Producer Q & A: B Rich
August 31
Having a good bank holiday weekend? Dodging the rain? Yeah, thought so. As I type, Peter Andre is on the telly. This is the life. Amazing his rehabilitation from national joke to, er, joining the ranks of Celebrities (General / Music), isn't it.
Anyway, we've got the 3rd in our Producer Q&A series for your delectation! This week, house upstart B.Rich popped round to our virtual crib to A a few Q's for us. Thanks to B for taking time out, and hope you enjoy reading it.
Q: How do you approach a tune? Drums first? Melody?
A: Always the drums first. I like to create a nice solid rhythm prior to working on any of the melodies or basslines because it helps you better understand how these elements will sit. Lately, rhythm has been #1 and everything else follows for me.
Q: What time of day do you work best?
A: Either very early morning (8am) or very late at night (3-4am). I am a morning person and a night owl... which leaves room for very little sleep but I've gotten used to it.
Q: Where do you get your inspiration / motivation from?
A: I get my inspiration from "night life" in general. Going out and hearing friends play or playing myself. I am always inspired when I get back from a weekend of shows. This can be pulled from the performances themselves and/or the people I meet.
Q: What do you do when you're not feeling inspired?
A: If I have a case of the writers block.. I will usually just spend the time in the studio with sound design and make new patches that'll be ready when it passes. Not to mention if you come up with a killer patch it can be just the inspiration you needed. Also, I like to cook.
Q: Do you start a tune from scratch, or do you usually have a drumset/template/etc to work from?
A: Always from scratch. This could be out of sheer laziness and not taking the time to set up proper drum kits but I usually know where to look within my gigs of percussion samples for the right ones. It's important to have "your own sound" but I think its more important to start with fresh ideas always.
Q: If you got a chance would you write pop stuff for a major label (if the money was good?)
A: Absolutely... I listen to a lot of hip hop and R&B and would love to be a part of a pop record like that. Something like Mims, Akon, Jeremih.. haha it's my guilty pleasure. I am actually in the beginning stages of a hip-hop / R&B meets electronic side project... so who knows!
Q: What's the boring, workhorse plugin/piece of kit that you use all the time?
A: Definitely not boring... but my sound just wouldn't be complete without iZotope Trash.
Q: What's the coolest bit of kit you've got and do you actually use it much?
A: By kit I'm assuming you mean hardware.. of which I now have none. I used to have something that resemble an actual full studio.. Access Virus, JP-8000, Junos, Future Retro 777 and some other things. But I realized at one point I just wasn't using them and was going all software so I sold them. I love my Macbook Pro though. Couldn't live without it.
Q: Do you mixdown your own stuff? Reckon there's a stigma around this?
A: Yeah I do mixdown my own stuff. Once I finish a tune I'll let it sit for a few days to marinate and then go back to it with fresh ears. Honestly I've never had anyone else mixdown a tune for me so I can't say that it wouldn't work. But I imagine I'd prefer to have control over it.
Q: What production technique do you think is really overused / annoying?
A: That "farting bassline" sound thats on all those Beatport releases all the time. Usually no melody at all to the tune... just farts.
Q: What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started out?
A: It was a big turning point for me when I finally grasped side-chain compression and what it can do for your mix. Not only to create that over-compressed pumping sound but just to gradually tidy things up so that certain things sit nicely in the mix and to help accentuate your rhythms.
Posted by bassmusic
