Earlier today, Mark Instinct unleashed his latest EP on Downlink’s label Uplink Audio. Featuring devastating drops, hybrid trap basslines, and tight verses from the legendary Armanni Reign, this 2-track EP has it all and so much more! We had the chance to talk to Mark, who has been a fixture in the bass music scene for as long as it’s been around, about everything from his latest EP and what he’s got planned for the rest of the year, to how he first got into the industry and what it’s like to be working with dubstep heavyweights like Excision and Downlink. Check it out!
How did you first get into the bass music scene? 
That one goes way back to the days when “bass music” was never really a thing. Electronic music around but the community was so small at that time. I fell in love with the culture of I guess… raving haha. I also fell in love with drum and bass. I bought some turntables 2 years before I got out of high-school and just kind of mixed all the dnb i could afford to buy on a shitty after school job pay. From there I just started to take it a little more seriously, it all felt natural.
These tracks feature a lot of hip hop influences, does this kind of style come more naturally to you than other kinds of bass music? If not, which styles do come more naturally?
Well like drum and bass I felt always had that hip hop vibe, some of the earlier dnb tracks had breaks that were mashed with hip hop cuts and vocal cuts to make some of the tuffer sounds that emerged when drum and bass started to evolve. I had always listened to hip hop growing up too so the combo of the 2 really have influence now.
I grew up listening to him when, he was doing his thing with MC Sharpness and the TEKDBZ camp. Like that shit was my soundtrack on the bus everyday going to school for a LONG time. It was always kind of a dream of mine to meet him let a lone work with him, haha! We hit him up when Adroa and I made the preliminary tunes for what became the Suicide Pill EP and from then on I just kept sending him tunes.
Working with him has been awesome, we jive well I feel and we have a good solid history of stuff we’ve worked on. With costs of flights and studio time, we just send files via email. I do all the editing and mixing here from home so it works out.
It is just one of those things thats been around for forever, it has soul and life. Drum and Bass is a living, breathing all powerful super god cockroach that could survive the worst nuclear explosion ever… EVER. And IMHO is one of the best genres around, housing some of the best engineers and producers in the game. HANDS DOWN.
It’s been really dope. I have always looked up to them both as artists and as engineers. To be able to push Canadian music to the masses alongside them is all the more inspiring and a huge blessing.
Stay true to you. Don’t take shit personally and ALWAYS put fades in your samples 😉
Tonnes of stuff! I have a couple more with Armanni we are wrapping up ATM as well I have some super dope solo stuff in the pipes. There is no shortage of colabs either and I will be getting those out there ASAP. As for tour dates I will be releasing info on that early in 2015!! Very stoked to unleash that news!
