Q&A with Generation Bass' DJ UMB: Bada$$ International Basement Beat Hunter

Since you’ve got a finger on its pulse, what is the next big city/country/region for dubstep?

Well, if you would have asked me that a year and a half ago, I would have said India, and today I would have been wrong. India held a great deal of promise, but sadly the scene just imploded upon itself. I just don’t know what happened! Maybe India is not ready for it yet?

However, I don’t think I’d be wrong in saying that for me, the most interesting developments are still presently occurring in places like the west coast of the United States and the original dubstep hotbeds of London/Bristol. There’s a burgeoning scene in New Zealand too, it seems.

To step away from dubstep for a moment…what was your favorite beat style in the old days?

You know, I don’t have a favorite beat style, not even dubstep. I just love a variety of styles, and I don’t like to be fenced in either. I’m comfortable dropping dubstep mixes but I’m as equally as comfortable dropping house, especially South African deep house, and also of course tropical bass.

I was never hugely into dance music in a big way because I always felt it suffered with limitations and became outdated quickly, like fashion. Most dance albums were usually pretty patchy and inconsistent when compared to rock or jazz records, but once I started DJing I started to get it!

A crowd getting UMBed. Photo credit: Mikkel Munch Mortensen

As a DJ, I don’t want people to limit me to one particular style because that would be boring to me. You still get these guys that made a name for themselves ten years ago as tech house producers and ten years on they’re still doing the same boring thing. That’s called being dead in the coffin to me.

I hope in a few years time you’ll be talking to me about some other style of dance music that I’m involved in. If we’re still talking about the same thing, then I would not have progressed at all, and that for me would be very sad.

Any bands you love that we wouldn’t expect from a DJ of your ilk?

I don’t know what a DJ of my ilk is NOT suppose to be into…(perhaps Britney). [Laughs]

I love TecnoBrega, a cheesy type of Brazilian music, and DJ Cremoso is my all time favorite DJ (alongside Claude Challe) simply because he puts the biggest smile on my face. His productions of popular songs are cheesy, cheeky and hypnotic but with real emotion. They make me the happiest man on earth.

I’m the biggest Led Zeppelin fan. I simply adore Tom Waits, Prince, Neil Young, Jeff Buckley. These are my some of my favorite artists.

I love Cowboy Junkies, Lil’ Wayne, Radiohead, REM, Flaming Lips, and Leonard Cohen.

I just brought my ticket to see Canadian prog rockers Rush who I love.

I love all sorts of music, you’d be surprised! My record collection includes everything from the likes of Zeppelin, Sabbath, and Rush, to Coltrane, Holiday, and Chet Baker. Then there’s stuff like Oum Kalthoum, Fairuz, and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, to Albinoni, Bach & Mahler.

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