Dodge & Fuski and 12th Planet are arguably two of the best names in dubstep right now, even if they’re not necessarily the biggest. 12th Planet has been producing bass music for 17 years under a couple different names, but his mission has remained the same from the very get-go: melt faces.
Dodge & Fuski, though younger, quickly rose to prominence via Never Say Die from 2011-2013 but have been a little less active lately. Now just one man, Dodge & Fuski is breathing life back into his project and damn, it sounds good.
You guys have known each other for a while. What finally prompted the decision to do a collab?
Dodge & Fuski: We’ve been talking about doing a track together for a while, and John is a massive Game Of Thrones fan/historian so the idea just popped into my head one day and the rest is history.
12th Planet: Rob & I have known each other for years, but I think the thing that held us back from collaborating in the past was the fact that Rob lived in England, and I lived in LA. I prefer to collaborate with artists in the same room, so it basically took Rob moving to LA, to get this collab on the books. I have been a fan of Dodge & Fuski for years, and having the opportunity to collaborate with Rob was an awesome experience.
You obviously had a lot of fun with it, considering the intro. How did you decide to go that route as opposed to just a typical rise?
D&F: There was a track I did called Pornstep years ago which did a lot for Dodge & Fuski down to its memorable concept. People have stopped doing those kind fo tracks in recent times so I thought it was time for a revival of the concept track.
12th: I was eating some Tacos with Rob in Downtown LA when he came up with the idea of making a “role playing” type song. We bounced around ideas of a space adventure themed song, a time travel adventure theme, and a medieval adventure theme. When we got to the studio and played around with some Foley effects, the medieval idea just immediately got everyone in the room pumped. I am a huge Game of Thrones fan, so I put on my best Kit Harrington accent and laid down the intro with Rob.
John – you’ve been making bass music for nearly a decade. You were making “riddim” long before it had a name. But once it had a name, it seemed like everyone wanted to jump on the train. Your EDCLV 2014 set was a huge inspiration on how to do dubstep right at a festival. What do you say to producers just now getting into the game and wanting to jump on the wagon?
I actually have been producing music for 17 years. I had a D’n’B moniker “Infiltrata” that I was producing under for about 8 years before I even played my first SMOG or heard of Dubstep. But back to the “riddim” side of things, I was heavily influenced by Mala, Jakes, Caspa, Rusko, and Skream when I was first getting into to Dubstep, but it wasnt until people like Subfiltronik, Megalodon and Badklaat, brought the old school style back recently, with a more ferocious intensity that I found myself digging for more artists that were creating the music in the same vein. From those guys I discovered an entire movement of “riddim” or “swamp” happening in my own backyard for years without me knowing. Shouts out to the Savage Society crew, Lower Levels crew, Dubloadz, Trollphace, Essence Audio, Sub.Mission crew, SMOG crew and Future Events for truly inspiring me as an artist.
Rob – you’ve been active for far less time than John, but you’re still quite successful in your own way. Do you look up to him as a mentor, friend, or more?
John is a culinary connoisseur, a peerless charmer of ladies and a level-10 13th century Knight impersonator, for which I shall always hold in in the highest of regards.
Back on a lighter note, where did you find the samples for the intro? And were any of them field recordings?
D&F: To be honest, I tend to use the search function in Bitwig Studio’s sample browser and I think I just typed ‘horse’ and ‘thunder’ into the search bar. Absolutely no idea where they were from other than my sample folder that I’ve been building for around 12 years. All the orchestral stuff was done using orchestral Kontakt and EastWest libraries.
12th: There are absolutely no samples in Big Riddim Monsta, aside from maybe some horse noises, and a few different telephones ringing in the background. Everything else is completely made up from scratch. Rob & I were looking to make an intro that had the vibes of “a “Nightmare Before Christmas,” or a “Corpse Bride,” So we started jamming in F# maj/minor to give the listener the feeling that it was this rainy atmosphere with a Dickensian mood in a medieval village setting. Once we got the vibes rolling, it was all up to me to give it my best medieval English accent.
Big Riddim Monsta / Jump is out Monday. Pre-order here.
