 DJ Subject came from London but found his musical home in Reading where he has set up an audio production studio called Ski Rize. The many artists that come together at Ski Rize studios mainly produce UK Hip Hop, but also Bashment, R&B, Nu Rock, Garage, D&B and Dance music.
Besides producing and remixing for the likes of Deadly Hunta and the recently hotly tipped “Love Alibi” – Which features none other than the music legend Jocelyn Brown, DJ Subject has been acclaimed for his creative productions and the sounds he gets from the equipment he uses. He is becoming well known for his sound design work with various leading audio software companies like FXpansion. DJ Subject aka Subz created over 50 patches that went into the release of DCAM: Synth Squad! Just look out for the name DJ Subject in the patch browser!
FX –How did you first get interested in making music?
Subz - Well I guess it all started not too far from when FXpansion started out, back in 1992 I met two guys @ Archway Towers who were DJ's and they showed me how to mix D&B. Then In 1998 I met some guys who were producing D&B using a PC and an E-MU Sampler, so as a DJ & life long lover of music, it was natural for me to follow the stereotype & tamper with production.
Tell us a bit about "The Coalition" and your involvement with them?
Subz - Well, when I first started producing to an extent where I could record vocals and just about construct loops with midi & VSTi's... this thing "The Coalition" came up out of nowhere really! literally there were a few of us from different groups in Reading all trying to do our own thing but often crossed paths and vibe-d out together. I was the NKOTB trying to learn all I could and they all were attracted to the fact that we could record stuff here at the studio (Ski Rize) and the quality be quite good. A CD was put together with some of the stuff we had done plus some tracks that were produced before we started working together and one of the 12 members gave the CD to a contact he had, next thing (literally a few days later) we were at a recording studio in London where this person was paying for us to record an EP, that EP got played by the late great John Peel on BBC Radio1 and BBC World Service and he got us in to do a live recording at Maida Vale studios.
Unfortunately the person who paid for the EP was not quite as genuine as they made out so "The Coalition" is sadly no longer, but all the same artists are doing the exact same thing still here in reading ;). "The Coalition" came up as a name due to the fact that it was actually a fusion of 4-6 different groups of artists (a Coalition)
We all got to learn many things from our experience during that time so it is not a venture that any of us regret, we still make good use of some contacts that were made during this time.
FX –What projects are you currently working on?
Subz - I'm currently finishing off an album for Deadly Hunta (Featuring many talented up & coming Producers). I have also just finished the Jocelyn Brown - Love Alibi Remix for Camboso Records, I also have a few tracks on the go with Solo Banton and Silk RG.
FX –Describe your musical style for me in 2 sentences?
Subz - Absolutely disgusting but also quite lovely!
Urban UK Hip Hop, DubStep, UK Bashment
FX –Tell us about Ski Rize studios and how that came about?
Subz - Well I live in a block of flats, so I guess the name came from that, its pronounced “Sky Rise” but if I spell it like that I would be on Google page 123565632. Having my own studio was a dream (& still is) but seeing as I was able to record vocals and make a simple beat with my PC, I did! and from that day it has been known as “The Studio” so I had to give it a name ;-)
FX –What’s the piece of music that changed your life?
Subz - Renegade Soundwave ”The phantom” and Humanoid “Stakker Humanoid” - and all the great music that followed it. These are the late 80's tracks that started the seed that would lead me down the path of production! My first ever best song was Musical Youth “pass the dutchie” I was 4 then I think.
FX –What FXpansion products do you own and how do you use them? Do you have any engineering tricks that you find you use all the time?
Subz - FXpansion products I own so far consist of Guru & Synth Squad.
Tips, well I always load Fusor and start in the “Dj Subject” presets folder ;-) another possibly more useful tip is don't be lazy with drum volume envelopes! Playing with the attack, duration & release of your drum samples after you have your drum loop programmed is far better than any gating, (not that you can't also add some gate after to cut any bleed) also, tune your drums after you have added your baseline and or lead.
Sorry, nothing ground breaking to add to the pool of knowledge that's online.
FX – Tell us about you're remix of Love Alibi? Listen to DJ Subjects remix in the mp3 player top left of page
Subz - Well I started with the acapella and chopped from it a few little samples (mostly ad-lib's) and loaded them in to the sampler one bank playing forward and another bank playing reversed & also used the chorus with some gating, then I played the main bass with Strobe over 32 bars and filled around it with some more Strobe's and a few Amber's and a few Cypher's. Then worked with the arrangement of the track.
FX –What would you wish to see next from software developers?
Subz - Nothing new to be honest, with synths like Synth Squad and the many many many other great VST's out there. I'm more interested in those PS3 Cells taking over from the Silicone Chips we have been running for the past 30 years! I want a PC that can run all the plug ins I want & only use 10% of it's CPU, an OS that lets me control them with multi touch screen's with per effect window zooming :-) at a price I can afford of course!!
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