When talking about leaving a lasting legacy in the electronic scene, there are different avenues artists can go down to achieve this. In the UK scene, we’ve been lucky to boast some of the leading producers in the electronic dance world through our breeding ground of drum & bass. Cameron Edwards and Joseph Lenzie, who form electronic duo Sigma, were once themselves part of a grassroots drum & bass movement, are now responsible for some of the best dance anthems we’ve produced in the country. Signing with major labels, worldwide success on a variety of projects over the last decade has been refreshing to witness.
Possessing groundbreaking tracks like ‘Nobody Love’, ‘Changing’, ‘Coming Home’ and ‘Glitterball’ working with the likes of Rita Ora, Birdy, Paloma Faith, and Ella Henderson their stock over the last 10 years has increased exponentially. But let’s not forget prior to being signed Sigma were behind a number of drum & bass tunes that still get played in the rave today including the notorious ‘Rudeboy’. As budding young ravers, the drum & bass scene in London influenced them infinitely. Surrounding themselves with the very best in the game early on in their career. The time has now come for the duo to return to the scene with an exciting new year long project which has culminated into an exciting album.
The album, released on October 10, represents their time to transition back into the scene they love very much. Working with some incredibly talented artists including Jamakabi, Basslayerz, Danny Byrd, Gardna, Izzy Bizzu, Dynamite MC, Scrufizzer, Yung Sabre, Danny Byrd, Coco, Dizzee Rascal and Stefflon Don – providing the ingredients to create an impactful body of work that will resonate with the ever-expanding global audience of drum & bass. Using the unique, diverse, styles of these aforementioned artists to drive a fresh, groundbreaking, concept within the drum & bass community. Full of vocal-led, gritty, flavour, energetic flows and euphoric, bouncy, sound design.
To celebrate this new chapter, Sigma are also embarking on a UK-wide tour called Lock Off. Which serves as an opportunity to thank fans, old and new, for their support. As well as champion more grassroots venues in an attempt to give back to vital components within the electronic ecosystem. This tour will cover places including London, Bristol, Manchester, Nottingham, Milton Keynes and Southampton.
As the album has now been out over the weekend, we thought it’d only be fitting to catch up with the legendary duo, finding out a little bit more about their early influences and what’s shaped them into today’s artists. As well as what’s helped them create this new, forward-thinking, project that has already caused waves within the electronic community.
Let’s quickly talk about early, day one, sigma. How did you guys come about to start making music together?
Cameron – We were both up in Leeds for university. I was doing an events management course, Joe was doing a music production course. We met at a record shop in Leeds. I was running events up there too, I’d booked Joe to do a couple of hip-hop sets. We soon realised we had very similar interests within music and an obsession with buying vinyl – stuff like white labels. I checked out Joe’s home studio and we kind of went from there. We’ve been making tunes together ever since. Religiously making music from midday to about 4 or 5 in the morning. We both did a bit of driving for the likes of Goldie, DJ Hype and Pendulum. It was a good way to get tunes in the hands of these types of artists.
Joe – Along the journey, although drum & bass has been an integral part of our lives, a range of genres and sounds have been huge influences to us from the day we met. Hence why we’ve made so many types of different projects. But to add to the artists Cameron spoke about, DJ Fresh was a very integral part of the scene back then, and for us to get to work with him really helped us get on the right track.
And from that, you started to gain some momentum. What can you pin this towards?
Cameron – Yes. We got a couple tunes signed on Charge Recordings which was Mampi Swift’s label. We had a couple bits released on Bingo DJ Zinc’s label. And also released on Hospital Records. DJ Fresh and Adam F took us under their wing a little bit, and we also got to do some work on the Breakbeat Kaos album as a result.
Joe – I definitely feel like throughout our time in the scene the inspirations from the likes of DJ Fresh and co were integral to our early rise. Getting to watch the way he worked, for example, was very refreshing. To have a professional relationship with him was amazing as he was open-minded to a lot of sounds – just like how we aspired to be.
What was your experience as ravers in the early 2000’s?
Joe – Within London, it was a religion going out to a lot of these early raves. Every weekend, we’d be at Herbal, The End, Fabric, or just all of them. A lot of the venues we’d go to don’t even exist anymore. But it was a big part of our identity.
Cameron – Yes, The End was the best venue for me. The set up was so great. You’d have your favourite DJ in your face, right in front of you. Watching how they went about their sets.
Talk to me about the transition from major label to now releasing an album independently. Why the move?
Joe – In terms of a dynamic, when you sign a contract with a major label you are essentially working for them. Off the back of some more commercial, successful, tracks like Rudeboy we started getting a lot more support from commercial radio – where we then went on to sign for majors. I think at some point we felt the control was being given away and for this album we didn’t want that.
Cameron – When you’re in a position where everything is golden you can take for granted your position of power. We were very lucky. For years whilst our tunes were being signed they were resonating with the listeners on places like Radio 1. Having people like Annie Mac backing us. We had a very good run within the major label route. After a couple of number 1s and high performing tracks in the main stream you’re thrust upon the pop world. Something that wasn’t in our plans or control. It did affect the drum & bass artists we could collaborate with during this time. In the end we didn’t feel our relationship with the majors was as good as it was at the beginning, once we got through the 3 album deal we definitely wanted to have a change after being in the major label system for around a decade. We got offered a new contract deal, but we declined. We wanted to take back control.
And that want to take back control is what has driven this new album to where it’s at.
Cameron – Yes, definitely. We also don’t have management at the moment. So we got rid of a lot of noise around us. We didn’t necessarily feel like they were adding that much more to what us as a duo could already do. It’s been a challenging year in the build up to this album, but it’s been very enjoyable. We’ve learnt so much. Starting to understand your business again is so important for growth in the long term. When we had all these people around us it felt like we lost that understanding. In this day and age, there’s lots of different ways to be heard and progress. Not being signed isn’t the end of the world. Being willing to take a chance is the most important thing.
Joe – We dropped the first single ‘Chargie’ with Scrufizzer and Jamakabi in January. The first release was such a relief. Seeing how it grew online was great. From completely our own graft both musically and marketing-wise. We created a plan that would build up nicely to this album. Our thought process was if we dropped an album in one go, you’d get a couple of the tunes properly listened to and the others would go majorly unnoticed. Basically releasing a number of tracks that all get their own small spotlight in the leading months. Understanding the metrics behind getting these tracks seen has been a real eye-opener this year.
You’ve got some mega collaborations on the project!
Cameron – I think traditionally, any collaborations we’d be doing were usually suggested by an A&R guy who wanted it for an ulterior motive to gain more reach or popularity. The collaborations on this album are people we genuinely get on with or really rate as artists. This whole process with the album has been about writing music we genuinely love and we believe these artists we’ve got on the collaborations have helped us elevate the standard of the project. Doing the best we can with people we’ve loved working with, you can’t really ask for more than that.
Joe – Everything has been super organic. We are generally chilled and good conversationalists, I think we made all the artists feel very comfortable. We had people like Dizzee come by and do the whole song. He doesn’t usually record with people in the studio so I think this is a great example of how in sync we got the collaborative side of things. Someone who we thought was a wicked dude was Jamakabi. We got him on two tracks, a really great guy to work with. The Basslayerz and Danny Byrd track represents a great moment for us too. Danny led on this and once we got the clearance on ‘Superstylin’ we thought it’d be wicked to get another verse from Spyda on there. Getting to know the Basslayerz guys, who are at the forefront of the drum & bass scene at the moment, was great.
Cameron – We are proud to work with every single person on the album. The Stefflon Don collaboration is pretty big. Whilst working on ‘Jungle’ with Yung Sabre he mentioned her as another potential collaborator on the track. Long story short, she loved the record. As you can imagine, to get the vocals and get her down to do visuals for the music video was difficult. But we got there in the end. It was just a mad feeling getting someone of her prestige and talent as part of the project.
The sound design of this album brings a variety of elements including Sigma’s signature epic productions from over the last few decades with this more current drum & bass feel. What are your thoughts?
Joe – Exactly. The reason we called it ‘Day One’ is because it draws on a lot of our earlier sound and brings it to today. The album brings a lot of different influences. Having artists from different genres work on this project is a real nod to how diverse drum & bass can become. It’s taken a few producers in the scene to take these risks and we wanted a go at it ourselves. In this current climate of music, there’s a much bigger window for people to appreciate tracks on a streaming level. Nowadays, through the power of social media you can have a track blow up out of nowhere, which I think is great in terms of getting more good music seen.
And to wrap up the year you’ve got the Lock Off Tour?
Cameron – We’re quite aware of how difficult the nightlife scene is at the moment. Nightclubs are closing left, right and centre. People are struggling to afford to go out. What we wanted to do is go to some of the venues we’ve been guilty of neglecting over the last 10 years and make it affordable. We loved playing at smaller, intimate, venues. For us to go back into that world again is very exciting. It’s nice to be back on the road, introducing our new sound to the country. We can’t wait to hit up places like London, Manchester, Nottingham and start this new chapter of our career. We know there can be a lot of greed in this scene which often overlooks the crucial people who make this scene run, so it’s imporant to pay homage to those guys.
Finally, as you are entering the world of drum & bass again, what are your thoughts on the current climate of the scene which has seen a lot more global recognition?
Joe – From our perspective, having come from the earlier London scene of drum & bass – which was one of the main hubs you can see the difference. But moving on from that, going onto play in places around Europe and then playing on some of the biggest festival stages in the world, we’ve always seen there was potential for it to grow to what it is now. So on that front it’s not surprising to us, but It’s great to see it properly come to that level on a more consistent basis.
Cameron – Over the last few years, drum & bass has hit a real sweet spot with younger audiences. The likes of DnB Allstars have done a great job and really connected with the younger audience – which is undoubtedly important moving forward.
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