Forward-thinking sister to Hospital Records, Med School is up to release number 30, which sees Villem reach with the Shimmer EP. After releases on names such as Samurai, Ingredients and Symmetry, Villem is well placed to continue with Med School's vision of the future. We spoke to Villem, and found out how he started out making beats, and where he wants to go with the ones he's got.

 

Your new EP is Med School release number 30. You’re a new artist to Med School – did you send tracks to the label which got noticed, or was the EP signed by another route?
Tony (London Elektricity) loved ‘Spring Back’ which was released on Ingredients last year, and he asked me to send some more tracks over, so I sent everything that I had available, and went to London to Hospital HQ to have a chat. I met all the crew and Ash Med School, and from there the EP idea was developed.

 

What has been your musical background to date?
I guess it all started with a Dreamscape 13 Slipmatt tape, I had no idea what the fuck this music was, or even it was music, it just sounded like it was from another planet. DJing/record buying followed a few years later along with a heavy dose of rave education in various megaraves, then I worked for a few years and realised that it sucks, so retook my A levels (as I failed miserably, weed made me lazy), got to University in Bristol, changed courses and ended up in Kingston studying Music without any formal music education, and felt completely out of my depth, I got a 2:1, it gave me some time to build some beat making skills, and learn some nice chords.

 

 

You manage to create your own world within the space of a single track, and all of the tracks on the EP fit together very well. How do you go about putting the EP together – from ideas to finished product?

When I write music I want it to come from an instinctual place first, like a subconscious vibe where I’m not thinking about what I’m creating, I’m just creating. This way all my influences from that day, week, month, years even will just come creeping through whilst maintaining a sound all of my own. Some tracks I finish in this state, others I’ll get half way, put it down so to speak and come back to it a day or weeks later and finish it off with a more studied and conscious mindset (the joys of the mixdown).

I never had these particular tracks in mind as an EP as they were written at different times, and they are really like snapshots in time of subconscious streams. Once I had sent them to the Med School/Hospital guys they choose their favourite ones/ones that worked as an EP and we went from there.

Your sound comes across as quite experimental – do you feel this is important, and do you see yourself as pushing boundaries?
It's not up to me to say if my music’s pushing boundaries, I’ll let others figure that out. I just wanna push myself to work harder and carve a career out of music.

 

What’s it like working with Fields and Mako?
Fields is my brother so we know what each other likes and doesn’t like, yet we have different skills and ideas so it combines to bring a different flavour. Mako is a long time friend from Suffolk, and it’s mad to think all those years ago when we were messing around with decks for the first time would pave the way for a whole lifestyle. Those years really formed the basis of what is going on today. Mako’s imprint Utopia Music is going from strength to strength and we’re all proud of what we’ve achieved so far. It feels like just the beginning. People outside of music think once you’ve had a release you’ve made it, that your earning enough money to live, they don’t realise how much further you need to go to make a full time career from music alone.

What else what next is going on for you and what are your future plans?
Well I’ll be DJing and promoting the EP the next few months, got Foreign Concept –Jaipur (Villem remix) hitting soon, seems to be doing well in the clubs, collab coming on Symmetry album ‘The Other Side’ called Dissolve (Fields, Hydro, Mako, & Villem), and a collab called Diligence (Break, Fields, Mako, & Villem) which is coming on Utopia Music this autumn.

Got some other things finished and talking with some labels, basically pushing things forward.

Big shouts to all the peeps that know.

 

 

 

 Grabd your copy of the EP here. 

 

Related Links:

• Foundation:Bristol Present Utopia Music
• Introducing: Mute & Mako
• Introducing: Mute & Mako
• Mute & Mako Release Essential Forms
• Mute & Mako Release Essential Forms

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