Inside Premiere – Get To Know – Burntboi (UK)
As part of our killer 6 track SoundCloud premiere for Grid Recordings ‘now that’s what we call bass vol 5’
(SEE THE SOUNDCLOUD PREMIERE TAB ABOVE)
we caught up with 20 year old Burntboi, who has been kicking up a bit of a storm on SoundCloud via his various free downloads and label releases. When you listen to his music, it’s easy to see why. His signature sound is a mix of rolling 808’s blended with a healthy dose of fog horn and scrunchy filth.
The Gloucestershire born producer now resides in Cardiff, Wales, where he has been playing at the mighty Invicta Audio events in the city and at Lakota in nearby Bristol.
As his track ‘Pull Up’ is featured on the above mentioned EP, we thought we’d catch up for a few words.
Burntboi! Welcome INSIDE!
Cheers!
It’s quite an unusual name you got there. What’s the story behind it?
I have been asked this before a couple times believe it or not, and yes there is a story behind it. I remember being at my first festival when I had just turned 16 and I managed to get lost a few times. As I had sun-burnt myself so badly previous to getting lost, when my mates were looking for me I was purely referred to as ‘The Burnt Boy’, and this continued after I was found. Every festival or day rave from then on (where I got sunburnt – which was most), I was Burntboi.
Whilst I was in my first year of 6th form and was starting to regularly release music onto my SoundCloud, I realised I had to brand myself If I wanted to see any success. After some thought, my friends finally convinced me to change the name officially to ‘Burntboi’. I am aware that It’s a weird name for a Drum and Bass artist, but I do believe it sticks in people’s minds. Not a forgetful name at all!
You moved to Cardiff recently from Gloucestershire. There’s a healthy DNB scene there, right?
Absolutely. I feel blessed to be a part of the Cardiff drum and bass community, it’s a real up and coming scene with some big DJ’s and Labels making some big moves across the city. There are some really fat, classic rave spots across Cardiff. Vaults in Cardiff Bay is a must see, as well as Clwb Ifor Bach and Frontal Lobe Warehouse; Carpe Noctem is one to look out for, they’ve just opened their doors and are already hosting fat DNB events – Critical Impact and Bennie headlined it last week. There’s a lot of serious talent in Cardiff, yet it’s still not as saturated as somewhere like Bristol, which I think is a much healthier and happier scene to be a part of.
You started making music at 17 then? How did that journey begin?
Music’s always been part of my life – I started playing all sorts of instruments from a young age, a lot of people don’t know I played the cello full-time for around 10+ years. I still really enjoy playing include Piano, bass and guitar, and I will still pick up my cello occasionally.
I started listening to drum and bass when I was about 15 years old. By this point in my life I was already producing music and posting it on my SoundCloud for a couple of years, but under a completely different alias releasing completely different sorts of music (mostly rap beats, Lo-fi, bit of garage and some phonk).
After GCSEs, I started attending local 16+ events, and just getting more and more into DNB and figured I might as well give it a crack. I released my first ever DNB song ‘Voltage’ at the start of 2019, and just didn’t stop from there!
Give us a run-down of your equipment list. What couldn’t you live without, and what’s on your shopping list?
I’m a firm believer that the only equipment you need to make professional sounding music is a solid set of monitors and a DAW. Being able to hear effectively and clearly the changes you are making is crucial to progressing your skills as a musician, especially with drum and bass, as it is typically less musically technical and more emphasis on your sonics and what sounds good etc. I have a slightly beaten-up pair of DM40s that I just take everywhere with me, they’re so lightweight and still give me the sound depth I need, it’s a no brainer for travelling speakers.
I do also still use my Akai MPD218 (a relic from my rap beat production days) for most of my tunes. When I’m playing around with drum fills and Hi-Hat patterns, recording it on there does give them a slightly more human feel. MPD/MPCs are also really applicable for chopping up amen breaks, you can get really creative.
I think next for me on the shopping list is definitely some Yamaha Hs8’s. Some proper professional recording studio monitors. I also prefer active monitors for ease of travel (quicker to pack up and set up than passive monitors and an amp).
Are you self-taught in terms of production?
Yes, I am 100% self-taught. I am however lucky enough to have a really tight group of friends that I went to school with that are really into their production as well, so we have all learnt a lot from each other over the years I would say. Check them out they’re both super talented producers: HC Bass (released Into You & Strength in You VIP – each of these have easily amassed a few hundred thousand plays each) and OHJ (recently released a ‘Bwoi affi’ bootleg on his SoundCloud, keep an eye out for this guy!)
I do wish I had taken a music production course at some point, it would have definitely jogged my technical knowledge a lot quicker earlier in my music career, but I’m still happy with where I am today. As I mentioned before, I’m classically trained (practically and theoretically) so I did have a bit of a head start when I started producing in that respect.
You’ve had some good success with previous tracks on SoundCloud. You’ve built up quite a large number of plays on there. That must be encouraging?
This is probably the thing I get asked the most. I managed to get fairly insane number of plays across 2 tracks very early in my music career, it’s still quite hard to get my head around.
‘Loveshy VIP’ I think was the 4th DNB tune I had ever posted on my SoundCloud – I would have just started year 13 at 6th form, and a month or 2 after that I released my bootleg of One Spliff A Day. Initially, they didn’t get much attention just the usual few hundred plays, but it was about 3 months after these releases that we went into the first lockdown. That’s when they started to blow.
Yes, it was encouraging but also made me complacent and slightly more lazy over lockdown with my production. I had already reached an incredible number of plays so I wasn’t putting myself under as much pressure as other producers of my level might do.
It’s interesting how some producers will start a track with drums, others will be inspired by samples they’re using. In terms of building tracks, what formula do you follow?
I would say there are typically 2 ways in which I will start a tune. The first way is when I already have an idea in my head for a tune, in these cases I could start with anything, it could be a melody, a drum pattern or even just a particular sound I’m trying to patch in Serum. However If I’m going into a studio session without any ideas, I will generally start developing the core drop loop of the track (typically starting with drums and breaks etc) and then build a complete track around that.
Who or what would you say influences your music? Is there a particular theme to what you do and how you write?
I’m constantly on a quest to develop my sound design for the better and build up a roster of sound patches that are unique to my style of drum and bass. I will take influence from anything that spawns an idea that I reckon will sound good in a drum and bass track. Old skool jungle is a big part of my listening reel when I’m trying to inspire myself. I love working with breaks and bouncing 808’s all over the place, and some of my favourite artists include DJ Krust, Roni Size and the legendary Ray Keith of course.
Away from your own production style, what other types of DNB do you like?
Like a lot of people that enjoy live drum and bass, I’m a sucker for a good bit of jump up. Nothing gets a crowd moving quite like it. Belgian is absolutely my guilty pleasure with some of my favourite artists being Captain Bass and Sota. But we’re also seeing this wave of new style jump up, putting a much more minimal, roller-style twist on some proper filthy Belgian jump up sounds: Latte, Amplify and maybe even some Master Error tunes come to mind here.
And what about other music styles generally? What else might we find in your collection?
When I was young, my parents introduced me to some classic garage (Artful Dodger, So Solid etc) and I’ve loved it ever since. I will be trying to put out some 140 tracks in the future. I’m also loving this new wave of 140 we’re seeing that a lot of DNB artists have adopted – directly inspired by old skool grime and dubstep beats with some filthy FM wobbly sounds thrown in the mix.
Onto this beast on Vol 5 then. Tell us a bit about how it came about. There’s a definite old skool jungle vibe to it that blends nicely with your more modern, minimal trademark sound.
‘Pull It’ has a real classic roller/foghorn element to it with that elephant horn sound. I had thought of this sound previous to producing the track and how I roughly wanted it to go, so I started out this track with just going a bit nuts on Serum for a couple of hours, trying to replicate what I had made in my head. We’ve then got it accompanied by some classic burntboi crunchy 808’s. I really focused on the sequencing and sound design of this bass sound. I really feel that it’s this bouncy bass that gets people in the dance moving.
I’m finding these days when I produce a tune, I really keep my DJ’ing in mind. Tunes will always get plenty of testing in front of crowds at shows and parties etc – I know that this tune makes for some great doubles.
So, are you planning to stay in Cardiff? What’s the plan over the next few years? I guess you’re going to stay with making music.
The plan is to keep at it, as always. For now, I’m planning on staying in Cardiff at least for the next couple of years, being in a capital city has really helped me get a foot up in the scene here and I’ve already made some good mates here. There’s lots of things coming in the next couple of years. I feel that my producing has levelled up in the last year or so, meaning a lot more releases!
What else you got cooking for the DNB junkies out there then? What’s coming up?
I’ve just finished writing my debut EP, its 6 tracks of all original filth. Keep your eyes peeled! In terms of DJ’ing as well I’m at In It Together Festival this Sunday (5th) playing on the HomeBass van, and I’m returning to Lakota on the 24th, you can catch me closing the main room!
FIND OUT MORE HERE:
Stream burntboi DNB music | Listen to songs, albums, playlists for free on SoundCloud
burntboi (@burntboiuk) • Instagram photos and videos
