Tom Wilson, the man behind MANIA, is the definition of locked in, UKF caught up with the rising producer to discuss past wins, mega collab ‘Done With U’ with Danny Byrd, latest work with vocalist Sophie–Grace and what’s next on the horizon.
With no signs of slowing down, MANIA continues to build on years of graft. After spending nearly a decade producing across various bass music styles, including trap, he eventually found his calling in D&B. Since then, he’s been on an upward trajectory, delivering certified bangers such as ‘All Good’ with Catching Cairo and ‘Get A Grip’ with Nersha, while continuing to push his sound forward.
With festival season now in full swing, we sat down with him ahead of appearances at DnB Allstars and Worship London.
Hey, how’s it going? We saw your post with Sophie-Grace. Is that what you’ve been working on?
I’m good thanks! I did that in a session with her on Tuesday, and I was trying to get the idea good enough to post, just put a teaser around and see what people thought. I’m glad you like it.
I’ve been in the studio loads recently with a bunch of other producers and vocalists. Nothing beats working in person and writing that way, I feel like ideas bounce the best.
Absolutely. The track you cooked up with Danny Byrd was such a big release. How did you come to work with Danny?
I met Danny about two years ago. I played at Dubtendo in Bristol which he was headlining, we had a quick chat. He then came backstage when I was playing my set and he stuck around for it, which felt like a real honour that he was enjoying it!
He messaged right after we had that chat, then a year and a half later, my manager suggested to him that we’d get in the studio together, and he was keen on it.
I went in with this rough bassline idea and some drums, got in his studio and we just kind of banged it out in a day and the rest is history!
It seems like you can get tracks going pretty quick…
It’s one of those things, stuff like this… it comes in bursts. I’ve deliberately been going into studio sessions recently without any ideas, just to see where the energy is and what the other artist wants to do. It’s really inspiring and allows me to take a different approach with each record and build something both artists love. I know when an idea clicks because I start to get excited about it and can’t stop working on it for the next week.
How often would you say you’re working on tracks?
At the moment, I think in the last week or two, I’ve been on a bit of a streak, finishing up stuff or just making new ideas. I could probably bang out one or two tracks a week if I wanted to, but I also love spending loads of time on details and mixing. I think the longest I’ve spent on something recently is over 60 hours, so it varies loads!
The collabs seem to be flying, especially ‘Get A Grip’ with Nersha.
Yeah, the response to that tune was mad. Working with Nersha was amazing – I don’t think I’ve done a session quite like that before where someone’s bought that much energy into the room! I had no idea what we were going to make going into it, and it’s the perfect blend collaboratively of both our styles. I love heavy tunes that can incorporate the vocal in an interesting way and not just having it in the break. Working with Crucast on the release has also been amazing!
We loved the music video as well. Can you tell us about that?
We had an idea of the aesthetic for the whole release. It was the kind of darker, more grungy, nighttime vibe. I was like, cool, let’s go to London to shoot it and find a couple of different locations, but it just kind of came together quite naturally because I think with the vibe of the song, it was nighttime, big city, kind of more grungy vibes. We went and shot it in the evening and I think it turned out the way we both thought in our heads.
Let’s go back in time a bit, a lot of hard graft has been done to get to this point. What do you feel was your breakout track?
It’s weird because I’ve got certain songs that are definitely more for the streaming side of stuff, and then I’ve got ones that are more for live, as a lot of people have.
The biggest I think I did was ‘All Good’ with Catching Cairo. That came at quite an early stage in my career and it ended up getting put out through AEI. It did really well on BBC Radio 1, Capital Dance, it got everywhere and in terms of getting my name a bit more known.
That was the first song that sort of translated to streaming in the DnB scene as such, in a way that I hadn’t seen before.
I think in terms of a song that was played out a lot, I saw a lot of people latching on to ‘High’, the collaboration with JJL, so that was released with Elevate. That was one of the first songs where I really saw loads of people playing it out and liking it.
Yeah, a lot of graft has been done to get to this point, but it’s worth it!
Nice, what are you using when you’re producing?
I’m in FL Studio.
Can you walk us through a bit of your workflow and approach?
My workflow is always a bit weird, to be honest. There’s nothing specific I’d say I enjoy more. I think I tend to come at it more from a songwriting perspective, where I’ll think, “Right, let’s write a song first, and then build all the synths and drums around that.”
So a lot of the time, if I don’t already have a core idea, I’ll use a Splice vocal or some kind of sample vocal. Then I’ll write something basic underneath it just to give me a direction; some chords, a bassline, or something like that.
Or vice versa – if I go into a session, I’ll write the chords first and build everything out from there, so the songwriting element is already there.
I quite like building it out once you’ve got an idea of what the core songwriting element is.
In terms of production, I also really enjoy the sound design side of things – especially when it’s quite simple sounds that you’re processing in a more advanced way.
So using things like distortion, resonance, and different processing techniques to bring out character in very basic sounds. That’s probably one of my favourite parts of production.
Did you always set out to be a producer or did you start with DJing first?
I started with producing first, I actually had a different alias.
I’ve been producing for the best part of ten years and had a different alias, releasing on NCS (NoCopyrightSounds), Trap Nation, and that sort of stuff. I did house music, I did trap music, I did future bass, a bunch of different stuff.
I was always really interested in production, but I got to a point a couple of years ago where I fell out of love with that music and wasn’t really sure where to take it. I’d always wanted to do something which had more influence in the live scene, and I have always been a fan of drum and bass, so though I’d pivot to try and produce that.
Then I built my production knowledge of drum and bass through doing sessions, tutorials, other stuff, and my existing knowledge over the last couple of years. It took a while to make anything good, but having the crossover from other genres actually helped me define the sound I want to make more.
I had DJed before that, but it was more commercial DJing, the sort of thing where you get booked to go and play house in a nightclub for the evening or the odd wedding or corporate gig. I had to learn a lot to figure out how to mix drum and bass. I love keeping the energy up in my sets so it’s been a constant learning process over the last couple of years, but I love playing live as much as producing.
Speaking of gigs, tell us about Worship at Finsbury Park…
That’ll be crazy. I can’t wait for that one!
Being on a lineup with some of my biggest influences in the scene is always so exciting. We’ve all grown up listening to their music and now they’ve asked me to come perform at their festival. It feels like such a full circle moment!
Do you have any goals for the year that you can share with us?
My main goal this year is to get out as much music as possible. Ideally, I want to get a couple of the songs I’m working on now finished in time for festival season, just to send them out to people and test the waters. We’ve got a big year planned!
Better quality music, continue playing shows and levelling up my sets as much as possible.
I’ve always kind of kept things open, in a sense. I find you’ve got to enjoy the journey – if you set a goal and work towards it, once you reach it, you’re kind of like, what am I meant to do now?
