About eight out of ten times, when we listen to new music, our immediate thought and expectation is how the song or the artist makes us feel; and more often than not, the feeling you’re aiming for is – euphoria. Something NOTION has achieved to invoke with every release he has made since his debut. Pushing his ideas with purpose, creativity, and power, the Bristol native has now become one of the leading names of the UK’s dance music’s most prominent new-generation artists.
With a creative approach that is both futuristic and impactful while building on his penchant for delivering turbo-charged music that exudes a variety of emotions, which has long been a defining feature of his releases, NOTION has been consistently pushing the envelope by reinvigorating bass music in his own enterprising ways, while serving his vision’s most imperative purpose – making people dance.
Now sitting at the helm as one of United Kingdom’s top dance music lynchpins through hits such as ‘FOUND LOVE’ and ‘CHERRY’ as part of his ‘OUTSIDER’ series, NOTION continues to make his mark on global music with this renewed sound in singles such as ‘TEMPORARY FRIENDS’ with Charlotte Plank and ‘BACKBONE’, which sees NOTION experiment with jungle music. These have been accompanied by ‘TV DREAMS’, ‘GRAVITY’ and ‘THINK ABOUT U’ that have seen NOTION draw inspiration from his foundational sounds like house, breaks and garage. The Mixtape has already been a favourite among his industry peers, with massive support coming from scene heavyweights like Sammy Virji, Joy Orbison, Ben UFO, Floating Points Conducta, salute, Disclosure, Joy Orbison, and Ewan McVicar throwing their weight behind the release.
Having just arrived from an extensive tour across the United States and Canada, NOTION is preparing to unveil his most prolific offering to date: the ‘FORWARDS’ Mixtape. The inventive DJ and producer recently unveiled the Mixtape, starting with the uplifting track ‘FEEL LIKE ME’. The full release, out on August 30, which will include some his recent hits, will be an exhibition of NOTION’s ever-evolving sound, which has traversed from its roots in bass and bassline cuts into a more versatile blend of electronica, garage, breaks, and jungle.
We figured it was the perfect moment to catch up with NOTION and dive into his ‘FORWARDS’ Mixtape, chat about his current tour in the USA and Canada, and get bite on his DANCE DUBS project. Of course, we had to kick things off by asking how the festival season has been treating him!
“It’s been great but I’m not going to lie, I’m a bit of an introvert and I love being at home so I never really look forward to summer until it actually gets here haha. Don’t get me wrong, I do love summer & festival season, always a highlight of my year but I also really love rainy days and cold weather, plus I don’t really have the legs for shorts tbh.”
The festival season was marked by NOTION’s highly anticipated Glastonbury debut, where he dished out his energetic dancefloor cuts at the UK’s most prestigious musical gathering. Seamlessly combining his trademark blends that ranged from hard-hitting basslines to infectious rhythms, NOTION was able to give the crowd a glimpse into his ‘FORWARDS’ Mixtape.
“I’ve never been to Glastonbury before and it’s just like the most overwhelming mad experience. So cool to be able to play it b2b with Oppidan too. Also, fun Glasto fact – my dad almost went to the first EVER Glastonbury when there were like 300 people in a field but him and his mates drove round for ages and couldn’t find it so they went home, so that one’s for you Dad.”
Coming to his FORWARDS Mixtape, NOTION believes that it represents a natural progression of his artistic journey. The Mixtape is a testament to NOTION’s relentless pursuit of innovation and a passion for discovering the endless potential within his craft.
“I’ve kind of been looking at FORWARDS as a continuation of my OUTSIDER project that I dropped in 2022 which was a bit of a fresh start for me in terms of expressing myself more freely artistically as well as trying to work out how to do artwork, music videos and all the visual side of being an artist properly and then also just being a bit more open to showing different sides of myself musically. I make so much different music across so many genres and before that point I kind of felt like I could only drop club stuff so it was a bit of a turning point for me.
Having said that, there wasn’t really a conscious decision to write a project this time, FORWARDS is basically just made up of music I’ve been making over the past 18 months that all felt like it fit together naturally so we decided to make it a thing!”
Next, NOTION detailed the creative process that went into making his FORWARDS Mixtape “I was thinking about this the other day because I never really go into writing music with a plan, I just sit down on my laptop with a blank slate and see what comes out. All of the influences in the Mixtape are club/dance music but I feel like it would feel more at home on the motorway at 2am than at fabric or something. I think that sums up a lot of the music on this project.”
We’re in an era where the lifespan of a song has drastically shortened, largely due to the fleeting, 15-second dopamine hits offered by platforms like Reels and TikTok. While this can lead to viral moments, the decline in a song’s popularity is almost ten times quicker once the initial buzz fades.
With the FORWARDS Mixtape, NOTION aims to defy this trend and craft art that stands the test of time. Each track on the release is imbued with deep emotions, prompting NOTION to reflect on the importance of moving away from the fast-paced consumption of music.
“FORWARDS wasn’t really something I sat down with the intention of making as a whole project, it’s more just a collection of stuff I’d been writing over the last 12-18 months that felt like it all made sense as a body of work so it kind of wasn’t a deliberate move. I just knew I wanted to write some music that felt like something you’d sit and listen to all the way through – not skip to the drop and that’s all you’re there for. The whole anti-disposable art thing kind of hit me a few years ago though after just seeing how quickly people move on from stuff online.
I feel like creatives put their heart and soul into their work and it’s just become completely normal to see a 15 second clip of something on insta, judge it off that and then move on to the next thing. I get that’s just the world we’re in now but I think it’s really important to not cater art to that model or it just becomes a snowball effect of dumbing everything down. Honestly, I think it would be arrogant of me to think I’m actually going to have any effect on any of this stuff with this project but I just really don’t want to make art that caters to whatever metric some tech company CEO decides is important so i’m just gonna do me, even if the algorithm hates it.”
The lead-up to FORWARDS has been an exhilarating time for NOTION. Over the past twelve months, he has celebrated a series of chart-topping releases, each one further solidifying his presence as a tour de force of UK’s expansive dance music landscape. Adding to his music, he is currently in the middle of a monumental North American tour, which has been a major highlight of his year.
“It’s actually just been so nice to be able to drop all this music to be honest, as hectic as its been planning it all, I feel like I spent years sitting on tons of unreleased tracks to the point where it became a bit of a running joke so I suppose I’m just making up for lost time haha. Getting to tour North America for the first time as well as Australia and New Zealand again has been amazing too.”
Safe to say, NOTION hasn’t been able to get enough of the love he has received during the tour, and he talks about what his plans for the remainder of his tour. “The way people show love in America and Canada is super different which caught me off guard a bit the first time I went earlier this year… like when was the last time someone made you a personalised candy bracelet. It’s very different from home but I feel like they’re really dedicated to the music and it’s super cute how much they support you once they know you out there. After that I’m off to Australia and New Zealand which is always just absolute carnage at the shows and I cannot wait to get there.”
Another key element of NOTION’s seminal undertakings is his DANCE DUBS project, a collection of exclusive, unreleased tracks available on SoundCloud and Bandcamp. This project has now garnered over three million plays on SoundCloud (with SKEPTA DUB contributing to 700k plays alone), thousands of purchases, and more than two thousand fans signing up for his broadcast community.
Building on this success, NOTION launched a sold-out, eight-date UK tour in 2023, featuring a boat party and a radio show. DANCE DUBS which has now done the rounds of North America and is about to be unleashed in Australia and New Zealand, has played a crucial role in helping NOTION cultivate a loyal fanbase by seamlessly integrating them into his broader artistic vision.
“Dance Dubs basically came about because there was a point in like 2021 or 2022 where I just had so many unreleased bootlegs, edits and tracks I’d made that were playing in sets my manager Sam and I were trying to work out what to do with them all.
90% of them couldn’t go on Spotify or get released how we usually would drop music because of samples/copyright, etc so we came up with the idea of kind of branding the whole thing and turning it into a series of free releases and just giving them away. Since then, it’s grown into this whole thing where we’ve done whole tours with it and now, we’re taking it across the world which is nuts. All off the back of a few bootlegs!”
Bristol’s impact on major dance music genres is profound and widely recognized. The city’s vibrant cultural and musical scene has been a major source of inspiration and innovation, influencing some of the biggest names in dance music history.
NOTION is no exception to this trend, but his relationship with Bristol offers a distinctive viewpoint. While the city’s influence is apparent in his work, NOTION’s perspective is uniquely his own.
“I actually grew up in a tiny village in the west midlands which was definitely not quite as musically rich and vibrant as Bristol haha (I didn’t move to Bristol until I was 18) but to be honest I think the fact there wasn’t much going on really helped me nurture my introverted music making side and if I’d grown up in a city with loads of other stuff to do maybe I wouldn’t actually be doing this now. That said Bristol is such a sick place to be as a creative, there’s loads going on here artistically so it’s definitely an inspiring environment to be in.”
With the release of the FORWARDS Mixtape now behind him, we were eager to learn about NOTION’s next major and innovative endeavour. Throughout his career, from his debut to the OUTSIDER series and up to FORWARDS, NOTION has been on a relentless quest to surpass the boundaries of his previous work and set new standards, demonstrating his ability to continuously evolve his sound.
NOTION is poised to embark on another thrilling chapter, and his back catalogue suggests that his future releases will bring fresh and groundbreaking elements to the table. It’s an exciting time to be a fan, as NOTION’s next move promises to be both innovative and captivating – a move that will once again challenge the status quo and deliver something truly remarkable.
“Definitely just trying to lean into being myself and not TRYING to fit into the dance music landscape too much. I’d love to continue doing all the visual stuff that’s made up such a big part of the FORWARDS project too and maybe start applying that to other aspects of my music but it’s expensive and very time-consuming so I don’t know how realistic that is hahaha.
It’s probably a bad career move but I’m having much more fun and I feel a lot more comfortable with how I’m expressing myself for the first time ever probably, and long may it continue.”
