Grafix released his second album on October 10, and on Don’t Slow Down he once again proves why he’s one of the biggest names in the dancefloor scene at the moment. Funnily enough, it feels like he did take the time to slow down on this album, and he dug deep for it. We can hear the quintessential Grafix sound, but can also see him experimenting and pushing the boundaries of dancefloor drum & bass.
Don’t Slow Down doesn’t only mark the second album for him, it also marks the first audiovisual show, which makes its debut on October 17 at No.90 Bar in London. “I’ve wanted to push beyond the traditional DJ set for quite a while now, and build something that brings the album to life,” Grafix explains.
We had a chat with him to celebrate the release of his new album and audiovisual show, and talked about the story behind all of this.
Congratulations on the release of your album, Don’t Slow Down!
It’s always a massive relief when an album comes out. A lot of hard work has gone into it from lots of people around me, so I’m happy that it’s all come together. It represents the last two years of my creative journey.
And what was that creative journey like?
Projects like this always start on the road for me. It’s always during a busy touring schedule where I start whipping my laptop out and getting inspired by things happening around me. A lot of inspiration comes to me after a show. As most DJs know, the adrenaline post show is really hard to wrestle with. It’s sometimes quite hard to go to sleep straight away so I always use those times to put that energy into producing. I feel like I get some really good stuff out of doing that. This album is a collection of music that’s come together over two years of touring.
Most of my time in the studio at home is refining music and getting into the sonics and the engineering. If I sit down in my studio to make new music, it’s sometimes quite difficult. I find it a lot easier doing it when it comes to me, which is when I’m not at home.
You’re talking about this adrenaline you’re feeling after a gig. Can you remember what gigs inspired you the most?
I’ve had a lot of transatlantic trips to America and Canada over the last few years. You’re often battling jet lag on those weekends, and you’re often full of energy even if it’s 4 a.m. EDC Vegas, Beyond Wonderland, Nocturnal Wonderland, those have all been big production shows, and I’m always blown away with the reception to drum & bass sets there. I’m often mid set, looking out, and being like, wow, I’m so inspired by the energy that you’re getting from the crowd. I can guarantee that 80 percent of this album was feeding off of that energy.
How have you evolved since your first album, Half Life?
I’ve been through a lot of creative and personal change since then, so that affects how your music develops. I have dug deeper into the sonic side of my music, and this is the best version of myself I’ve been able to put into a collection of music so far. We’re always looking to improve and progress in that way but there’s been a lot of change I would say over the last couple of years, and that has helped me develop as a producer and get to the stage where I can put this music out.
I’m lucky enough to have some good friends and good peers in the industry that have always been really helpful with giving me feedback, sitting in on sessions with them, learning from the best. Metrik and Culture Shock are both very dear friends of mine that I’ve been lucky enough to be in the studio with quite a lot over the last couple of years. I learn a lot in those sessions and it’s really good to then sit down and apply things that you’ve learned. I often try to pay it forward. I love sharing thoughts and giving feedback on other people’s tunes. There’s some really good producers whose music I really respect for how good it sounds at their age and I love digging into it with them and giving feedback where I can.
Back to your newest album Don’t Slow Down. What’s the story behind it?
The story has developed as I’ve written it, but the fact that it’s called Don’t Slow Down is almost ironic. We are all made to do things so quickly nowadays, and as an artist there’s a lot of pressure. Everything has to be incredibly snappy and quick. You have to post straightaway. You have to get a new tune out and you have to always be scoping out your next move. I think “don’t slow down” is almost a bit of a meme because that’s how we’re all forced to think. But if you do slow down a bit, you start to remember why you make music. The creativity feeds itself because you’re then in that flow state, focused on the thing that you used to do before it was a job, which is making music. Music is made to express and inspire and the rest of it is all noise. I didn’t really realise that as I called the track and the album Don’t Slow Down, but I’ve slowly realised that there’s a deeper meaning to it. As an idea, as an ethos, it’s a good tool to have in the shed. As an artist and producer you have to trust your instincts, and don’t overthink as much, and remember why you started doing it in the first place and then the most natural music will come out.
On October 17 you’re debuting your AV show in London, how was it to work on that and see that coming together?
It’s been an incredibly new experience for me because it’s not something I’ve done before. It’s been a really good creative challenge and one that’s inspired me a lot. I’ve wanted to push beyond the traditional DJ set for quite a while now and build something more immersive. It’s something that brings the album to life. It’s probably going to end up being something I’m the most proud of and also probably get the most addicted to over the next portion of my career. It’s such an incredible world, building audio-visual dynamics and trying to get things that are perfectly in sync. The visual artists I’ve worked with, COLDSTART STUDIO, have helped me design the flow of the show and have really made me think about my music in a different way. It’s something that I’m taking into my production and from now I’ll always try and think about how it’s going to translate in a visual sense.
What inspired you to do the AV show?
I’m a huge fan of artists like Chemical Brothers and Eric Prydz. I’ve seen Chemical Brothers at Glastonbury three or four times and every time it completely blows my mind. They have completely nailed the AV experience and I’ve always looked at those shows and thought, it would be so cool to be involved with that side of things. It looks like the most fun. Those artists are who gave me the initial ideas. It now being a reality is crazy because I never really thought I’d be in a position to do one myself. They are quite expensive projects to take on and there’s a lot of moving parts, but we just felt like it was worth rolling the dice on it now.
Where did you get your inspiration for the audiovisual parts?
There’s definitely some inspiration from the album aesthetics so far, and the visuals we’ve already put out. The Eric Prydz ‘Holo’ show is also a big inspiration, because it’s just incredible. I also had the chance to check out an ambient Daniel Avery set, which also helped my mood board. Ultimately my team has put all those ideas together and has designed something incredibly cool.
It’s a good time to be a fan of dancefloor drum & bass, and there are a lot of albums coming out this fall. How do you feel about the state of drum & bass right now?
It’s really cool to witness. There’s a strong wave of energy in the whole D&B scene right now. There are a lot of new producers coming through with fresh ideas and the crowd seems more engaged than ever. Dancefloor has always been a staple in the drum & bass climate, and I think it’s incredibly hard to produce well. It’s interesting when you hear new producers really nailing it because it’s often seen as one of those subgenres that people shy away from because it’s harder to make it sound perfect. I’m still figuring that out myself honestly. The scene is looking very healthy now. There’s always been great diversity but at the moment it shows that there’s a lot of people open to experimenting and it’s a great time to be in D&B. There’s a lot of cross pollination between a lot of the subgenres which is helping push it along. The last thing you want is five subgenres all in their own boxes, not tapping into anything else. Drum & bass as a scene works best when there’s total fluidity amongst everything and when there aren’t as many barriers between each one. When producing some of my own tracks, I often want to pull in sound design from completely other places that aren’t in the generic dancefloor palette and I think more of that is what we need.
Your B2B with [IVY] at The Warehouse Project is a perfect example of that.
Yeah, I really enjoyed that. [IVY] is wicked and we both share a real love for techno and trance. Because of our influences, I knew that it was going to work really nicely. We both tweaked our set to fit each other’s style and it worked really well. We need more of that, it’s only going to be helpful for D&B.
How have you felt the scene evolve since you first started out?
When I first started, which is 16 years ago now, the boundaries to getting into the genre were much stricter, there wasn’t as much access. It was way harder to find sample libraries for example. I used to subscribe to KMag, get CDs from there and grab samples off of that. There weren’t a lot of tutorials on how to do stuff so you’d be trying to figure it out on your own mostly. The fact that those boundaries are now gone, it’s far easier to get started. There are great YouTube tutorials, there’s Patreon, Splice… So much access to music, and it means that there are going to be more producers that don’t feel as scared of getting involved. Therefore you’ve got more creative brains on the case and you’re going to get better music eventually. It’s going to be more saturated but there’s going to be a better chance of good music shining through. It’s nice to see those walls come down. In the modern day music climate, people are always trying to blend styles more than they used to and push that boundary of what a typical D&B tune is. The creativity is really versatile and it’s nothing but good vibes for the scene. I think we’ll keep seeing that evolution towards genre fluidity, and technology will keep progressing and opening more creative doors for producers. D&B will continue to thrive, hopefully on both the underground and the bigger stages.
Talking about good vibes and collaboration in the scene, there are a few collaborations on your album. Why did you decide to work with those artists specifically?
All of those artists on my album all bring something different to my sound. I respect them all so much, whether it’s production-wise or songwriting or vocal tone. They’re all people that I’ve always wanted to work with and have good chemistry with. They inspire me, that’s the main thing with collabs for me. Collabs are always a big part of my process, I learn the most out of them and want to do a lot more of them next year. I like bouncing off someone else’s energy, it can always take a track somewhere unexpected which I’m always excited for. To give an example, I love how the collaboration with ROVA came about. It’s not what people would expect. He sent me a demo of another song he was working on, and I really liked the chords in it. I wanted him to introduce the chords a few more times throughout the track, so I gave him some feedback. He told me, do you want to take the chords and make a track together? That was the message I was really hoping for, so those intro chords in ‘Let Me Down’ are from that interaction. I really like it when things come together like that.
Which other producers are you feeling right now?
EL PABLO is one who continues to up his game and sends me the most incredible music that always goes straight into my set. Pirapus are amazing as well. SLESS & Loboski are both really cool up-and-coming dance floor producers. Every track I hear from them, I’m blown away by their sonic profile. All of their songs fit really well into my sets as well, which I enjoy a lot.
What’s next for you?
I’ve got a few trips to the US planned to play shows, and I’m playing Apocalypse in November which is going to be really special. It’s got the most D&B artists on the line-up of a US festival, which is exciting. The way the scene is growing out there is cool to see. Other than that I’m just touring the rest of the year and then we’ll be figuring out what the next moves are for my music, and my AV. I hope to continue doing both things into next year and get some more exciting announcements.
