Tristan spoke with Subsonic following his recent successful set in Notts, getting to know this latest addition to the pool of emerging drum and bass talent.
Following on from our interviews with bass mainstays Andy C and Flava D, we are back with another up close and personal chat with new kid Subsonic. With a string of recent releases under his belt and the backing of some of the biggest names in the scene, Subsonic and his music is gathering more attention by the day. After his set at the Crucast Indoor Festival last month, we sat down with him to find out how he started out and what makes him tick.
Fresh faced and wearing a quiet smirk, Harry (Subsonic to me and you) reclined into his chair backstage. Having just turned 20, he may be younger than the majority of the crowd who had just heard his set, but that doesn’t bother him one bit. Despite being relatively new to the game, Harry was quick to speak of his experience in both mixing and producing. ‘I started proper young, about 12. I met with mates at school, and one liked dubstep, so I just started messing around with lots of genres. Then I started doing drum and bass about 2-3 years ago. I’m surprised I’m still doing it! When we started – and pretty sure this is the same with Dom (Tsuki, sat opposite) – we were just messing around. We didn’t actually think it would go anywhere’.
'With a string of recent releases under his belt and the backing of some of the biggest names in the scene, Subsonic and his music is gathering more attention by the day'.
Yet, while young enough to still be at university, he had just played to a packed-out Stealth – despite being on relatively early in the evening. ‘When I went into my set, no-one was there, but then it really started to pack up a bit more’, he smiled. ‘That’s fine with me though. I don’t really do it for the money and whatnot’.
While there was certainly a party atmosphere backstage in Rock City and Stealth, it was heart-warming to hear that Harry was working hard and for all the right reasons. An increasing but likeable trend among young DJs is this idea that money and fame don’t appear to be the motivators. Instead, the desire to be noticed for his creative talents appeared to drive the young man forward.‘It lies with me getting more cemented in the scene, getting bigger, getting noticed. I just love making music, that’s my thing. If I’m honest, there’s nothing else I’d want to do other than music. If it wasn’t for making music, I’d be doing nothing! I’d be working some dead job. [Instead], this is my job now, and I’m making a living from it. Things could always be better, but I’m happy with where things are’.
'Having just turned 20, he may be younger than the majority of the crowd who had just heard his set, but that doesn’t bother him one bit'.
It may be the icing on the cake for Harry, but being able to make music for a living could only become better when doing it with your closest mates. Throughout the interviews, Dom and Harry laughed and gestured between themselves, putting each other off, constantly having a great time. Yet at the end of the day, the pair have endured a rapid rise with the helping hand of CruCast, Macky Gee and K Motionz along the way: ‘music is really fun for us, [we] do it every day and I never get bored of it’.
When asked about the future, there was only one answer that came to mind. ‘For now, I just want to keep making music, release on certain labels and eventually get bigger. That’s my goal’. I genuinely enjoyed my time with Harry; his drive from such a young age made him all the more likeable, and seeing him take his music to Belgium and Austria since that night at Stealth has given me a real feeling of excitement about what is to come for him. If he continues on this trajectory, it won’t be long before Subsonic finds himself in the upper echelons of the drum and bass world.
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