Introducing Locked Groove & his fabric Promo Mix

Whatever music publication you turn your eyes to this year, the powerhouse status of Scuba’s Hotflush imprint seems pretty well defined at the moment. There are just so many artists from their roster who seem to be getting their moment at the minute – whether that’s Sigha who celebrated his ‘Living With Ghosts’ album with us last weekend or the appearance of label boss Scuba and signees Dense & Pika taking to the Room One booth on the 2nd February. This weekend though, we’ve got another Hotflushian, Locked Groove (aka Tim Van de Meutter), the Antwerp based producer with a vintage-analogue leaning ear. Springing out from the ether at the beginning of last year, de Meutter instantly grabbed the music criticland’s attention with his Rooted EP, further impressing with a steady stream of releases over course of the year that follwed. 12 months on and he’s ready to enjoy the fruits of his labour across a packed tour schedule and a double vinyl pack release, which promises to be heavy on influence from his Belgian rave heritage, this February. Ahead of his Farringdon debut this weekend, the fresh faced producer has created this exclusive promo mix for our blog and taken the time for a quick chat so we can get to introducing him a bit better… DOWNLOADLocked Groove fabric Promo Mix So when and where was it you first got inspired in music, what kind of stuff did you first get into? Music has always played a big role in my life, I first got inspired to do something with music through my dad's record collection, and I’ve also played the piano since I was about 11. I can't really say it was one specific thing that inspired me to make music or get more involved in music, I think it's more a combination of factors. Was it always quite house based or did you start out somewhere else? I did some projects before Locked Groove, when I started out making my own music, I recorded little pieces of music from old records and made my own disco edits in audacity. After that I did some explorations into dubstep and drum & bass, but after I while I realized that wasn't where my love was, so I guess you can say house always was a big influence on me. When did the move come to start producing yourself? I used to work in a record store in Antwerp, it was there where my interest in making my own music really grew. After a while of hearing all this music that was coming through the store, I decided to have a serious go at it. Where is it you call home right now? Do you feel that lends anything to your creativity? Antwerp is what I call home. Someone said in an interview, “Antwerp is like a big city with a village feeling.” I kinda liked that quote. It's not a huge city, but you have all the things you have in a big city, only in walking distance. It definitely helps that this city is swarming with creative people. Be it, painters, fashion designers, creative people in general. So yes, the city contributes to my creativity It was just last year that your first releases emerged, firstly on Hotflush then on Turbo – how were you active with music before this? I worked in a record store and dabbled in dub step & d&b. Nothing too serious, I also continued playing piano, both in school as for my own enjoyment. How did those label hook ups come about? They’re big gigs for your first few releases? I can't say I send out any demos really. The 3 tunes Hotflush signed for my first release was basically one of the first tunes I made as Locked Groove. I got introduced to Scuba through a mutual friend, and I sent him drowning just to check if he liked it and that was it really. With turbo it was Bordello (who was a turbo intern at that time) who contacted me, asking me to do a release. What does 2013 hold for you? Is an album something you want to work towards following the singles? A lot of touring, I’m releasing a double pack on Hotflush late February, it's gonna be something different from the previous releases, all I can say is, there will be something for the house heads but most certainly for the techno heads as well. The EP is going to be called Heritage, because most of it is inspired on Belgian musical heritage, rave, house, techno etc... There's going to be another Turbo release as well. For the rest, we'll see what the future holds, anything is possible. Locked Groove will be in Room Two this Saturday joining Sandwell District and Staffan Linzatti (Live), for more info and tickets go here.