Artist Profile – GRAVIT-E – (UK)

GRAVIT-E has been producing drum and bass for in excess of 10 years. His style ranges from jump up infused dancefloor energy to deep and heavy rollers, and his release resume resembles a who’s who of upfront DNB labels, including Subway Soundz, Grid Recordings, Zombie Records, Serial Killaz, Kartoonz……………….the list goes on.

Also an established DJ, he has played at events up and down the UK including Pure Science and Innovation among many more. One thing is certain though, while this excellent producer likes his beats hard and his bass heavy, there is also a softer side to his music, and every now and then he surprises with lush pads,  a soulful vocal and sometimes even some sublime liquid.

It is this versatility that caught our ears and prompted us to find out a bit more about him.

GRAVIT-E! Welcome INSIDE!

Cheers!

You’re 31 now and have been working on your productions for the last decade, so tell us about your first attempts. What inspired you to make music in the first place?

Well, at first I never really intended on making music. I was happy just being a DJ. There’s so much good music out there that it’s hard to keep up with buying it and playing it, but moving with the times it was said to me that in order to climb up the ladder, you have to make your own music. Of course this isn’t true, because there are plenty of people who don’t make music but play to the biggest of crowds and have a pretty successful career just being a DJ. Still, I decided I’d have a go at making the music I love so much and see how it went.

I’m wondering what equipment you’d have been using a decade ago?

To be honest it was nothing extravagant. At the time my daughter was a permanent resident at great Ormond Street Hospital for which she spent most of her time either sleeping or in a hospital bed, so I needed to find something to do whilst still be able to be at her bedside 24/7. I searched up the basics of what I’d need to buy to start producing, and then took a walk to the local computer fair round the corner from the hospital.

I bought a second hand Dell laptop which had like 4GB Ram and a tiny HDD, then walked to Westend DJ where I bought a Presonus Audio Box and a set of M Audio BX5’s, then I set myself up in the hospital room! It’s a bit weird when you think about it, having a studio setup on a hospital ward, but they were cool with it. Obviously I couldn’t spend every waking moment on it, but I had a dabble here and there just to keep myself occupied when I wasn’t attending to my daughter.

Wow. Fair play to you. That must have been a tough time. Do you think the technology has changed much since you started out? I realise new advances are being made all the time with software, but I guess the nuts and bolts of it have remained fairly similar?

100% its changed. A lot too. The advancement is pretty huge in my opinion, especially when it comes to computing power, and as much as I’d love to have the latest stuff in my current studio, I just don’t… I’m actually still using old equipment. Obviously I’ve upgraded from when I was in the hospital, but the equipment itself is pretty old, still but it works like a treat and its never let me down.

All the current music you here off me today is made on it and it consists of an old 2011 iMac, M audio BX8’s, an M Audio sound card and an Arturia Minilab. I also have a vast amount of plugins.

I guess with most producers there is quite a big gap between starting to make music and then getting it released? How long did it take you to ‘cut your teeth’, that is, to get to a point where you maybe realised that you’d got something that might hold its own in the market?

I had no clue to what I was doing when it came to getting music signed. I also had little to no contacts who had that information either, but I was playing on a pirate radio 6 days a week at one point ( I won’t mention the radio name for legal reasons) but there was this one guy who was on there, and he asked me a track ID of something I played in a set and of course it was mine.

He asked if it was signed and of course I say no, so we had a big conversation and it turns out he owned a label. He signed 2 of my tracks and looking back, they were bloody terrible! I didn’t think about whether they would hold their own in the market at the time, I was just amazed that my music had been signed. It was my foot in the door so to speak.

And what was that release and what can you tell us about it?

It was called ‘Ragnarok’ and ‘Bone Nibblers’, a 2 track release on a label that was predominately releasing ragga jungle by the owner. Ragnarok was named after a ship out of an old PlayStation 1 game I still play from time to time, called Final Fantasy 8. You’ll notice I sampled a lot of sound fx from that game and used them in many releases for a few years, but yeah it had the helicopter break as a prominent layer in it, along with long note space like basses with some bongo Congo perc’s

Bone Nibblers was just a name I came up with because of the sample I used at the time. The bass is pretty wompy. I reckon if I remade them now they’d probably do alright if released again, but I doubt that I’d do that anyway.

This must have been a big confidence boost for you as a producer. It must be quite a weird feeling unleashing your art upon the world and waiting for a response?

Yeah 100%! It made me want to be a hermit, work on music 24/7, get my own sound and have enough music to play my own sets full of it, but when I realised that it’s not as easy as that it sort of killed it a little bit, because I realised that I probably knew 1% of what my DAW is capable of and that there’s so much to learn. I wished I’d gone to uni or college to learn it, but now I had be a parent, work and learn production, all of which is very time consuming.

But I was determined to do it all and make it work, so I sat and watched tutorials on YouTube, spoke to as many producers I could and asked them questions. I just started simply messing about and working out what things did until I got the grasp of it all better. I still have this end goal that I want to achieve and that’s what is still driving me.

Having a release under their belt gives an artist a bit more confidence to approach other labels though right? So what were your next steps?

I mean at the time I was just well happy that I’d even finished a track, but still in order for me to network more and learn more production, I had to get my name out there more. I started sending stuff to a label that two of my mates started up called ‘Brawlin Beatz’. I was their first artist I think, and If I remember rightly it did pretty well,  so well actually that before Bou blew up he actually hit me up asking to remix one of the tracks from the release. it’s called ‘Knocked Out’

Once I started gaining more confidence from that I started looking up other label’s email addresses to dish my bits out to. I always sent stuff to the bigger labels first, even though I knew I wasn’t that good compared to all the big Dons, but you never know right? Well it worked anyway, and that’s when I started getting tips from some legendary Dons in the scene. They also taught me a lot of the other things that go on, which has been very valuable to me.

Once the music starts to pay dividends then there’s a little bit of scope to start investing in some more equipment as well then?

I’ll be honest, if you’re putting out music week in week out, or you’re someone who’s got bookings constantly then you’ll see a decent return and that’s when you invest in more equipment. If not, you use the money from your day job, because unless you’re big like the Kings Of The Rollers or one of those kinds of outfits, you still need a job to fund all the stuff, because music streams and downloads ain’t really worth that much. Bookings are where the money’s at if you can get them yourself without licking ass. I don’t have a booking agent.

In terms of styles, you seem to be able to flit quite effortlessly across almost all of the sub-genres.

Most of us could tell a sub-genre fairly easily if we heard one (depending on personal knowledge), but how much of a challenge is to actually create a particular style? By that I mean, do they each have their own set of rules and underlying structural definitions?

The reason I fit across them all is because I’ve always liked them all and I don’t set out to make a particular style. I just go in to make a track and whatever it turns out to be at the end of it is what it is. I let the people decide what category they think it fits into. Don’t get me wrong, since I’ve gained more knowledge in production I could say if I wanted to that “I’m gonna make liquid today”, but I don’t really, I just make whatever is in the feels at the time.

To be honest, I don’t think there are really any rules on how any track is made. There’s a basic way things should be laid, kind of like a template, and from there I just make it feel good, if that makes sense? There probably are rules to, but I for one don’t know them because I taught myself. I grew up on jungle, seen the birth of jump up and absolutely love hearing liquid on a daily basis. Alongside that I like hearing the other subgenres in between to keep it exciting. Even my DJ sets are all styles.

Take us through a few of your finest moments then, either in terms of sales, or of tracks that you are particularly proud of. The Hammerhead EP is one of our favourites!

With sales it’s pretty mad. Like, I’ve been in the top 10 a fair few times, to the point where I’ve had to screenshot it on my phone, to act as confirmation that I’m actually achieving this and the hard work is paying off!

I also had a vinyl release where I had the approval to release what was a bootleg at the time of ‘sunshine productions – above the clouds (gravit-e remix)’ that vinyl sold out in the first week!

You can buy the digital copy on my bandcamp now though, as it was a limited run.

I’d say one of my best releases is my Stormtrooper EP on Subway Soundz, that did pretty well in the charts considering it was going up against a lot of big names in the scene, also my colab with PA on grid recordings entitled elements hit number 2 in the charts so I was super proud of that considering I pretty much done all the leg work but nevertheless it was great to work with him and we do have more in the works.

I’m glad you like the hammerhead EP because that was also one of my favourite releases, the title track itself I loved making. I’m really proud of that.

Who would you say has made the biggest impact in terms of influence on you as a producer and why?

Unfortunately I can’t just say one… my influences are Dawn Wall, S.P.Y, t<I, Clipz, Bladerunner………. but believe it or not I generally I don’t listen to drum and bass. I listen to a lot of 80’s and 90’s music because I try not be influenced. I don’t want to be copying anyone.

Of all the styles that you make, which one is your favourite and why?

I’m going to say liquid, because that seems to be what comes out more when I attempt to make a track. To be fair I really do like making it though, as you can create so many different levels of emotion. It’s a mood thing though. One month I might only be able to make liquid and then the next month I can’t make it at all, but could push out 4 or 5 jump up tracks instead.

At last count there were 150 tracks on your SoundCloud account. That’s a ridiculous amount of music, and an even more ridiculous amount of time. How do you fit it all in around your day job and family?

With great difficulty! I work nights, so when I get a chance in the day time even if it’s for an hour, I will jump on the iMac and work on some music whether it be an idea or finishing up a project.

You’ve dabbled quite a lot with re-fixes and bootlegs too. It must be nice to have an initial sample or maybe a vocal to springboard from, and the ravers seem to absolutely love them?

Yeah I love doing them! the old skool refix’s are purely to just update them, so I try and keep them as original as possible to play them into today’s sets. The normal commercial tracks like a Justin Bieber track is something to cater for the masses who are not fully into DNB yet, but like the idea. Plus, working on these helps stimulate my brain and keep me on my toes whilst I’m going through a brain block.

Tell us a bit about your latest release/s then. What’s on the table for your latest offering?

My latest release is a liquid number I did for tech house DJ Amy Lauren. They were looking to dive into the world of DNB what with it being so popular on the commercial side of things, so I took up the challenge and they loved it. It probably would’ve gone a different way if it was jump up, but I thought it made more sense to go liquid as it would appeal to more listeners. I just want to add a special thanks to Genesis Elijah, as it was through him that we linked up.

Yeah, that totally makes sense. I hear that you also put the odd DNB night on too? Tell us more!

Yeah! From time to time I throw events with my pals. I’m more of a background entity but play a vital role. It’s nothing extravagant like those massive events, but we always have big vibes, decent line up’s and cool venues. We’ve literally just thrown one up in Bristol at Dare To club, and I want to shout out my man David Slade (Sumerian Sounds) on that, as he is the main man.

Away from drum and bass, you’re also into modifying cars too. What’s that all about? 

I just love cars to be honest. I grew up in the era of the Need for Speed underground games, Max Power magazine and the Fast and Furious films.  I’ve always modded stuff including motorbikes, mountain bikes, computers, speakers and sound systems, but yeah cars are where it’s at for me currently. I try and do most of the work myself so I can learn about the car too. I go to car shows and stuff like that when I can.

Finally, what’s your own personal aspirations for the next few years?

To buy a new car and to have a well-equipped studio space!

FIND OUT MORE HERE:

Stream Gravit-e music | Listen to songs, albums, playlists for free on SoundCloud

@gravit_e • Instagram photos and videos

Music | GRAVIT-E (bandcamp.com)