Metronome #087: Fed-Up

Insomniac’s Metronome series features mixes from some of today’s fastest-rising electronic stars, as well as championed legends. It takes listeners deep across a wide range of genres, movements, cultures, producers, artists and sounds that make up the diverse world of electronic music.

Rebranding yourself early on in your career can often mean losing the valuable fan base you’ve already built up. That’s not the case for Fed-Up, whose crossover from self-described “oddball” bass music to dancefloor-filling dubs was possibly the best move of his career thus far. Only a year into his newly established musical persona, the budding dubstep producer is already gaining support from the likes of LUMBERJVCK and Datsik, who’s signed the newcomer to his genre-defining label, Firepower Records. Not bad for a kid who’s been producing for only five years.

At a time when fans and producers of the genre that arguably helped push EDM into the mainstream seem to have forgotten dubstep, Fed-Up returns to the roots of the movement with his debut EP, Defect, out now on Firepower. Throughout the release, Fed-Up maintains modern sound design without forgetting the slumping, laid-back feel of the dubby rhythms that give the genre its feel.

On his Metronome mix, Fed-Up exemplifies his ability for clean mixing, and his track selection represents a look into his future as a tastemaker, all while remaining true to the golden age of dubstep.

Your social media accounts go back to only the middle of this year, and your Twitter page lists another name in some posts. Is it safe to assume the Fed-Up project is a new iteration of your sound? What were you doing prior to this?
In case anybody was wondering, I used to go by Rotallicso. When I was working on that project, I was in the mindset of, “This is going to be weird bass music only,” not the type of tunes you’d play out at a show to get a crowd hyped. As time went on, I realized that as much as I enjoyed making that type of music, I wanted to get back into making more dancefloor-friendly stuff. Fed-Up is going to be based more around tracks that make you wanna get crazy and jump around, more about that high-energy vibe with the gnarly sound design, huge drums, etc. I will say, though, to maintain sanity, I will continue to create all sorts and styles of bass music. If I write one genre forever, I’ll lose my mind [laughs].

Your sound is extremely well polished. Tell us a bit about your musical background and how you discovered electronic music.
Having awesome parents, I was exposed to a lot of really good music while growing up. I played the drums for a couple of years and had a few piano lessons here and there, but nothing too crazy. If you wanna go way back, I was listening to artists like Daft Punk and Underworld, but that was just because my parents would play them around the house. I was too young to even know what it was that I was listening to, but I do believe being exposed to it at such a young age helped fuel my interest for later on in life.

I’d say I discovered dance music when I was 14 years old. I was at a house party, and these older guys were playing this stuff called dubstep. Not having heard sounds like that in anything before blew my mind, and I replayed this one tune probably 100 times. The track was “Retreat” from Datsik, and to this day I still love it. After that, about a year and a bit went by. Then one day, I was on YouTube and stumbled across UKF Dubstep. I listened to whatever [they] uploaded at the time and fell in love with the genre. You’ll hear a lot of producers say Skrillex’s “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites” was the track that got them interested in producing. Although that tune completely changed the game, it was Nero’s “Must Be the Feeling” (Kill the Noise Remix) that did it for me. Once I heard the sound design in that tune, I wanted to make tracks as sick as that, so I thought I’d give it a shot—and now here we are!

Your new EP, Defect, is out now on Firepower Records. That’s a huge accomplishment for a new producer. How did that come about?
That came about after I got a manager. I’ve been producing for about four to five years now, and I kept my stuff locked until last November. I started putting out free downloads just to see what would happen, and the response was great! The release came together pretty quickly once I was given deadlines for finishing the tunes. It’s very easy to spend studio days doing everything besides writing music. I’ve never had management before, so once I learned what that meant and where my tunes could end up, I buckled down for a couple of months and wrote the EP. A lot of hard work and having an awesome team is definitely what made this possible!

You’ve hinted at some collab work with LUMBERJVCK, and you guys seem to hang out a lot. Is this bromance going to lead to any music together in the future?
Definitely going to be doing some stuff with him. Funny thing is, we’ve only hung out a couple of times in person! I stayed with him for nine days at the end of July, and we also got to kick it at EDC Las Vegas this year, which was awesome! It’s tricky for me because I don’t live in California, and most of my homies are located there or around the world, so hanging out in person doesn’t come as often as I’d like. But yes, do expect some serious tunes from us in the future.

What are you listening to that isn’t electronic?
Right now, August Burns Red, Billy Talent, Skepta, JME and Thy Art Is Murder, just to name a few. I’ve been listening to more personal throwback songs lately, which has put me in a good headspace for writing. Hearing tracks that bring me back to an awesome moment or place in time gets me stoked and inspired. There are way more artists that I’m listening to that aren’t on this list, but I could go on forever!

Track List:: Fed-Up “Overload”
Noisia “Voodoo”
Eptic “Swords & Dragons”
LUMBERJVCK “Old Gregg”
Spag Heddy “Back Off”
Xilent “Next Time” (Twine Remix)
Minesweepa “Machete”
Fed-Up “Malfunction”
Bare Noize & AFK ft. Anna Yvette “Elemental”
Fabio Lendrum “Out the Water” (501 Remix)
MUST DIE! “Feathers”
Rickyxsan “Growlin’” (Somnium Sound Remix)
Barely Alive “Binary” (Barely Alive & Virtual Riot Remix)
SNEEK “SpaceBro”
Trampa & Franky Nuts “They Don’t Want It”
Fed-Up “Virus”
ID - ID
Kill the Noise ft. Stalking Gia “Without a Trace” (Kill the Noise & Virtual Riot Remix)