LX One is no stranger to the bass music scene. Haven guided countless souls through the dance at famous venues such as Fabric, his Denver debut was anxiously awaited. The London bad man absolutely smashed Bar Standard with his classic, rowdy anthems. We had the chance to sit down with the man before his set to discuss his background, the evolution of genres, and the current state of dubstep.
When and how did you first start MC’ing?
I started on pirate radio. First making mixtapes with a friend of mine with a bedroom set up in the late 90s. We would make mixtapes and send them to pirate radio stations in London. Basically a friend of ours hooked us up with a slot on a radio station called Addiction FM. I suppose I first started wanting to be an MC through hip hop. I was a big fan of hip hop and rap music. When I heard jungle drum and bass, it had MC’s on it and I could relate to that a little bit more cause they were British.
How did you get involved with production down the road?
I always wanted to produce. I was always intrigued looking at inlay cards in tapes and CD’s. I started trying to making drum and bass with a friend of mine called Trix (he’s got some releases out on Randall’s label now). We started making tunes together, nothing really got signed. Then basically, I was away MC’ing at Guernsey with SP:MC. We are good mates, he had been making tunes for a while before that. I showed him load of tunes that were basically dubstep. He went back home and made ‘Trust Nobody’. And as a sort of thank you for it being such an anthem, he invited me to the studio to work on a tune that happened then to be the flipside ‘Future’. So I got my own set up, and started making tunes on my own. Between SP, Breakage, Icicle, and my man Nickel, they helped me learn how to use Logic.
Why dubstep?
I kind of fell into making dubstep. The engineering didn’t have to be as fucking sick as drum and bass. That was nice so you could just write music and it didn’t have to be technically the best and someone would still play your tune. I’ve only made one drum and bass tune – it’s hard. A lot of shit has been done before. Dubstep - there’s still a little more to explore. I enjoy grime and dubstep – it’s like hip hop to me. I am not going to be a producer that only makes dubstep – that’s just the story so far.
I’ve heard people in America complain about MC’s at shows. Could you tell us a little about the art form of MC’ing and its role in sound system culture?
That’s odd to me. Because I found out about MC’s through North America rappers and Caribbean ragga artists. MC’ing has always been part of sound system music – like hip hop, dancehall, reggae, ragga, jungle, drum and bass, garage. The MC in the UK bass music stems from hip hop and ragga. Those two styles had a mad influence on the UK and now we got our own thing. MC’ing has always been a part of dance music culture. Maybe not house and some of that 4x4 crap I have no idea about - but garage they took it over. The reason garage MC’s gained predominance was because there weren’t many girls in the jungle dances. So everyone moved to garage and that’s when grime stemmed off of garage. When they left jungle to do garage, they didn’t want the new guys in garage, they didn’t want the new guys in jungle. No one was letting anyone in, so that’s why grime came about. That’s the same reason dubstep came about. Everyone was being too fucking cool with it. Now you have the internet, no one can be too cool. If your music is good, there will be people out there who will make you a star before the label realizes. So ya, MC’ing is always gonna be an integral part of what I like and what I do. It’s always been there - Americans get to know.
How’s the scene in London at the moment?
Things are quieting down a little bit. The parties are still happening and people are still turning up. It’s just not a hype thing anymore. If this music was a series of books, we’re on the 2nd book and there are so many more books to go through. The London thing is still healthy man. What I like about it now – I think Nicole said this – it’s like it’s fresh again. Obviously it has calmed down a little bit, but for me that calmness is just late on people’s behalf. If you think dubstep is dead, what the fuck am I doing here in North America? It didn’t get resurrected; people just carried on making music and putting parties on. It may have gotten smaller but to me that ain’t a bad thing.
Sub.Mission’s mission is to move people through sound not hype. What is your .mission?
Just keep evolving. Keep pushing. And keep bettering myself. And make fucking good music. I love music and I’m always gonna be doing music. I love Sub.Mission’s motto – it’s not a hype thing man.
