blog // Featured, Interviews, Tunes

Bruce Stallion interview & free download!

7 December 2009

Welcome to the first of our artist interview / free download series. Every week we’ll be interviewing an artist we massively love and respect  and asking them for a cheeky exclusive download or 2.

First off we have the fantastic Bruce Stallion. Bruce’s party smashing sets and productions straddle dubstep, electro, heavy bass and wobble happy rave. His tunes caught the discerning ears of Kid 606, who promtly signed him up to his infamous Tigerbeat6 label.

Bruce smashed our Braindrop main room to pieces back in September. We caught up with him to ask the man himself some important questions about music, production . . and animals.

BD: Hello mate – how are you and what are you doing at the moment?

BS: Why hello, I am very well thanks. At the current moment in time I’m just being a really boring bastard and looking at stupid pictures at Skullswap which is possibly my favorite blog in the world, it mainly features random pictures from all corners of ‘pop’ culture, today we’ve got a still of Shredder and Krang eating a bowl of popcorn. It’s also where I found this first, for anyone who hasn’t had the pleasure.

BD: How would you describe Bruce Stallion? What are your main influences?

BS: Er….bah, guh. Werp? I guess when I started doing stuff that wasn’t breakcore I was trying to rip off Drop The Lime a bit and the other Trouble and Bass stuff. But as I kinda got more into it I guess I found a bit more of my own sound. One of my main influences is actually Ebola, he’s a good mate and we swap ideas and stuff. You may have noticed him following a similar breakcore – bass trajectory! And obviously Kid 606 is a massive influence, I sent stuff to Tigerbass just on a random chance and he came back and put it out which is amazing. He’s really good at giving constructive criticisism, when a track isn’t quite there yet he’s knows just what to say to get it going. He basically taught me how to write stuff for the dancefloor and Im really fucking greatful for that!

At the mo I’m listening to a lot of stuff that falls into the gap between funky and dubstep. I’m starting to feel the same way about wobbly LFO’s as I did about breakcore a couple of years ago, its still cool but it doesn’t really grab the imagination in the same way anymore. I still enjoy a but of the old WAA WAA WOOOGA WOOOGA WEEEERP WEEERP but at the moment I’m enjoying more of the deeper stuff (jesus I hate the word deeper it sounds so wanky). And I fucking love Zomby, I buy everything that dude does. Mans a god, despite the ugly rumours!

BD: Where did you get the name from?

BS: Once, long ago in the mists of fucking years ago me, Ebola and Joe of out Metronomy (yes really) were part of a little hiphop night in Brighton called ‘Why’ you gotta front’. I’d just started writing tunes, so I picked the name Bruce Stallion from a totally awesome (but terrible) film called ‘Ninja terminator’, I thought it sounded welll hiphop . Years later when I sent stuff to Tigerbass I used the name Black Rabbit, but had to change it after another Dj called Black Rabbit emailed me, I believe their fameous but no one I know has heard of them. Read into that what you will! Thinking back, I remembered the name Bruce Stallion as being fucking awesome so I used that. Heres some Bruce Stallion biznizz on Youtube. I think hes the evil red ninja. Hes a boss is Bruce.

BD: Any exciting news? Releases / remixes / collaborations / festival appearances etc etc

BS: Ooooooh. Well none that I can talk about yet. I’ve got loads of new stuff that’s waiting to come out on a label, cant really talk about it quite yet! I’m pretty proud of the new stuff, its got some analogue synth stuff going on and theres a little more of a house influence as well. I’ve tried to keep the hiphoppyness of Black Rims but make it a bit more musical as well. Got some remixes as well, but they havnt come out yet either, hmmm. Watch this space!

BD: Can you give us a quick run through of the 4 track ep you’ve given us for download on braindrop.co.uk?

BS: Bad Pillz and Juice Cup are both VIPs of older tunes I did to bring the production a bit more up to date…their pretty different to the originals. The other two tracks are kinda tracks done at the same time as Black Rims that didn’t quite make it onto that release, similar kinda hiphop rave vibe, obsessed with pills n’ glowsticks. I’ve kinda got that outta my system a bit, but I may say something else when its festival season, so if you see me in a field somewhere smeared in Vics with eyes like dinner plates you know I’ve changed my mind again.

BD: We first booked you for Braindrop under your alter ego DJ Floorclearer. Which artist do you prefer playing as?

BS: Both have their good points. Being Bruce Stallion is more about trying to keep people dancing and get a vibe going. Floorclearer is more metal, more attitude. I’ve kinda retired from Floorclearer, but Im gonna do some stuff in a more Dj Scud vein (noise, bass) after a while so it’s only temporary retirement. Breakcore needs to go back to the old school, really.

BD: What equipment / software do you use to make your music?

BS: Logic 7 (don’t wanna upgrade, I like Logic the way it is thanks!), an Ms10, some modular synths, Moog Voyager Old school (Yes!!!), Massive and a suprisingly small selction of plugins. I use the built in Logic bitcrusher and Ringshifter (the lfo on that is insane) a lot as well. I try to avoid using too many fx plug ins, you can usually hear them used on stuff and personally hearing a really noticeable plugin tends to put me off a bit.

BD: Which artists are you really rating at the moment and why?

BS: I’m liking a lot of stuff by Joy Orbision, Slugabed, Squire of Gothos, Kanji Kinetic, Martyn, Emvee, Untold, Raffertie, Debruit, Silkie,Taz Buckfaster. Shit, theres so much good stuff! All kinda blending lines in between hiphop, dubstep and other stuff.
I also enjoy everything by Ebola, oh and Ladyscraper is stilling shitting out awesome gabber, not a genre I normally enjoy much anymore but I still love everything he puts out. Its got more a metal feel, which is kinda what I like. I’m a old time metal dude and I still love all that stuff.
Im also listening to an enourmous amount of dark stuff like Ahab, Xela, Sunn 0))). Ahab are my new favorite band by the way, they play funeral dooooooooooom and they sing exclusively about the sea. Their amazing, but I think they should change their name to ‘Brine’. Or maybe ‘Crill’

BD: You’re part of the infamous, Radio 1 championed Countryside Alliance Crew. I hear rumours of a Christmas release. Going for Christmas number one?

BS: Yes! Watch this space. I don’t know if Im allowed to talk about it. Say to say, its going to be amazing. We’ve all being practicing our pop star “oh my god I’m cumming ”faces all week.

BD: All time 3 top tunes?

BS: Arrrrgh. Um! I believe that is impossible but her goes

1) Dj Scud – You Know the Score
2) Frank Zappa – Watermelon in Easter Hay
3) Slayer – Rain in Blood

BD: What are the top 10 records smashing it in your sets at the mo?
1) Akira Kiteshi – Boom N Pow (Raffertie remix)
2) Silkie – Cats Eyes
3) Debruit – I’m Goin’ Wit’ You (feat Om’Mas Keith) (Octa Push Remix)
4) Taz Buckfaster – Murder Skank
5) Untold – Stop what your doing (James Blake remix)
6) Raffertie – Wobble Horror
7) Kanji Kinetic – Densetsu Riddim
8 ) Bruce Stallion – Drugs = Bad (Squire of Gothos remix)
9) Zomby – Helter Skelter
10) Terror Danjah – Stealth Mode

BD: All time 3 animals
1) Rabbits
2) Cats
3) Bat eating centipede

BD: Favorite Youtube video?
BS: That changes on a daily basis. Today its this one Ninja Terminator trailer

Fucking class.

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Thanks Bruce! Download his exclusive EP below. He picked these tunes especially for the Braindrop family – so enjoy. . .

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Visit Bruce’s Myspace