Features

Lung

It's always nice to meet a fresh face in the dubstep scene. I got the privilege to chat to James Ellaway, aka Lung, a hard working (and hard studying) 19-year-old student from Cardiff, who recently has been getting quite a lot of attention from his recent release on Kokeshi.

The release is varied, with drum & bass, dubstep, garage and other styles all encompassed onto one 12". You can hear early influences of drum & bass shining through whilst some interesting broken dubstep rhythms suddenly spring up on you. Check out it if you can, it's worth it.

Kmag discussed with James the reception to the single, and also get a short guide of how to rave it up in Cardiff.

How was your release on Kokeshi received?
Well, I think it's been doing alright, I couldn't give exact figures, but in the short time it's been out I think it's been doing okay. A couple of Rinse FM DJs are playing it, and luckily the tune Afterlife had quite a bit of online support throughout the year leading to the release. So hopefully anyone who liked it then went out and bought it! Or in some cases, perhaps illegally downloaded - unfortunately!

What can we expect from you in the near future?
Well, there's around three more releases from myself this year so far... can't give too many details away yet, but they vary in style, all around the 140bpm mark, but very different tunes. Other than the releases, hopefully to get out and play a few more places!

What is your studio setup like?
I've got a very basic set up to be honest; I use Logic 8 on my Mac, no extra plug-ins as all the sounds I make within logic itself. Got some really basic monitors, cost me about £85 and they're meant for DJ use, but I use them for studio monitoring.

People may frown upon that approach, or disapprove, but for me the most important thing is knowing your monitors, and now I know how to get a nice sound from them.

Other than the above, I use an M-Audio Axiom 25 midi keyboard controller and a nice sample library which I'm still trying to grow!

What are your main influences for writing dubstep?
I'd been experimenting with electronic music for a while, making d&b, and other weird stuff. Dubstep was just another experimentation, but I found myself loving it!

What I like about it the most, is that other than the tempo range, you can virtually do whatever you want! Everyone has their own take on it, and I think that's pretty cool. It doesn't seem to be too formulaic yet, and that allows you freedom to experiment and come up with some really interesting stuff.

As for influences, I'm really into the whole breaks and future garage things going on at the moment. Producers like Sully, Hyetal, HXDB, Joy Orbison, Von D, Ramadanman and Untold are all making wicked tunes. I think what appeals to me about this style of dubstep is it's danceable and still musical. I am sick of wobble. So for me, it's just a natural escape from all that, hopefully to separate myself from that sound a bit.

As you're from Cardiff, can you tell us the best places to go out?
Cardiff is wicked, I was born and raised here and there's always been a lot going on. I mean obviously they have the generic chain clubs just like the next city but there's some really cool places pushing the more underground music thing here.

Neuropol and Aperture, for dubstep and drum & bass respectively, are hands down the two best nights for that music here. There's a couple of new nights starting up soon that seem pretty interesting, for the more left-field stuff which is cool. Also Hospitality Cardiff is always a wicked night and certainly not to be missed... I can guarantee the next line-up for Hospitality Cardiff in April is going to be siiiiick!!