Stereoboard Team Up With Utopia Music Boss Mako For Exclusive Interview And Mix
Monday, 15 October 2012
Written by Elliott Batte
Not so long ago Stereoboard reported news of a brand new single by drum and bass heavyweights Break, Fields, Mako & Villem coming out on Utopia Music. We were big fans of the track - which will see a release on October 15th - and we’ve now teamed up with Utopia boss and badman producer Mako himself for a quick interview and exclusive mix.
Utopia Music is the home of some of the best music on the darker and deeper side of the drum and bass spectrum, and has seen releases from some of the biggest names in the game, too - such as Break, Villem, dBridge, Survival, and Mute. So just what makes Utopia and Mako tick - and what can he tell us about the wonderful world of drum and bass?
EZ Mako... first of all, could you tell our readers a little bit about yourself - who are you, where are you from, and what makes you tick?
Hello Stereoboard readers, my name is Stephen, my artist alias is 'Mako'. I currently live in Bristol and have done for the last ten years. Being alive and everything that goes with it makes me tick.
So like one third of the underground music scene, you’re from Bristol (one third from London, one third from everywhere else in the world). Surrounded by that much good music and that many talented producers, what made you delve into world of drum and bass, and, more specifically, the deep side of it?
I think the easy way to describe why i'm into the deep side is that I'm more into heroin than cocaine, but take neither anymore. I'm not that into cheese music and included in that I would put most dubstep, most drum and bass, most pop music and any music with digital sounding distortion and obvious Massive bass.
What made you want to break off and start a label, and was it meant to become a full-time thing or just an outlet for you and your mates music?
I came into it wanting to release music that I thought deserved vinyl as I heard so many good vibrations from around me needing the timelessness of vinyl.
As the owner of Utopia and as a well-known producer, you must have a rather delicious pile of dubplates and unreleased tracks coming from names that we may or may not have heard of at your disposal. Who should us mere mortals be keeping our eyes on for the foreseeable future, and are their any tracks you can see making big waves in the coming months?
Well Rido has done a remix of Mikal's 'The Chant' which is sounding sick. Mikal has done a sick collab with Foreign Concept thats sounding naughty that I can see doing really well.
So you’ve got a range of extremely talented buddies to work on tracks with - the crew behind ‘Diligence’ is like an all-star cast of who’s hot in the world of deep drum and bass right now. But if the devil forced you to pick one person to create a track to take on one of his own (similar to the story of Tenacious D’s ‘Tribute’) with, who would you pick and why?
Break. Because he can smash any project, any genre, any brief. He is a ridiculous badman. But he tilts easily. So we wind him up as much as we can. There was this one time me and Fields were in the Symmetry studio sessioning with him and we changed his screensaver to the image of the Illuminati to freak him out. It worked.
We’re a music website that is focused on all genres of music, not specifically drum and bass (I’m the only 170-ophile in the office!) - tell some of our readers why they should put down their Justin Bieber CDs, take off their Nicki Minaj wigs, and throw away their JLS condoms in favour of some dirty drum and bass loving? I don't need to persuade anyone to stop listening to Bieber, people are already waking up to how shit he is. Keep drum and bass underground and away from the pop cheese.
2012 has seen a slew of awesome drum and bass albums coming our way - with S.P.Y, MC DRS, Calyx and Teebee, Enei, and many more choosing this year as the year to put out their LPs. Are their any full albums coming from you or your record label any time soon? Maybe, concentrating now on building up the releases and writing music. An album or 3 may come in time.
What’s been your favourite Utopia release so far then? I continually draw Break - 'Guilty Pleasures' (UM003A) and Fields - 'Foundations' (UM005A) when I play out so they are both up there amongst my favourite releases. D Bridge's remix of 'In the Raw' was sick too. 'Diligence', the first family collab, is probably my favourite even though it hasn't been released yet!
What’s your favourite drum and bass track of 2012? Of all-time? I've recently signed a Sunchase tune which is absolutely killing me so that is winning the best tune of 2012 award in my head. Of all time, I think I'd have to say the whole Modus Operandi album by Photek.
What music do you vibe other than drum and bass? Does this influence your production? I like the sound of the natural environment, as the hi-end frequencies tend to be very soft and gentle, creating a magical soundscape wherever you go. I try and incorporate those feelings into my music.
We’re gonna ask you a few tricky questions now - tell us which ones you prefer and why: Djing or producing? Now I'm actually getting somewhere with producing, I'd say producing, but up until last year I would have said DJ'ing.
MC or no MC? A really good one can make a difference, but most of the time I'm not keen.
Double drops or a SWIIITTTTCHHHH? A switch done sick is so energetic in the dance, but overall I'd say the double drop. Mikal's 'Spiritual' double dropped with the Rido remix of Mikal's 'The Chant' is ridiculous.
Vinyl or CDs? Vinyl sounds great, wavs off cd sound great, mp3s are lacking.
OK, that’s enough lean mean grilling for now. Tell us about your mix - is there anything nice and special in there? Lots of new music that has up till now only been heard in the Utopia studio. I went on a jungly tip with some nice bass and some good musical elements. Nothing too hectic. There's a lot of new Utopia stuff on there so I'm not giving you a tracklist, but if anyone really really wants to know the name of a tune hit me up.
Thanks for your time Mako - we’ll let the mix do the rest of the talking! Check it out below (it’s sick!) and let us know what you think in the comments section below.
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