Please introduce yourself briefly...
I'm Freddie FD, I make music and have tunes forthcoming on Critical, CIA Deepkut and Subtitles. I also run Medium with Tasha and Sigha.

When did you first try your hand at DJing and producing?
I've been DJing since 1999 and started making a few tunes with a good friend in about 2000. He was engineering the tunes though and I was just helping with ideas. I got my own setup around 2005 and have been working on my own beats since then. I wanted to get into making tunes as my mate used to spend all his time on beats and it just sounded like a lot of fun!

What kind of stuff did you listen to while you were growing up?
I used to be into a lot of hip hop when I was younger and then I started becoming aware of dance music when I was about 14/15. I first heard drum & bass at a house party when I was 15 and was completely blown away. As soon as me and my friends could actually get into raves, we started going to Raindance, Jungle Fever and stuff like that. I then found out about The End in 1998 and all the nights that went on there and that really shaped my taste in drum & bass.

Who have been your biggest influences?
I try and draw ideas and influences from as many different people, things and genres as possible so it's hard to narrow that down. I love finding out about new music from friends and family so that's a big influence for me.

In terms of drum & bass, artists like Photek, Calibre, Optical, Break, amongst many others. I listen to a lot of different music though and I love digging for things that surprise me and I haven't heard before. I'm really into hip hop, soul, jazz, dubstep and more and more house and techno.

People like Gangstarr, Pete Rock, Marvin Gaye, Herbie Hancock, Weather Report are always on rotation and also Martyn, Hessle crew, Mayer Hawthorne – the list goes on...

How would you describe your sound?
I don't really feel that I have a sound as such yet. I like to try and write all different types of stuff and like to look at drum & bass as just one thing, where you can write any type of tune with any kind of mood – it can be dancefloor, deep, whatever you feel like writing at the time, as long as it has substance. I guess I just try and write music that has feeling and some kind of emotion to it, whatever the style.

Who or what inspires your music?
Probably a cheesy response but, all the people I meet and things I see inspire me in some way, good or bad. Also, my parents and brother and sister have really good taste in music and they've always got me into music that has really inspired and influenced me. Definitely London though, good sets full of tunes I don't know and finding out about, listening to and sampling all different kinds of music and sounds.  

Tell us more about your excellent collaboration with Script, White Horse, how did it come about?
Script is my good mate Mike and we've been writing a few beats together for a while. A whole load of us went to a friend's wedding in the summer and we stayed in a rather classy establishment called 'The White Horse'.

After a wicked but heavy night and a long drive home, we somehow managed to get on it in the studio. Probably feeling rinsed and a bit grumpy, we ended up writing what I would consider a pretty aggressive tune – it's got kind of old sounding rolling drums, lots of angry warping bass sounds and a nasty stab! Definitely an angry tune.

You've linked up with Kasra at Critical, how did that come about?
I've known Matt Logistics for a while now and he's always been really supportive and on at me to send him tunes. When me, Dave Hydro and Keza had nearly finished Canopy, Dave sent it to Matt for him to check out. He loved it and then happened to play it to Kasra and it all went from there.

Tell us more about Canopy...
I've been working on tracks with Keza for a while now and I met met Hydro last Christmas. I've always loved his tunes and after a while we all decided to start a tune together. Dave Hydro is an absolutely obsessive sample hunter so we had loads of wicked sounds to use and that made it all come together quite easily. We got the groove down and it was sounding ok, but as soon as we got the bongo hook in, we knew we were on to something.

Who else would you like to collaborate with?
I'm concentrating on trying to write some more stuff on my own at the moment but I do really enjoy working with other people. I've already done tunes with Zero T, Ulterior Motive, Logistics, Keza and Sigha but there's loads of other people I'd like to work with - Rockwell, Jubei, Icicle, Alix Perez, Sam KDC, Joker D to name a few – and depending on if they'd have me!  

What else do you have coming out soon?
So there's Canopy and Remorse by myself, Hydro and Keza coming on Critical soon and then White Horse / Cougars with Script and Keza on CIA DeepKut. I've also done a tune with Zero T called After All coming on his Subtitles EP.

What are you currently working on in the studio?
I've got a bunch of things on my own that I'm working on and also a couple of collabs with Ulterior Motive, Sigha, Zero T, Keza and Sam KDC in the pipeline.  

Done any interesting remixes recently?
I haven't really done any remix work properly yet but it is something that I'm really interested to do more – it's kind of like starting a tune when you've got a load of great new sounds and a wicked vibe and you can just roll from there and make your take of the track.

Are you making any other styles of music?
I've been making a few dubstep bits and also some house and have got a few hip hop loops that I'd like to lay down too – there's not enough hours in the day though!

What producers and labels are you feeling at the moment?
There's actually loads of good drum & bass about at the moment. Ulterior Motive, Zero T, Jubei, Rockwell, Icicle, Alix Perez, dBridge, Instra:mental, Total Science, Code 3, Spinline, Sam KDC, Spectrasoul, June Miller and Linden are all coming with some killer beats for me. There's also some really good labels at the moment but Exit, Soul:R, Darkestral, Critical, Signature, Subtitles, Shogun, 31, Metalheadz and Cylon are putting out some wicked tunes. And that's just drum & bass!

 

FD, Hydro & Keza - Canopy by F D

FD & Keza - Cougars by F D

• FD

Related Links:

• Hydro Guest Mix
• Ulterior Motive Guest Mix
• Guest Reviews: Rockwell
• Silkie Interview
• Guest Reviews: Lenzman

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