Getting Hyped on Fracture’s New Tracks Is Easy
London’s Fracture, even within a given release, can vary in style from hip-hop-tinged halftime to crafty modern jungle vibes. His work is sonically diverse, but everything he makes sounds unmistakably his own. If you spend some time on his releases over the past few years via Goldie’s Metalheadz, TeeBee’s Subtitles Music, and his own imprint, Astrophonica, you can easily get a sense of his sonic influences. Particularly as of late, his work broadens even further; his collaborations with Om Unit on Cosmic Bridge and Chimpo on Metalheadz occupy polar opposite spaces, yet they belong on the same discography without question.
We caught up with Fracture to talk about his process, starting a family, and his just-released Hype Tracks EP via Exit Records.
Is halftime drum & bass? For that matter, what makes something drum & bass or not?
I don’t know, and I honestly don’t care. Halftime is a groove, and I love it. What halftime has done is opened up many, many possibilities. For instance, now I can play a hip-hop track in a set, and you wouldn’t even notice a difference. Same with footwork. There are many things that make something D&B; the tempo obviously plays a role, as does the use of heavy bass as the hook. I try not to think about it, though—especially when writing. I just consider a tempo and go with that.
Where do you see things going? When the music is always changing, are you able to infer what’s next?
Trends in music and culture seem to be very free and organic at the moment. People are constantly creating new ideas, which is refreshing—it feels for the first time in a while you can confidently do whatever you want to do and not have to worry about it fitting in. This is the dream, right? In terms of what I think will happen on a drum & bass level, I don’t know. I’m doing my thing and coming up with new ideas, and that’s what’s important. I’m very interested in songwriting and musicality at the moment, which on an advanced level is something relatively untouched in my previous work, and that is driving me forward.
What are your biggest non-musical influences?
Places and cultures influence my music quite a lot. For instance, cold countries have influenced me—that cleanness of frost, that crispness. That makes me think of really clean pads and crisp drums. Music, culture and places pretty much go hand in hand, so they kind of all influence each other. I recently had a daughter and took the majority of 2015 off in terms of DJing, which has had a huge influence on my music. I’ve been writing stuff that’s a lot more melodic and song-based. On a heavy DJ schedule, I always find the urge to write a banger. Not to say melodic music or song-based music can’t be a club banger, but taking time out definitely made me reflect a little bit.
Apart from changing your DJ schedule and musical output, how has having a child affected you professionally or socially?
Having a child changes everything—absolutely everything—time being the main thing. So, I am much more aware of how little of it I have and try to use it much more productively. I try to write quicker, without getting bogged down in production. I try to spend less time messing about in the studio and just get something done at the end of each day. It’s quite surprising what you can achieve when time is not on your side. Your inner critic is the main thing that stops you from creating; if you have to work on immediate deadlines, you can often finish stuff before you start questioning it. That’s not to say quality control had dropped, but seriously, if you are forced to write quickly, you soon realize that ideas you may have questioned and changed on an open-ended deadline are actually amazing. If you have time to question them, you’ll delete them and stop yourself from getting anywhere.
What are you trying to get people to feel with your music? Are you trying to convey the “cold feelings” to the listener? Does that visualization apply only to the process of creating the music, or do you want that vibe infused into the end product?
I just write when I have an idea. Quite often, that can be formed by an upcoming gig somewhere, which naturally will become a club track. I visualize music a lot; I think everyone does, yes? As soon as I start writing, I have an abstract image in my head that sort of represents what I want to create. It doesn’t represent anything in particular, but it stays with me until the track is finished—and beyond. Actually, that’s quite odd; maybe everyone doesn’t visualize music like this? So I guess, to answer your question directly, I’m just trying to represent that image I have in my head to other people.
Where do you look for samples?
All over. Seriously. I don’t actually rely on sampling as much at the moment. I still sample a lot of bits of percussion, as it can really add a sense of atmosphere to a track. Even just a tambourine loop of a record can add some air. I recently watched 9th Wonder on Rhythm Roulette and instantly wanted to go digging for some loops to chop up. If you haven’t seen it, check it out. It’s a vibe.
What did your first working production rig consist of?
I first started making music on my mum’s computer on a piece of audio editing software called Goldwave. It was a crappy PC with minimal RAM, so once the audio file was about 90 seconds long, it crashed. I also used a really early software synth called Vaz Emulator. It was kind of like a Roland 303/101 thing that you could make patterns in and then export the results. Honestly, I still think some of the best sounds and songs I made were created with that setup. Even though they were totally simple and made with limited capability, I can still remember them and wish I still had access. Something that still rings true with me now is that it really doesn’t matter what you use to make music. If you have ideas and hunger, you can make great stuff.
The first rig I owned was an E-mu ESI-4000 sampler and Cubase. That was it. I’d record back into the mini-jack input on the computer. Again, super limited, but a few of my first records were made this way. My setup now is still quite limited, but this time by choice. I use Ableton and some outboard processing. I’m really not the VST guy who has every type of EQ and compressor, just the ones I need.
How did “Acid Claps,” the collaboration with DJ Spinn & Taso, come about?
“Acid Claps” came about quite organically. Spinn & Taso were in town touring and had a few days off. Ashes 57 contacted me and asked if I wanted to meet up, so they all came to my studio, and we kinda just hung out and jammed. It was quite mad, actually; I think Spinn had this kind of wireless MPC thing for his laptop and was doing some of that Teklife percussion steez, while Taso was triggering some samples off his laptop over the top and I messed with some drum breaks on Ableton, all at the same time. We then just stemmed out the bits that worked together and threw them in an Ableton session and did a super quick arrangement, added some extra parts, and then got some food. I was playing it for a while and then decided to tweak it up a bit and add the acid bits in. Huge shout to Ashes 57 for making it happen.
What is the perfect performing experience for you? Setup? Location? Will you be touring during this EP release for Exit?
I absolutely love playing at Mungo’s stage at Outlook or Dimensions in Croatia. It’s such a great outdoor but walled-in space that creates an intense vibe. Both the crowd and the sound guys at Mungo’s know and love the music, so it really is perfect. Exit has done a stage there for a few years now, and it’s always special. That being said, I’m a real lover of small clubs with low ceilings, too. The old Plastic People in Shoreditch, London, was an amazing place to play—even though it was almost impossible to mix there.
Fracture’s Hype Tracks EP is out now via Exit Records.
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