Check out the latest interview with Sub Focus
Check out the latest interview with Sub Focus and his artist page http://stereosonic.com.au/artists/sub-focus/
He is now confirmed for all shows nationally including Adelaide!
Sub Focus
By Cole Laroche
He may have strong ties to the drum ‘n’ bass subculture, being part of Andy C’s Ram Records, but Sub Focus (Nick Douwma) also hangs with rock royalty. He’s collaborated with Eliot “Coco” Sumner, Sting’s daughter.
Nick, who remixed Self Machine for Ms Sumner’s electro-pop outfit I Blame Coco, sought to cut a vocal version of his own Splash. “I loved her voice,” he enthuses. “She loved the track and wanted to get involved.”
The Londoner, touring his live show around Australia for the first time with Stereosonic 2011, is fast becoming bass music’s next über producer – following his labelmates Chase & Status. Indeed, Nick masterminded Example’s smash Kickstarts. More recently, he teamed with Chase & Status themselves on their blockbuster No More Idols.
Nick was thumping the bass guitar in his school days. “I started on it quite young – I think I was about 13. I was in a band, initially with just one other guy, who played guitar. So I started learning how to program electronic drums and produce our demos, basically.” He soon discovered The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers, as well as jungle (Nick dug the ragga General Levy’s Incredible with M-Beat). He’d make dance music as a “hobby”, but was encouraged to take it seriously. Nick’s inaugural release came serendipitously in 2003 after a pal, out partying, handed his demo CD to Andy C. “He just loved everything and wanted to sign all of the tracks on there straight away,” he recaps. “It was brilliant getting into it like that!” Andy put out Nick’s Down The Drain on the boutique Frequency Recordings – but it was Ram’s guitar-riffed X-Ray that became his first monster tune. Supported by Radio 1, it crept into the lower reaches of the pop charts. Nick found himself remixing his heroes The Prodigy’s infamous Smack My Bitch Up.
In 2009 the sometime DJ unleashed his self-titled debut, spearheaded by Timewarp. Nick stretched the parameters of drum ‘n’ bass, throwing in vintage synth music, ’90s electronica, rave, underground house and techno, and the now surging dubstep. Sub Focus spawned successive crossover singles, including Rock It.
Today Sub Focus is as apt to be tagged ‘dubstep’ as ‘drum ‘n’ bass’. “I think they are distinct,” he holds. “[But] I quite like the confusion between the two, because I really feel that it’s all kinda one thing. I see it all as bass music. I play house music, dubstep and drum ‘n’ bass – and I do see a little common thread throughout the stuff that I play… a strong bassline element.” If Nick revels in that “confusion”, it’s because it proves that contemporary listeners are “less tribal” about genres. What’s more, DJs across the spectrum drop his tracks. (Diplo was all over a remix of Rusko’s Hold On, a chuffed Nick says.)
And this Brit is an in-demand remixer, even tweaking fellow Stereosonic headliners Empire Of The Sun’s We Are The People. But, for now, he’s focussed on completing a second album. Re-recording Splash with Coco was inspiring. “That’s given me an interesting new direction for the next project.” Nick’s upcoming material will be “more song-based,” but still clubby.
Aside from touring the UK with Aussie mates Pendulum last year, Nick staged his live spectacular at Glastonbury. Next stop? Stereosonic. Nick couldn’t be more amped. Fans can anticipate “a big production.” His aim with the show was to develop something other than a traditional ‘band’ format, passionate as he is about electronica. “I’m using laptops and samplers and synthesisers. I’ve got some bespoke equipment that I use for shows, these motion censors, so I can move my hands around in the air to control some of the sound. I’ve come up with a futuristic way of playing my music live. I guess it’s best described as live remixing – so I’m taking all the elements of my tracks and remaking them on the fly.” Catch him while you can.