Emperor

Purchase ‘Hello World’ EP.

Since his introduction into the Drum ‘n’ Bass scene in 2011, Emperor has been steadily making a real name for himself. His technical production skills are only rivaled by the biggest names in the Drum ‘n’ Bass world, the fact he’s collaborated with a vast amount of them is proof of that. With releases on Symmetry, Critical, Neodigital and Inspected, Emperor has proved himself in many parts of the industry. It now seems he has really found his definitive style and sound under Critical and his releases are a sure sign he is to become a household name in the very near future.

His most recent releases, ‘Hello World’ EP with the mighty Mefjus and his remix of Fred V & Grafix’s ‘Recognise’ have turned many heads and now we’re all waiting for his next movements. Having followed Emperor closely for the past 12 months and been waiting for the ‘Hello World’ EP to drop with huge anticipation, this is an interview I couldn’t wait to share. Here it is with huge pleasure I bring you an insight into the dark kingdom of Emperor.

Q: The thought of a collaboration between Emperor (real name Connor Corigan) and Mefjus (Martin Schober) is enough to raise any Junglist’s heart rate. Having said that, it also came as quite a surprise the pair were to embark on this project. So how did it all come about?

E: The process was quite natural really. Originally there was never an incentive to produce a collaboration EP, me and Martin had floated the idea around before but we never really had time to properly work on something together. I had produced a tune which I was happy with, but there was definitely some room for improvement on it so I sent it over to Martin. He changed a lot of the elements of the track and it gave the track just what it needed. After that we thought it would be cool to come up with the concept of two collaboration tracks, and I remix one of his tracks and vice versa.

Q: Although on the same label, Emperor and Mefjus reside over 1000 miles away from each other. With this in mind, it’s hard to imagine the pair working in the same studio. How did they manage the long distance relationship?

E: Originally we had some base ideas set in stone for what we wanted to work on, what would work well and what kind of vibe would be cool on an EP. But obviously due to myself being in Yorkshire, UK and Martin being in Linz, Austria it wasn’t like we could keep meeting up and constantly make changes to tracks. We had to meet up when we thought that we could finish the whole EP in one sitting, as opposed to sending ideas back and forth over the internet; We agreed that being together in the studio would be a massive benefit to the EP as a whole.

So after a couple months of us sending the projects back and forth via. Wetransfer, I got on a plane to Linz and stayed at Martins for a week. As I work in FL and Martin works in Cubase, it was difficult to think of how we would work on the tracks, so we figured that if we kept a ‘master’ project file open in Cubase and I worked on sections of the track in FL, we could export the stems from FL and drag them into Cubase and mix them down, which worked really well actually seen as Martin despises FL Studio, even though its the best thing since sliced bread.

We ended up putting a lot of different stuff into the tracks really, it was great to be able to agree or disagree on elements straight away and move on quickly, the process ended up going quite fast which was great for me, as I have a really short attention span when it comes to producing; I tend to scrap ideas quickly if I can’t get them to sound good in 30 minutes or so! We ended up experimenting quite a lot with different methods, synths, time-stretching basses and things like that. It was huge fun, we also ended up putting in some Analogue synth parts which I played and Martin recorded, you can hear them in the intros and outros of Disrupted and Void Main Void!

Q: Collaborations all work in different ways. Some people like to split the workload in a methodical way – one taking percussion one on bass and rhythm – whilst others prefer to let the process be much more organic. I wanted to know how the boys worked together.

E: Both of us have really different ways of producing, different methods and outlooks on how things should be done. I thought it would be difficult at first to work together but the whole thing seemed very natural, we both ended up taking certain roles definitely. Disrupted was about 80% there when I went over to Martins studio, and VMV was probably about 50-60% done, so when we decided to just have the main projects in Cubase Martin ended up doing the majority of the mix-downs etc.

I took more of an overseer/director role when we were working inside of Cubase, seeing what would work and what wouldn’t. To be honest the whole decision making process was a mutual thing. Then I’d go into FL and make 32 bars to add onto the tune, for example the middle section of VMV was done inside FL, but then exported into the Cubase project and mixed.

Q: Considering the pair both have such distinct styles and sounds, it must have been hard to blend the two very unique styles. Did they struggle?

E: At first, yes. Martin is definitely more of a perfectionist, whereas I’m a bit more about the soul of the track. That’s not me saying Martins tunes are soulless by the way! I just mean it in a sense that my worry is less about the mix and making sure everything is sonically balanced, which is a good and bad thing really. But to be honest it’s the perfect combination of outlooks to have on a track, because you have both a great vibe in each of the tracks but everything is produced to an Austrian standard 😉 There were definitely disagreements on certain elements of the tracks, but that’s only natural. We ended up learning a lot from each other!

Q: If you follow producers closely you may know that Mefjus (and many producers from the continent) can be meticulous yet unorthodox in their production techniques. Were there any unconventional techniques used on the ‘Hello World’ EP?

E: Lots of time-stretching! We also used a lot of Analogue stuff in the tracks which was unorthodox for us as, for the most part, me and Martin are mainly digital based producers. It was nice to put something that we actually played into the tracks, rather than just having sequenced sounds that don’t have as much character.

Q: Some producers like to work on a project with absolutely no preconceptions of how they want the end product to sound whilst others like to plan it out. What was the case with this EP?

E: We had a conversation before we started and said that we wanted it to be something that is about all of the tracks as much as it is about one of the tracks. Something that is a statement of our two sounds meshed together. A mix of technology and soul! That’s why we called it ‘Hello World’, because not only is it a reference to the Hello World computer program, but it’s also a debut of us two working together.

Q: When remixing such heavyweight producers, I’ve been told the pressure can really get to the artists who have the duty of putting their stamp on an already popular track. Did the mighty Emperor feel any pressure?

E: Oh definitely! The original version of the ‘Signalz’ remix was alright, but nothing amazing. Then a day after I’d finished it Martin sends me a message with his ‘Precursor’ remix, and I just said “Holy shit, I need to up my game!” and went back to the drawing board. I think we really just wanted the standard of the whole EP to be consistent throughout, rather than it being an EP with a great A-side and three token boring tunes alongside it.

Q: ‘Void Main Void’ has interesting  variation in rhythm. Personally, I think it’s great to hear when a track switches it up and changes the feel of the composition. Was this done intentionally?

E: I suppose it was us wanting it to be constantly interesting, ‘Void Main Void’ was a huge pleasure to work on because we scrapped the idea of a conventional Drum ‘n’ Bass structure and just went with whatever we wanted. We talked a lot about how older Drum ‘n’  Bass tracks had absurdly long intros, and how nowadays it’s really rare to see a track that has an intro longer than 48 bars and is interesting. We wanted to create something that you can listen to all the way through, rather than it being an EP where you listen to the main section for 30 seconds and then you’ve pretty much heard the whole tune.

Q: Seeing as he told me the thinking behind the title of the EP, I wondered whether there were any other explanations for the track titles.

E: ‘Disrupted’ was named so because of the bass pattern being quite off-beat and syncopated. It was a break from the usual 2-step style, and something different I guess! ‘Void Main Void’ was named after a function definition in C++, which in a nutshell means that Function does not return a value, and does not accept any passed variables. The computers voice talking in the intro explains it!

Q: Having worked alongside Ivy Lab, Mefjus and Kasra already this year – Emperor has been a part of some great collaborations. Given the choice, who would be the dream collaboration for him?

E: Jon Hopkins or Spor/Feed Me. Both are artists who have inspired me greatly over the past few years!

Q: In just 3 years he has developed and grown as an artist in a huge way but what for the future? Any plans for expansion?

E: I have plans for a band project under a different name, and also another moniker for my more down-tempo electronic stuff. I guess the plan is to start separating up my music so it makes more sense, rather than slapping everything together on my Soundcloud. For example, my track ‘Allure’ doesn’t make much sense when you place it alongside my remix of ‘Signalz’!

By the end of the year there will be another Inspected EP, as well as a solo EP on Critical. I’ve also just put out a remix for Fred V & Grafix too, so that’s been really good for me.

Q: Any other secrets for the rest of 2014?

E: Definitely, I have quite a few tracks already finished but probably won’t see the light of day till after summer. I’m also working on a solo album under a different alias, as well as an album for my band project. Busy busy!

Q: Talking of Summer, a busy time of year for any producer/DJ, are there any shows you should be putting into your diary? What’s the best festival from Emperor’s point of view?

E: Really looking forwards to Let It Roll on tour, as well as playing Room 1 at Fabric in May. My favorite show last year was definitely Outlook Festival. Sunny, everyone is happy, and tons of great music!

Q: And to finish it off – 5 tunes a Drum ‘n’ Bass DJ needs in their set?

E: Hello World EP 😉

Spor – Clarets March

DJ Fresh – Heavyweight

Aphrodite – Listen To The Rhythm

Break – Submerged (Calyx & Teebee Remix)