I was a bit late to the show when a new label, Egyptian Avenue Records, dropped a collaboration between two then largely unheard of producers, Wen and Epoch. When I finally dropped some scrilla on their release Hydraulics what I heard was an unsettling, urgent mix of grime and dubstep, a tune with little repetition throughout, something that just screamed "different". Naturally, I took notice from then on, delving a little deeper into what I could find of Epoch. What I found was good.
Now that the music world is about to find out a little bit more about the two through their involvement with Keysound, I figured I should get Epoch in for a chat and a guest mix...
The mix is a selection of darker sounds around the 130-140 range, containing a healthy selection of dubs and forthcoming from the likes of Rabit, Wen, E.M.M.A, Skream and Epoch himself. Check it out...
NT: First off, for those that don't know yet, introduce yourself...
E: I'm Scott, I live in Christchurch, NZ and I produce under the name Epoch.
NT: While a lot of producers seem to be moving towards more rigid drum structures, producers like yourself seem to be edging away from them. Is the latter a reaction to the former, or part of a more natural process? Some of your tunes seem to stick to a regular drum pattern for only a few bars...
E:Maybe a bit of both! I'm influenced by producers from the likes of Burial to Jakes to Current Value, so it's a pretty broad range of vibes I enjoy when it comes to drums.. I tend to mix it up within the tune, it just keeps things interesting really. And it's great when people are getting down to a UK Funky sort of rhythm and then BOOM it switches up to some dutty halfstep. I love that shit, It's like a DJ set within a tune.
NT: You're part of a group of producers that are being pushed pretty heavily by the likes of Dusk & Blackdown at the moment. Whilst I can see similarities between your productions and those of the likes of Beneath, Wen, etc. I noticed that yours seem to feature vocals more regularly, which is pretty rare for the darker tunes of this nature. Where does this come from?
E: Man I've been wanting to work with vocalists for a long time (especially MC's). I grew up listening to hip hop so I've always liked that combination of vocals and programmed beats.
It's more of a challenge working with an actual vocal instead of just sampling here and there, it turns into actual song writing instead of just building a beat.
