Timbah-Land NEW!

Timbah is a 19-year-old producer who makes cutting edge electronic music. Originally from Nottingham but now living in Sheffield, he cites influence such as James Blake, Rustie and the LA experimental Hip Hop scene. His recently released debut EP Can’t Love Without You has been a hot one for the bloggers and it looks like it’s all about to happen for him…

Timbah took some time out to speak to us about his hotly-tipped debut EP Can’t Love Without You released on Bad Taste Records.

How long have you been making music?

‘Well, I suppose when I was 15 I started making like ridiculous gabba tunes and used to take them to school on my mobile and play them to my mates. I stopped producing for years and then started again when I went to uni basically.’

Is there any particular artist or style that got you back into making music?

‘Yeah, you can credit a lot of it to James Blake’s early sound, I think. I thought it captured a lot of what I like about the West Coast experimental hip-hop scene. People like Flylo, Samiyam doing that glitchy off-beat kinda thing, but James Blake was doing it at a 140 tempo so I think that’s when I thought I wanna start back up again. My mate set me up with logic and I went from there.’

You mentioned the experimental Hip Hop scene. What other artists do you listen too?

‘A lot of the LA producers I’m also in to Witch House – people like How To Dress Well and oOoOO. Just musicians that have a quite an organic sound to their production, you know.’

In terms of your set-up I know you said you used Logic (music software) but do you use any hardware or are you mainly software and plug-ins based?

‘Yeah, all software, I haven’t even got monitors. I’ve got these 40 quid creative speaks that I got two years ago, that have been alright (laughs). I can’t really complain, I get the sound I want out of them. I listen to other tunes on them and judge it from that. I used to have a keyboard but I lost it, so just use the one in Logic. Haha so it’s a bit of a struggle but good when you get a good sound out of it.’

What came first for you – DJing or Producing?

‘For me, DJing. I used to always walk around thinking of mixes in my head and thought that it would be sick to drop them in a club. On my 18^th birthday my parents bought me a pair of decks and I kinda became a vinyl junkie for like a year.’

What are your thoughts on Autotune?

‘Ahh man, it’s wicked!! People need to do it more. I think it’s quite interesting, you know. It’s a popular concept in like mainstream music, so the fact that people are taking it and making it into something that is more part of the post-Dubstep movement is quite refreshing and it’s got that novelty value to it at the moment. Obviously James Blake is doing it a lot and Squelch and Clap label from Sheffield. I think when a lot of people hear it, it still sounds quite fresh because it’s so ingrained into another genre, that it’s got a new appeal.’

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Have you got any other releases planned for 2012?

‘Yeah, there’s a label in Nottingham called Mimm that I’m keen on putting something out with. There might be a few collaborations but they’re so far from being confirmed, you know. So, yeah, there’s a lot of stuff in the pipeline.’

What made you decide on these tracks for the EP?

‘I think it’s basically because they all have a sort of melodic element to them at the end. So I think there is a unified theme of them being sometimes quite aggressive and in your face, but then in the end coming to a point of agreement; they all have this sort of ballad ending to them.’

Is this something that we’re going hear more of?

‘Well, yeah, I’m actually trying to produce without that now because I realised that it’s becoming something that I can’t really help myself from putting in. Those epic sort of endings. So, yeah, trying to make some more tracks that are more straight up and more dance orientated. Obviously those elements will still be there, but I think I’m trying to go on a more grime flex.’

Do you have any intentions of doing other tracks with MCs? Like the remix of Walter Egos track featuring Rawkid?

‘Ahhh Rawkid, yeah, he’s crazy. Yeah, I definitely want to do more with Sheffield MCs.’

Name three artists that you think we should be looking out for in 2012?

‘Walter Ego, TOYC and Checan.’

Paul McCartney or John Lennon?

‘John Lennon.’

Good Fellas or The Godfather?

‘Godfather.’

The biggie: Jerk or Fried chicken?

‘Fried.’

You can buy Timbah’s EP now at:

Boomkat – http://boomkat.com/downloads/491285-timbah-can-t-love-without-you

Juno – http://www.junodownload.com/products/1901003-02.htm

And make sure to check more from Bad Taste Records.

http://badtasterecords.co.uk/