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Introducing: Clarity & His FABRICLIVE x Samurai Mix

As Clarity, the Bristol based Owen Brown has been rapidly making a name for himself in drum & bass circles after being discovered at the tender age of 14. Seemingly a production natural, by his 16th year he’d written music that was being supported by d&b luminaries like dBridge, Doc Scott, Grooverider and Loxy with inevitable signings to respected labels like Med School, Cylon, Horizons and Exit Records all following on from that early support. With a minimal and unique sense of groove he’s helping d&b to forge itself down new and interesting avenues whilst simultaneously studying at university and with an appearance slated here on Friday 31st May at Samurai Music’s debut Room Three takeover and word of an album on the way, he figured it was high time we let him introduce himself properly. Download: Clarity - FABRICLIVE x Samurai Mix How would you describe the music you make in more detail? The music I make definitely touches on the darker side of drum and bass and draws in a lot of influence from techno. I wouldn’t like to pigeon hole myself and say I only write dark music but it seems like that’s the vibe that engages me the most when I’m writing. I’ve always had a minimal ethic so a lot of my stuff is really reduced in terms of how many elements are used. I like to focus more on the organic aspect of music as well, rather than using more recognisable digital sounds all the time, I’ve recently been using my own field recordings and stuff like that to try and add depth to tunes. It’s hard to pinpoint my exact sound because I think the approach that producers take to their music is always evolving with each track they make and that’s something that rings true with me. You started early garnering support for your music by about 16, right? What was it that made you want to devote hours of computer time to it? Yeah, it was around that age when I started to feel like my music was going somewhere. I was getting good feedback from artists and labels that I looked up to and I had a couple of releases at that point so it gave me the confidence to carry it on further. It was a hobby that I liked doing so it made sense to utilise it and I felt that I was gradually developing my own sound from it, people were starting to book me and play my tunes in mixes and that’s what really got me in to it. There was something quite cool about seeing my own music being pressed on vinyl too, haha. Do you still enjoy it as much now? It’s hard to say really. Obviously there’s a lot more pressure now to release quality music regularly and in a way you’ve got to be more consistent, so it takes a lot more time. When I first started writing music there were more chances to play around with different ideas and genres, I still do that now but there’s less chance to do so. I’m currently studying at university so the time that I have for music is put into writing music that I’ll release, so there’s a lack of experimentation and time to play about. I’ve always liked the sense of community between producers and working closely with labels and that’s something that I really enjoy now; getting the chance to meet new people and travelling to different places that I wouldn’t really have had the chance to do without music, so it’s wicked really. You’ve just signed an album to Samurai. Can you tell us about the record at all? How does it feel to be launching a new venture on a label like that? Samurai Music is one of those labels that allow its artists full creative input and you can see that clearly from their Horo series. I’ve always wanted to release music there because of that so I’m really excited to be given the opportunity to work in that way. For me that’s what doing albums are all about, having the chance to present music more as a project and being able to explore different tempos. More than anything it’s a chance for me to challenge myself a bit more and hopefully it will be harder for me to fall into old production habits. What else is coming up for you this year? Music wise I’ve got a tune called ‘Sombre’ which will be coming out on Samurai’s 10th Horo release pretty soon. A tune called ‘Constant’ coming on dBridge’s Exit Records - that will be on Mosaic Volume 2. I’ve also got a couple of bits forthcoming on a various artists LP on Loxy’s Cylon Recordings. As well as these, I’ve recently got the masters back for a single that I’ve done with Ruffhouse and that will be surfacing on Critical’s Modulation series pretty soon, so there’s a lot to look out for. Tell us about the mix you’ve made? It’s an hour long mix that showcases the side of drum and bass that I’m into at the moment. It’s basically a collection of material from people that have been kind enough to send me music and represents the sort of stuff that I’m playing out recently. There are a few new bits from myself in there as well, so I hope you enjoy! Catch Clarity appearing in Room Three at the Samurai hosted Room Three on Friday 31st May.
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