Cubiq interview

Cubiq consists of two producers/DJs from Oxfordshire; Carlos Posada and Jamie Jay. They share a passion for house, techno, minimal and other electronic genres whilst studying music at university. They use extensive MIDI controllers live in an attempt to bridge the gap between DJ sets and live sets. They have played some festivals such as; Glade, Gottwood, Wakestock, Nine Muses, Truck and Underhill on top of club nights throughout the UK such as 'Annie Mac presents' in Oxford. They now have a residency at 'Filth' at 'The Warehouse' in Leeds supporting the likes of Tim Green, Alex Celler, Kerri Chandler, Tale of Us, Maya Jane Coles and play there with Joris Voorn on Firday 23rd December…

Cubiq Interview:

 

How did you guys meet? Where has this musicology come from, it would appear you guys have been gathering cobwebs in a studio since you were in nappies? I personally achieved grade II cello.

 

I achieved Grade VIII cello but am probably at Grade I standard ... Carlos and I were at secondary school together, so we met at the tender age of thirteen. We had met briefly before but never really became friends. Being two of the few people at our school in Oxford who thought it WAS cool to play instruments and listen to music; we naturally became friends and I joined his band (which is still going) called 'Wild Swim' (shameless plug: wildswimmusic.com). We claimed to hate electronic music (preferring Rage Against the Machine, rock, blues, indie and hip-hop) until I got a mix CD from my elder brother who had been given it by and age-old family friend Ben Lewis (of Bristol's Real Nice). It had some 2008 electro music on it which got us interested in the endless sonic possibilities; this all at the age of fourteen. This preceded us getting heavily into Warp artists; but that rarely crept into our productions, mixes or live sets. We bought a Numark CDN88 rack system which we dragged around to parties and gigs playing short-attention-span explosive fidget house (Herve, Jack Beats, Fake Blood, Foamo etc.) We then got given a huge playlist from my other elder brother's friend in about 2009 which was full of minimal, techno, and house tracks (some of which we still play out). This playlist (combined with attending three consecutive years of Germany's Melt Festival; '09 - '11) inspired us to get to where we are now musically. We still love a lot of the 'good old stuff' that we enjoyed before getting into electronic music, but it has occupied a large space in our hearts and minds.

 

What's your typical day? Synth with milk, followed by....

 

I am studying music in my first year at Leeds and Carlos is studying music in his second year at Oxford (we are the same age though). When we're apart, our days are pretty normal and dictated by our respective timetables. When we're together, we might be rehearsing, writing, recording or performing with our band 'Wild Swim' (shameless second plug: wildswimmusic.com). Alternatively, we'll be in the studio together working on Cubiq material. Ordinarily, I do like to start the day with about half a bowl of porridge as it's cheap, not too unhealthy (in reasonable amounts) and fills you up for most of the day. Carlos gets very moody if he has not a) slept or b) eaten. I have to ensure that there is food within reach of him otherwise the whole day can come to a grinding, stomach-rumbling halt. On a day-to-day basis though, I don't break routine nearly enough; I am a pretty mechanical human being sadly.

 

Recent warehouse residents?

 

Charles Darbyshire (of the brilliant 'Pelski' blog & Drop the Mustard) asked us to do a set at Glade festival this year. It was raining heavily and the DJ who played before us (or the awful weather) cleared the floor. We played our set as people came in to listen, and then a friendly chap from Leeds (who had supplied the Funktion 1 sound-system) came round behind the decks in a giant macintosh and asked us to be his residents for 'Filth' at The Warehouse starting in October 2011. It has been loads of fun playing there with the likes of Tim Green and Kerri Chandler (we have Maya Jane Coles to look forward to in December). It is, without much doubt, the best place in Leeds to go out and we're pretty stoked to be residents this early on for us.

 

So the work with the midi controller? How come?

 

As I said before, we used to DJ with a Numark CDN88 rack system and a Numark DM1050 mixer. Needless to say, life was unnecessarily tricky. We did our productions on a Roland SP-555 sampler which we also took to the gigs to throw vocal samples over the mix. I then saved up enough to buy Ableton and it all changed. We used to use the SP-555 as a Midi controller but it was rather limited in terms of parameter control. I had my eye on the Livid Instruments website for about two years and suddenly realized that I had saved up enough to buy one of their top devices. We have been using the Livid Ohm64 since February 2011 and have never looked back (apart from the fact that the tasteful wooden cross-fader comes off sometimes when transporting!) We like to bridge the gap between the DJ set and the live set. Rather than simply mixing two tracks together using Ableton (which would justifiably anger the highly expendable vinyl/CDJ luddites), we throw warped vocals of the same (or relative) key over the mix. We add percussion loops, we add piano MIDI clips, we go 'off-piste' and make our own track live if we feel the need and we sometimes even remix live. We have even been lucky enough to procure (thanks to a best friend) an analogue device that we call 'The Cube' (real name: 'quad nand mood cube synth'). There are only two of its kind on earth! We also still use the Korg Kaoss Pad 3 so that one of us potentially has something to do if the other is 'commandeering the helm'.

 

HDN 001 – Cubiq - 'Say'. Well, Wow, the vocal where did the inspiration come from, is it a well loved track of yours originally or are you guys just lords of the sample? What do you have to say?

 

Nice pun on the end of your question there...it's not the first time that has happened. Our old friend from school was keen to collaborate with us with himself doing vocals. In March 2011, Carlos and I made a track using original recordings of ourselves playing guitars, basses, pianos, African percussion etc. We then got our friend in to do the vocals. We wrote the melody together but he wrote the lyrics in the studio on the day of recording (I heard that Radiohead's Thom Yorke was similarly tardy when recording 'Rabbit in your Headlights' with DJ Shadow for the UNKLE project). We spent a few months mixing it down and played it out at Glade to road test it. Darkly seemed pretty keen on it so we sent it to him and now he's releasing it in late December 2011 off 'Hidden Label'. To address the latter part of your question, we do like to sample things but only for interesting/different sound quality reasons or for interesting/different approaches to mutating sounds. We don't feel the need to take sample 'hooks' because we prefer to write on instruments and play things ourselves as we've always done.

 

Is Baz de Souza going to be the next Ali Love or Larger?

 

I am sure 'De Souza' will go on to conquer many regions of the art industry. He is an exceptionally talented person and has an energy that one does not forget too easily. He insists on collaborating in the future once 'Say' is out. Maybe there'll be something new for you with Cubiq & De Souza next year; I am definitely up for it.

 

June moon offers more of a hefty punch around your gonads, whirling one into a personal frenzy in contrast to Say. Was the variation in tracks to show the listener your dynamic nature?

 

'June Moon' was a very quick one in that it came together much sooner than 'Say' did. I was doing a set with Nick Church ('Casino Times' and 'Get Your Geek On') and Angie Walter in June 2011 at The Cellar in Oxford (one of the best clubs in Oxford for sure). I was really intrigued by the music they were playing and, as ever, felt an urgent compulsion to attempt to make similar music. I went home and made what I hoped was a deep groove at 110bpm. By the time I had finished, it was very late but the moon was shining eerily through the front window of my studio so I called it 'June Moon'. I suppose the less positive reason behind 'June Moon' is that Carlos and I had subscribed to the 'tempo-snobs'. Various industry folks seemed genuinely upset that we had tracks at 127bpm (as if it was some sort of political orientation that greatly offended them). So as an act of 'I'll show you' irritation; 'June Moon' was added to the 'Say' release as it's 'younger brother' B-Side. We have also now submissively brought our productions and live set down to 125bpm so not to cause panic on the dance-floor. We’re going to keep making a few remixes at 118bpm though, because it's silly to stick rigidly to one tempo (all you have to do is listen to the 'Brainfeeder' output to figure that out).

 

How does it feel to have been targeted as honcho’s of the Hidden Label, was this always in your grasp or some whirlwind pillow talk that got deeper?

 

It is indeed an honour to be involved with 'The Hidden Label'. The people involved are absolutely wonderful and we have made a new friend 'Timmy P' who collaborated with us in September 2011 to make the free release track 'Damien The Omen'. Being nineteen makes Carlos and I rather blown away by everything. We're always on the back foot, not wanting to tread on any toes, and we're really honoured to be involved with anything. We’ll also be doing a remix ep of ‘Say’ sometime in 2012, and there’s some really exciting remixes on the horizon there. We also have a release coming out on the Leeds-based label 'Love Not Money' on December 12th 2011. It's a track called 'Had enough' that we did with Real Nice in July (the vocal on it was supplied by Richard Sansom; vocalist on 'June Moon' and frontman for 'Wild Swim'). This release (complete with remixes from Matt Fear, James Pople, Archie Hamilton, Luke Pompey, Kreature and SeKa) is also a great honor for us.  

 

It feels Timmy P’s mix has brought a large warehouse vibe on Say? Your talented thoughts guys?

 

Carlos and I have never been to The Warehouse Project (I assume this is what you're referring to when you say 'warehouse vibe') and therefore cannot judge very accurately how this vibe may or may not have been brought about in Timmy’s mix. I like Timmy P's mix though; making mixes in the studio is by far our least favourite part of the 'job', so we're very glad that Timmy P did this one...and what a great job he did with it?!

 

Where are these releases leading?

 

Hopefully to 'get our name out there' and spread our music to those who might like it and might otherwise have never heard it. We don't have a 'game plan' for Cubiq (but we do for 'Wild Swim') so it is a lot of fun seeing where it leads us…

 

Buy the Say Ep here - http://www.beatport.com/#release/say/836874

 

http://www.facebook.com/cubiqdj

 

OFFICIAL CUBIQ PROMO MIXTAPE

 

http://soundcloud.com/hidden-label/hidden-label-presents-cubiq