Eddy Seven has been a curator & producer for the Dubstep scene for many years churning out a crazy amount of releases, from labels such as Ram Records, Tempa Records, Wheel & Deal & Subway. Being a key figure from the beginning, he’s seen a massive amount of attention, from guest mixes on Rinse FM with N-Type & Youngsta, then emerging onto the bigger scene with appearances at Outlook Festival and the famous Fabric in the capital of England.
Continuing on from his early music endeavours, Eddy decided to start up his own label ‘Uprise Audio’. Its seen a huge amounts of releases over the years and it consistently brings new ideas & creative producers into the mix such as A:Grade, JUSS B, Indiji & more. I was keen to get involved with Eddy and have a good ol’ chat about his label, early experiences and his favourite foods.
So Eddy, when was your first initial step into the music scene?
I’d be deejaying since I was 9, being heavily influenced by pirate radio stations and my older sisters taste in music. I carried on mixing music into my teens until I met The Ram Records crew, who I became good friends with and was heavily influenced by. I got into production from that point as well. By the time I was 14 I had made my first EP. It was pressed on a 12” record and released on a label called Dubtronix. I had already decided by then that this is what I wanted to do as a career. That wasn’t the first time I had been in a studio though. When I was 12 I was invited by a friend of my parents to go to their local studio to experience what they do there. They asked me to bring some records I had collected, so they could sample some of the break-beats from them. It gave me my first insight into what equipment was in there and the process they followed to sample my records. It got me interested, but most of my focus was invested into mixing records at that time.
From that question, who were your first influences and drives into wanting you to start producing/ setting up a Label?
Shimon and Andy C. I’ve learned so much from them. I’ve been truly blessed really when I look back on it. In terms of the record label. It was the artists sending me tunes that inspired me. They were all really good and had no home to create their foundations with, so I started Uprise Audio. It felt like a logical thing to do at the time and I just went for it. I had such a great team of supportive peers working with me, I couldn’t have done it without them. Thank you Verity and Joe x
Being from London, how did that help the growth of you as an artist?
Immensely. London has been the epicentre of where all these music scenes have started. I have been very fortunate to be at the forefront of that, involved and experiencing it all from the early beginnings of those scenes. Living in London made it easier for me to network and meet people too. I think back to nights at The End and a quarter of the capacity was all artists and Dj’s partying together and supporting the scenes. And FWD, damn, I think that was just pretty much the whole dubstep scene at that point being there supporting each other and networking. I miss FWD at Plastic People so much.
Uprise Audio was established in 2012. What’s been a favourite release of yours and a tune that’s also stapled into your sets frequently?
Wow, I love every release we’ve put out and with passion too. It’s so hard to pick just one. ‘Reflections’ comes to mind. I still play it sometimes and Walter White too. If I had to choose one though, it would be Lost Highway by Stealth and Altair. I had that tune for a year and a half before I found the right place to put it. It speaks to my soul in a way only music can and I’ll never get tired of listening to it.
What sort of hobby’s interest you outside of the music scene?
I get asked this a lot and honestly I am literally full time music 18 hours a day. Whether that be me in the studio producing, running my record label and the many duties which come with that. Producing for others. Mastering. Making new mixes etc. To be honest, rarely get time for much else and when I do I like to spend time with my family, especially my daughter. I guess cooking is a keen interest of mine though and I’m starting to get into it more and more. I like reading too, I’ve been making my self read a lot more recently. And working out, that’s become something I’m very into and although not a hobby its something i enjoy studying and finding out more about. So it’s kinda like a hobby to me now in that sense. I do love a bit of TV, movies and football though.
Quick fire questions Eddy, what’s your favourite choice of food?
A chicken or beef roast dinner is probably my favourite meal of the week. I eat a lot of Italian style food too. I used to be a junk food addict but I can’t believe I used to eat that shit now. I’d still smash an In N Out Burger though if given the opportunity haha.
Favourite up and coming Dubstep producer?
Ternion Sound. But I guess they are more up there now, than up and coming. JFO is an incredible producer, so is 11th Hour. Nova’s been doing some great things too. And Roadsbeaf. I like Ellis Delta too. All such promising new artists with a lot of good music being played out there right now.
What’s your favourite film? Have you ever incorporated film music or scenes to a track? E.G taking a voice quote and adding that to the build up of a track for tension.
The original Blade Runner. I’ve sampled the shit out of that film and I think everyone else has too. I use movie and TV samples a lot. I think its a great place to resource from. If you have the ear for it. It’s easy to get distracted from sampling and watch whatever it is and forget you’re sampling haha.
How do UK crowds compare to US crowds when you’re doing live shows?
They are all the one and the same man. Such enthusiastic people for the music we produce and play. I love the energy I see on both sides of the pond. Dubstep is in a really good place right now and we owe a lot of that to the US scene thriving and pushing things when it went quieter here in the UK on the party front. You see people from all over the world congregate on social media, expressing their love for the music and sharing photos and stories on posts about nights out, seeing their favourite DJs play and drop tunes they only had heard online prior to seeing them live.
Within the music scene, people struggle to sometimes find time to get what they need to do done, e.g producing, promotion, live shows etc. With that, what’s the longest you’ve gone without sleep to achieve/ needing to make a job complete?
I’ve gone 5 days straight on a total of 5 hours of sleep before. I was literally starting to hallucinate at points. Just taking 15 min disco naps here and there through the day. Duty calls though and you just have to soldier through. It’s nice to be busy and that in demand to be honest. Gratitude for that keeps me motivated in those situations.
You have played a shed load of festivals and shows. What’s your most memorable festival experience, whether that be as a consumer or an artist?
Outlook festival 2010, the first one at the Fort. I played in the Mungos area on the Mungos Hifi sound system to a few thousand people and it blew my mind seeing how far everything had come and accumulated to that point. I felt so blessed to be there and a part of something which has now become an historic event. The first at the fort. It was truly a momentous occasion. Everything else about it was incredible too. It was all dubstep, all of my friends there playing and partying together. Now If I could choose a Groundhog Day…. Haha
What’s your favourite tv show? (UK & US)
Another one of them hard to answer questions. UK first, it’s deffo Peaky Blinders at the top of the list for me. It was Luther, but they flopped that last season imo, and it’s tainted the whole thing for me now. We are quite spoilt really as we have some fantastic TV happening in the UK. US is where things get harder for me to choose as I usually prefer US shows over the UK ones. The first show that comes to mind is The Wire. But am I supposed to say shows that are currently on TV? Well, if that be the case then it’s probably Atlanta. I’m so dying for season 3. Better call Saul is starting to get really interesting too with all the back stories. Warrior is really good too.
What’s one thing about you that most people wouldn’t know about?
I ghostwrite a lot of music for a lot of people. Music you would never guess I made. I love seeing the online reactions to the tunes and especially the reviews. I still feel proud of them, even though my name isn’t on them. You can’t release everything you make for your self. You risk saturating your brand and watering down what you do have out there for sale and play. So seeing the music go to good use and get the air play it deserves is very self rewarding – before any sales transactions take place.
Last question mate. If you could deep fry anything in the world, what would it be?
My enemies.
Hahahaha, quality answer on the last question. Big up mate and thank you for taking the time out to answer some questions for us.
Check out our review of Uprise audios latest release HERE
If you wanna catch more of Eddy you can check his socials and label below –
https://soundcloud.com/seven-dubstep
https://www.facebook.com/SevenDubstep/
https://twitter.com/sevendubstepuk
https://upriseaudio.bandcamp.com/
https://twitter.com/UpriseAudio
https://soundcloud.com/upriseaudio
