Wobble

DJ Loco Interview

Tell the Aussies a bit about yourself...

Hi my names Loco, I'm a producer & DJ from a small scummy town called Bracknell in the UK. Been producing and spinning discs for about 7 years now, I make and play a variety of genres including Hip Hop, Grime, Dubstep and anything else containing disgusting drums or basslines that make you wanna vomit in your dad's slippers. I'm in Australia for about another 6 weeks just doing bare shows with my boys Felony, Scotty Hinds & Fraksha (Nine High) to promote their album, so I gotta big them up for giving me the opportunity to come over here and do that...oh and make sure you go and buy the album or I'll hunt you down and slap you!

What are the main differences and similarities you can see between the music scene here in Melbourne and back home?

Well for a start, from what I've seen so far the whole business side of things here appears to be much more advanced than in England. You can be a grimey street urchin here banging out tracks every week and uploading videos on YouTube and make good money from it, plus build and maintain a reputation and credibility - where as in England, the street heads have to either sell their asses to a big label to get some real money or they have to just go back to the road and sell some more drugs! It doesn't seem like theres anything in between... Also, people here seem to be so much more receptive to local acts - they come to the shows, buy the CDs, buy the T-Shirts and offer their support as much as they can. In England, people think they are too cool to come and show love for local artists so it ends up that the local artists, who are often making very good music too, can never make a proper career out of it without selling out. Lose lose situation!

What are your musical influences and inspirations?

I'm influenced and inspired by everything man. It could be an old sample I've discovered, a picture I've seen, a story I've read in the paper, another producer's beat. I don't wanna sound clichéd but I really do think it all comes out in the music - at least I think these things have an effect on the type of music you want to create. Music wise though I couldn't even begin to tell you. My dad was always into rock, my mum was into Motown and Soul so I got a diverse mix from a young age. I can appreciate all types of music now, even stuff I wouldn't choose to listen to myself. Once you've sampled Barry Manilow you can't really say shit about other genres of music...

What software and gadgets to do like to use when you are in the studio?

Hmmm. There's quite a few! I couldn't live without Pro Tools, I do all my recording and mixing in that. There's one particular plug-in which I love though, it's called Ozone and it's made by the American company iZotope. It's basically a mastering unit but it has 6 separate processes - EQ, Harmonic Exciter, Maximiser, Multiband Compressor, Stereo Imager and a nice Reverb. I just like it because you can combine these different elements and use them to shape certain parts of your track - like the bass or mid range for example - or you can use it to achieve a really high quality finished & mastered song. I use it a lot for vocals too.

Finally, what do you have in the pipeline and where can we find out more about you?

I'm constantly working on that pipeline just trying to do as many shows as possible, get as many placements for beats as I can, promote our label's first release back home www.funneltown.com too and juggle everything else in between. Life is busy but that's definitely a positive thing. I just heard that a track I did with Joe Budden a while ago should be making it onto his next album too, so fingers crossed. Nothing's finalised until I see that tracklisting man, you know what the Americans are like! You can check me out at myspace.com/locoproductions ! Also definitely have a look at www.youtube.com/loftbtv which is mine & Felony's label channel from back home, we're documenting our whole trip on there so make sure you subscribe too... Twitter is twitter.com/locoproductions, and find me on Facebook too if you can be bothered. Plus if anyone is interested in beats, feel free to drop an email to beatsbyloco@googlemail.com. Other than that, if you see me on the street while I'm here then come say hi and cop some Nine High merchandise and check us out at Wobble. It's gunna be massive!