The Dubstep Kollection Dubstep For The Rest Of Us

Check it out peoples, through the power of the interwebs I recently caught up with London producer/ DJ KSH who was nice enough to answer a few questions and give us some tunes. Read about his take on producing, and music, and grab the freebies!

Also, check out KSH spinning weekly on Obzest.FM every Sunday 8PM – 9PM GMT!

_____________________________________________________________________________

Can you tell us a little about your background? Where did you grow up and where are you based now?

Well, I’m KSH a producer/DJ from London, UK. Currently living in Leicester, where I’m about to go into my final year at university.

How did you get started in DJing and making music?

I used to mess around on Fruity Loops when I was like 12/13 making grime beats here and there up until about 16 when I started college and did an A-Level in Music Tech. I learnt some production skills and a basic understanding of the industry. From then music production became passion and a hobby.

As for DJing, I picked that up about one and a half years ago. It comes with producing dubstep and is a key part of the scene such as it is with dance music. Every producer will have to learn to mix at some point if they intend on performing to a crowd, plus I enjoy it too!

How would you describe the music that you make?

Well, I kinda have two sides to my productions. Some days I feel like making, what I like to describe as, a ‘Subby Wobbler’. These tunes are really bass heavy, with a droning synth – and sometimes with vocals. Other times I feel like making tunes that are more hype! These have a flood of bass with higher pitched synths and a more varied drum pattern. With all my tunes, I always make sure the drums hit hard and that they are ready for play in a club.

When you perform live, what kind of set up do you prefer?

CDJs all the way!!! I’m not against vinyl.. Infact I collect vinyl, but I can’t see myself spinning it for three reasons.

1. I can’t afford Serato or any other DVS system, they are way too expensive for a student such as myself.
2. There’s no way I’m carrying an hour set’s worth of vinyl around with me… That shits heavy!!! Plus buying vinyl is cheap and not all songs get pressed to vinyl.
3. Every club I’ve been to has CDJs.

Did you have any mentors when you were starting out? Who helped you get established?

No mentors really… I had my mate CurtZ who I go university with, give me some feedback on my tunes but other than that no one I knew personally. To gain recognition I made use of the Internet. I created a SoundCloud and YouTube account to promote my music, then I got in contact with the owners of a few YouTube channels who then posted my tracks up… That was really was the beginning, plus Machinima contacted me to use songs in some of their Call of Duty montage videos – which also helped to get my name out there. Couple months later, 2 Much Bass Records came along and signed one of my songs for their ‘Introducing’ EP as well as the chance to remix ‘Speculate’ by Phear Phace. Since then I’ve just been making more and more tunes, which is really important. The more tunes you make the better you get and producing, which means the more likely you are to get your songs signed.
The promoters, producers and DJs I know now I met within the last two/three months, after a whole load of networking, which is also quite important.

But all in all I couldn’t have got to where I am now without the Youtube Channels that pushed my tunes. So big up DubstepUploadz, MistaDubstep, ArtDubz, ParrotSkanking, ODUK, DubNut, Dubloads, DubstepJackson and any other channels that I forgot to mention plus the ones that didn’t ask for permission! It’s all promo at the end of the day!

When did you first feel that you’d finally come to form your own distinctive sound?

Pretty recently actually… within the last 2/3 months. I’ve had a long break from uni and have just been experimenting and came up with my own signature sounding synth. I’ve also been working in a totally new way in the production software I use. You can hear my new style in my TC – Burning Starlight and 50 Carrot – Blueneck remixes.

How do you explain your music to your family members?

They don’t understand it. ‘It’s just noise’ says my mum, lol.

When you sit down to make a track, what’s the first thing you typically do? How long does a track typically take you to make?

I nearly always start with the drums. Layer some drums sounds, EQ them then compress them before I make my drum patterns. Then I move onto the drop. I always leave the intro to last because I like to use the melody for the main part of the song in the intro.

I take quite long to make a track. I can never sit down for a whole day and just make one, I get bored way to easily. It can take a week for me to make a tune if I spend a couple hours a day, any longer than a week I normally forget about it lol. I’ve done that way too many times.

Where do you record?

In my bedroom.

Do you currently have a favorite piece of gear/software?

Logic Pro and NI Massive! Great synth, if you take your time with it.

When you’re not listening to electronic music, what do you listen to?

I don’t really listen to acoustic music much, I’m open to it just not a huge fan. I love all forms of UK Bass music. I grew up in the final days of the garage era and the emergence of grime, which I was really into when I was at school and still am. I really love some of the stuff put out by labels such as Swamp81, Hessle Audio, Tectonic and Butterz to name a few, anything sub bass heavy and I’m all over it.

Are you touring this year?

A few shows here and there in the UK but no plans of a tour. Promoters need to book me first!

If you could collaborate with any other artist, who would it be and why?

To make a hype tune probably Eptic or KLRGRM, I reckon we could make one hell of a club banger. On the subby side of dubstep I would have to say Badklaat, I’m a big fan of that guy he’s got some next kind of flavour in his tunes.. I can’t explain it.

Got any tips for the up-and-coming producers out there?

1. Be unique, make your own sound.
2. 50Hz is where bass is the heaviest!
3. Keep practicing.

www.facebook.com/KSHmusic
www.soundcloud.com/k-s-h