Considering they hold the Guinness World record for loudest sound system you don't normally associate Valve with being quiet. However, recently things have been rather quiet at the Valve camp so Kmag thought it best to catch up with Lemonde and find out exactly what the lack of noise is about.

You're bringing out remixes Dead By Dawn, why did you decide to remix it?
I did the original sometime in 2008 but never played it or in fact finished it. Then I gave it out during the same time I started doing my album stuff. It got great dance floor reception so I decided to up the ante on it! I did a few VIP mixes and decided this would be the one as it just got wheeled all the time. Around then I went back and finished off some other dnb tracks and remixed City Lights, an old track I originally released on Prototype. It was mad, Marky kept on at me to remix it, so I just got a vibe, replayed the keys and did it!

 

 

You also have N-Type on board now, how did that come about and can we expect to hear a lot more dubstep output in the future?
We just hooked up on pure energy really. I don't come across many true music lovers in the music game that much anymore. So when we started talking there were instant vibes. So I was like 'why don't we try this and this' and he was in it. So it was a true natural progression and once we got that energy into the lab everything just starting coming together instantly, like scarily! It's mad speaking about an idea and it materializing in minutes or after a couple of hours of tweaking. The main thing is that it has been totally fun experience and we want that to reflect in what we are doing. We're not rushing anything, just having fun. We don't want to come with the obvious, more a hybrid in some cases.

Regarding the output of the label in future, once we release the multi-genre album people should expect to see all different genre types from the imprint. I'm in talks with producers at the moment making 160-170bpm jungle influenced tracks. So we'll see how it goes in next few months. We're very particular what someone offers us.

You're resurrecting the Test imprint, who can we expect to see on it and what's the motive behind relaunching it?
It was always our sister label where we would test out certain sounds and where you could put out a track that had different vibes before we would maybe release it on Valve. The motive is that we want to use it as a platform again before we make a further release onto Valve. We want to bring alternative electronic genres through there too. I'm talking to some established and new artists at the moment about releases.

You released a digital pack called the Lost Tapes exclusive to the Valve site previously that worked really well, is this something you plan on doing again?
Sure, it's basically tracks or VIP mixes that never got released but were played on dub, etc. There's a lot of demand for tracks that never came out years back and we're always getting request about certain tunes.

And now the killer question, the album! Three years people have been waiting, what's going on?
It's been extremely productive over the last 18 months working and completing tracks and songwriting towards this album. I consciously decided not to make any more drum & bass or push myself by making it to get DJ work. I just needed to take that time out and have that break from it to learn productive skills.

So I basically immersed myself in the other genres of music I listen too. I built 35 tracks over a period of nine months and then broke down those tracks to the ten I really liked and wrote songs for them. Not one track was drum & bass, some were like hybrids of many influences but it was more trial and test thing. Then I started the process again which made everything easier that time around.

For some of those tracks I took my drafts into high-end studios to get the instrumentation sound I required. If I used an organ plug-in I'd write the keys then get them replayed on the real deal. A real Hammond organ with a Leslie, proper!  

We kept on changing the format because it's ever changing out there. We went from joint production to single artist to joint and now I'm like 'why don't we do a double CD?'  I started my album wanting everything on there to reflect the DJ sets I wanted play once this was all complete. I covered the electronic side from electro, dnb to dubstep then worked on a bunch of alternative beats.  So once we decided we were doing it as collab joint again I decided to include some of these alternative tunes. We are heads down into it at the moment. I am currently working undercover on productions for artists in different genres and the plan is to get back and finish off the drum & bass productions for the album.

You won't answer this but it has to be asked, when can we expect its release?!
When it's done!

You're taking Summer Slam to Birmingham with the Valve sound system. Any reason for relocating from the O2 and how are you planning on making this one bigger and better?
We just wanted to take it out of London this May Bank Holiday and concentrate on a big London show after the summer. Birmingham has a great atmosphere and all the Valve shows there go off. We normally do the Custard Factory pool but now we're in the warehouse. It sounds wicked inside there so bring it on.

Words: Jon Swan

 

• Valve
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• Lemonde

Related Links:

• Five Unreleased Valve Recordings Tracks
• Top 5 New Drum & Bass Releases
• Zero T FabricLive 52 CD Tracklisting
• Valve Recordings Is Back
• Brookes Brothers New Album Complete

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