Mattix & Futile, aka Jack Wakeman & Mike Davis, are two Brighton based drum & bass producers. Their first single, Rising Up, was featured on the Shogun Audio podcast last year and had DJ support from D-Minds & Grooverider, to name a few. With their latest release on Crystal Clear's Cold Blooded, Take You Back / Believe, we caught up with the duo to find out a bit more about them and their music...

 

For people who've never heard any of your music, describe the sort of stuff you do...
We like to make uplifting and energetic music.  Artists like Sub Focus, Brookes Brothers and Culture Shock, who all share a similar style of melodic, dance floor driven drum & bass, have been a huge influence on us since we started producing, so we like to think a bit of their sound has rubbed off on us.

How long have you been producing together?
About four years. We both started off DJing in 2001, which in 2007 eventually led onto production. We began to take it more seriously in 2009 when the noise we had previously been making started to sound like music and bought ourselves a desktop power Mac each.

Do you work together when starting a tune? What's the creative process?
We don't normally sit there together and write a whole track as we find we work better individually.  We normally come up with ideas separately when starting a tune then pass it over once the inspiration has dried up.  We're always sending current tunes back and forth to each other for feedback to make sure we both like the way a tune is going but every track contains ideas which have come from both of us.

What's your production set up?
We have a fairly simple set up, all software based. We work on Macs with Logic 8 and use various VST's like Native Instruments Massive, FM8 and Kontakt, Lennar Digitals Sylenth, Rob Papen's Predator and Albino and we have a huge sample collection. We have a range of different plug ins, we use Camel Phat by Camel Audio a lot and Alloy by Izotope. We both have Mackie HR824's, MK1's and MK2's for monitoring. We didn't realise how important good monitors were until we purchased these.  Our production improved dramatically.

Your latest release on Cold Blooded is out on Valentines Day, how did that come about?
Really wish there was a special answer for this question but sadly it was all just coincidence. Still, it's a great gift for any girlfriend or boyfriend, haha.

Rising Up was Grooverider's rewind track a couple of times, were you prepared for the massive positive response to the track?
Not at all. The tune took a while to come together as the rough mix we'd sent to Cyntax wasn't really clean enough and needed more energy. When we eventually finished it, we knew it was better than the original but didn't really think it would do as well as it did.  We knew people were feeling it from the response we'd got from sending it out but we never thought it would make it as a rewind track. Got to say a big thanks to Cyntax Error for getting it over to Groove.

Whose music are you loving at the moment?
There's a lot of good drum & bass out there at the moment by lots of different producers. We're always feeling Culture Shock's tunes and the rest of the Ram gang. We've been listening to Break's album quite a bit, some great tunes on there. We're looking forward to the Brookes Brothers album, should be some bangers on that! Also looking forward what 2011 brings for Grafix as really rate his music!

What's the drum & bass scene like in Brighton?
MASSIVE! We couldn't ask to be in better surroundings for drum & bass. There's regular nights from Shogun, Hospital, Devotion, Frequency, Supercharged to name but a few and they all bring a wide range of the biggest acts to Brighton!

What's in the pipeline for 2011?
We have another release with Cold Blooded coming soon and have some stuff in the pipeline which are keeping quiet at the moment. Going to keep pushing hard in the studio to improve our sound and hopefully have a few more tunes out by the end of the year. We haven't got any gigs lined up at the moment but we're definitely keen to change that. So hopefully it'll be a good year for us.

Tell us about the guest mix you've done...
It's straight-up drum & bass with everything we've been feeling over the last few months and a few new bits from us. It reflects the kind of vibe we go for when playing out as well. We wanted to include loads more music but just ran out of time.

Words: Boudi Chiles-Collins

Download Mattix & Futile's Kmag guest mix here
 
Tracklisting

1. Dexcell - Collision
2. Wilkinson - Moonwalker
3. BCee - Help You (Shock One Rmx)
4. Mattix & Futile - Corkscrew
5. Delta Heavy - Space Time
6. Rawtee - Inmate
7. Mattix & Futile - One
8. Wilkinson - Scream It
9. Mattix & Futile - Take You Back
10. Spor - Halogen
11. Culture Shock - Gears
12. Mindscape - Bounce
13. Xample & Lomax - Rapidas
14. Nu:Tone ft. Natalie Williams - Shine In
15. Grafix - Nightshift
16. Camo & Krooked - Climax
17. Netsky - I Refuse (Shock One Rmx)
18. Culture Shock - Bad Red
19. Grafix - Holding On
20. Feelings For You (Prototypes Rmx)
21. Cyantific & Logistics - Brighter Day
22. Mattix & Futile - Believe

Related Links:

• Introducing: Mattix & Futile
• Podcast 17
• Crystal Clear Interview
• Crystal Clear Starts New Label
• Major Look Interview

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