Please meet our friend K.Zenginer. Known to those who know as 'Kilic', he makes regular appearances at all the worthy UK sound excursions up north, including the infamous 'Total Garge' - which I'll be talking about later in the post! Back to Mr K.Zenginer, it's safe to say the boy has a monopoly on the future aspirations of Garage, and all things 2-Step. Today, he's here to introduce us to up and coming producer Psychonaught...
Towards the end of last year I found myself bored, frustrated and over-worked, with little inspiration or therapy being offered from the music I was listening to. I began listening to the atmospheric back catalogues of the Echodub label run by DFRNT, which led to many of the label’s talented releases finding their way into my record bag.
I recommend delving into the Echodub website and checking out all their releases where a lot of free downloads and podcasts are available. It was while listening to one of their free 12-track compilations that I came across Psychonaught and his catchy 2-step beats. After a month of rinsing his tunes, I decided the decent thing to do was to get in touch and secure an interview with the talented young geordie lad, whilst exposing his talents to many of the readers. His words sum up an intelligent and highly modest producer, unaffected by the trends associated with labelling genres and the etiquette of keeping music
exclusive.
First, would you like to tell us a little about yourself and what you do?
I’m 20 years old, from Newcastle, and currently studying Physics at Durham
University. Started producing when I was 16...making horribly poor breakcore and
gabba. Since then I’ve been producing dubstep and more recently garagey bits.
When did your interest in music first begin?
I’ve always been interested in music from an early age and used to play the
saxophone when I was a lot younger. I first got properly into music when I bought
Rage Against the Machine’s first self titled album. That’s what really kicked it off for
me! Me and my mates started a band playing RATM covers and other bits. After that
at about 15/16 I started getting into dance music, especially DnB/Breakcore/Gabba/
Jungle all the hard stuff basically! Back then the only nights we could get in to were
DnB/Breakcore/Gabba nights down at the infamous Cooperage in Newcastle and
this influenced my music taste a lot. Later on I found dubstep and became obsessed
with it! In the past couple of years my love for it has faded a bit and I’ve found more
garagey soulful stuff does it for me.
I haven’t heard much music coming out of Newcastle, it’s like it’s its own bubble:
Tell us about your first hand experience of the city.
I’d have to disagree there mate! There is so much going on in Newcastle! All though
you could argue it’s died down a little as of late there is defiantly a resurgence in
music of all kinds in Newcastle. The shear amount of top-notch producers from
the north-east says it all, the likes of (shameless plug) : Funk Ethics, Gaskel Greed,
Joonipah, Vesch, Edmondson, RLD, Mr. Blazey and Slime. They are really pushing
the sound in the North East. There’s a huge community vibe as well with nights such
as Natural Selection, Deviate and Serenity all pulling in the punters. It’s a smaller
scene up here, compared to Manchester or Leeds etc, but there’s a big following.
When did you start producing?
After going to a few nights as a youngin’ I got into the idea of producing immediately.
I had a few older mates back then who were bang into production so I asked a few
questions and got myself a hooky copy of fruity loops. Never looked back since and
I’m still rocking fruit loops! Back when I started I was producing 6+ hrs a day, just
through shear excitement. It never got boring back then and there was always a load of
other producers about to share your ideas with and compare your tracks to.
Psychonaught is an interesting name, any story behind this one?
Haha it’s quite a shit story to be honest. When I was 16 I saw the name on an
erm...dodgy forum and thought it was quite cool. I hate the name now. I’ve been so
tempted to change it a few times. Also nobody seems to spell it right as well.
A lot of producers are putting out tunes that are sampling various RnB kings and
queens, yourself included. Why does this appeal to you and others that do this?
I think I initially got into sampling vocals after hearing Burial for the first time. The
way he could chop and screw vocals and fit them seamlessly into a track was mind
blowing for me. With a lot of electronic music being quite digital and stiff,the whole
process of using some lush vocals can really add depth and soul to a track.
Taking this a bit further I started incorporating my love for soul, motown and fucking
cheesy horrible RnB into my tracks. Sometimes I’ll find an acapella I really like and
try and fit a track to it, other times I’ll use a few acapellas and chop and screw them
around to fit them into a track.
What is Future Garage?
To me it seems like a regeneration of that early garage sound, but influenced by
dubstep, rnb etc. It's definatly one of the genres that's doing it for me at the moment.
It's got that classic old school UKG vibe with that glossy new modern take. Lads
like Submerse, Resketch and Dark Sky, who all could be argued as Future Garage
producers, are killing it at the moment. It's a really good genre for the dancefloor as
well, definatly get's people moving.
You've already had some pretty major exposure from intelligent sound pushers
like DFRNT (Echodub) as well as a big release on Formant with Phaeleh &
HxdB. How did all that happen?
Dubstepforum.com was a big help in the early days for me. I always used to post any
new bits on there and see if people were feeling them. I got a few positive comments
so I started plugging my tracks round a bit more and sending them off to DJ’s. With
the Formant release I sent the track 'I Just Want You' over to a whole load of labels
and Leroy over at Formant got back to me saying he wanted to sign it. I was so stoked
at the time, as I’d always been a huge fan of Formant and never thought in a million
years that they would sign the track. All of the other releases have been quite out of the
blue to be honest.
What can we expect from you in 2011? Do you have any personal goals for this
year?
I think this year I want to get back on the production a lot more. I’ve been a right
slacker the last few months for various reasons and it’s frustrating.
One of the big things to look out for is a possible Natural Selection collab album,
on the deeper side of dubstep/garage. The Natural Selection crew (basically a better
looking, less gangster version of So Solid Crew) has been put together by Funk Ethics
[Destructive Recordings, Reduction Recordings] and contains some of the most
talented producers in the north east. So possible big things to come there hopefully by
the end of this year!
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You can find all of Psychonaught’s latest projects on his Soundcloud page, and just to
treat you the man has uploaded his infamous RnB 'Resteps EP' for absolutely free:
Psychonaught - Beg Stole Borrowed
Psychonaught - Birthday Sex
Psychonaught - Falling
Psychonaught - Nasty Gurl
Psychonaught - One Wish
It features the heart-felt “One Wish”, which progressively takes you through the
cheese-plated vocal classic released by Ray Jay (also used by Burial in Archangel)
. Other samples in this EP have been taken from the likes of Jeremih, Sadie Ama,
Beyonce and even the Commodores! His work demonstrates the ability to rapidly
smooth out a vocal to give a track an overwhelming sense of fragility, with the
watered-down and crisp percussion sharing with it a subtle sense of melancholy.
Present Garage is definitely something to embrace. We’ll think about the future when
the time comes.
K.Zenginer
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TOTAL GARAGE
Assuring us that garage isn't just 'A London Thing'. The Manchester based club-night 'Total Garage', held at the notorious Joshua Brooks venue, has fast become a stalwart tradition and celebration of Garage's fine past and ever progressing future. Locked underneath the bonnet of this motor is a turbo charged resident DJ who goes by the name of Larry Sun, a man synonymously linked with one of the biggest grins I've ever seen on the decks. Always delivering an infectious brand of deep pan 2-Step and old roots Garage, he has decided to send us a pure bounce tirade of all things classy straight from the custom bay, and I can assure you that this mix-tape will soon be shaking your vicinity like jelly.
Larry Sun - Pelski Love's Garage Mix
1. Kontigo - Here I come
2. Andre 3000 - Prototype (Dragon Rmx)
3. Wookie - Battle (MJ Cole Rmx)
4. El-B- Show A Little Love Feat. Juice Man & Simba
5. Zed Bias- Been Here Before
6. Delooze - Too Heavy To Stand Up (Dark Sky Rmx)
7. C.R.S.T - Good Love
8. Myron- We Can Get Down (Groove Chronicles Rmx)
9. Dom Hz & Helen K- You
10. Para- All My Heart
Darkly
