Our next KIEVBASS night (15 May 2010) guest Rob Sparx found some time to answer our questions.

KIEVBASS: Introduce yourself in several sentences for those who might be not familiar with you yet.

ROB SPARX: I’m Rob Sparx DJ/Producer/Musician – I’m a classically trained musician with some Rock and Jazz knowledge as well, I play Double bass, Guitar and Piano although synths, computers and decks are my main thing now. I’ve produced many different genres of dance music, my main style used to be DNB at the moment its Dubstep and all things around that tempo. I’ve produced for Z-Audio and sublabels (Audio Phreaks/Dubting etc), Formation, Grid, Propaganda, Vibez and also Trance for Armin Van Buren’s label Armada plus I own 2 labels – Migration Recordings and sub label Sour Grapes.

KB: Tell us about your music and cultural background. What made you become YOU? (music, books, movies, comics, subcultures, etc.)

RS: When I was a young teenager I was into a lot of live music, mainly rock/indy/metal and also mainstream artists & bands like The Police, Eurythmics & Bob Marley. As I got older I got into dance – jungle/DNB/Old skool hardcore and all different kinds of house, garage and breakbeat. For me the 90’s was a great decade for music, so much creativity and innovation– I was really into the older sounds of Metalheadz, Good Looking, Ram and Virus and I used to listen the Giles Peterson and Patrick Forge shows a lot as well. I’ve been to a lot of crazy parties over the years and spent some time in squats but I’ve got too many left and right wing views (ie. I’m an independent thinker not a sheep) to have ever properly commited to any sub culture movement. Films have definitely been a big influence in my music – sci-fi like Dune and Bladerunner, horror like The Howling, Friday 13th, Hammer Horror & The Elephant Man plus Kung Fu films like 36 Chambers, Fist of Fury and Shogun Assassin. Another big influence has been British comedy series The League of Gentlemen, its great to have a bit of comedy in music sometimes!

KB: Your favorite gig of the year so far?

RS: Bassment Rock in Leipzig was great, I played for 4 hours – 1 hour vinyl, 1 hour CDJs, B2B with other DJs for a bit then an hour of DNB from 2 cds which I had with me for listening not DJing. I think the club was called Zoro it’s an ex-hippie squat with all sorts of crazy art creations inside got a real punk feel to it, very nice venue.

KB: What does your studio setup looks like atm?

RS: I’ve got a Moog Prodigy and a guitar but they hardly ever get used – Computers, decks (vinyl & CDJ) and my beer fridge are the most important parts

KB: What projects are you currently working on? Plans for the near future?

RS: Too many, I’ve got all sorts on the go God knows how long it will take me to finish them all! I’m working on a collab with a producer from NZ for my 6th release on Migration which features Collie Buddz vocals, there’s remixes for Swedish Hiphop/pop artist Adam Tensta, Saad Chishty (Perfecto), Radikal Guru and a few other artists. I’m working on a 12 for Origin Audio (Cyrus & Tunnidge) and im slowing down the output on my own labels and working on a batch of tunes for other more established labels. There’s also collabs with Numbernin6 and DFRNT so plenty to be getting on with!

KB: What producers are you rating/inspired by atm?

RS: Joker
Propatingz
DJ Madd
Akira Kiteshi
D Bridge & Instru:mental

KB: Do you do any other job except the music? If yes, would you like your music to be the only and enough income?

RS: No I’ve been full time for a year and a half now, it makes me fuck all money and I have to deal with all sorts of jokers who try to take the piss with regards to payment but its not put me off yet I’m still here!

KB: Would you like to do some commercial production? If yes, what kind of music/sound design/etc. could it be?

RS: Couple of sounds spring to mind: Abstract dance music with vocals to make it more accessible (like Massive Attack etc), Minimal Techno/Electro with dubstep basslines and production styles, 80’s Electro (New Order/Eurythmics) bought up to date and tasteful soulful RNB/Dubstep crossover. I’ve not had much luck with “commercial production” so far but I’ve got some good projects on the go at the moment so hopefully that will change soon.

KB: Tell us how you moved from d’n’b production to dubstep. What inspired you?

RS: Far various reasons I got sick of the DNB scene so I moved on, the early DMZ/Loefah & Skeam stuff is what inspired me to write dubstep originally

KB: Don’t you feel dubstep is now becoming same thing like d’n’b was in beginning of 2000? Scene divided on narrow sub-genres and several gangs pushing their own sound and protecting their parts of music market, caring about business and attention more then about music thing itself.

RS: Yea definitely but that’s politics and competition for you! Over time scenes become corrupted lets just hope the music doesn’t suffer too much and push away listeners

Rob Sparx links:

myspace.com/sparx3000
myspace.com/migrationrecordings
myspace.com/sourgrapesaudio

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