Cern is a drum & bass producer / DJ from Auckland, New Zealand and his debut album is forthcoming on Project 51 / Uprising later this year. Cern gives us a taste of what we can expect...

Please introduce yourself...

Greetings, I'm Ollie. I represent Cern & more recently Sidechain, straight out of Auckland, New Zealand. I have around 25 or so releases under my belt on labels like Renegade Hardware, Critical, Citrus and soon to be Project 51.

 

Cern was originally a partnership but unfortunately Jonny passed away a few years ago, just as we started putting out some tunes. I've been carrying on the solo thing for the last few years and among other collabs & releases in that time, I have been putting together my debut album Terminus for Project 51 & Uprising.

Tell us a bit more about Terminus...

The album is due for release in August/September through Project 51/Uprising and it's something I have been working at for the last few years. It started off as a local CD release project for New Zealand through Concord Dawn's imprint Uprising.

I sent some tunes I was working on for the album through to Gridlok last year, and he was really feeling the direction I was taking, so he wanted to take the release worldwide with Project 51. It seems to have taken almost twice as long as I intended but with patience comes quality... hopefully haha!

The concept for the album is really a dedication to the other half of Cern. It's been a bumpy ride the last few years since he passed, so this is my own personal send off for him.

What's the thought process behind the title?

Terminus loosely means the end of the road, "a place where something ends or is complete." I gave my album this title because it fits what to me represents something that is now complete.

 

When Jonny passed away there was definitely a feeling of the end of the road for me musically, among other more important things of course. But he had always been the guy who gave me the most inspiration, and when that vanished, the root of where that inspiration came from changed.

 

This album is about honouring Jonny and paying respect to someone who gave me so much inspiration, so I think the day this comes out and I have the record in my hand, this project and the goals that I set out to achieve when it was started, will be complete.

Tell us a bit more about what you set out to achieve with it...

Originally I started putting together the album at the end of 2008 while I was trying to get back on my feet after Jonny passed away. At the time I really wanted to put something together to dedicate to him, so this seemed like a natural thing to do.

I have had a lot of help from loads of people over the last few years too, so this was a way to include some of those people in the project and say thanks to them for their support.

Musically, I set out to represent the sound which I love the most, that of drum & bass circa a decade ago. I don't like to pigeon-hole myself so I will stop short of doing that, but it was definitely about servicing my own selfish taste of what I like about drum & bass and putting my own sound to it.

Writing tunes for me is so much fun, so continuing on with that in mind, I wanted to write drum & bass music that makes me shiver when I hear it loud. If people like it then that's a bonus. If they don't then that's OK too!

How does working on albums compare with of singles?

I guess the obvious issue with an album is that it takes a lot more effort and time than a single. However, I think the main benefit that comes with putting so much time and effort into something like an album is the personal reward that comes with it. I'm not there just yet but I can imagine that's how you may feel haha!

There seems to be a lot more depth in the content that you can include in an album and I like the idea of getting involved in other aspects like the visual design. I had lots of fun doing this album and I'm privileged to be able to have to opportunity to do so for such influential people in my career.

With regards to the future releases, I don't have any concrete plans for a second album as yet but I can definitely say there will be a bunch of singles between now and then!

Can we expect anything different on it?

For anyone that has herd Cern beats before, they will probably know that I like the Virus sound, whose artists, amongst others, act as huge inspiration for the sound of Terminus as a whole.

In saying that, there are tunes on there like What Remains? with Dabs and Terminus with Phantom which delve into the more minimal techstep side of drum & bass, taking inspiration from Source Direct and Photek.

Some may have herd the tune Wasabi with Teknik which has been getting a bit of air from people like Noisia, Sabre and Kasra, so there is a bit more of that dirty funk sound on there as well.

There is a 160 bpm tune in there called Hopetoun Bridge which at that tempo is just on the fringe of what we call drum & bass today, but I think it still stays true to the sound.

It would be fair to say I did experiment a little and only sometimes it comes off well, so I am very interested to see what people think. The most experimental of the lot would be a tune called Shedding Skin in which I used some guitar and percussive ideas from one of my favourite bands, Tool. The tune never really drops which is what I kinda like about it, but it has bass and it's a good intro for the album.

Who have you collaborated with on it?

I always have fun collaborating because it's a great way to hang out and it's a great way to learn new stuff. When I was last in Europe and the UK around Christmas 2008 I managed to get some work on a tune done with Sabre (which was a huge privilege and one of the highlights of the trip for me) which I have finished off recently. It was great working with Sabre, he is obviously a hugely talented guy and I took a lot from it.

There are some New Zealand-based collabs on there too, one with Concord Dawn as well as three tunes with my boys from Christchurch: Teknik, Dose & Menace. These three guys are a testament to the amazing abundance of talent that spews forth from the swamp that is Christchurch.

In New Zealand, all of the guys who are writing are pretty tight and know each other pretty well, and yes it is a small country, so when any of us get together it's a guaranteed good time, whether it's writing tunes or just playing 'put on the multi-coloured ski-suit'. I digress.

Dabs from Italy was really cool to work with. We seem to each have a sound that compliments each others really well, and I'm looking forward to making more tunes with David in the near future. He's a seriously talented producer with a big future ahead of him.
 
Tell us about some of the other releases you have coming out soon...

I have a few coming up soon, Dark Before Dawn on Cylon featuring on 'The Art EP 2,' a collab with Loxy for Xtinction Agenda called Sermon, a collab with Concord Dawn and Bulletproof for the new Concord Dawn album, a solo thing called Seek the Truth coming out on Revolution Recordings, and I think Proton Pack with Nymfo is finally coming out this week on Project 51.

What are you working on at the moment?

I have been working on a remix for Cause4Concern for their track Never Acid Again most recently, as well as collabs with Mayhem, Dabs, Verb and some solo bits too.

 

I have been chipping away in the studio quite a bit with Dose, Menace & Teknik respectively on a few new projects which are looking promising, as well as a few new bits for the side-project with Bulletproof & Teknik, Sidechain - we just had our first 12" released a few weeks back on Syndrome Audio.

 

Sidechain - Grotesque[Syndrome Audio] by Cern

 

A lot of my focus is still on getting this album out, so once that's on the shelves I will have lots more time for writing beats, and I am really looking forward to that.

Anything else you want to tell us about?

I'm moving to Europe in January 2011 so if anyone is interested in making any bookings, just get in touch with me on my MySpace or email me on [email protected]

 

I also want to say a big thanks to all the people out there who have been giving their support at the record stores, online stores and the club nights, you guys are what makes this crazy drum & bass world go around every day!

Cern In Session 001 - June10 by Cern

• Cern

Related Links:

• Concord Dawn - The Enemy Within Preview
• Dose Interview
• Nymfo Release Info
• Trei Interview
• Consequence Guest Mix

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