Hailing from San Francisco, CA, NTRLD (pronounced interlude) have been making waves in the dubstep scene with their unique take on the sound. We caught up with the boys for a few questions and they were kind enough to share with us their take on LMFAO’s “I’m in Miami Bitch”, appropriately enough as they’ll be in Miami for this year’s WMC, bitch. Download the tune, read the interview and make sure you plan to attend Stank Love: The Official Big Up Magazine WMC Event, where they’ll be playing.

Also make sure you check out their Redline Dubstep 5.0 mix. The track listing is at the end of the interview.

How long have you been producing and djing, and what made you get into each?

Well…both of us have been classically trained in music theory and performance growing up, so we’ve been writing and performing since before we can remember. Both our careers shifted to producing electronic music at pretty much the same time, when we linked up to play in an alternative/experimental world music group called Zeneva back in 2007. The EDM influence in our music really started to become more and more obvious as time went on, and eventually we left the band to have more time in the studio producing tracks at 140bpm. By 2009 we started to turn a lot of heads in the dubstep community worldwide, linked up with a few different crews in the bay area (Redline/Compression/Rukkuz), and started djing out a whole lot more. Djing started for both of us as a way to perform for our fans and to allow people to experience the bass fueled insanity we’d created on a system it was meant to be played on. I think we’ve both come to realize just how much fun it is to dj to a crowd that really feels it and connects with us… it’s like instant gratification for a producer when a tune you just finished up that night gets a rewind and everyone’s going mental over it.

What are you feelings regarding accusations that DNB artists are “crossing over” into other genres, particularly dubstep and other club music, just for the money or fame? Why are some people afraid of producers making more than one kind of music?

Drum and bass and dubstep are two genres that really speak to us, and we take heavy influences from both, but since we started, we’ve intentionally avoided becoming pigeon-holed into the title of of “dubstep producers”. Music, like all art forms, is constantly evolving, and the most influential artists are always the ones blending and crafting new types of sounds. I don’t think it’s really ever about money or fame, at least it isn’t for us. It’s about hearing some completely sick bassline over a half-time beat and being like, “Holy shit! This doesn’t sound like everything else! They’re not using the same break over and over again? Why didn’t I think of that?” Or maybe we just get bored really easily, I think that has more to do with it. It’s a huge mystery to us why a producer or dj would be afraid to stray from his/her preferred bpm range… where’s the fun in that? better yet, where’s the challenge?

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When I first heard “Parables” by Landslide the vocals stopped me in my tracks. I discovered the vocalist was Kate Tempest and was immediately riveted by videos of her performances. Kate Tempest, aka Excentral Tempest, is a spoken word artist, poet, writer and rapper, performing solo and with her band Sound Of Rum. Inspired by everything from Wu tang, to Shakespeare and Blake, Coltrane and the Bible, her visceral style and lyrics at once strike at the immediate truth while providing plenty of deeper symbolism. She is a huge and wonderous talent, and I look forward to hearing much more!

Are you more of a fan of spoken word or rap? (or do you feel there isn’t much of a distinction)?

I’m a fan of both. I came to spoken word through rap and still make sure I take time to sit down and connect with the rap lyrics I grew up listening to and that inspired me. I spend a lot more time at spoken word events than I do at rap events, for no other reason than that spoken word pays better and books me more often. I miss the urgency of rap ciphers, but I enjoy the complexity of spoken word. There’s definitely a distinction between the two forms, although I don’t quite know what that distinction is. I am a huge fan of both, as long as the rap or poem I’m engaging with is written well, and is from a genuine place. I think as long as lyrics are authentic then I can get a lot from listening to them, however they’re performed.

What got you involved in each?

One of my best friends was a rapper when we were kids. I used to make beats and just sit around and listen to him freestyle. One day I wrote a piece and I called him up and spat it to him down the phone. And he was so into it, he took me down to this open mic at a record shop where all the London rappers would go every Friday, and I spat my one rhyme – looking like the female Harry Potter or something, I had thick glasses, and a duffle coat, and my hair all scruffy – I didn’t look like a rapper at all – everyone was laughing at me when I got on the stage, but everyone went nuts for it after I spat my rhyme, and I haven’t stopped since. Then, years later, when I was a proper rapper and gigging all the time and making tracks, I was in New York for a week, and I went to check out the Nu-Yorican poetry café, and I entered the slam there, and won it. I’d never seen spoken word before, or slam poetry and I found it dead exciting and welcoming. I went home and a week or two later another friend of mine told me about a slam in London where you could win £100, so we went down there, and I entered. And I won. Loads of the poets that were there to compete were impressed and took my details and booked me for their nights, and then, all of a sudden, I was a poet too.
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Stunna is a drum and bass producer, DJ and live performer from Chicago who’s jazz influenced style of drum and bass is spreading rapidly. He’s also well known for his Green Room internet radio show via BassDrive, the internet’s go-to spot for drum and bass, 24/7.

Besides sharing some insight into his views on the state of drum and bass, his influences and where you can catch him during the 2010 Winter Music Conference, he’s sharing his tune “Strange Behavior”, which you can download here.

Special thanks to Methodus for hooking the interview up.

1. How long have you been producing and djing, and what made you get into it?

I’ve been producing music since I was a teenager, but more specifically, Drum+Bass since around 1998 or so.  First started learning to DJ about 2000 as a means to play original productions I was working on as well as all the influential tracks that got me into the scene.  Really got into the music thru my love of jazz and funk which I in turn ’sample spotted’ in some DnB tunes, and the rest is history, as they say.

2. People claim that drum and bass is dead, and yet, arguably, the sound is more diverse than ever. Where do you, as a producer, DJ and music lover see the genre going in the coming years?

Sure, every year I hear people talking about DnB ‘dying’ and so forth.  Nine times out of ten, those are the people who get into the music for the wrong reasons and aren’t willing to open themselves to the possibilities this genre has to offer.  Yes, you’re exactly right – the sound is indeed more diverse than ever, and as a result, I think it’s turning some heads from other electronic genres that might be into more ‘minimal’ sounds or even the ‘half-time’ sounds that some people often mistake for Dubstep, haha.  Either way though, I really enjoy playing sets that incorporate a wider spectrum of sounds as it keeps me interested and on my toes as a DJ.  With all the great music being made by some exciting new producers, seems only logical that DnB is here to stay.  The digital domain has changed the face of the game, so I see that as a very important aspect that’s being integrated into the distribution end of the market.  The true soldiers are still out there fighting the good fight so I think only better things can come in the future.

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Veteran music-maker Janner has been producing for over a decade.  Moving from drum and bass to dubstep, breakbeats and garage, Janner’s music is melodic, driving and above all thoughtful.

What inspired you to start producing music and what are some of your influences?

i’ve been producing for about 12 years now after being in bands etc as I was growing up. i had always been into baggy indie bands like the stone roses and  started to get into beaty stuff like the chemical brothers… then when i left home for uni i started buying music gear so that i could produce solo. When i started producing (1998) i didn’t even have a PC, just outboard gear. what inspired me was a desire to create and record music on my own, as the last band i had been in was still back home in plymouth. once i got to uni in Manchester, dnb became an increasingly significant influence. then around 2000 i was into the dark garage and breaks that was coming out around that time, and hip hop… and eventually after i moved to Brussels, dubstep happened.

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DFRNT (aka Alex Cowles) is a 26 year old Scottish producer and DJ working out of Edinburgh. He produces music, runs the Echodub label and collective, is editor for Modus magazine, and writes the SittingOvation blog. With debut album “Metafiction” released in late 2009 on On The Edge records, DFRNT has seen support from many of the worlds’ top dubstep producers and DJs, from heavier hitters like N-Type, Baobinga and Headhunter, to deeper selectors such as Synkro, Scuba or dub-techno don Quantec.

In November 2009, he was asked to put together a mix for Mary Anne Hobbs’ legendary BBC Radio 1 show, and since that airplay, he has scheduled releases on a number of labels including On The Edge, Futurism Recordings, the tentracks initiative and his own imprint Echodub.
He visits the US this spring with east coast dates including March 7th in Baltimore, Maryland; March 9th Burlington, Vermont; and May 15th in Orlando, Florida.

What inspired you to start producing music and what are some of your influences?

Well I played various instruments as a child, and then got heavily in to computers and computer arts – so I guess it was a natural progression. That said, I remember toying with Fruity Loops when I was younger and hating it – I could never get it to do anything, so I got in to production through doing mashups and unofficial remixes a few years ago – with a bit of success in that, I slowly started doing more and more of my own stuff, so that I didn’t have to use other people’s tracks – and then my production sort of came out of that. So I used to use Acid to produce, but have since made the jump to Ableton Live.

Influences to begin with were people doing well in the mashups scene, but once I discovered dubstep, I was looking to all the big players for inspiration. By the time I got in to it, the likes of Skream and Benga were producing some great stuff, and artists like Scuba were doing something different which I really appreciated. Outside of the dubstep sounds I’ve always been a fan of Sasha and Hybrid with their progressive electronic sound, and then I listen to just about anything else to be honest. If there’s elements I like, I’ll try and take that to use in my own stuff. There are a great deal of new producers doing soem great stuff too – so that’s always interesting to tap for inspiration.

What is one of your best ‘music moments’ (ie concert/show you attended, gig you dj’d)?

You know what – I still think one of my favourite shows attended, was the first time I was Orbital. It was my first proper gig, and my friend had scored tickets to go and see them in Edinburgh, I just remember being astonished by the music, the volume, the show and the atmopsphere. Since then only a few gigs have come close. I enjoyed seeing James Brown live before he passed away, and also when I made the trip down to London for the last dubstep night at The End – that was pretty good!

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