Klinical has been in the game for eight years now. After finding his signature sound in drum & bass, and experimenting with dubstep, he felt that it was time for the ultimate challenge: making an album. With EDEN, he’s showing us the results of his efforts.
On the album, we can hear a different side of Klinical, and we can once again see him drifting into different genres. “I’ve broken out of the box a little bit and I hope people will receive it well,” he explains.
EDEN will be released Overview. It’s a label Klinical has been releasing on ever since its inception, so it felt only natural to come back to the label for this debut. Time for a chat!
You’re releasing your debut album soon, congratulations!
I’m really happy and it’s also a big relief. It took about two years from the first track to the last track, so I’m really happy to get it out. There have been a lot of revisions, a lot of tracks added, a lot of tracks removed, but I’m happy with the final piece.
How does writing an album compare to solo tracks and EPs?
For me it was about not thinking about the clubs, it was about trying to create a project which is its own entity and its own story. It was really rewarding and it gave me a sense of freedom. When you’re making EPs and singles you want stuff that you know is gonna go off in the clubs, but this time, it was nice to have this passion project which I could be free with. At the same time it was tough as well. It was a lot harder than anything I’ve ever done but it was all worth it.
In what way is it harder?
I think it’s the doubt. I was going through stages of “is this going to go down well” and “is this a bit too left-field?”, because a lot of the music is quite different to what I’ve done before. I’ve not played out all the music because there’s some weird BPMs. It’s probably quite left-field and not really clubby. Most of my sets are very dancefloor-based. I don’t really experiment with other genres apart from drum & bass and dubstep, but I will be closer to the release date and for the shows thereafter.
What’s the story that you want to tell with this album?
There’s definitely more of an emotional side to this album compared to anything else I’ve done, and a lot of vocal stuff. It’s all very fresh and it went through a lot of revisions because there were certain tracks that I would make that would fit better and we wanted to try and not make it too long. It is 18 tracks so it’s still a massive project. It’s definitely more experimental with different BPMs, genres, and different sampling techniques.
Is that what we can expect from you going forward, more of this?
I think so. I feel like I’ve broken out of the box a little bit and I hope people will receive it well. I’d love to kind of carry on doing stuff like this, which is a bit more weird and a bit more out there.
You’ve been in the scene for a while. Why did you decide to release your debut album now?
I’ve done everything else I’ve wanted to do in terms of production. I’ve released a lot of EPs, a lot of singles, with the release of Violent Castles I’ve already had that jump to other genres because that was a pure dubstep EP. I just needed a new project to set myself on because I was struggling with writer’s block a little bit. I was getting a bit sick of my formula when it came to music, especially because I was making it with the clubs in mind. I wanted something to break me out of that and put me on a different production path. It felt like the right time. I’ve been making music for eight years, and I’ve used all these years of technique and knowledge and put it into this.
How did you get out of that writer’s block?
It was mainly about getting myself in the mindset of “don’t think about clubs, DJs or what anyone’s going to think,” just start having fun. The first track I made was a track called ‘Secondary’. It didn’t make the cut in the end. A lot of producers will resonate with this, but when you make a tune and you’re in that flow state, you don’t remember how you made stuff and how it came together. That was my ethos. I just wanted to go with the flow, not overthink anything.
So you’re saying you were finding the fun in making music again?
Yeah, exactly. It’s important for producers to do that.
You’ve worked with several labels throughout the years. What made you decide on Overview for this one?
It was always going to be Overview. It’s been my main home ever since it started and I always knew like my debut album would be on Overview. When they started, there was a load of drama with his old label and I said to him, just make your own label, just grab it and just run with it. And that’s how they started. It’s quite a funny story, about the album and Overview. Pete, the guy who runs it, has always been asking, “When are we getting your album? When are we getting your album?” So, me and Oli, the other guy who runs it, were saying, I might just write the album, write the draft and just drop it and then surprise him with it. We ended up doing just that, which was quite funny. Obviously, he was really happy with it, and gassed.
Any plans to celebrate this album release?
I’ve got quite a lot of shows coming up where I’ll be playing a lot of the album. In the meantime, I’ve been writing a lot of dubstep, and I have some releases lined up for those tracks. A lot of them are more balanced between where I’ve gone with the album and with the clubs in mind, with heavier drops and elements of musicality.
Anything else you want to share?
I just want to shout out the artist who’s done the artwork. Gabrielle Salonga. Shout out Pete and Ollie from Overview, and Killa P, Olivia Rose, LaMeduza, and Vanessa for the vocals contributions. I want to thank every producer who I sent it to for feedback, and everyone who’s going to support it.
