Coming up to two and a half years since his last visit, Drum and Bass legend Sub Focus is due to return to the land of Oz for Future Music festival where he will be showcasing his latest album ‘Torus’. He’s been a busy bee and he’s not resting yet! I caught Nick (aka Sub Focus) in studio working on his live set, with a few tricks up his sleeve it seems.

A: First of all, Congratulations on the recent of ‘Torus’! It really is a compilation of some great work and includes some big names, including Kele.

Some people may not know this about you but you’ve also had a great deal of background commercial success, such as producing on Example’s album. Can we expect more dabbling in the commercial world from you?

S: I did enjoy working with Elliot on ‘kickstarts’ but It isn’t really something I wanted people to know Sub Focus as. I was interested in getting into production behind the scenes but now I want to concentrate more on my stuff as Sub Focus, onto the album and now the live show and touring for the next 6 months or so.

A: On to your field of expertise, electronic dance music. The EDM era is well established now and the playing field is a lot more crowded. What do you think about the drum and bass scene at the moment?

S: I think it’s pretty healthy at the moment, drum and bass. There’s a lot of new artists at the moment and people making really good music. Personally I don’t try to look at ‘scenes’ too much. With my own stuff, I want to be known for writing lots of different styles of dance music and crossing over into different scenes. I was really happy with the different DJ’s who have played stuff off the album. I’ve had people like Chase and Status and other drum and bass DJ’s and the likes of Skrillex playing the dubstep and then even people like Avicii playing the house music. There are a lot of different DJ’s getting behind the album and it makes me happy that it’s working.

A: It kind of seems as though those that made it into the mainstream charts have become the poster boys for the entire genre. How do you feel about a branch of your music being represented by the likes of Skrillex?

S: I like Sonny, I think he’s really good. I feel comfortable with whoever it is representing it really. Though, I think with Sonny’s music a lot of people really copied him, which is not necessarily the best thing for that type of music. But I love was Sonny does, his new stuff is really great. He did a special version of Chase n Status’ track ‘international’, which I’ve been playing a lot, so I’m a big fan of his stuff. Dance is strong at the moment I think because a lot of people are doing kind of cool things with lots of different styles. I don’t think I could really say who I’d prefer to represent each genre. I think it’s up to the people to decide and when people like good music, that’s what becomes popular. I feel like largely speaking, and some people may not agree with this, but most of the people who are popular are very good.

A: And also, lots of people may not know about the diversity even in Skrillex’s music. More often than not there’s more to an artist than the mainstream and the ‘headbangers’ and you’re the same in that respect. So what’s your approach to making music and how do you keep your music relevant?

S: It’s very difficult to sum up my style sometimes because I try to draw influence from lots of different things. Often the songs that I’m most happy with are a real combination of different styles. For example the house track ‘Turn Back Time’ on the album, which seems to be getting some really good feedback, is a combination of old school house 90’s and then drops into something that’s very modern. I like it when I manage to combine more than one style in a record because it makes it impossible to say “oh it’s just a version of this style”, it makes it its own style all together. I think that one thing that’s definitely difficult is trying to master lots of different styles of music. It’s not easy because every genre has it’s own set of skills that you need in order to make it. I love doing that, especially in my live shows because I play all my own music. It allows me to create a massively varied set, you know, across an hour or longer, it gives you all these different styles to draw on. This was something I considered especially when I was writing the album as well. In dance music you come across a lot of purists who want you to stick to one style. And some of the fans are like that as well, you get comments saying “oh I just want you to play drum and bass”. But I’d never want to hear an album that’s just at one tempo. When you think about making an album, it’s massively limiting to only use one style of music. I guess one of the reasons why I want to be known for being very eclectic.

A: Do you think that producers and Dj’s determine the genres success? Or has it got more to do with the temperament of the audience?

S: I think it’s an interesting time at the moment because genres come and go much more quickly. I mean it’s kind of mad. Because of the internet, a popular style of dance music can almost come and go within a year sometimes. It’s pretty crazy to watch that happen. I think that each style of dance musics health is governed by how many producers are doing it well at the time. It’s literally about how many good tunes there are in one scene. I feel like drum and bass is going through a good strong patch at the moment because there are so many strong producers around. But there have been years where I’ve listened to it and there’s not been enough good music to support the scene.

A: Yeah, it’s a testament to the flexibility of this style of music to have so many different kinds of fans, some really loyal ones too. And you’ve played to audiences all over the world including in our humble back yard. Are you excited to come back?

S: Yeah big time, really excited. It’ll be two and a half years by the time I get back. I’ve got a few friends in Australia and I spent a long time over there for my tours in the past so really, really hyped to get back. And I’m also going to be doing my live show for the first time in Australia.

A: How does playing in Australia compare to playing around the world?

S: I like it, I feel really at home in Australia. It feels kind of like England weirdly enough, except the weather is much nicer. I feel the kind of music that works there is similar to what works here in a way.

A: Future music is easily one of this countries biggest festivals. The weather will be sick, as usual, and I think I can safely say there are a lot of people who are very exited to see you. What can we expect from your live set at future?

S: I’ll be completely re-doing the set for the trip. We just finished a mini documentary about the live set, it’s got all the technical stuff behind it, which is up on my website for anyone who’s interested. I was very inspired by people like Daft Punk and Chemical Brothers, so it’s me performing all my tracks electronically. I’m using quite a lot of new technology for the show. One thing is these motion sensors, which allow me to use my hands in the air to control some of the sounds, so I’m showing it in a bit of futuristic way.

Pun intended? Maybe. But there’s no better way to show a DJ how it’s done than with lights and techno-magic. Yeah, Sub Focus has got this. , be sure to check him out when he returns to Australia for Future Music 2014 to play alongside Deadmau5, Chase & Status, Gesaffelstein, Rudimental, Kaskade and more.