INTERVIEW: Skope talks about his upcoming Aussie tour and his DnB alias ‘Malux’

Written by niquemaiApril 15, 2016

There’s three main things that make me love a producer and their music: ingenuity, creative sound design and meticulous production. Skope ticks the boxes of all three. If you’re not acquainted with his sound, check this out:

And he’s been killing it in the scene lately, after announcing last year that he has signed to innovative music label ‘Inspected’, alongside the likes of Joe Ford, Koan Sound, Culprate, Emperor and Zeds Dead, as well as creating his new alias Malux, which gained support from Noisia.

The London local has been teasing fans on social media with a new EP release that’s coming soon, as well as announcing a string of tours, including his highly anticipated Australian tour starting late April.

Ahead of his tour, we sat down with Skope to talk about new music and his DnB alias ‘Malux’.

Stoney Roads: Hey Skope! Congrats on the Australian tour, can’t wait to see you play. What are you looking forward to doing while you’re over here?

Skope: Thanks. A lot of things. Got some great looking shows which I’m excited about. The festivals look great! I’m off to Cape Tribulation to stay on the beach with my girlfriend and explore the reef so really looking forward to some tropical shores as well. The English beaches aren’t quite as appealing.

SR: Come on man, you’ve been teasing fans for ages with a new EP, when’s it due? What can we expect?

S: Taking things steady with my release schedule now. We have a good plan worked out with Inspected at the moment. But this next EP is all ready to go. A few things left to do but it should be coming out mid-May during the tour. You’ll definitely here some of the tracks at the shows as well.

SR: Your music has so much energy and atmosphere to it. How would you personally describe your sound?

S: It’s becoming a lot more varied. I have kind of moved on from the funk and looking for more obscure samples and instruments. I guess at the moment my sound is made up of a musical/atmospheric/organic side combined with the sci fi/dirty mechanic side.

SR: Where do you draw influences from?

S: A lot of obvious people like Noisia and most of the Inspected roster. I also love my hip hop and chill out music. A lot of the time these days I draw inspirations from really old records though. It always has a character you just don’t get in modern music which I love.

SR: You now also produce DnB under the alias ‘Malux’, tell us how that started.

S: In terms of sound design, drum and bass has been leading the way for years and I was following it more and more over the last few years and naturally it began to rub off on my productions. It’s also really fun to play live so I wanted some of my own tunes to play out. Then before I knew it I had over 10 tracks done and more on the go. Setting up a new alias was the best way to keep the flow of music I release organised. And also decide what kind of set I would play for each booking.

SR: Can we expect to hear some of your killer Malux tunes in your Skope sets during the Aussie tour, or do you keep the two alias’ pretty separate?

S: I would like to keep them somewhat separate. But I’ve always played dnb towards the end of a Skope set and I don’t intend to change that. However in a Malux set don’t expect any Skope.

SR: You recently told UKF you have plans to make Skope ‘more weird’, care to elaborate?

S: Well, Having Malux there to provide the dance floor music means I’m not as restricted to making dance floor friendly tunes with Skope. So will be writing more chilled out stuff and some wonkier stuff to.

SR: What’s been the most memorable moment in your career thus far?

S: A couple of things that were quite humbling recently. Firstly playing Boomtown with Inspected was amazing. Being up on stage with a lot of my favourite producers and being a part of that was great. And then more recently gaining Noisia support for both Skope and Malux was a good milestone.

SR: I’ve heard you ‘highly value live instruments in music as they add a delicacy to an otherwise aggressive sound scape’. What are some other Skope production tips and tricks you can divulge?

S: Lately I have been sound designing with some friends and found that 6 hands can provide much more crazy results. Try getting some friends round. Set up a load of midi macros, record some sounds, play some sounds, tweak them live etc. Just have fun with it! If you are all doing something to the sound and recording the result it will be full of surprises and “magic moments”.

SR: What are you currently listening to?

S: Noisia radio and dusty 50p vinyls from charity shops.

SR: What’s next on the agenda for you?

S: All sorts. Definitely keeping myself really busy. I have some plans to launch a teaching service soon which I’m excited about. Also lots of music on the way from both Skope and Malux. And some other super secret stuff too!