DEADBEAT: THE NEW DUB-TECH MASTER

several years and that sort of planted the seed for this obsessiveness, as well as giving me a great education about synthesis and sound in general on quite a low level. These days I'd say I'm more concerned with just making music though. I would love more time to geek out, but time is an increasingly precious thing these days.

I hear you record virtual instruments through mic'd speakers? Any secrets to your sound?

Yes, I had a great deal of fun recording soft synths like real instruments on this album, experimenting with mic placement and extreme mixer and compression settings. There's no secret to my sound at all from a gear perspective. All of the software I use is commercially available and in all likelihood entirely similar to what just about everyone uses these days. The immediacy and large scale availability of software has the unfortunate effect of discouraging deep exploration. Why spend hours exploring and tweaking one synth, effect, or recording environment when you can download 10 more? It's that commitment to really exploring everything the tools can do that has always been the most rewarding for me and where the real magic happens.

Do I sense a hint of cynicism towards the renewed interest in Dub in the press release for the album? Has this to do with Dubstep or are you afraid of an overkill of bad records?

On the contrary! I couldn't be happier that there is a renewed interest in dub. The comment you are referring to was made specifically in reference to the last song Babylon Correction, with which I was trying to capture a bit of the spirit of the early Jamaican dub sound - which was definitely not exclusively made up of minor chord deep dark tunes. There is a great deal of dub from that period that is totally righteous and uplifting and some of my favourite dubs from that period absolutely fit that description.

But if things focus too much on that heavy super dark sound eventually the pendulum has to swing the other way, and you need only look at the resurgence in quite melodic house over the last year or so in response to several years of FX driven cold minimal tracks to see an example of this. It's quite a exciting time for music these days as a result, the most interesting moments always come in transition when things are neither here nor there I think.

Have you ever been to Jamaica?

Sadly not as of yet but all faring well I hope to make the pilgrimage at some point in 2009. It's been a long time coming...

Want more Deadbeat? Check his Myspace or watch him giving lectures (part 1, 2 and 3) at the Red Bull Music Academy in Melbourne two years ago.

  Deadbeat Myspace

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