His name sounds like the type of sound you’d make as a kid revving up a pretend racing car.
His music sounds like a trip around the furthest known point of the galaxy with only a broken robot to call a friend; spacious, stark and spurred by pure future.
He’s called VROMM. He’s Spanish. He needs to be on your radar.
And this misty, twisted slice of swampy sound design is just one reason why… (Spoiler: play it loud and in a dark room for the best results)
Too freaky, right? There’s more where this came from… A whole Binary EP has landed on Critical. Prior to that he dropped some early halftime science on Doc Scott’s 31 and he’s also dabbling with techno on Nothing Special, a label run by Fabric’s longest standing resident Craig Richards.
Motivated by minimalism, inspired by imported UK electronic on Gibraltar radio and driven by a vision that’s aesthetic rather than stuck in a rigid tempo, VROMM’s got all the tell-tale signs of an artist who’s in this for the long run and scores a big fat zero in the give-a-fuck game. Here’s what he has to say for himself.
Finally…. After years of teasing us, a full EP!
Thank you. Yes, I’ve been here for four years but you know It’s not easy for me to get my stuff out. Doc Scott is interested in my stuff, which is amazing. And obviously Critical and Kasra now but it’s been very hard to break into the music and also being international.
Difficult breaking in? I thought the UK had dropped that guarded attitude – D&B is global!
It is global but you need contacts. You send stuff to that demos email address every label has and you barely ever get a reply. There isn’t enough hours in the day for labels to listen to everything. So you need to be ahead of everyone in the queue. Also my music is very different with different tempos. I’m not making myself very easy to market. So it’s very slow development but I’m working on this.
Yeah I saw you’re working with Craig Richards on a techno tip… the focus is on aesthetic rather than fixed tempo
Exactly! I think there’s so much exciting potential between techno and halftime. I’ve been into drum & bass for 20 years and halftime is one of the first times in a long time that I’ve been truly excited by a development in drum & bass. I also love the techno aesthetic and think they work very well together. But I don’t want to confuse people so when I make techno it will be on Craig Richards’ Nothing Special label and the drum & bass will be on drum & bass labels.
You’ve been whittling the halftime stick for a while now. They Key sounded like nothing else around at the time…
That track came together so quickly! I did it in a day or a day and a half. It’s very minimal and simple but works. Drum & bass has so many layers and techniques, you have to seriously strip things back and that goes against what we’re taught or led to believe as producers. You need that minimal feeling though because the best DJ sets are trips – you need dynamics to break up the flow…
https://soundcloud.com/31recordings/vromm-the-key
What’s your entry point into all this, then? How did D&B hit you in Spain?
I grew up in a town not far from Gibraltar and we got radio shows for the UK residents. There was this weekly show by a DJ called Steve Mason and he would play every kind of electronic music. Techno, hardcore, jungle… Everything mixed together. It schooled me. It opened my mind and influenced me hugely.
Lake Monsters opened my mind mate. No references… Properly unique
Thank you. I try and do everything differently. Lake Monster was totally inspired by sci fi films. I actually wrote it for a headphone brand I’m an ambassador of. That didn’t happen but by then the track developed a life of its own and we got it out on Critical instead.
Audeze? Serious high end gear!
They changed my life! I never thought I could write music using headphones but most of my stuff is written using them. One of the men behind the brand is very passionate about drum & bass so he called me and asked if I would be an ambassador.
What does that job involve?
I just try their headphones and give them feedback on what works and what doesn’t. It’s pretty cool.
So what cool stuff is coming from you next?
Well hopefully more releases on Nothing Special and Critical. I have a project with a singer, she’s amazing. We’re working on something after the summer. The VROMM sound and a singer… I’ve yet to try this, I’m excited to see how it works.
Follow VROMM: Facebook / Soundcloud / Twitter
