Please introduce yourself briefly...
My name's Edd Legg, I'm 21 and currently in my third year at Southampton Solent. I DJ and produce both drum & bass and dubstep under the name eleven8.
 
When did you first try your hand at DJing and producing?
I first started producing when I was at college, I made a lot of IDM / glitch sort of stuff – but after moving down to Southampton in 2007 I started working hard on the production and branched out to dubstep, then in early 2009 after the Med School night at Fabric I realised how much good drum & bass there was around and decided to give that a try too. I started DJing in my first year of university too, that was pretty much where everything started!
 
What kind of stuff did you listen to while you were growing up?
I was heavily into post rock / punk rock and played drums in a few different bands whilst in school and college, but electronic music always really interested me and it slowly just took over! The speed it moves at is something that other genres of music don't have; there are so many more possibilities within electronic music. I still listen to a lot of acoustic / folk music though.
 
Who have been your biggest influences?
A band called 65daysofstatic I think will always be a big influence for me; they are probably what triggered my interest in electronic music. Their blended styles of post rock and electronica / IDM really made me look deeper into experimenting with production. I listen to quite a lot of different music though, so I sort of just take influences from a bit of everything.  

How would you describe your sound?
I find it hard to place my sound, all of my tracks have a pretty strong melodic element, I like building on a melody and expanding on it throughout a track. Being a drummer I try to keep the percussion and rhythm section interesting but I prefer to keep a lot of space in the mix, that's something I love about making dubstep. The space and room for subtle edits and progressions is nice to experiment with. But I aim to get a fairly dark and emotive sound.

Who or what inspires your music?
Quite a lot I guess, there is a lot of good material that's out there in both dubstep and drum & bass, and hearing producers pushing the boundaries of a genre is always really inspiring. But even just having a good (or bad) day can inspire me to get on with a track, and the mood will affect the feel of the track.  Burial's tracks really inspire me, the way he produces, the samples he uses and the amount of emotion he gets into his tracks is stunning.
 
Who would you like to collaborate with?
There is a long list of people but I'd really like to work with Rockwell, as his percussion work is great, and SpectraSoul.

What do you have coming out soon?
In terms of drum & bass, I have my first 12" single (Twist / At The Seams) coming out soon on Lickthewrap Records (promos are available from March 22nd) and the digital release will have a Thorne remix as a bonus track so watch out for that! There is a remix I did of Dominic Ridgway's Meditation Dub forthcoming on Influenza Minus and I also have another 12" coming out on Lifestyle Recordings, a new London based drum & bass label.
 
What are you currently working on in the studio?
I've already mentioned the forthcoming 12" on Lifestyle and am currently tweaking both the tracks on that, I'm too much of a perfectionist! I'm also working on an EP for the dubstep label Dubzilla. I have a few collaborations on the go with names like Es.tereo, Thorne and Dominic Ridgway, so there's a fair amount in the pipeline.

Done any interesting remixes recently?
I'm currently doing a dubstep remix of a Pessimist & Mr Distance track This Life. It's going to be part of an EP coming out in April on 54Music Dub. It's been a tough one to remix, but I've enjoyed it! I'm really looking forward to your Sabre remix competition that's coming up soon, got a few ideas for that already!
 
What's the next challenge for you?
Finishing university is the main thing I'm having to deal with at the moment! Luckily because of the course I'm on I'm able to work on tracks and to a certain extent use them as project work, but I can't wait to be able to sit in the studio for days on end! I want to be playing out a lot more too, I had my first overseas set recently in Poland. Myself, June Miller and Anile were out there for a few nights there - that was a great laugh, so playing in other countries is something I'd like to do more of this year, as well as the UK of course.

Are you making any other styles of music?
As I've mentioned I make a lot of dubstep and the odd bit of minimal techno here and there. I also dabble in more chilled out stuff, I have a track out under another production name Red Button Blue Button called Sunshine that got support from names such as Laurent Garnier and Richie Hawtin.
 
What tracks, producers and labels are you feeling at the moment?
The Collective Unconscious LP that came out on Think Deep Recordings was great, especially Zyon Base – Shifting Sands and Smote – Deeply In My Soul.  Looking forward to what they put out next. My Arae from Misanthrop & Phace is another one I'm playing a lot lately, it's got a very menacing vibe but there's still great space in the mix. I think Raiden is a wicked producer; his drums are always spot on!
 
Anything else you want to tell us about?
I am also involved in running 54Music Dub, a new part of the 54Music brand.  We are putting out both dubstep and drum & bass and our first release, June Miller's Brussel North EP including remixes from Wascal and Asa, drops digitally on April 19th. If you like dubstep I have just had a free release that's out on Digital Tunes called Face of the Earth, that's a university related project, but if you like the deeper dubstep stuff check it out!

Blue Skies - A Drum & Bass mix by eleven8 by eleven8

Related Links:

• Give Em Props: eleven8
• eleven8 Guest Mix
• Flexout Audio Label Profile
• Flexout Audio Label Profile
• Med School At Fabric Review

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