SKREAM

Dubstep’s original boy wonder is moving into a new house

In the hazy morning of an after-party at last summer’s Hideout festival on the Croatian coast, Crack is being charmed to bits by the unlikely figure of Oliver Jones, aka Skream. 

This poster boy for the bass generation is making new friends, smoking fags, smoking our fags, and wandering around with a smile reflective of someone who’s been immersing himself in a group of people with whom he feels at ease. These people weren’t perhaps the usual dubstep cohorts with whom you’d associate him. Seen in conversation with the likes of Crosstown Rebels boss Damian Lazarus, this meeting is an open door to a world Skream is now exploring with gusto.

Fast-forward to the present. Skream is about to complete a transitional phase in his career in which he is about to play the legendary Crosstown Rebels Miami all-dayer Get Lost, curate a day/night party at XOYO and his own Skreamizm night at Warehouse Project, and finally, release a Miami 2013 retrospective for Pete Tong’s annual All Gone…Miami compilation. The tracklist of said compilation showcases that, far removed from the bassy leanings with which he’s associated, Skream is listening to house. Lots of really good house. Cuts from Maya Jane Coles, Solomun and Maceo Plex among others inform a double disc that also contains a couple of his own efforts, namely a remix of Infinity Ink’s Infinity and his own Rollercoaster production with Sam Frank.

The story of Ollie Jones is definitely one of the most overplayed and consistently quoted in electronic music folklore, but for those at the back …

Having bunked school in Croydon to work in the Big Apple record store, he started making music at 15 and was widely credited along with numerous other luminaries (Hatcha, Kode9, Youngsta, Mala, Coki) as being one of the early creators and developers of dubstep. Both the FWD>> night at Plastic People and the showcasing of the sound on Mary Anne Hobbs’s Radio 1 show allowed the freedom for Skream’s own productions as well as his DJing to flourish. It was in this 2001-2003 period where Skream’s relationship with Benga began to develop. After penning the genre’s biggest crossover ‘hit’ in 2005 with Midnight Request Line and then starting his regular Skreamizm compilations, essentially a retrospective ‘best of’ of his prolific production output year upon year, he became the most in-demand dubstep producer of his generation, commanding headline slots and festival appearances.

When the sound he helped coin emerged from the underground in a such a capacity that one of Crack’s Northumberland-based parents was buying their son dubstep compilations, Skream spied the chart potential of the genre’s emergence and developed the live Magnetic Man project with Benga and Artwork, therefore introducing a melodic form of dubstep to a new, albeit younger, audience. It was a divisive move that split fans down the middle, but continued his lofty position at the top of the game. But that game had changed and morphed. With Skream’s DJ sets becoming increasing interspersed with garage and house textures, the pre-eminent sound in dubstep was becoming the rather garish, less dub-influenced, brostep sound. A decade on, and the term ‘dubstep’ has moved far beyond the sound early Skream productions helped conceive, what was arguably one of the most exciting musical movements in recent history.

There is an increasing maturity in Jones, beyond the party-boy image that may have gone with finding such success at a ludicrously young age. The fact Skream is still 26 is the electronic music equivalent on breaking into the Manchester United first team at 17. He’s a veteran in a young man’s shoes. Having made such an indelible mark on one area of music, his move into another has been earned. While critics will naturally label it as bandwagon jumping, this is a producer whose seemingly limitless production output has seen two solo albums as well as a regular stream of EPs and single releases earn him so many stripes that such musical development seems only natural.

In a refreshingly frank conversation, Crack’s time with Skream touches on his change in musical focus, the dubstep scene’s growth, how being a decent sort will get you everywhere, and how Skrillex is far from bad. All this from the comfort of his Croydon home.

Firstly let’s talk about the mix CD you have produced for Pete Tong’s annual Miami compilation. It’s impossible to look at the track listing on that CD without mentioning the change in direction. How did that mix come about?

Pete asked me to do a house remix of Infinity Ink’s Infinity, which was obviously massive last year, and I jumped at the chance. So I finished the remix and then he hooked me up via text, asking how I would feel about doing a compilation. I thought ‘fuck it, yeah!’

So have the tracks that appear on this compilation been informing your listening for a while then? It’s a cross section of contemporary house really, isn’t it?

Yeah, definitely. I’ve been a fan of house music since I was working in a record shop when I was 15. House isn’t a new thing in my life, it’s just the current sound I’m into is that real bass-heavy Midland, Dusky sort of stuff. It’s a new thing for some people to hear me playing it, but anybody who has been coming to my shows over the course of the last year will have noticed there’s a lot more house in my sets than usual. That was kind of the idea behind the Skreamizm tour. Most of the music I’m enjoying that people send me is the house/techno/disco side of it really. People will be more familiar with my love of disco, but for me it all falls into one.

We’ve seen you play disco at various places including very early in the morning at Hideout and at Glastonbury Festival. It seemed like a bit of a part-time hobby, but has it become more important to you as time has gone on?

Musically, it’s so far away from what I was producing that it took a long time to get to the point where I felt I could start making that sort of stuff. Especially in regards to disco, it’s a lot more complex music. I’ve always tried to make it, but I’ve never been confident enough to show it to people as there is such a high bar. It’s not just something you just can knock together. It’s the same with the house stuff really. I’ve been making it undercover for about three years. I’m getting sent so much more house music now compared to the dubstep stuff I was getting sent. 10 out of every 15 tracks are really good and playable. There’s more music coming into my inbox in the 115-130bpm range than anything else.

Do you think that’s because institutions like Rinse are now playing loads more house and bringing it to the wider attention of the kids?

I think that’s more down to a popularity thing. In general I think there’s been a massive shift in the last year. I can only speak for myself, but it seems everything has just slowed down. It doesn’t seem to be a bad thing, it just seems like everyone has rushed to the same thing at once. There seems to be this huge culture of sheep. Obviously people could say that about me, but I could argue the hind legs off a horse about house music so …

Do you think there’s an inherent problem in house music of people not willing to take off their cool?

To be fair, at most of the clubs I’m going to, people are out till five or seven in the morning. You don’t get too many cool people out at that time. When I was 17 or 18 me and my missus and loads of mates used to go to this night called Avant Garde where my brother was playing. I was listening to house at nights like that, but I was still making dubstep. I was more nervous approaching house music as a scene and the people behind it. A lot of people who know me and are involved in the scene haven’t been that surprised by it. People like Eats Everything and Damian Lazarus, who are pretty ‘up there’ people, have been really accepting of my change. I thought that would be the hardest thing, but I’ve been getting nods from pioneers. That is one bit of it I’ve been really happy about.  Even though I’m new on this ladder, getting booked for things like Get Lost is amazing and very humbling.

You’ve just spent some time in the studio with Eats Everything haven’t you? Was that productive time or was that just hanging out as friends?

It was getting to know each other and doing a bit of work too. We’d met before but we’d both been smashed, so I spent four days up there. I love Bristol anyway; I’ve been going there for years. We got one tune that’s a bit of a banger done, and another mad techno track done. It was mad productive, getting two tunes nearly finished.

We’ve been talking about changes of direction, but it’s really hard to ignore the latest Skreamizm compilation (Vol. 7). As a brand, that series still has its roots in your style of dubstep and bass music. Will Skreamizm always be your outlet for that?

Skreamizm is always my snapshot of the year previous. I’d like to keep doing it so it’s something I can look at in the future and remember a particular time. I’ll be keeping Skreamizm.

It was still really encouraging to see a release that, despite your change in direction, still had its roots in what people might expect.

That Skreamizm is actually one of my favourites to date. I really love the Copy Cat tune I did with Kelis and Sticky was one of the biggest tunes in my set for the Skreamizm tour. I love doing the Skreamizm stuff, it kind of writes itself as it’s the cream of what I’ve written over the previous year.

You’ve got a little’un now, how do you juggle the work/family balance? Is it tricky with so many late nights and early mornings? 

It’s more stressful as you get older. I try and curb the long-haul tours to one a year. I’m actually in America for SXSW and Miami, but it’s hard. I don’t see him as much as I’d like to, but it’s one of those things he’ll understand when he’s older. It’s the way of the world and you have to earn your crust. No matter what way you look at it, if you party or if you don’t, it’s still a fucking great job.

We wanted to ask you about dubstep in the wider context. In a genre which was so fiercely protective of itself, it’s intriguing to see how the music has taken on its own life and changed from how it was initially conceived. Do you look at it with any nostalgia, or do you wish someone would come up with a more current or perhaps more credible twist on the genre?

Nah, nah, nah. It’s just progressing, innit? It happens. Things change. I know a lot of people who are bitter about how the scene has changed, but then I reckon there are also a lot of people who are pissed off with it because they didn’t move with the times. Ultimately you can do that, but you end up staying in that place. It wasn’t our ball anymore, because loads of people wanted to come and play with it. I don’t regret how it went. If it didn’t go how it did, then the world at large wouldn’t know the word dubstep as they do today. That’s what we worked at for years, to get to the point where we were playing to rooms of 6,000 people instead of 20. We wanted it to get bigger, we didn’t want to just play to 100 people every week, else DMZ would never have gone upstairs at Mass when it did. There are also still people doing that sound and are massively successful, like Mala, who is a God to most people into dubstep.

So what happened to it then?

It changed. The biggest thing that fucked it up was how everyone jumping on it raped it. People who say they didn’t – they did. That was such a shame. It was at the time when the internet had got bigger and it was a prime example of forums and Soundclouds being used to build the thing up. The difference before was that loads of people might have been able to make it, but it was harder to actually hear it. Today you can get everyone hearing it instantly and there isn’t a quality barrier. That was the problem. A lot of kids just latched on to one sound.

Do you think Radio 1 was responsible for that at all?

I can’t really say that because the music of mine that Radio 1 introduced to the general public wasn’t how it turned out commercially. For example, they pushed the La Roux remix, which is about as far away as you can get from the modern tear-up sounds. Even the tracks I did with Magnetic Man were still very song based. They were sub tunes, but they weren’t noisy. It’s a bit awkward for me because it’s my home as a station.

So what are your feelings towards dubstep as a whole at the moment?

I still really like dubstep. If I’m out and I hear hard dubstep I won’t leave. And I’ll repeat this again; I’ve said loads of times, I think Skrillex is one of the best producers around. Technically, and I don’t give a shit how many people want to shout at me on the internet, he’s great. I understand production and that’s why I rate him so much.

That’s a really fascinating take on it. He’s become a bit of a cartoon character that people want to throw darts at. We feel a bit sorry for him.

Don’t feel sorry for him, he’s a fucking multi-millionaire! I’m going to see him next week; we stay at the same hotel in Miami.

That’s a meeting of minds!

Y’know what? He’s a fucking really cool dude. Whenever I see him we don’t even really talk about music, we just meet up, hang out and have a laugh. It gets to me when people cuss him. I think its cause I know him as a person. I’ve always looked at the scene as a big social gathering. It’s the whole reason I rarely argue with anyone or I’m rarely rude to anyone. Nice people tend to be happier. It’s always the case if someone thinks you’re a dick and you behave like a dick you’re not going to have anyone talk to you.

Accurate. So right now you have a day party coming up at XOYO, followed by a night time event and a party at Warehouse Project as an extension of the Skreamizm tour.

It’s a continuation of the tour. These dates are part of the brand more than the tour. It’s like a Skreamizm weekender. I’ve got the date at Warehouse Project on Easter Thursday that I’m over the moon about. I managed to pull together a fucking sick line-up. I am still fascinated by UK dance music and there is an across the board UK feel to it.  On Friday I’ve got a day/night thing at XOYO, which is a snapshot of the tour. I’ve got Krystal Klear, Route 94 and Loefah. In the daytime it’s a different vibe with me playing a disco set and Krystal Klear playing a boogie set. I hope it warms-up! It’s sold-out though, which is great!

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Skream is curating Skreamizm at Warehouse Project on March 28th and at XOYO on March 30th

Words: Thomas Frost