When fans of original dubstep sounds consider the genre’s influences and evolution, we tend to look overseas. America is often dismissed as dubstep’s cold-blooded killer, known mainly for a rampant re-appropriation of the sounds we love. But in the latest Final Fridays celebration, California’s Matty G showcased his signature style, which includes bending traditional sounds and blending genres in the shape of a musical vision that’s all his own. Denver couldn’t get enough of the artist’s distinct brand of west coast bass music – this review of the event captures the energy that Matty G bestowed upon the dance floor. In this episode of Sub.mingling, we explore a perspective on dubstep sounds and influences based on the undeniably powerful yet often overlooked US musical landscape. A vision of dubstep rooted in a place where the scene is less established offers a freedom from genre conventions that tend to dictate the sounds put forward; such a perspective creates the foundation for Matty G’s creative innovation and his well-earned reputation as a stylistic trailblazer. Read on for exclusive words from the man himself on his own inspirations as well as dubstep’s past, present, and prospective future.

Without using genre conventions, how would you describe your sound to someone who isn’t familiar with it?

In the past I’ve leaned heavily on the 808 drum kit, so that kind of makes the basis for a lot of my drums. In comparison to some of the stuff that gained wider popularity, my music was a little bit more minimal, and I definitely have always had a hip-hop spin to things. I haven’t made too many tunes recently but while I was producing more regularly I’d have a little bit of a split towards darker, minimal, kind of hip-hoppy tunes and then more mellow R&B influenced music because those are both sides of my creative personality that I like to work with. Big bass, 808 drums, old school hip-hop samples - that’s the go-to stuff I use to shape my tunes.

How do you feel about comparisons between your style and the “trap” aesthetic that’s permeated the American scene?

Well I haven’t really heard too many comparisons like that. I’ll see something like that every once in awhile... I think it’s somewhat valid to an extent, there are certain tunes of mine that maybe could fall into that genre now but they preceded it significantly. I think it’s kind of funny that when I was using the 808 drums a lot back in the day, a lot of other people were using the 909. Now a lot of those people that exclusively used that one drum kit in their tunes exclusively use 808 or related drum kits so that’s kind of interesting. As far as similarities, I would say 808 drums and big bass, but I think a lot of the other synthesizers that people use to layer on top of that separate the “trap” style from things that I’ve done in the past.

Do you think you had an influence on that at all?

I don’t think so, I mean maybe? I really don’t know how much exposure some of my songs had. If I’m in my room by myself at my house maybe I’ll be like, “oh those fools are riding my style” and talk shit, but you never know where someone got their inspiration from. Whether someone blatantly sounds like your style of music or whatever, unless you know them personally and know their production process you can’t say for sure whether they’re copying you or not.

Well, I think there’s a difference between inspiring someone and someone copying you.

Yeah, and it’s like the theory of like convergent evolution where you might have two birds that are separated geographically but they follow a similar evolutionary pattern just by the circumstances that they’re surrounded by in their environments... it’s kind of the same thing. You might be influenced by a certain set of factors here, and someone somewhere else has never heard of you may be influenced by the same factors, and they may come up with something that sounds very similar to what you’ve done. A lot of people are very protective of their art. It’s a very personal thing for a lot of people, and sometimes they’re quick to make judgements about whether someone’s copied them or not. I was never so confident as to think that anyone had ever really heard my stuff enough to be influenced by it... I know that’s probably not true, people probably have been influenced by my music at some point, but I don’t know if I’ve had a role in influencing the development of other genres. It’s flattering to think so!

Well, I have a lot of friends who have gotten into your music through listening to whatever “trap” music they initially got into, so I had to ask.  Speaking of influences, how would you describe the way that California and the west coast has influenced your sound?

In the beginning it influenced me significantly. Reggae is a big part of the music culture in Santa Cruz. We have a lot of different reggae there. So when I first started out, some of my songs had more of a reggae influence to them, then obviously a lot of my other songs have the hip-hop influence, and I definitely had some G-funk elements to some of my songs. It wasn’t too hard to draw that connection. As far as hip-hop is concerned I was definitely influenced by a larger spectrum than just west coast hip-hop. A lot of my earlier songs have a lot of hip hop samples from the 80’s in them, and a lot of that comes from New York and the east coast. I definitely took songs and types of music that I was influenced by that I heard growing up on the west coast and incorporated that into my style. Even certain types of drum n’ bass and jungle, which weren’t from the west coast but I was exposed to out there, worked their way into my style as well. Before I started producing I was really into DJ’ing. I always respected 6Blocc’s style, especially his DJ aesthetic and his turntablist style that he used to rock a bit more back in the day. He always brought a hip-hop influence to the drum n’ bass culture which I tried to do in my sets as well, and that carried over into my dubstep production. He’s a west coast legend - I was definitely influenced by his style later on down the road when I started to produce as well.

There’s been a recent trend of UK grime catching on in the US... how do you feel about that? I’m curious about what you think about grime compared to US hip-hop as far as styles and popularity in those areas.

I think a lot of grime now sounds like US hip hop as far as the type of beats that are used, and maybe that’s what has a bit more appeal. Or maybe people just want to play something different than trap or hip-hop or something, so they look to grime. Or it makes them seem like they know more about underground music or something... or maybe they just really dig it. But I think the wider appeal for is because a lot of the grime beats that people are flowing over have that trappy kind of beat to it now. And I’m not talking about “trap” in the sense of the electronic genre, but trap as far as American hip-hop. It’s just using an 808 style drum kit and then that particular stuttery hi-hat pattern. For me, that’s what distinguishes it. Otherwise it’s just a hip-hop beat or whatever with an 808 kit. But I think that little hi-hat pattern is what distinguishes the style. People are using that a lot in grime now, and it’s been building in popularity, as far as just the reliance on that style of drum pattern. There were probably beats like that made earlier than this, but the producer Essex was doing styles like that for a long time, maybe 3 or 4 years ago. Now more and more grime emcees seem to be using that style of beat; people are producing more of in that style. As far as old school grime, like the Wiley kind of sound, Squarewave, I really like that stuff, Kahn & Neek’s beats - that’s the kind of stuff that I enjoy because when I first started getting into dubstep and started producing it there was not as stark of a distinction between grime and dubstep. There were a lot of similarities between the two, and there’s some cross-pollination or collaboration... MRK1 did a lot of grimey kind of stuff with virus syndicate early on that was a really big influence on me. The whole way I got into dubstep was indirectly through grime music. The guy who turned me onto a lot of stuff was Nick Argon, who ended up starting Argon Records, which is the label that I released on mainly through most of my career. His brother was always really into grime so because his brother was into grime his brother found out about dubstep, which Nick enjoyed a bit more than grime because it was more instrumental music. But at the time "Midnight Request Line," which is one of the definitive dubstep songs, was like Skream’s attempt at a grime tune... at least I remember that’s what he said. So the earlier sound is what I enjoy, and I don’t mind playing some of that stuff in my sets. I enjoy some of the newer material that’s influenced by that sound, but I think as far as the popularity growing in America, I think a lot of it is related to the stuff that sounds more similar to American music. I’ve been kind of out of the scene, so I’m not really 100% sure.
 
What can we expect to hear from you tonight?
 
I’m not quite sure about that either. I’m just going with the flow.  I was a bit nervous about what I would bring because Denver is a big name in the scene - it has been for a long time - so I’m not quite sure what the fans are used to around here. I haven’t been as in touch with some of my homies and so I haven’t gotten as many unreleased dubs lately... I don’t know if I play more familiar released music if people will notice, but I always have a lot of my own music that hasn’t been released yet so I can always rely on that for a bit of exclusivity. So I’ll play some old, some new. I’ll probably play some stuff that’s so old that people will think it’s new, and just rock a variation of styles but definitely keep it dark and minimal.

Where do you see the dubstep sounds heading in the future?

I really don’t know. It’s hard to say because if you look at the evolution of drum n’ bass things have headed in a way that you may not have expected, especially since the rise of dubstep. I think dubstep finally got people in drum n’ bass to open up a little bit and be a little more creative. I think there was a lot of potential in drum n’ bass early on for creativity with the halftime sound that wasn’t really explored. There’s some songs from like the early 2000’s or early 90’s that were halftime but they were very few and far between, and then you had like producers like Amit who became very popular and blew up the scene through their halftime tunes, but around the time that I stopped following drum n’ bass there wasn’t a whole lot of that going on. Not a lot of producers were latching onto that sound and I think dubstep kind of kickstarted a lot of creativity. There’s a lot of halftime drum n’ bass stuff that’s really cool and very innovative. So now that dubstep has lost some of its popularity as far as the more mainstream, aggressive sound is concerned it’s been really interesting to hear some of the things that people have been doing on a minimal scale. The only real exposure I have to that is through people on the Artikal label because those are the people I’m friends with. The stuff that Thelem and J:Kenzo are doing, TMSV, that stuff blows my mind. They’re on some next level shit. I feel like they’re pushing the boundaries more while I’m kind of stuck in evolving the sound that I’ve always done. You take an older Thelem tune and some of his newer stuff is really pushing the boundaries in comparison to that, whereas if you heard one of my newer tunes and one of my older tunes you’d be like “yeah, those sound like Matty G tunes”.

I think that your scope of what the “boundaries” are is skewed by the music that you hear and the artists you’re working with... not that it’s a negative thing at all.

I think that maybe they’re exposed to more creative stuff, or listen to different music that cross-pollinates, you know. But they’re doing things that I didn’t think could be done with a minimal sound. When I saw Thelem in Santa Cruz I was talking to him about this... I wish that evolution could’ve happened earlier with the original dark dubstep style. Instead of evolving into the brostep kind of thing or whatever, I wish those aspects had been put together and cut out the bullshit in the middle. Maybe the music would’ve had a bit more longevity instead of burning hot and quick, you know? But with that said, the people who are doing it now are doing it for the love of it. They’re pushing their style, and creative things are still happening, so it’s really hard to say what’s going to happen with in the future. Maybe it’s going to resurge in popularity - more mainstream popularity like drum n’ bass is kind of experiencing - or maybe it’ll stay underground. And then maybe some newer genre will pop up and that’ll cross-pollinate into dubstep and influence it in some way that no one ever saw coming. The house thing seems to be really popular, so maybe the more garage-y style sound of dubstep will come back, which is kind of where it came from. Who knows. Any number of things could happen with these sounds, any it’ll be really interesting to see where it ends up going.

What was it like to work with J:Kenzo and the Artikal artists?


It was great. The last couple tunes I’ve released have been collaborations with J:Kenzo. He’s a great guy and I’m really happy for him and the success of his label and his own personal career. He’s been sending me tunes since he started producing, and it’s been great to see him evolve. The Artikal label as a whole is really pushing the boundaries as far as I’m concerned. It’s a great outlet for people who make music that I respect. I haven’t met a lot of people on that label - getting to meet Thelem in person was cool, he’s a really cool guy and I really respect him as an artist. It seems like everyone on there is a chill individual, and it’s nice that people are making good music and have good personalities to back it as well.

Is there anything at all that you’d like to add? Anything you’d like Denver – or anyone – know coming out of this?

I really appreciate being here. I haven’t really played anywhere in almost a year outside of Santa Cruz, and I haven’t really been an active participant in the music scene lately as I’ve been getting older and doing other things. So I really appreciate Nicole bringing me out here and getting me out of my hole. That’s just a testament as to how special all the work that she puts into this city is. I hope people appreciate what she does here, because she brings in a lot of great talent and keeps the more underground style of music alive. That’s important, because at a certain point in your life if you don’t have the places to play and don’t know that people want to hear your music, it can be discouraging and you may not want to do it anymore. So she’s definitely providing an outlet for artists, keeping us inspired and helping us make good music. As far as everything else is concerned, I’m loving life, and I appreciate all the opportunities people have given me and this is another one of those amazing opportunities.

-Amye Koziel