This week we chat to rave loving bass buccaneers Pirate Soundsystem. Part of the excellent Coin Operated imprint (alongside Kanji Kinetic, Squires of Gothos, Warlock etc etc) and Wide Recordings, signed to the Fat! DJ agency and residents at monthly bass frenzy the Z-Shed.
The Pirates make big, fat and high octane 4×4 rave influenced bass music. Their remix skills have been sought by the likes of Drop The Lime, Wiley, A1 Bassline, DZ, Ctrl Z & The Freestylers, Merka, Zomby, Si Begg, Hadouken! and Bonde Do Role to name a few.
We caught up with the boys to chat about all our favorite things…And the lovely fellows gave us an exclusive track for free download – their BANGING, brand new and unreleased remix of Double 99’s RIP Groove. Read on for production tips, musical inspiration and funny dogs!
BD – Good evening chaps – how are you and what are you doing at the moment?
DON - In my jim-jams, listening to recent purchases & drinking coffee.
JOSH – Bombastic. Just trying to polish of a couple of EPs that we have on the go at the moment.
BD – How would you describe Pirate Soundsystem? What are your main influences?
JOSH – The whole idea of Pirate Soundsystem was to create music that combined our favourite bits from various genres of music. I’d describe us as… bass rave producers… ‘bass’ & ‘rave’ might not be the best terms but they are definitely the two words I associate with the most.
Recently, my influences are from people like Tim Wright, Kanji Kinetic, D’explicit, Si Begg, Squires Of Gothos…. People who make the bass noises really. Coffee has a big part in my life.
DON – Rum N Bass? Older acts that have influenced us are Tim Wright, The Wideboys, Altern8 and The KLF.
BD – Where does the name come from?
DON – In early 2004 we were going to start a night called “Pirate Club”. Then a promoter mate asked us to DJ at his night, and he needed a DJ name for us quickly as he was about to send the flyer to the printers. “Pirate Soundsystem” was the first thing that popped into my head, and we never really felt the need to change it.
BD – Any exciting news? Releases / remixes / collaborations / festival appearances etc etc?
DON - We’re just finishing up our new EP “Riddim Is A Dancer” at the moment. It’s got a more grimey/dancehall/soca flavour than our last two EPs – some of that influence you can hear in the RIP Groove remix.
BD – You gave us your fat new remix of RIP Groove for the Braindrop family to download. Do you come from a garage background?
JOSH - I got into garage about the same time as I got into hard house really. I was looking for a music that combined all the little things that I liked and garage ticked the most boxes really. The 2-step drum programming just blew me away… that tight choppy, skippy sound with all the little pitched up vocal bits and gunshots. Tracks like the Dem 2 mix of Basement Jaxx – Jump N Shout and Phuturistix – Blind Faith were the things that made me want to reach for the drum machines. In my mind the only thing that could of made these tracks better would of been some hard house bass going on. I got into more 4×4 stuff and speed garage later and that kind of phased out my need for hard house in my life.
DON - I come more from a rave & jungle background. It’s the combination of rave/jungle and garage/hard-house influences that really shape our sound.
BD - What equipment / software do you use to make your music?
JOSH – Renoise… It’s like brain gym and music production in one.
DON - Native Instruments Massive for bass sounds. It sounds amazing, but it’s easy to go overboard with the unusual oscillators and end up with a bass sound that doesn’t have any real weight. You can layer a nice sub underneath, but that’s a long ting, so these days I try to include at least one oldskool oscillator to keep the bass-patches sounding warm.
Massive also has a tendency to create sounds that overly dominate the mix, so I generally tame it with Oxford EQ and add a touch of PSP Mixbass to bring out the subs.
BD - Which artists are you really rating at the moment and why?
JOSH - At the moment D’explicit is coming through with some really interesting bass. Definitely gets respect for releasing an album that’s so focused.
DON – 100% to the above, and I’d add R1 Ryders (just for *that* bass/lead sound) and DJ Manaia who’s really killing it on the Tropical Bass thing.
BD - Who would you most like to work with? Anyone at all…
JOSH – I’d love to work with Tim Wright… His production is craaaaaaazy. The most banging 2-step techno. The balance between all the intricate skippy sounds and big gurning basslines is amazing.
DON - Snoooooooooooop.
BD - All time 3 top tunes (anything at all)
JOSH – Wow… ok…
1. Tim Wright – The Lunge
2. Aquasky vs Masterblaster f/ Ragga Twins – Coffee
3. Acen – Close Your Eyes (Optikonfusion)
DON
1. Prodigy – Ruff In The Jungle Bizness (Uplifting Vibes Mix)
2. Foul Play – Dub In U (Remix)
3. The Clash – Guns of Brixton
BD - What are the top 10 records smashing it in your sets at the mo?
BD - All time 3 animals
JOSH
1. My Cat
2. Polar Bears
3. Slow Loris
DON
1. Tyrannosaurus Rex
2. Ankylosaurus
3. Baryonx
BD - Favorite Youtube video?
JOSH - Hol’ on tight - pug pushes stoller!
DON - Eastern birthday jam!
Big up guys and thanks for the words! Download their massive and very tropical remix of Double 99’s RIP Groove below. Big!
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Pirate Soundsystem - RIP Groove (Pirate Soundsystem Remix) (10.8 MiB)
Check the Pirates on Myspace
Posted by chris in Featured, Interviews, Tunes.
Comments
Lizzie
Dec 16th, 2009Yes yes! Loving the RIP Groove remix! xx
Baron
Dec 17th, 2009Hahaha nice! fuckin noize!
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