Devon duo Fred V & Grafix are relative newcomers to the scene, having been signed to Hospital Records in 2011 and making their debut on the label’s Fifteen Years Of Hospital Records compilation with their superbly cranking yet journeying, Find My Way.
“A lot of people don’t know, but Hospital sort of signed us on faith,” says Jackson. “We were stupidly surprised because we knew we were not at the level. They sort of signed us without knowing if they were going to get much back from us and we haven’t had much out and feel bad about that, but there’s plenty now.”
Since then they’ve been awarded Drum & Bass Arena’s 2012 Best Newcomer DJ award and have produced their debut solo release, the Goggles EP. Dropped this March, the EP features three varied tracks, all proving their ability to make fun, dancefloor driven beats, but Jackson says their upcoming long player, due for release later this year, will be of a different bent.
“Those were more just three songs that we put out so people had something to listen to ahead of the album,” he says of the EP. “It’s gotten a good reaction, but in our eyes, our new music is really different to that. People might be surprised.
“We really love real indi guitar music and live sounding stuff like Muse and Bloc Party. A lot of the new tracks (on the LP) have more of a focus on sounds like that and it’s more like the sound we love.”
Jackson and Vahrman met through a mutual friend and a passion for indie-rock, with Vahrman’s guitar skills being laid down on Find My Way. The pair were won over to drum and bass after finding inspiration in Pendulum’s genre-crossing Hold Your Colour LP.
“Still to this day I think Rob Swire is an absolute genius and I’ve always liked Pendulum in general. They’ve always had a massive rock influence and because I was really into live bands back then, that was kind of a nice bridge into drum and bass.
“Sonically they were about ten years ahead of their time – just how phat they were sounding – there was no other drum and bass that sounded that good. Tracks from Hold Your Colour still sound up-to-date now and you can still play them out.”
Fred V & Grafix recently played Fabric Live for the second time. Their first appearance had been for a Hospitality gig in Room 1, but in an indication of how popular the two are becoming, they were invited to play Room 2 minus their label-mates.
“It’s sweaty,” Jackson says with a laugh of the club. “It’s obviously amazing. The only annoyance was having to squeeze through the crowd to get to the decks with my two gin ‘n’ tonics without spilling them,” he laughs again.
“The sound was amazing and it was nice to get the contrast between the two rooms. But yeah, Fabric is one of those places that just playing there in general is awesome, no matter which room.”
In terms of their set, the two employ lots of quick mixing across four decks and usually keep it in the drum and bass vein.
“Sometimes we stand back and think, ‘Maybe that was too quick’, but in terms of the music we play, we put together really varied sets and I think they transfer very nicely to a well-rounded drum and bass set with sometimes a bit of something else, but we usually keep it to drum and bass.”
BY JO CAMPBELL
