RIFT has been flying under the radar for many moons now, keeping a low profile whilst dishing out heavy riddims and soulful beats in the region of 130, all the way up 174 – behind the decks and through the studio speakers. But what makes him so enchanting is his true #Headz status; raised as a child of the beat who lives and breathes all hues of the music we love, paired with a quiet eclecticism that seeps through into his production and process.
Having collaborated steadily with the likes of Azaleh, Amoss and having released on everywhere from Free From Sleep to Overview, Delta9 Recordings, EKOU to SINE Audio (and many more) this young South London based producer has continued to gain momentum in the bass music scene, earning himself kudos from the much-loved Charli Brix and even being invited to join her Brixmas’ SWU.fm show, at the end of last year. With many upcoming projects traversing bass genres and aliases (including garage alias ‘Cult’) in the works for 2024, we caught up on all things music, horror films, January birthdays and his Dad, Mark.
Cam! How was your birthday? Fun fact, you were born on New Year’s Day, 2000 as the first baby born in the millennium, correct?
Correct indeed! And as for this year, I did very little because I had COVID. I spent most of it watching Shrek. It’s been a very slow start to the year. Even though it has passed, everything else was still a bit scrambled. I’m just glad I can actually get up and do things again.
Very glad you’re happy and healthy… but did you watch Shrek 2?
No, Shrek 1 was one of the earliest memories I have of watching a movie. So it’s a special place. A happy place for me.
Getting the hard-hitting questions out of the way. Let’s talk about 2023, a very busy year for you. What were your top three music moments?
I think getting the chance to do a mix for Charli Brix on her SWU.fm Christmas takeover was definitely one. I was lucky enough to get to meet her while I was out in Portugal playing for Counterpoint Recordings in Porto. She’s just so really lovely and she was kind enough to invite me on the show. She’s kind – which is important, really funny and a great lunch buddy. We just had a great time hanging out human to human. With the mix I did for the show; I usually mix drum and bass, but I’ll occasionally do garage or breakbeat mixes and that’s the first time I’ve ever done both in the same mix. It was new for me to try and transition from 130 to 174 and mix all the genres together at different speeds. But it was fun getting to showcase a wider range of everything that I like, in one place. It was three sections, the first third with breakbeat, liquid in the middle and the last half more rolling sounds that I usually like doing.
A bass fruit salad. And the other two?
The Mood Swing EP I did with Counterpoint had some of my favourite tunes that I’ve ever produced on it. When I was in Portugal playing for Counterpoint I closed with Mood Swing and I don’t usually enjoy listening to my music very much but it’s one that I’m really in love with – which is rare! When I’m producing I’ve heard every single second in a loop a hundred times so I’m usually sick of it. And then the last one is just the opportunity to have travelled around and played in Europe, Portugal I’ve mentioned but I also played a couple of sets in the Netherlands. Somewhere in Porto is a really nice puffer jacket that got left behind. I got to mix earlier in the year in London a few times for SINE Audio and Heavy Sonics as well. DJing is still new and exciting for me as I learnt how to mix long after learning how to produce.
You cover a lot of genres as an artist, and you’ve got your other alias Cult, which we’ll get into. What drew you to UKG?
I’ve grown up listening to a lot of UKG, and a lot of house. I was brought up on that kind of sound. My Dad showed me the Untrue album by Burial, which was the first exposure I had to future garage. All the rhythm and sort of funkiness in the drums, combined with dark and atmospheric soundscapes; those particular sounds I really liked and that was the first time I’d heard that. I very much wanted to capture that kind of sound so it was a genre that I was naturally drawn to. Cult came about because I needed another shift, a fresh start but RIFT already had so much traction- I needed a home for my garage.
Was it something specific that pushed you into producing 174?
I saw Goldie and Noisia play in 2017 and my exposure to drum and bass at that point consisted of liquid and dancefloor – not the most inspiring for me personally. It was at Reading Festival and I actually ran into my Dad at Noisia’s set. Those were two sets in particular where I got exposed to those old-school sounds through Goldie. I think tonally a lot of that overlaps with the future garage I was enjoying and then Noisia, just… just well, Noisia are Noisia. I particularly like a lot of their older tunes with that raw rolling energy, it’s something I try to capture in my mixing. So I got a really good taste or a new flavour of drum and bass that I really liked. I pretty much on the spot decided this is actually what I want to do for a while. I felt things were getting stagnant with garage. Production-wise, it wasn’t the easiest change to make. With future garage all the focus is on the atmosphere and the feeling it captures, you don’t need really clean sound design or anything really interesting sound design-wise. Whereas with drum and bass, because it’s much more of a sound system music, you kind of do need those elements for the music to sound good. You can have the best ideas in the world for drum and bass track, but if the drums don’t hit right…
Ah, the Greats. How would you describe your music taste now?
Broad. I often end up in a position where I don’t listen to the genre that I produce. So I actually very rarely listen to any drum and bass unless I’m building sets, but it was the same when I was making garage. At the moment, I’ve probably listened to far more breakbeat than anything else and I’ve progressively been producing more breakbeat, I’m sure one day I’ll make loads of breakbeat and not listen to it whatsoever.
I’m seeing a pattern here.
I’ve always been drawn to music that’s just different. It’s easier to draw inspiration from other places, if all my inspiration for a drum and bass track comes from other drum and bass tracks, it’s not going to be different at all. It’s just following the same formula as everyone is. Whereas, I’m taking the bits of all the other music I love, all the things that aren’t drum and bass directly. I want to bring that together. I feel like it’s a more effective way of making something that’s a bit different. I’ve got a tune at the moment that’s unreleased. It’s essentially an exact mix of drum and bass and future garage. The closest thing to it really would probably be ‘Abrasion’ by Buunshin. Future garage drums but at drum and bass speed. The bass design has more drum and bass influence. It was my first attempt to really merge the two genres. It’s quite fun to make because it all feels wrong to begin with but then you find a way to make that work and I love how it melts together.
So is it fair to say that UKG underpins a lot of your style?
I had a lot of time producing garage and a lot of my early knowledge came from learning to produce that, manipulating and bending vocals like that is very much a garage thing. I draw my influences and methods to produce from other genres. Breakbeat, when it comes to chopping up rhythms and more varied drum patterns. There’s plenty of very textural music by Flying Lotus, who do these really interesting soundscapes, I love stuff like that, and resampling those kinds of things. Cool, cool sonic places.
Apart from music itself, what else sparks you?
The most common thing for me is movie scores. I get inspired by different tracks or soundtracks. Horror movie soundtracks are crazy interesting. When you look into how people are making them, there are people in these sort of warehouses just throwing cymbals at brick walls and doing anything to make any noises. And then taking those sounds and manipulating them. They just use such abstract methods to make sound. Everything’s so distinctive and different.
Sounds like good stress therapy, throwing stuff at walls… Have you done anything like that for your own tracks, or any track or production process?
Occasionally! Horror soundtracks particularly use a lot of dissonance and things like that. A lot of A-tonal sounds, taking symbols and just stretching them out so it’s a long screech. But then, trying to work that in such a way that it’s not horrible on the ears, but instead adds a layer of atmosphere or texture to the track. I do some soundtrack work. There’s a track I made called ‘Inferno’ where it has that cymbals screeching sound over these chugging tribal drums. And there are a few other ones that were inspired by The Divine Comedy by Dante. I’ve made three tracks for the three books of it that follow his journey into hell and back. One of them being ‘Inferno’. It was probably the most… horrifying, piece of music I’ve ever made. Even so, I love it. I think it really captures the concept, the image and the idea of it well.
Thrilling! I do love a bit of horror/gore. Do you get informed on what film or content your soundtrack is used for?
I tend not to know unless they externally contact me just for whatever reason. There was a Tom Ford advert my score was used for which is probably the biggest thing I can think of. That was a very sexy piece of music yet a weird piece too; tribal and eery, it was called ‘Ragnarok’.
Going back to RIFT, was he born in 2014 or were you someone else?
I was actually Surface at that time, although I doubt any trace of them is left online. I was certainly RIFT by 2016. The name change came as it was still very early on in my production career. As Surface, I was very much still learning and a lot of the tracks could arguably not have been called tracks.
There was an attempt…
Exactly. I wanted a fresh start. Once I got to a point where I felt I was consistently making music that I could hold up and look back at and say, yeah, I still want to have this associated with me, I still think this is a decent piece of music, I felt ready for a new name. Around the same time I started only making future garage and I was sticking to one genre. So it was a chance to create the brand, the sound, everything all at once.
How would you describe RIFT in three words?
Raw… funky… and rolling.
Funk yeah! And RIFT was born! What sparked you to produce in the first place? You can love music, but what made you want to create it?
My Dad is a huge influence on me in my interest in music when I was growing up. He was the one that introduced me to garage, to drum and bass. Even now still, every other week we’ll have a phone call where we will both just sit and play each other music for an hour. Whenever I go visit, we’ll disappear into the basement, stick a speaker on and just go until we pass out. I’m still very much learning a lot music-wise from him, his music history knowledge is insane. I started to naturally have an interest in production because I was getting drawn towards electronic music. You take classical music, it’s obvious how it’s made in the sense of, okay, these are violins, you use a violin to make that sound. But with electronic music, you have all these sounds that you’re trying to comprehend. At the time when I was 13, 14, I didn’t have a clue how any of it works so I decided to explore it. My Dad was very supportive of this, when I was 15 he bought me Ableton which was a chance for me to dive in and see what I could do. And once I got stuck into it and was doing it more consistently, I found I fell in love. And here I am now.
Your Dad sounds like a legend. How is he such a music head?
Aha, well he used to run clubs in Glasgow and has pretty much spent his life collecting and exploring every corner of music known to man – at this point anyway.
So, recently you’ve talked about going back to producing garage, you dropped some music last year under Cult. Will we be seeing less of RIFT for now?
It’s almost the same reason I moved to drum and bass in the first place! It’s that feeling of struggling to stay in one place for too long. ADHD brain. I started making drum and bass consistently back in 2018, six years ago. What I’m listening to recently has changed to breakbeat and other genres, eventually, I get this restlessness and want to explore something new. Doing things I haven’t done before is what gives me the energy to keep pushing and keep going with the whole thing. All in all, still plenty of RIFT to come… but maybe with more flavour and variety.
Do RIFT and Cult have their own distinctive styles, influences, and sounds?
To me, the music I make under Cult and RIFT are quite similar but I imagine people looking in from the outside might see things quite differently. The inspirations are the same, I treat them as two different languages to communicate and express the same ideas, as well as ways of expressing the same inspirations I draw from. What I love in music, I’m able to express in both; the raw grittiness of future garage, think Burial, those emotions in those tunes I feel I get into within both. The focus on rhythm, which I particularly love, garage lends itself to that whereas drum and bass is something I can push forward in creatively. I think the inspirations are one and the same, they’re just two different ways of expressing that for me.
I love that insight. Right. Quickfire round:
Who’s your favourite artist to collaborate with?
Can’t I say everyone? But if I have to, either Brainwork or Traka, just make such cool music. Our production styles complement each other very well and we’re all addicted to Jaffa Cakes.
Who inspires you the most in the scene?
I could go on forever… at the moment it’s Submotive, I find his production and the sound design within them so interesting.
Shoutout to Submotive! And in the UKG scene?
Sorrow. He’s been a very consistent producer for a long time. He does so well at capturing that melancholic, dark, really atmospheric future garage sound. His sound design is amazing; crisp but not too digital – it’s got that rawness to it. He’s been an influence on me from the start and continues to be.
Aww. Wholesome. Now, tell us the truth: how much SausageFat do you use in your tracks?
It’s never too much. It’s the perfect side dish to any set of drums.
And finally, what should we keep our eyes and ears perked for in 2024?
A lot of things. I’ve got around 50-60 tunes unreleased so lots of stuff ready. I’m working with some of the guys I’ve worked with before; Four Corners, SINE Audio. There are a few new people I’m working with, I’m working on an EP with Fokuz, some of those tunes have been WIP for four years so I’m excited to get those out! I’m collaborating with Leniz, Gemma Rose, Elle Chante on some breakbeat and D&B remixes. Also looking forward to continuing The Dirty South Drum & Bass Radio Show with Safa. What I’m most excited for I can’t talk about just yet but TBA. A whole stack of rolling breakbeat and techy garage on the way this year. I’m just so grateful for all the people I have around me and all the support that I have, this feels like a new beginning.
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