MDC Interview#65 " Seppa "
Seppa has been producing beats for over 15 years, always finding new ways to keep the dance floor exciting. After working with a variety of small labels as Duskky, it was Wonk#ay Records (which he now co-runs with Bunkle and Aytch) that really pushed him into becoming what he is today. Playing a variety of parties, big and small, gave him a feel for what really works and that has influenced his productions up to the present.
In 2015 he changed his name to Seppa, releasing a single entitled “Trojan/Coriolis” on AutomAte Recordings in February 2016, which was followed up by the EP ‘Homunculus’ in April that year. In November 2016 he released the ‘Displaced’ EP, which covered a variety of atmospheres and speeds whilst keeping a consistently dance floor friendly sound. After co-founding the record label Slug Wife, he turned out a wide variety of material including his two solo albums to date, 'More' (2018) and 'Split' (2020), both of which were received to great acclaim. He's also put out two albums with collaborator Chalky, entitled 'Bright Spots' (2018) and 'Strange Changes' (2020), exploring instrument driven Jazz flavours and psychedelia. His beat tape, "Whack Lack Vol. 1" (2018), has also become a firm fan favourite alongside numerous Remixes, Singles and EPs.
Having now left Slug Wife behind, and after a few years of big life things - namely becoming a father and a husband - Seppa returns in 2024 with his third full length album, ‘See It Through’. Featuring driving boom bap beats and his inimitable taste for otherworldly soundscapes it’s a narrative experience from start to finish, demanding many full listens to unearth all the hidden
details. Whilst designed to be a completely enrapturing home listening experience, Seppa’s production really shines on a soundsystem and he’s excited to bring his new musical creations to the dancefloor.
https://soundcloud.com/seppamusic
https://www.instagram.com/seppamusic/
https://www.facebook.com/SeppaUK
Q. Where are you from? What kind of environment did you grow up in?
I grew up on the south coast of England between Portsmouth and Southampton. I wouldn’t say either of these places are very inspirational musically, but I grew up in a very musical family. We always had a piano in the house, and my grandma paid for music lessons for me and my brother from a young age. She was a great pianist in her youth and wanted to carry on the musical passion to the new generation. My Dad also plays some piano and sings in a local choir, and both my parents are huge music fans so it was always a part of daily life. My brother is only 2 years younger than me and we share a lot of our musical taste, so growing up we played in a lot of bands together and spent a lot of time finding new music wherever we could.
Q. When did you first become interested in music? What kind of music initially hooked you?
Thinking back, it was probably mostly guitar music that hooked me initially. I remember listening to a bit of pop punk stuff like The Offspring and some old classics like Led Zeppelin, but it was probably when I found Radiohead I got really hooked in a major way. They opened my mind to things beyond a classic band setup as well, especially with Kid A/Amnesiac/Hail to the Thief. The Mars Volta were a big inspiration too. I had limited exposure to electronic stuff until I moved to London in 2006 and started going to see loads of Breakcore and Dubstep stuff and got totally hooked.
Q. Your music has a Hip Hop and Jazz feel to it. In the tones, the gaps between sounds, and the placement. Are you actually influenced by those music?
Yeah absolutely. I’d say more by Jazz than Hip-Hop honestly. I’ve played Saxophone since I was 11 and played in a lot of Jazz bands through my teenage years. Ultimately I fell more in love with the music production process and rave music more generally, but I’ve always enjoyed incorporating Jazz elements into what I’m doing. Hip-Hop’s more of a rhythmical thing for me. I like the way the drums work, the swing/wonk/groove makes the music really physically engaging when you translate that to a dance floor.
Q. What were your other interests besides music?
Science Fiction books, movies and video games have definitely been a big inspiration for me. The dystopian vision portrayed in that kind of fiction has always resonated with the atmosphere I’m trying to create in my music.
Q. When was the first time you went to a Club, Rave or Festival? What was your experience then?
One of the early events I went to that really shaped my musical journey was Bang Face in London. It was a melting pot of so many different kinds of rave music from Dubstep to the most extreme noisecore madness, all with a sense of humour and a great community of people. I still attend their yearly festival all these years later and it’s still great! It showed me you can really do whatever you want as long as you commit to it!
Q. What teenage years did you have?
I grew up just outside Southampton on the south coast of England. There was a couple of small venues and promoters that booked interesting bands but it wasn’t exactly a hotspot for new and interesting things. I was mostly trying to find as much interesting new music as possible with my brother (who now makes music as Minor Science). We would go into record stores and try and find the weirdest thing we could. I remember picking up a copy of Confield by Autechre and it absolutely scrambled our brains with how abstract and weird it was. We had a few bands together over the years. As I mentioned earlier I also played in a load of Jazz bands, including a quartet from about 12 years old. We used to get booked to play at the local cricket club after matches playing jazz standards, and garden parties and things like that. I pretty much just played in as many bands as possible. I think at one point I was in 12 different groups. It took up pretty much all my free time!
Q. When did Seppa start? What did you do before that?
I was making electronic music under the name Duskky for a long time. I’m not sure exactly when I started using that name, maybe 2008? It was originally mostly 140 stuff, but very breakbeat driven. We had a collective called Mothers Against Noise (which still exists now) with myself, my brother, Hurtdeer, Myr, [Insert Gore], Macka, Slavetothewage, wAgAwAgA and others which was pushing this kind of really breakbeat driven Dubstep we called Dubfunk. We did a few events in London before a good chunk of us moved to Bristol. I had an album released on Acroplane Recordings back in 2009 or 2010 that is a good example of that stuff: https://archive.org/details/ACP074_Duskky_-_Illeism
I joined Wonk#ay Records around that time and began to play a lot more events, especially psychedelic squat parties and similar things. Over the following 5 years or so I got more traction with what I was doing and started to see a route to have a more active music career as a producer. At some point in that period a deep house duo named Dusky got really big so I thought it would be a good time to change name, and switched to Seppa in 2016. It was good to have a fresh start as I knew a lot more about how to make music and could start from a better place. I’d already started to shift stylistically to something more technical and bass driven, incorporating Neurofunk DnB style sounds into what I was doing.
Around the time i changed name it was becoming really apparent that there was a huge audience in the USA so we started Slug Wife to push the collective of artists we knew making similar hip-hop infused bass music and that accelerated my career (and everyone elses) in a big way!
Q. I believe Seppa's music is also called "Glitch Hop". When did you first become aware of those musical styles? Do you actually consider your music "Glitch Hop"?
I don’t consider it Glitch Hop at this point. I think some of the later stuff I was doing as Duskky could fall in to that category, but to my mind Glitch Hop is more of a midtempo 100bpm kinda thing, which is a speed I don’t really mess with now. The rhythmical feel is quite different in my opinion. I got connected to the Half Time DnB thing when that was big but really it never was in my mind, it was very much it’s own Hip-Hop driven style. There’s a big scene of people making this kind of music in America which I’m grateful to be connected to. I don’t really see what I’m doing as genre specific though. My music ranges from 60bpm to 90bpm and incorporates elements of most kinds of electronic music that fall in that range.
Q. Please tell me about the history of Slug Wife. How did this label/collective get started?
Slug Wife was started but myself, FFINN and Kursa as a way to collectively push our music and share fanbases. We ran it but we supported Lone Drum, Skope, Reso, Vellum, Ben Pest, AKOV and other artists who made music in the same vein. Really it’s because of FFINN’s involvement that we could make it happen, they had the artistic vision that complemented the music and the organisational skills to make it happen.
Q. Kursa & Seppa "SLG001" is a very important single. You guys basically put a novel/story on every single issue. Why did you take this format?
The stories came about as a bit of a joke initially. There was a stereotype in that era with Neuro music that it was this really serious music and a lot of people were writing pretty bad sci fi stories to go with their music. The label was designed to push music that we were very serious about, but also had some humour and fun to it, so we decided to make these short stories for each release about space slugs that lived on a horrifically polluted planet and were all hopelessly addicted to salt, even though it kills them. It became a fun outlet for my interest in science fiction and writing. It was meant as a fun little bit of bonus material for people that wanted something extra to read.
Q. Slug Wife was based in Bristol, UK, wasn't it? What kind of place is Bristol? What artists, labels/collectives, record ships, clubs, etc. do you think are important in the Bristol Glitch/Bass scene besides yourselves?
Bristol is a great city. So much music and art, interesting things always going on. And a great soundsystem culture which really fuels the rave scene. To be honest, there’s never been a particular scene for the kind of music we made/make. We did some Slug Wife events for a few years which did well. Culprate does events sometimes and Intrinzic Music are also pushing the sound, but beyond that there’s not too much that I know of. But there’s a huge spectrum of other music here that I really enjoy, especially on the higher BPM side of things. Bristols had a strong Breakcore/Hardcore scene for a long time. Usually when I play here I play high speed rave music (my set from the Bang Face Weekender 2023 is a prime example: https://soundcloud.com/seppamusic/seppa-live-bang-face-weekender-2023 ). Bristol also has a long Drum and Bass and Dubstep history which influences a lot of what happens.
Q. You released the album Whack Lack Vol. 1 in 2017. Is this Seppa's first album? What is the concept of this album? What were some of your most memorable moments during its production?
The first Seppa album was “More” which was self released on my Bandcamp. Whack Lack Vol. 1 was more of a beat tape than a full album, and was very much written in that way. The tracks were partly inspired by battle beats for turntablists, and so were intentionally quite simple compared to what I normally do, it was a fun change for the very technical music I was making at the time!
Q. Slug Wife's SoundCloud profile says 2017-2023. Have you guys finished activities?
Yes we’ve closed up shop now. On one side it ran its course musically, and on the other there were some fundamental personality clashes that made it impossible to take further. FFINN and I ultimately decided to close shop at the end of last year so we could move on to other projects, though we’re still in touch (they live just down the road from me!). We’re really proud of what we managed to achieve with the label, and all of the great people we’ve met over the years who’ve been inspired by what we were doing. It changed our lives in so many ways!
Q. What equipment do you use (DAW, speakers, analog equipment, etc.)? What process is used to make beats?
I’m totally in the box, meaning no hardware/analog equipment. I’ve always really enjoyed computers so I feel very comfortable working in that environment. I’ve been using Bitwig as my primary DAW since late 2020 and have been really enjoying it, though I still use Ableton for collaborations and production teaching as most people are using that as their primary DAW for this kind of music. I invested in a pair of Genelec 8341a and a 7360a sub a few years ago, which makes for an incredible monitoring setup. I can’t see myself wanting to upgrade from them. I’m running them from an RME UFX II which again I can’t see myself wanting to upgrade from, they make great units. In 2023 I finished building a custom studio space with full treatment so I’m in a really great spot now. I do a lot of freelance audio engineering work (mixing and mastering - www.sonic-fusion.co.uk) so having a decent space to work from has been a goal for many years.
In terms of the beat making process, I usually start with drums and work out from there. For dancefloor music, I feel that if the drum groove you have a good foundation to build on. I’ll often use Superior Drummer 3 as a starting point for breakbeat type sounds and then augment it with samples and synthesis. Sometimes sound design is done separately, sometimes I’ll build patches directly into the project. Phase Plant is probably my most used synth of the last few years, I love it. I usually throw a load of ideas down at the start of working on something and then pick the best bits and turn it into a structure and refine from there.
Q. You have very good grooves and gaps between the beat, bass and melody. How do you create these grooves and gaps?
I program it all in, but I spend a lot of time with the grid turned off moving different elements around to try and create an engaging groove. Swing settings in electronic music are a bit of a curse as it just makes your music very “on the grid” in a slightly different way. If you look at what makes Jazz or Hip Hop rhythms work it’s because different instruments are hitting at slightly different times, and the amount of swing can vary hit by hit to create internal tension between the different parts. I really go out of my way to create this same sensation. The end result is a feeling of “looseness” that feels much more human than 30% swing or whatever.
Q. I know you have sampled a variety of sounds, but what is the most unusual sound you have used?
Animal sounds can be quite fun to time stretch and pitch weirdly. It can make for some really weird and guttural basses!
Q. You are also involved in music as a mastering engineer. What does "good sound" mean to you?
I find people are often looking for concrete targets for things like loudness, but it’s so dependent on the style of music and the style of production. For me, good sound is allowing the music to breathe and reach its full potential. The engineering side is there to support the music, not the other way round. When it comes to soundsystem music, you want it to sound pushed and loud, but if you squash it too much it really suffers when played at high volume so it’s about walking the line between pushed and smashed, leaving enough dynamics for the drums and low end to have clear punch and energy. For non-soundsystem music dynamics are so important. In an age where streaming platforms volume balance everything it’s my job as an engineer to be sensitive to what really enhances the music rather than making it the “loudest track on the radio” as was the case 15-20 years ago. The bottom line is you want to feel immersed in the music, whatever it is, and my job is to facilitate that as much as possible.
Q. Do you think it takes talent to make good melodies, good beats, and good music? Can you create talent through hard work?
I think talent plays a role, but a smaller role than people think. Talent can light the fire but you have to keep adding wood to it otherwise it’ll burn out pretty quickly. The most important trait is perseverance. If you really commit and always push yourself to do better you can make amazing things happen. The other factor is to always absorb as much different music as possible, way beyond the particular genre you’re making. The more sources of inspiration you have the more interesting your music will become.
Q. You place a lot of importance on the album format. However, I think the single/EP size is preferred today. What do you feel about this situation? Why do you continue to make albums?
It’s a fair assessment that singles and shorter releases do better in the modern environment, and I’m certainly open to doing that too. Albums allow you a much deeper exploration of what you’re doing as an artist. It’s the difference between a short story and a novel. You can go much deeper with the themes and ideas, explore a wider range of music and give people a much richer experience. I also think that albums stay with people for much longer. I find myself listening to albums for years, compared to singles which I might really enjoy for a month or two and then move on.
Q. Today, DJs and listeners often purchase only one favorite song from an album/EP. DJs may also use only a few dozen seconds of a song. As an artist yourself what do you think of these?
Honestly I think people can enjoy the music however they like. You can’t buy my albums as individual tracks on Bandcamp as they’re supposed to be enjoyed as a whole, but beyond that it’s not up to me! If anyone plays my music, even if it’s just thirty seconds, I’m grateful.
Q. You also play in the US, what is the state of the Bass scene in the US?
Yes, I'm fortunate to be able to travel over a few times a year. The bass music scene is great. There’s much more scope to play slower music that just wouldn’t fly in the UK. It’s also a psychedelic scene which meshes well with my music and allows you to take people on a bit more of a journey with the sets. There’s so many great artists out there there’s no way I could list them all, but some good ones to start with are Keota, Resonant Language, Schmoop, VCTRE, Cut Rugs, Lavier, Musashi Xero, Freddy Todd, EAZYBAKED, Chee, the all:LO collective. The Rust, Satellite Era and Observatory Records are labels putting out great music. Some of my favourite shows have been playing for Tipper & Friends, and Infrasound Festival is a must. The Black Box in Denver is a legendary bass music venue with fantastic sound. It’s always good to visit. I’ve met so many good people over the last five years that it’s always a joy to spend some time with them.
Q. Seppa/Chalky White "Strange Changes" was a very interesting album. How did this album come about?
This was the follow up to an earlier album titled “Bright Spots”. Chalky is a phenomenal guitarist, composer and all round musician. We met through mutual friends in Bristol and decided to start meeting up regularly to make music. It’s so effortless when we’re together. We’re making studio jazz albums for the 21st Century, incorporating the production stuff learned from electronic music but applying it to a different space. I find it’s a great counterweight to the very electronic music I’m normally making and it allows me to get the Saxophone out which is always fun!
Q. Please tell me about your new album See It Through. What is the theme of this album? Which songs do you particularly like?
This album was about returning to music making after a semi-hiatus. I really wanted to return to the hip-hop driven bass stuff I was making a few years ago but with a new spin. I also wanted to create a really seamless experience, so this album was almost entirely written for this project (rather than a collection of tracks written at different times). The title, “See It Through” relates to this in that it’s about following through on what you’ve started, regardless of what life throws at you.
Honestly I’m happy with all the tracks on there, but SDIG, Yessir and Spinnin’ are particular favourites.
Q. What do you spend your time doing when you are not making music?
Spending time with my daughter doing fun things! I play a bit of video games (time allowing), and catch up with friends, regular human stuff :)
Q. You have acquired a solid fan base. How do you create that kind of fan base? What are some of the things you strive to do for your listeners?
Time and perseverance, I’ve just collected people over time and I’m grateful so many still listen. My main goal is to keep delivering high quality music with depth, emotion and excitement. If I can release music that sounds unique on some level then I’m doing my part for the music community. We’re all expanding each other's horizons constantly and it’s great to be a part of that.
Q. What is your schedule for the future?
I’ve always got new music in the works! I’m heading back over to the USA in October to play a few shows which I’m really excited about. Chalky & I are working (slowly) on the next collaborative album. I’ve got a new track with Minor Science on the way before the end of the year and some really cool stuff in the works with vocalist Musashi Xero.
Q. Any final message to our readers?
Thanks for reading, and for listening! Feel free to contact me via social media or by email (sandy@seppa.net). It’s always great to hear from you! Also, purchases from Bandcamp help artists so much more than streams from Spotify etc. If you really enjoy what I do, consider a Bandcamp purchase - I’ll be very grateful!