With 2 stellar releases on Warm Comms and Soul:R within the space of a few weeks, Lynx has once again stepped into the fore following on from the Devil’s In The Detail LP release – one of the finest and most creative artist albums to have emerged from the scene in recent years. Kindly finding the time to give us his Five Steps, Lynx sheds some light on his past, present and future as an artist, from his earliest experience with Drum & Bass to piecing together parts from his own sample pack for his latest release…

 

Step 1: Origins

My first experience with Drum & Bass music was back in 1993 – I was at my local record store Fusion in Portsmouth where I grew up, most of the music there was Hardcore apart from a few Moving Shadow records which I remember picking up because of the interesting artwork. I remember first listening to Hyper On Experience – The Lord Of The Null Lines and was absolutely blown away! From then on I was hooked on the Moving Shadow sound from artists such as Foul Play, Omni Trio, Nookie, Blame and loads of others. I think these tunes have hugely inspired my own writing over the years and I’m sure it will for many years to come.

Step 2: Introducing

The first track I made as a producer was terrible! And all my music for the following 5 or so years! The first track I ever wrote was back in 1991, called Power Beat. It sounded something like 2 Unlimited. I don’t think I wanted that sound but it was about all I could do at the time as I really had no clue what I was up to! I don’t think I learnt much from the process other than enjoying it. Writing music was just a hobby for me until about 2000.

Step 3: Foundation

I suppose most people would say Disco Dodo made my name. Personally I think Global Enemies with Kemo really defined my breakthrough sound. When I wrote the track I remember being really excited by how it sounded. That was before Kemo recorded his vocals for the track, that then re-inspired me to add more fx and little touches to the track. I remember listening back a few days after it was finished and feeling really happy with it, but also felt that no one would like it and it wouldn’t get any DJ support. It was pretty out there for the time. I sent it to Marcus Intalex over AIM who I had wanted to release with for a few years. Almost immediately he wrote back to me and said something like ‘it’s time for Soul:R.’ 

Step 4: Present

Heath from Warm Communications contacted me asking for a single, and he seemed very professional and knew what he was looking for from me, so I thought why not. The backing track of Dive Deep In was actually written around the same time as some of the Devils In The Detail LP but it always sounded unfinished so I teamed it up with a Kemo vocal I hadn’t used before and that was that. The B-Side Shadowlands is a collaboration with Hellrazor. He owns the studio I write at. He has been releasing music since 1993, took a detour from Drum & Bass back in 1999 to write breaks under the name Disco Assasin, now he’s back and has some great tunes on the way.

Step 5: Future

I’m really proud of my forthcoming release on Soul:R. It’s called Balloons (w/ Passing Time on the flip) and it’s actually built using parts from my sample pack I released earlier in the year on Loopmasters. Normally I don’t build tracks this way, its almost like a jigsaw puzzle as the pieces are already there. But it was good fun, and I think it proves my sample pack is good enough to get releases with!

Lynx – ‘Dive Deep In’ / ‘Shadowlands’ is out now at Surus, and you can pre-order the ‘Balloons’ / ‘Passing Time’ 12″ over at Chemical Records (using MUSIC2012 as a voucher code for 20% discount!)

Comments