“Having my first solo EP come out last month was pretty amazing – but then to actually have it go up in the Top 50 Beatport and iTunes charts just made it a million times better. I’d pretty much been working on it for like a year because I’d been putting in so much effort into getting my own label [Hypnosis] set up and running and basically everything to do with the label came first before myself for a while. So once the six-track EP finally came out, it was really great to get a lot of support from some big name artists, especially SPL. He was playing some of my tracks quite a bit and that’s something that’s close to my heart – especially because two of the tracks on the EP are actually the first tracks I ever wrote. I guess it’s meant a lot to me because SPL is the reason I even got into dubstep and now we’re really tight over the internet and we talk all the time and he’s definitely my role model!”
In the meantime, Burchett announces he has also been keeping busy with as many remixes as he could muster for various labels around the world – all the while making plans for the already-anticipated follow up EP. And if you think you know what’s coming, Burchett insists you don’t.
“Around about the same time I’ve also been doing some remixes for Play Me Records, which is a big US dubstep label, as well as for a big indie dubstep label called Gamma Audio,” he lists. “The sounds I’m covering with the remixes range between like drum-step, which is a half-time drum and bass style, I’m doing that for Cyberoptics which is a US artist, so that’s a mix between glitch-hop and drum and bass. It’s sounding really cool, it’s really high-energy stuff. Another track I’m working on has got my brain twisting at the moment because it’s really experimental for dubstep so that’s been exciting. I’m also working on my second EP right now. Fighting Gravity didn’t exactly have a rave, party kind of vibe to it – it was actually quite dark and emotional – but this new EP is sounding definitely a lot brighter and like party music. I guess I just got sick and tired of writing really dark, sad-sounding music and I just wanted something a bit more energetic. It’s nice to be able to make people smile for a change rather than put their face into the ground!”
If Burchett can “twist your brain” at the same time, then that’s just a bonus, he claims. Not a big fan of ‘simple’ music, Burchett reckons half the fun in listening to music and spotting different, hidden little bits with each listen – surprise is the key word here.
“I love listening to a song and every time I hear it I discover something new about it that I hadn’t noticed before!” he enthuses. “If it just sounds as mental as possible then that’s cool, but I like to be like, ‘Oh wow!’ with every listen and find little hidden or weird aspects of the song that I hadn’t noticed before. I’d say that I probably do have an ear for it. I also went to a school when I was like 11 or 12 where I played in orchestras and a band and I learned heaps of different musical instruments. I’ve been studying music very closely ever since. I think that experience of learning the theory side of music has been really good for me in the long run. When I write music I don’t have people to talk to or bounce ideas off really, I just have digital instruments. So knowing those instruments quite well has helped in predicting what’s going to clash and make horrible noise and what’s going to work brilliantly.”
Knowing what’s going to “work brilliantly” and having a great ear for unique music in general has certainly helped Burchett when it comes to the massive job of running Hypnosis – a dubstep label which artists from as far away as Russia and the US now call home.
“When it comes to my own stuff, I’d much rather release on other people’s labels because sometimes I think it might look like I just set up the label for myself or something. I’d much rather push new artists on Hypnosis, but sometimes push comes to shove and I find myself having to release my own stuff on my label. I’ve discovered heaps of artists like a guy called Morocha out of Russia who’s got an EP out on my label and he’s doing stuff quite similar to James Blake. There’s also a guy called Shakes from the US who’s doing stuff with Bassnectar – it’s really from all over the world! I’m still scouting a lot because the label is still fairly new and hasn’t got that huge world-wide following like some other big dubstep labels do, but I’m working on it.”
