Mayhem Interview with Bijou Interviews / Date: May 06, 2010 - 02:26 PM Drum n Bass USA style has a deep history and a wealth of players that have kept the music alive. One such purveyor of the sound is a guy from the deep south of Atlanta Georgia known as Mayhem. A man on a mission and with more fingers in pies than humanly possible Mayhem is a true powerhouse behind the music, having worked with some of the best names in the business from the mighty Noisia to KRS One. Founder of labels Shadow Law Recordings and Aesthetics, Mayhem also runs the website 404 Audio, his own club, Transit, tours the world Djing whilst also writing and producing his music from Dubstep to Drum n Bass and even a little Electro and Booty shakin Nu House under the moniker Rrrump. Bijou hits him up to talk about his first solo album Into Oblivion. For those who don’t know you, tell us a little about yourself? I am 27 years old, my name is Anthony Rotella I’m from Atlanta Georgia in the heart of the dirty south. I run Shadow Law Recordings, Aesthetics as well as 404 Audio and Atlanta Dubstep, which looks after Dubstep culture and music in Atlanta Georgia. You have a new album coming out called “Into Oblivion” on your own label Shadow Law Recordings, what’s the low down? Basically it’s a collection of Drum n Bass, Dubstep, Downtempo and a couple of interludes that really express myself as an artist for the first time. I did a single of my own stuff on Gridlocks Project 51 Label. But aside from that I have not done a single solo record, so this is a collection of exclusively solo material for myself. It expresses myself as an artist more so than anything else I have ever done. My new album is also a collection of some of the emotions I have had over the past two years or so. It’s about everything from being in love to being in complete disgust, to being enraged, the feelings I had when my son was born to being completely happy. I have made this album like this, because when I look back on this in say 10 years I can personally relive the moments and recollect the perspective I had and remember the experiences I had through that period of my life. That is the main source behind the name, because it’s into oblivion, I just really wanted to create an album that was tangible before I pass away. This makes sense in that you have done a lot of collaboration work over the years with a variety of different artists, who are some of the artists you have collaborated with? Previously I have collaborated with Gridlock, I have done a lot of stuff with Noisia, including big tunes such as “Moonway Renegade” and “Exodus”, which featured KRS One, Chook, Phace & Misanthrop, Psidream, Evol Intent, & Think Tank to name a few. You have done a lot of collaborations with some solid artists, why do you think that is, is it because you are simply good friends with these people of was it because you shared a similar ethos for the music? Through Collaborating with a lot of different artists I have learnt a lot of different techniques in how to design sound, such as how to make your drums sound bigger and I guess, generally in how to get the results I am looking for. The biggest thing I think I have contributed to many of these collaborations is perhaps a lot of conceptual ideas, as opposed to just having a tune, with a loop, or a simple vibe with this kinda sound or that kinda sound, I think I have brought a lot more of a conceptual idea to the music as an artist and put forth something that goes beyond the scope of a tune just being a roller, or a dancefloor banger into being more of an overall concept, rather than just being a tune that will make people dance. I think that working with anyone, in any capacity is always something that is going to be synergetic, even at the worst when you are working with someone who your not really vibing with, you are going to pick up something, and have a different perspective that you would not normally have. Sometimes it doesn’t really gel, but regardless to whether it gels or not, I think producing with other people is always going to give you a different aspect towards creating music. Do you enjoy working with other people than working on your own? Yeah, I enjoy working with other people moreso than on my own. Mostly because I feel like if I am working with a really tight engineer like Noisia or Phace, that we are able to manifest the idea’s that we have, into something beyond what I might be able to do myself or even perhaps beyond what they would do by themselves, because I feel that bringing something like my concepts together with someone who is a seasoned engineer, combines to make something that is memorable. Well it’s clear these artists have enjoyed working with you as they have all become good friends, So what triggered you into taking that step into writing your own album? I think that over the years working alongside the likes of Noisia & Phace and having had a lot of input from guys like Misanthrop and Psidream amongst others has really help me to build a solid foundation towards engineering my own music, and now I feel I am at the point where I am very objective about where I want to go with my music and I feel I can finally stand behind my own music, where I am confident, where in I feel it’s tighter, where I am more confident and comfortable about putting it out there to the public. You have always had you finger on the pulse running such a respected label as Shadow Law Recording. And with this album, you cover a number of different musical styles, why the diversity? I really wanted to take it back to the basics with Drum n Bass, go back to what I was first interested in Drum n Bass wise from the Gecko. That time from 95-98, from great labels like No U Turn, Metalheadz, Virus Recordings, Metro, back to that vibe that sums up what Drum n Bass is for me. I want to take it back to the essentials, not being over the top with a bunch of wind up sounds that are purely made to get the dance floor off.This album is a bit more like foreplay, where I am aiming to kinda warm people up for the dance floor and get them into a solid groove, build it up to a point which is eventually going to get them to bust a titanic load. [ Laughs] So on the album I have predominately Drum n Bass, a couple of Dubstep tracks and a few Downtempo/Trip Hop tracks, generally everything is a lot more of a deeper vibe. For me it’s more about representing what is somewhat more popular in Drum n Bass right now, and resonates with the current les is more aspect.Taking it back to a more minimal and say timeless way, something like what the old J Majik or Goldie records were, the way they used timbre’s that just stick in your head. It’s more of a personal album for me. For example in almost every tune I have pushed myself as a artist in so many ways, such as… I have either sung on tunes or worked in little tiny obscure sounds or effects that mean something to me. You know, like Noisia and I, humping on the couch, and making a sound out of that [Laughs] Almost every track has something personal about me in there. Which is, I guess, just my way of preserving a part of myself in time. That is really what Into Oblivion is about. One of your stand out tunes in the recent past was the collaboration with Noisia and Krs One, bridging Hip Hop and Drum n Bass, how did that all come about? The whole Exodus collaboration came about a few years back, when I brought Nik from Noisia over to Atlanta from Holland and we were working on a track where we were both really feeling the vibe of it.I have a really good friend called Ricky Raw who is a hip hop MC from Atalanta who is a mutual friend of Krs One, so I just put it out there, that if Krs One was interested I would like to get him on this track, because by then we had already done the half time interlude before the second breakdown and I really felt like we should get someone to rap on it. And of course, there is no one better than Krs One, I mean he is Hip Hop such a great icon. So I really wanted to fuse Krs One with Drum n Bass like Goldie had done years and years ago, which was an instrumental part of my upbringing and basically the opportunity arose and a few months after we had finished the track, I was able to get Krs One in the studio and record him for Exodus. So what did Krs One think of the tune? When Krs One heard the tune he was completely into the vibe of it, obviously he is into Hip Hop and Drum n Bass is not his main forte, but he thought the track was dark and fucking heavy. He asked me to give him some direction as to what the overall vibe of the tune was about. I told him the track was called Exodus and we had this conceptual idea about breaking through the status quo.He embraced the idea and basically busted out his lyrics in two takes, he was 100% professional and such an incredible artists to work with. We were so pleased to have worked with him on such an awesome tune. It really is an honour to work with such a respected artist. Oh yeah it was completely humbling to work with him. To this point I have never worked with anyone that will ever eclipse working with Krs One. You run your own label Shadow Law Recordings What was that turning point that made you decide to start your own label? I started SLR because I wanted to have an outlet for my music, I started making music when I was around 8yrs old playing guitar, and by the time I was 11 I had been exposed to more electronic music and so I progressed to making music on my piece of shit computer my 386.This eventually led me to writing Drum n Bass. When I first found Drum n Bass, it felt like I had found a music that completely embodied everything about my life and I was instantly sucked into it all. Towards the late 90’s I wanted to create a label to release my own stuff, but I also started looking out to find other artists who were on the same wavelength and that’s where I found Synthetix, Rob F and Impulse and it was then after listening to their stuff I realised my shit was not even ready or close to being released. [Laughs] So I started putting out records from them, and also did collaborations with them, the second release on the label was Myself and Impulse with Rob F on the flipside, one of their good friends was Kiko and they were also really good friends with MC Mecha who was a part of Synthetix and all of us together sorta formed a crew of likeminded people who were into these dark, techy, moody beats. So the label was there for us to push out a lot of these beats. I would only ever release tunes that I felt were up to the quality I wanted to release as Shadow Law and what I wanted to hear.Shortly after we had put out a few releases, I found Noisia, at that time they had sent a few demo’s across to me on line and from hearing Noisia’s first recordings I realised that Noisia were going to go on to do some really big things in Drum n Bass. At that time I had no idea that they would take on the world of electronic music as a whole the way they have, but I knew they had something. Well you are renown for being the one that broke Noisia amongst others into the drum n bass market. Yeah we definitely helped to break people like Noisia, Phace and Misanthrop into the market before they blew up. But for me it’s not about being that dude that found them first, it’s more about being there to nurture and encourage them as artists and work with them and share the knowledge I had with them. From there we built really strong relationships, like with Noisia, I started going over to Holland and spent a few weeks with them and that’s where Me and Noisia wrote “Tomahawk” which was their first release. And then while I was in Estonia playing a gig, Noisia wrote “Silicon”, which became the flip side and the first 12”. From there Noisia really took off and their production skills really increased in quality. I worked with them for a while as A&R hooking them up with labels such as Subtitles, Renegade Hardware and Cause 4 Concern to help get them out there, I never wanted to be selfish, I just wanted to help them to get out there and I did the same thing for Synthetix getting them out there on Disc4 and Renegade Hardware and Subtitles, because I had the connections and wanted to help. You have also been a strong person behind the Dubstep scene in Atlanta, can you tell me a little about what’s happening with Atlanta Dubstep? With Dubstep for me I kinda have a bit of a split personality, with Drum n Bass I love the deep techy kinda vibes and with Dubstep, Ironically I am completely into the wobble side of it as well as the kinda Joker Purple sounds I guess there is just so much good stuff coming from across the globe now.With Dubstep, I kinda feel that I had learnt from all my mistakes with Drum n Bass, so I have taken some of those lessons learnt and put that practice back into Dubstep. So I have compiled a group of people in Atlanta who are passionate about pushing Dubstep, whether it be tear-out wobble stuff or more of the minimal techno stuff, so together we have come together to promote Dubstep on a larger scale.From this we have seen nothing but success, we have built our own sound system, we have built a brand and have brought multiple artists to Atlanta that perhaps would not have been here had we not had the support of a group pushing the sounds You are known for your fusion of Hip Hop into your sounds and you mentioned that it is something you are wanting to do with Dubstep, tell us a little about that? Yeah as far as my long term goals I would really like to do a bit more crossover with Hip Hop and Crunk with Dubstep, we have already taken a small step with Heroes and Villains and Megan Foxxx doing a Rusko Remix, with him working at Grand Hustle we have access to a lot of great artists that are pushing the Atlanta sound, and slowly but surely we have people like Caspa working with guys like Ludachrist so it’s really a step by step thing and we are working towards bringing these sounds together a little more and making Dubstep and Drum n Bass more of a fry filled piece of greatness [Laughs] So any plans to release Dubstep on your label Shadow Law Recordings? Um at the moment I don’t have any plans to release Dubstep on Shadow Law because I don’t think musically it matches up to the vibe on Shadow Law Recordings, perhaps we might look at a sub-label in the future, but at the moment for me I am just looking at trying to get my own Dubstep tunes out on other peoples labels. I have a very specific concept and outlook on everything I do with Shadow Law and the type of sounds I put out with Drum n Bass and for me Dubstep is an outlet for me that isn’t part of that vision. Tell us a little about what’s happening right now in Atlanta? Right now, for me I have a couple of residencies, I am playing Electro, Drum n Bass and Dubstep gigs I am doing a bit of top 40 crossover with say Bassline House, Dubstep, Electro or whatever. What no Miami Bass? [Laughs] No! No Miami Bass, but I will drop some Two Live Crew or some booty anthems to get the bitches shakin their arse, which is actually why the project I am doing with Electro is called “Rump”, because it’s all about shakin arse. You have a lot of stuff going on and in keeping with your workload and having your finger on the pulse, what’s the next step? I feel like in America, we are going to have a lot more crossover. I think at the moment, Dubstep more so than Drum n Bass has the potential to reach a wider audience and perhaps stretch more musical boundaries. Drum n Bass doesn’t have the most palatable tempo for the majority, so for me at the moment I want to strip it back and take it back to more of it’s core essence and not over do it. Which I think is going to re-inspire people to getting back into it. I kinda hope that because Dubstep is more palatable to the majority that this will open the ears and minds of more people to get into Drum n Bass, which I feel will only be beneficial to electronic music as a whole. You have recently toured Australia how do you like it? I think Australia and New Zealand have one of the best scenes in the world. People are into the music, and the scene is vibrant. It seems like it is fresh to them, even though I am sure that it is not. People are enthusiastic about the music down here. Mayhems Album Into Oblivion comes out through Shadow Law Recordings This May 2010 Check it! This article comes from sydneyfriction http://sydneyfriction.com/ The URL for this story is: http://sydneyfriction.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=380