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How would you say your music production process has evolved over time? Were you a musician or producer first?

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I’d possibly say I’m a bit of an experimentalist first and foremost – the earliest music I made on a Yamaha keyboard I got from CashConverters, run through guitar pedals, and recorded through a gaming headset into Audacity. I recorded a series of EPs in this format, and then had a break from making much music at all once I learned to DJ.When I picked it back up again three or four years ago, I started using DAWs for the first time: GarageBand to use my first EP as Clemency, and then Ableton thereafter. I’d definitely not consider myself a musician – I’m not ‘trained’ to play anything and I only have a very primitive understanding of sheet music, scales, composing, and so forth. I’m a little more comfortable than I used to be calling myself a producer, but I’d still primarily call myself a DJ, and someone who likes to mess about with sounds.

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What key changes have you seen in the music industry/bidness during your time making records? Is independent the way to go?

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My creative roots are in DIY scenes and this informs my output, although I guess a lot of what I create now may seem
to sit on ‘the other side’. I’m hesitant to conflate changes in DIY or ‘big music business’ with a change in my own position, as I’ve kind of started to straddle the space in between over the last few years. Ethos underpins all choices I make regarding releasing music, and I think I’ve found a perfect middle ground with 2B Real/Local Action – the attitude is right for me, but tools across industry are utilized regarding releasing music. In terms of releasing independently, it was my go-to for years and I’d certainly encourage it over reliance on releasing on a label. Creative control and immediacy are empowering. The benefits of such far outweigh PR connections or promotion that a label could offer for me.

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You have a satisfyingly dark aesthetic to your production, tell us a little a bit about where this stems from?

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As a teen in punk scenes in Yorkshire, and then my early production in noise, I think my musical background has always contextualized music as therapeutic, liberating, sometimes aggressive, often inwardly confrontational, and this still informs how I produce. Similarly, I’m a sucker for a concept, or a heavy handed metaphor – again, my conceptual inspiration for this (poetry, fiction, events both personal and in the wider world) often deals in darker themes.

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Talk us through the track you last [cmd] ‘S’d ? ([ctrl] ‘S’ to PC users)

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I’m working on a longer form mixtape (not an album!!) meditating on idolatry, tragedy and femininity. I’m having the most fun making little interludes – learning to produce very concisely, and tying tracks and ideas together.

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What piece of studio (or live) equipment would you NOT part with? – Ever!!

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A tasty drink – herbal tea mostly, or a fancy beer as a treat. A nice candle or incense, right now I’m burning Apotheke Fragrance ‘Teakwood’. Blue light filtered reading glasses. Valhalla delays.

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Could you name three things that have been on heavy rotation on your audio player of late?

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Omar Apollo – Ivory, Demon Poetry NTS show, The Receipts podcast.

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What can the CDR audiences expect from your time with us?

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I’d like to try and promote consideration of simplicity and hopefully inspire some deep sample searching! My tracks are technically minimal, and my priority is making sure everything there works hard. I mainly see production as functional for expression rather than something I do for fun, but sampling – the searching, the manipulation and the deployment – is truly my favourite part.

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‍Have you any advice for producers/musicians developing musical works in progress to play at CDR?

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Bite the bullet – it’s always going to sound better on big speakers and you’ll be able to listen with new ears in a new space. It was reaffirming to me the first time I heard one of my own songs on a nightclub system – in the context I’d designed it for – and if that’s the environment your productions address, I’d encourage it even more so.

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