Very few people can lay claim to having had such an impact on dubstep in the last decade as Vex’d have. Carefully crafting an aggressive, more mechanised strain, the production duo of Jamie Teasdale and Roly Porter were the progenitors of a whole new legion of producers and the ripples of their influence are still resonating across the hardcore continuum and through bass music in general. Their debut album, released in late 2005 by Planet Mu, remains one of the most accomplished and critically revered albums to have come out of the scene and their sophomore effort of sorts, ‘Cloud Seed’ – a collection of unreleased material (new and old) and remixes that worked perfectly as an album in its own right – has quickly gained the same sort of praise following its release, also on Mu, earlier this year.
Having stepped out from under the Vex’d umbrella over the last couple of years following geographical relocations, Jamie has been making his own serious waves with his solo material. 2 EPs on Mu, the first under the Jamie Vex’d moniker and the 2nd under the Kuedo guise, as well as a smattering of remixes for Hotflush Recordings boss Scuba and Philly bass pundit Starkey has seen him delve into entirely new territory and in many ways his material has been the antithesis of Vex’d’s precise industial work. Drawing on slouching beats, vibrant multicolour sound palettes, kaleidoscopic synths and juddering bass his recent ‘Starfox EP’ was one of the most exciting things to have come out of the recent surge of skewed beat makers.
With Kuedo set to touch down in Room One this Friday as part of Tectonic’s debut takeover (featuring Pinch, Skream, Kryptic Minds, Youngsta, Pursuit Groves and DJ ThinKing) we shot him some questions about his projects, old and new, his native Berlin and a whole lot more.
Hi Jamie! How are you doing? Could you please introduce Kuedo for those who might not be up to speed?
I’m good thank you. How's you? Kuedo is a name I'm using for some of the music I do. I needed to get more spacey and warm than Vex'd would allow and Kuedo is the space for that. It doesn't mean anything in particular. I pronounce it Que-do... like Cluedo without the L.
Have you always been producing solo stuff outside of the Vex’d project?
Yep of course. I've been writing tunes off and on since I was 13. I didn't try to release any of it until Vex'd, but I was always in the habit of writing music outside of that.
Why did you decide the time was right to focus more on your solo material?
A lot of ideas had been building up for a while, things developing within and around me, and this growing pressure to be more natural and personal in the kind of music I create. The right time was actually from the beginning, I could've done the two, but honestly I lacked confidence... I was hiding behind Vex'd a little bit. But when the internal pressure to follow up on writing a different kind of thing started really building up, consuming a lot of my thoughts, I realised the best thing was to dive in and take it on by myself.
Initially your solo material was under the Jamie Vex’d name. Why did you decide to make the move to the Kuedo alias?
Putting out a record as Jamie Vex'd felt natural at the time but ultimately that music was a new project, it's not a division of another one. Plus it's too close to being personal, using my first name, I need some space between the output and my home world. I don't know how permanent it will be, I'll let it have its own life. I’m sure I'll have different projects eventually, by myself or with others. In the DJ world some people totally merge their inner sense of self with their work projects, that's kind of dangerous sometimes, that can get messed up. To me they're just project names, words to describe a set of ideas, they live and die in their own time; they have their own lifespans. Also, if I met another musician who was totally inspired by the same ideas and we worked well together, there is nothing really to stop us from writing Kuedo tunes together. That would get weird if we were called Jamie Vex’d though, that would get awkward.
The music you are making now is very different to what you were making as part of Vex’d. Is this - the more hip hop influenced, synth driven side of things - something that you have always been into?
I wouldn't put it down to this genre or that, it's more trying to paint different kinds of pictures and stories. In a way its easier writing Kuedo beats though, because it's closer to most of the music I've listened to through out my whole life. And yes, hip hop & colourful melodic music have been a big part of that.
Given how different the two projects are, do you think that there is anything that ties them together - that runs through all of your music?
Most of all the music I've written is in some way about cities, and looking toward the future. They definitely share that. And just, being ethical about the whole process... having decent intentions.
Do you find that the two projects have influenced each other?
I don't know yet honestly. We're going to have see how that pans out.
Do you think that being based outside of the UK has affected your music or the way you work at all?
I love London with all my heart, I miss it so often, but often that city will not love you back. It gives the people in it a certain kind of energy to make music with but I took in enough of that to take with me somewhere else. It's really nice having a distance from a particular scene that we had gotten way too close with. It's made me more romantic about UK rave music, by easing off the claustrophobia I had with it in London, but also a soft disconnection with it's the core, which I really needed. I've found that freedom in Berlin; a warmth in the neighbourhoods that will love you back. There's a good scene of people into the same kind of music thats really grown in the last year. Of course your environment changes your work, the skyline around you does, but I can't say exactly how...
Of course, the Vex’d ‘Cloud Seed’ album came out recently on Planet Mu. Are you still making any material as Vex’d? And do you have any plans for future releases?
Roly came over earlier this year to write new tracks. If we finish something that's right, it will get released.
What have you got in the pipeline for Kuedo? Do you have any plans for a longer project?
It's been a crazy year for personal reasons but things are evening out now and yes it's been album time for a long while now. I don't really make plans for releases any more, my plans are on ways to stay as creative as possible and just see what comes out of it.
How did your links with Pinch and the Tectonic stable come about?
I met Rob when I moved to Bristol for a while. He helped put out my first release with Roly on a label called Subtext, which then morphed into Tectonic...
Are you looking forward to your set in Room One?
I look forward to playing music on a loud as fuck, amazing system, yes.
