How Was 2012 For You?: Catching Up With Pearson Sound

Whilst he’s been taking stock, contemplating and re-focusing his attention on his creation process there’s been little actual, ‘official’ sound from Pearson Sound this year. And if the worlds’ prepared to be brutally honest with itself, that’s not been a very good thing. Having pioneered a machine drum indebted soundset that slinked and boomed on massively successful tracks like ‘Glut’ and ‘Work Them’, an approach he underlined with this year’s self-released ‘Untitled’/’Footloose’ 12”, his only other release this year, the three track Clutch 12” on his co-run Hessle Audio label, hinted at a bit of an stripped down evolution. With an appearance playing here alongside techno don Morphosis in Room Two for Craig Richards’ The Nothing Special in Room Two this Saturday and the next instalment of his Hessle Audio residency confirmed as the album launch for his pal Ben UFO’s FABRICLIVE 67 CD on Friday 11th January 2013, we figured we’d try and figure out where he’s at in December of 2012… How was 2012 for you? 2012 has been a strange year really. I took 2 months away from DJing early in the year which was amazing. I think I needed to have a break after a pretty relentless 18 month touring schedule before that. It refreshed me musically, and gave me some space to really think about what I wanted to be writing, as well as time to actually write music. And that's where the Hessle single came from. It was great to be able to do 'normal things' on the weekend with my girlfriend and my friends for once! After the break, I was back DJing again, but I decided to keep it relatively chilled out this year which has also been very helpful for my music. In the last few months I’ve written more music than I’ve done in the last 2 years. I have previously always been very productive, so in the last couple of years when I have been too busy or tired to write music properly, it's been frustrating. It's been nice to see others take the spotlight this year too, and nice to be out of the hype machine for a bit. Obviously you were quiet over the 12 months, release wise, almost too quiet. What was it, like two 12”s and a collabo with Joyddika. What have you been doing? I've been refreshing my studio setup, sourcing new sounds, new equipment, and changing the way I have been working which has been very fruitful so far. As I said, I have been writing lots of music but just not quite sure how I want it to be released yet, so rest assured I haven't just been sitting in my pants all year doing nothing! I saw my 'Untitled' 12" as me drawing a line under a previous set of sounds, and the HES022 'Clutch' single as introducing the next stage, so my year has been bookended by those two releases. Hessle feels like it might have been a bit more of a focus even though the frequency of releases has been as cautious as ever. Is that fair? Or do you think you’ve more all been focusing on your solo projects? Yeah, we've had 5 releases this year which is quite a lot for us really! It's been exciting to go back to our roots and be releasing music by newcomers and releasing some pretty challenging stuff this year. Then we obviously ramped things up for Kev's EP project, ‘Release’ which we are really proud of. You’re playing for the second time ever on a Saturday night here, do you find you prepare yourself in a different way to the Hessle residencies? Yeah, musically it will be quite different as I’m playing in Room Two as well as it being on a Saturday night. I’m really looking forward to it because on Fridays I normally end up leaning towards a more grimey UK sound, whereas that's not really the vibe on Saturdays. The crowd is different too, and the night is paced differently on a Saturday. I’m definitely going to be bringing a big bag of vinyl along with me, and I’ve got 2 hours to play so there's plenty of room for experimentation. Pearson Sound plays Room Two this Saturday. His Hessle Audio empire returns to Room One on Friday 11th January to mark the release of Ben UFO’s FABRICLIVE 67 CD. Photo: Sarah Ginn