from Evil Intent which is a drum and bass crew.
We've discussed doing something like a drum and bass that's got like a
kind of industrial influence because, I've recently kind of
rediscovered my industrial dance roots from like the late 80s/early
90s and I really don't think that there's ever really been a drum and
bass tune that has that influence in it. I'm all about
experimentation, it's just I need to get off my ass and start writing
some new music and put my influences out there and see what I can do
with it.
RS: I'm totally with you at the industrial edge, I was a big fan
of Nitzer Ebb and industrial too.
Dieselboy: They performed here in New York about three or four weeks
ago and I went with a friend of mine on a whim and it was like wow,
this sounds really good. I remembered why I liked it in the first
place back then. I was a big fan and that music does still have a lot
of impact. So I was digging out all my old Front Line Assembly and
Front 242 CDs, and listening to some of the old kind of like horror
movie samples and stuff and I was thinking that these are just like
kind of influences in drum and bass, you can make a very interesting
kind of track. So I'm going to see what I can do with that.
RS: Well talking about making tracks, in your studio are you Mac
or PC – Logic, Protools, or Cubase?
Dieselboy: Mac with Logic
RS: When you're working on music, do you have in your mind what
will sound great on the dance floor tonight or are you thinking of an
album idea? What's more in your mind when you're making music?
Dieselboy: When I'm in the studio working, I'm just trying to find inspiration going through samples and working with all kinds of concepts - waiting to hear what's going to kind of spark your attention. When you find that sound or whatever, a sample or what-not, then it's all a matter of like how can you manipulate this sound or how can you like grow this sound or sample out so that it's going to have a impact on the dance floor and people. It's not too difficult to write electronic music, but it's very hard to write music that people are going to want to dance to or going to want to hear at a club or are going to want to hear over and over again. That's the trick. So it's really a matter of sitting down, hearing that in the studio and then working with it till it's something that you think people are going not want to hear/ It's hitting you certainly, it just sounds good, and that just takes a long time.