Skream Interview
Skream on his new material, the good old days and why he’s not a big fan of his debut album.
The massively talented Skream is one of the most recognised and revered names in dubstep. Around the time the sound began to explode in London and around the world, Skream’s ‘Midnight Request Line’ had become the scene’s defining tune, and his was the name on everybody’s lips. His self-titled album released in 2006 cemented his position among the dubstep elite, as well as spreading his reputation throughout electronic music. Since then he has maintained his famously prolific studio output, and held down a long-standing residency at FWD>>. With the latest instalment of his awesome ‘Skreamizm’ series on Tempa almost ready to drop and his Magnetic Man tour just completed, we caught up with the affable south Londoner for an interview, and got the lowdown on his past, present and future.
Endclub.com: Hi Ollie! So you’ve been on tour recently?
Skream: You mean the Magnetic Man thing? Yeah it finished last Friday. It went really, really well. It’s me, Benga and Artwork, and a full visual show too.
And part of the set is live?
No, no, no, the three of us are on laptops.
That’s sort of live…it’s laptop live!
Yeah laptop live, not proper live. It’s the second tour we’ve done this year.
And are you going to be releasing any music from Magnetic Man?
There’s a Magnetic Man EP coming out soon, I think it’s mastered, it’s out in a month or so.
Nice, we’ll look out for that. So lets go back to the beginning, you met Hatcha whilst working at the Big Apple record store in Croydon, you were making beats, and around the same time so was Benga. Were you making similar stuff when you met?
Hatcha knew me and he knew Benga, but me and Benga didn’t know each other until his brother introduced us. We were sort of making similar music, both going to the same record shop and buying more or less the same records.
So what music were you listening to before that?
Garage, the more underground stuff. Wookie, Horsepower, Zed Bias etcetera.
And your music back then was more of a stripped down, techier sound…
Yeah, it was. With the first stuff I was doing, I was just copying people like EL-B; trying to recreate what they were doing. And then through that I started making my own shit.
So you played FWD>> at The End a couple of weeks ago…
The End was the first proper club I went to, actually. I was with Emma Feline – not with her with her! It was the first time Pendulum played at The End, a Renegade Hardware night. I’ll always remember that.
So what do you think of FWD>> at The End? It’s probably the most mainstream venue for dubstep, although we’re still an underground club.
Yeah, The End’s a really cool club, it’s a shame that it’s closing; I love going there. Good sounds, always good people, good layout.
Have you got a favourite gig or party you’ve played? Some of the early FWD>> nights at the Velvet Rooms must have been pretty special?
To be fair, at the early parties I wasn’t really playing, I just went to get my songs heard. They were special, because it was the first time I was hearing my songs in clubs, especially way back when at the early FWD>> parties. It was literally the first time I heard my songs and saw people dancing to them. You still get that feeling now, but I was 14 or 15 then, and I just thought “yeah, this is what I want to do”. There have been some great parties though, but the first DMZ birthday will always be the one that stays with me, it got moved from 3rd Base to Mass because there were so many people there. And that was quite early on, January 2006. Seeing the expressions and excitement on people’s faces, it was like, yeah man! It was just after we did the whole Radio One show too, the Dubstep Wars. There are loads of different parties that mean a lot to me though; do you know what I mean?
So your album ‘Skream!’, such a good album, did you have any idea it would blow up the way it did?
Well, I wasn’t even thinking about the outcome while I was doing it. I ended up feeling quite pressured with the whole thing. At the time of doing ‘Midnight Request Line’, if you asked anyone what they associated with dubstep, some wouldn’t know what it was still, and others would just say Skream. Everyone’s eyes were on the album. I was glad it came out, but it still wasn’t a full representation of me. That reggae-esque sound, it wasn’t really me. There were some tracks on there, ‘Summer Dreams’ is still one of my favourite tracks today, there’s a track called ‘Auto Dub’ on there which I still really like, ‘Blue Eyes’, ‘Midnight Request Line’, obviously…
And there’s a wicked photo you used for the album cover, whose idea was the artwork?
I didn’t realise this until I was talking to someone the other day, no one realises it’s actually taken in a club, there’s over 1000 people there in that room…
Really? You’re right though, it doesn’t look like a press shot!
Ha ha, it looks like I’m sweating my bollocks off in the kitchen of some party! Everyone thinks I’m out of it though, that’s the thing! Everyone thinks I’m pilled up! And I weren’t, I literally just come off the decks, and I had to get these pictures taken. It was just the guy who took the photo; he was trying to get motion…
It captures it really well.
Yeah someone the other day was going “whose kitchen was that?”, and I was like, “what?” It was a full-on rave, and we were trying to take the photo without loads of pissed up people getting in the way. It was like 4 in the morning and we were trying to take a picture without people jumping in. I was really happy with the artwork. It looks good on the shelves too, looks like I’m staring at you!
I read an interview with you that said you have hundreds of tracks you’ve made on your computer, addicted to making music it said. Any plans to release anything?
I dunno. If people ask for music, or want to play my music, I say “Come round my house, have a listen”. If people ask me if I’ve got tunes, I’m like “No”. Because I just think people want new stuff, so for me, I’m always going forward, that’s why I’ve got so much music, I’m always thinking about what I’m doing next. And some of my stuff I just wouldn’t be happy with, whereas others would, that’s the awkward part. So it’s about trying to realise that it’s not always your own opinion that matters. Well it is, but then again, it’s not, because you’re your own worst critic. I was planning on doing something; I might start releasing some of them digitally, in little packs, Skream classics or whatever. Just to get them out there, you know?
So this year dubstep has moved into the public consciousness a bit more. If you look at the way Burial was forced to out himself after The Sun hounded him around the Mercury Awards…did you ever think there’d be a time when the national press were talking about dubstep?
That was dark, man.
Yeah it was crazy the way it was all over the papers.
I was really pissed off at that, man. He just wants to make music, and they terrorised him. I spoke to him the day he put the picture up, and he was like “No man, it’s bullshit”. When they started saying other people were him, that must have been pretty frustrating. It was the Mercury wasn’t it, and people thought “How can we not know who he is if he’s up for a Mercury”, and then people started to think they were detectives.
Yeah it’s a shame he couldn’t have been left anonymous…
That’s why he doesn’t DJ. He’s had some DJ offers, I’m talking really big offers, and he doesn’t want to do them. He doesn’t want to DJ, he doesn’t want to do photo shoots, don’t want to do interviews, he just wants to make music. Really, you have to give it to him.
Definitely, respect for that. So you’ve got another release coming up haven’t you, the latest Skreamizm?
Yeah, Skreamizm 5. It’s part of a series, a double release. Because I make so much music, it’s a way of getting some of it out. The next one is going to be a triple pack.
Well we’ve listened to a few, I really like ‘If You Know’.
Cool, ‘If You Know’ and ‘Simple City’ are on there. I’ve had it on vinyl for a few weeks, white label. Should be out soon, in the next couple of weeks. I’ve got another tune coming out on Tempa, it’s quite similar to ‘If You Know’, like that vibe. It’s a track called ‘Hitch’. It’s got a male vocal bit in, it’s still bass-heavy, but it’s on the lighter side and on the heavier side at the same time. Not that that makes any sense, ha ha…
Well we look forward to hearing it. Thanks a lot for chatting to us...
Published: 3/11/2008
