Insideinfo Interview

After a spell in the late naughties mixing house and garage, Paul Insideinfo later moved through into d&b and has since built up an eclectic back catalogue on a variety of the scenes greatest labels such as Critical, Horizons, Blu Mar Ten. With that under his belt already, he’s been busy extending his musical scope in 2012, with a seven track Ep having just dropped on Futurebound’s label, Viper, and beats forthcoming on Renegade. Monika Kalinowska spoke to him for us to get the low down on a busy year.

Hi Paul, can you describe your first memories of drum & bass, are there any stand out tunes that made an impression? What made it become your weapon of choice?
I first remember taping a radio show from DJ Hype years ago and listening back to it and being blown away by this crazy fast paced music. Tunes that really influenced me in the early days were some of the stuff on Renegade Hardware like Killer Bees, The Beckoning and of course the stuff from Virus and Metro.

How would you describe your music in few words to someone that have never heard of you?
Energetic weird, other-wordly funk!

What moment in your d&b career are you proudest of?
I would say releasing the Grow E.P on Viper has been amazing and also being given a massive hug by Optical at the DNB awards for making Honey Bee!

That just came out recently, could you tell us a little bit about it and how it differs from previous releases?
Well I would say I spent more time on this release than anything I have done in the past, it was really a learning process making the whole thing. It’s probably the most varied sounding thing I have made, I tried a few different styles on it.

Why the title Grow?
A couple of reasons really, I find that when making music there is always something to learn; you are always growing, taking in new ideas and trying new things. I‘m trying to use more organic and natural sounds in my music now, so I wanted a title that could represent something like that too.

What else do you have coming out soon?
After this there will be a track on Renegade Hardware by me and Audio called Rust then also two more things we did together, Vein Drain and Recluse will feature on his new album for Virus. I’m constantly working hard on new material so expect some more bits before the end of the year as well.

What are yours dream collaborations?
Hmmm, well in D&B I always wanted to work with Audio and we recently did some music together which was amazing. DJ Die is another one, I absolutely love his style. I’d love to kidnap Ed Rush and Optical in the studio one day too. Outside of D&B, it’s bit of a bold vision but Kate Bush, Portishead, Leftfield and Orbital.

What’s the most memorable performance you did and why?
Positive: I think one of my best gigs was the SignaI FM festival in Slovakia a couple of years back. I played Honeybee for the first time there as an early test and it went down really well. Fantastic crowd and vibes.

Negative: I played a gig in London a couple of years back, drank way too much Rum and then when I was coming out the toilets someone opened the door and accidentally smacked me in the head giving me concussion. The journey home was interesting to say the least!

Have you done any interesting remixes recently?
Well I did a remix of a track by Camo and Krooked called Anubis which came out on their Cross the Line remixes album on Hospital. That was a lot of fun to make! Also I’ve got a remix of a tune called Slam Dunk by Dubstep artist Specimin A lined up and some other bits that I can’t really talk about at the moment.

Who are you feeling now musically both d&b and outside of the genre?
In d&b, I’m hearing some fantastic tracks from Audio, Optiv and BTK, Fourward, Ed Rush, Neonlight, Smooth, Calyx and Teebee, Mefjus, ahh there are too many!

Outside of Dnb I’m loving Orbitals new album, also Tycho, FSOLS new album, Bonobo.

Cheers for dropping by! Any shouts?
Huuuuge shout to everyone that was involved with the EP; Futurebound, Tim and everyone at Viper, DJ Sw@t, Girl X, Neonlight, Smooth, Audio, My mate Dave for giving me some Live Drums on Grow and all the people supporting it, buying it and spreading the love!

Check Insideinfo on Facebook, Twitter and Soundcloud.