It’s always great when you see Irish producers and DJ’s do well further afield. One producer from Limerick that has been making a name for himself across the shores is Deadlybuzz, after releasing his Bass Maggots EP on Kanji Kinetic’s Mutant Bass Records. It’s banging techno infused bassline from the get go.

A veteran of the Irish electronic scene, the now Cork based producer has run a number of nights throughout the years such as Lexes, Headroom, Sweatbox and currently Filthstep as well as being involved in running The Great Friday Festival and The Night After Christmas. Add to this sets at LIFE Festival, BUMP and Mystik Festival, as well as picking up Best Up And Coming DJ at the Irish Dance Music Awards and it makes for an extensive CV.

Skirmish recently caught up with him to talk Limerick, tunes and more. He was also good enough to record an exclusive mix for us that’s relentless brilliance from start to finish. Perfect Pancake Tuesday listening.

How did you get started producing tunes?

Well I started when I was 15 – 16. I was downloading metal in eurosurf and my mate Hollywood Sims asked me to download a copy of Fruity Loops 3. I installed it a few days later and got him to show me how to use it. We made a tune called’ “Pump some Iron” which I still have somewhere actually. I always ticked away on Fruity Loops and after that got into Acid Pro for a while but when i started using Ableton i finished using Acid. Now i use both Ableton and Fruity Loops which seem to always produce completely different tracks from each other.

 

What do you make of the Irish electronic scene? How’s it in Limerick?

I think it gets better year by year. In the last year alone I’ve seen a rake of great names and fair fucks to, Macronite, Electric Underground, DubCulture,Basswax and Ctrl-Alt-Delete for keeping your ears filled in the Munster area. With emerging festivals like Bump – Great Friday and Mystic, were becoming spoiled for choice.The smaller counties show good support for the gigs as well as there is generally nothing but shit pop music in every oroface on every street corner. And since everyone got an ipod at one stage or another their music tastes are now varied to included all music, not just the daft splurges of a twated miming pop winger. Electronically there are notable artists such as Kevin Blake, Toby Karr, Fran Hartnet, Jimmy The Penguin and Jamie Behan who have being producing and playing around now so much they’ve become oldschool heads, and plenty of new emerging names that will go far and a wealth of DJs. Ireland’s music scene has gone strength to strength – from the odd trad filled pub to straight up in your face soundsystems and professional performances from your mates.

You also promote your own Filthstep night. How hard is it to be a promoter in the current climate?

Promoting is really not that tough as there are various ways of getting the word out and most people will show up if the price, sound and act is right. I’ve being doing it 11 years and at this stage it doesn’t even seem like work. However, I did walk around for 4 hours today postering but I would consider that excercise and it only has to be done once – after that its all Facebook and forums plus flyers on the night. So long as you work within your means. I think a great part of promoting is to get to know your crowd, talk to the people who come to your gigs and you make friends. Anyone can really get up and do it, you just need a motive.

You’re released your E.P. on Kanji Kinetic’s Mutant Bass Records. How did this come about?

I emailed Mutant Bass a track Found My Squgee saying I hope thats mutant enough for ya and Kanji got back to me asking me would I be up for throwing it on a release with other artist’s or would I like to make an EP. I jumped at the chance to make an EP as I had never any luck with e-mailing labels. I worked pretty hard on it but still wasn’t satisfied with the end product. I’ve never really being satisfied with my work so i just sent if off anyway and hoped for the best. I got a great reaction and it was nice to get something released after such a long time producing. I would recommend to anyone trying to get released to learn the basics of mastering and find out a label you like or something that suits your music, find out who runs it and get in contact with them, making friends is a big part of the music scene. People will be up for releasing your stuff if its good and if you know them personally.

All your tunes on soundcloud are for free download. Do you think this is the way forward for music?

Nah I think people should buy music I’m just too lazy to sell mine. I always buy wavs. I’ve currently bought 589 tracks at around 2.50 each and that’s just digital. I spent a fortune on cd’s and vinyl over the years, even buying albums for just one song. But you can’t expect people to buy your music. I do it because I’m paying for quality so when the tunes are being played through a big soundsystem you dont just hear it you feel it. Trying to Boost the Eq on a 320kbps mp3 always sounds a bit rough to me. I practise with mp3’s but i wouldn’t use them live unless I couldn’t get a particular tune. I will try to sell my music at some stage but until then I’ll allways keep dishing out freebies.

How long would you generally spend working on a tune? Any advice?

Probably around a day. 12 hours or so and you can lash out a decent tune. I think after you sleep the moment is gone.It’s generally a sudden surge of creativity and the longer I spend doing it the more I come to resent the song. The Fruity Loops demo was a major help boot camp style. You could never save your project but you could allways render a wave. Which taught me how to whip up tunes in a day. You can leave things like compression and mastering for another day, polishing a tune can always be done later. But lots of caffeine, energy drinks or something that alters your mood generally helps. Puting on a vst and playing a midi keyboard is always a great way to put you in the mood. Just play it without drums like you would a guitar or any other instrument, build up your natural rhythm and go with what makes you feel good. You will learn something new from every tune you make so the more you make the better you get. Don’t spend too much time trying to get that snare to sound right unless you’ve come up with a absolute killer of a tune, its better to keep a few ruff sketches around. I tend to go back to projects that are around a year or two old and apply new techniques I’ve learned in that time.

Your three favourite tunes of all time?
Of all time:

I’ve been listening to these songs for years and they’ve always just been class, never got old in my mind.

What plans have you for the coming months?

Go on a holiday and organising the Great Friday festival! I took a break for january just smoking and playing video games. Might take a back seat to promoting and concentrate on production as I’m starting to get better at it. I’d like to get a few releases out on various labels.

Your dream line up for a gig?
Mr Bungle
Tool
Aphex – Live
Flying lotus
Sneaker Pimps
Cypress Hill
Commix
Broken Note
Kanji Kinetic
Goth Trad
Dave the Drummer

and

16bit
The Advant and the industrializer
Calibre
Technical Itch
Daft Punk
Autechre
Venetian Snares

The mix is 4×4 bassline element designed to ward off chin scratchers and to have ultimate fun while exposing that raw rave element that is still very much alive in some new artists like Kanji and Michael Forshaw and just the best heavy grind from Monster X. What a ledge. MIX

Playlist:
Michael Forshaw – Fingered In’t Tate
Deadlybuzz – Mutant Fighter
Deadlybuzz + Sample junkie – 666 Murder Murder Jesus
Thorpey – Velocifaptor
Bruce Stallion – Boom
Michael Forshaw – Turn Around Touch The Ground
Lukes Anger – Working On The Floor
Monster X – Prowler
Adam Freeland – Bring It (Kanji Kinetic Remix)
Deadlybuzz – Kung Foo Hustle (Liquid acid Mix)
Monster X-Get Up To Kill
Lukes Anger – Project Perk
Dead Sound – Flipside
Hanuman-Bola-Kanji Kinetic Remix
Figure-Have You Fucked Up Punks Get Jumped-Double Oh No Remix
Si Begg-High VolumeJump-Kid606s Fistful Of Doners Megamix
Rico Tubbs-Unbelievable-Mr Miyagis Gangsters Remix
Trode-Keep Going-Kanji Kinetic Remix
Michael Forshaw-On Your Knees Wench
Spooky – Spartan (Kanji Kinetic rebuild)
Kanji Kinetic – Night Trap
Nessbeth – throw it up
Top Billin-Playboy Anthem-Rico Tubbs Remix

Big up to Deadlybuzz for the interview and mix 🙂