Public Service Announcement: Phaeleh Is Back With 'Lost Time'

The word dubstep conjures different images for different people. Many associate it with the obnoxious Skrillex-led style that briefly dominated the charts in the early 2010s. But for those who encountered the genre at its inception, it connotes atmosphere, mystery and introspection. Burial, arguably the movement’s most critically acclaimed artist, was already an established, influential presence when he revealed his real name in 2008, for example.

Similarly, there’s something enigmatic about Matt ‘Phaeleh’ Preston at first glance. His early albums were described as ‘chillstep’, ‘future garage’ and a host of other terms. Combining lush textures with broken beats, he’s at home on a long list of cinematic UK electronic artists that ranges from Boards of Canada to Orbital.

When I phone him, though, he informs me he’s “sat in a pub and has had no sleep”. What follows is a blunt, honest interview where almost nothing is off limits. And to be fair, he has plenty to be frustrated by. His new album, ‘Lost Time’, is aptly named as it follows two years spent on a “disastrous label” that “pretty much shut down [his] life on all fronts”.

“This might be own issue – maybe I just wasn’t good enough – but I’ve been making music for around 25 years and I was treated like this 18-year-old guy,” he says. “I already had a fanbase and a sound. But when I was there I was pretty much banned from making dubstep, garage, house because they thought it would minimise my audience or whatever.”

That’s certainly strange given how Phaeleh built his reputation. Having already been a DJ for several years, he began to try his hand at “dubsteppy stuff” after discovering it circa 2005. By the time he was putting out albums, he had hit upon a distinctive sound that resonated with ravers and bedroom EDM heads alike.

“When people started noticing my tunes around 2007-2008, it was the slower, more ‘lah-di-dah’ stuff that people liked,” he says. “I stuck with that sound and maybe that makes me a dirty sell out. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it meant the other music I was writing wasn’t making it onto the albums.

“I do think the nights were really diverse back then, though. You’d have stuff like Benga and Scuba and then you’d have some really intense, rinse-out drum and bass stuff like Limewax. It exposed me to different music. My own sets would start at around 120bpm and end around 180 and 190 bpm, but it was the dubstep tempo tunes that blew up.”

The most obvious one that blew up was Afterglow, which featured Bristolian singer Soundmouse on the hook. The blissed-out single not only became far and away his most well-known track but also one that would dictate the next few years of his career.

“That song felt really poignant when I wrote it because I had a lot of personal stuff going on at the time,” he says. “Even though I feel lucky to have a song like that, I can’t stand it anymore because when something like that blows up it’s no longer personal. Now, every man and his dog loves it and uses it for funerals, marriages and childbirths.

“I featured Soundmouse on ‘The Cold in You’, too, but I really was feeling the pressure of the public by then. The dubstep bubble burst relatively quickly and a lot of people were jumping ship. I didn’t want to be a hipster and jump on whatever Resident Advisor was loving, but it’s easy to get stuck in a rut feeling pressurised by what the heads think.”

As dubstep withered, Phaeleh tried to move on. He followed his gut and released ‘Somnus’, a free ambient record, in 2014 in a bid to reclaim his creative freedom. The collection was well received and he went on to sign for a “well known indie label”, but his experience made him question whether he wanted to continue at all.

“Basically, somebody signed me and then that person left and I was left making music for a label that didn’t rate what I did,” he says. “I think I easily made about 300 tracks for them and there wasn’t a single thing they liked. My energy was completely zapped and my personal relationships were destroyed because I was just consumed by these people. Looking back now, I kind of laugh at it.”

With that in mind, ‘Lost Time’ is what Phaeleh calls a “public service announcement” that he’s back. Following last year’s ambient record ‘Illusions of the Tale’, which he describes as his favourite yet, it returns to the beat-oriented material of his early years but with a number of new styles thrown in.

Icarus, for example, is awash with ‘80s-style analog synths, while Empty Jar is built entirely around a soft acoustic guitar melody. The two tracks couldn’t be any more different and yet both possess an elegance that vividly harks back to the moody sound he first made his name with.

“It’s still a quintessential Phaeleh way of doing things and a lot of the writing is actually not that different,” he says. “But this time around I didn’t really have a deadline. A lot of these songs have been finished for a few years but I wasn’t able to use them for anything. So I was able to dismantle a lot of these songs, piece them back together and make them sound better.

“I describe this album as my ‘best of’. I mean, it might not be, but it’s songs that survived everything that’s happened. I’ve learned music isn’t about ticking boxes – you don’t make music as a product even though it becomes one. I’ve realised in recent years that a lot of the pressure I put on myself. The stuff I release or upload now is different. It petrified me a few years ago, but now I can engage a more diverse range of people.”

'Lost Time' is out now.

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