Berlin-based xxxy has made a name of himself with his fresh take on garage influenced house and techno.
Rupert Taylor aka xxxy has come a long way since he started making music in his bedroom. The 2011 RBMA alumni has put out releases on the likes of Ten Thousand Yen, Format, Mindset, Infrasonics and Fortified Audio, recorded podcasts for Boiler Room, FACT, XLR8R or Solid Steel and hosted numerous radio shows on Rinse and NTS.
Drawing as much influences from New York and New Jersey house as from UK garage, bass and techno, xxxy’s eclectic output has been well received by music aficionados around the world. We caught up with the man to find out what inspires him to produce this distinctive blend.
Soul:R Soul:ution Marcus Intalex
Growing up in the suburbs south of Manchester it was hard to find good dance music. The Internet was in its infancy and radio was sporadic with it’s coverage of decent dance music. It wasn’t until I moved to Manchester for University that I became fully immersed in all things dance music.
My first real love was DNB but sadly in the early 2000s a lot of it was too techy or clowny for my tastes. There was, however, a scene pushing more soulful and rolling dnb and central to that, as far as I was concerned, was a label called Soul:R and a party called Soul:ution.
Most of my first record purchases were the classic brown sleeved Calibre, Marcus Intalex, MIST, D.Kay and MISTICAL records and some of my best nights were spent at soul:ution nights.
Sadly Marcus Intalex passed away very recently, his we will be greatly missed by everyone who was influenced by his music, parties, label and personality.
Electric Chair, the Music Box, Manchester
I wasn’t only listening to DNB when I was a student in Manchester. I would regularly go to the Music Box to Electric Chair parties, in a dirty basement with all my mates dancing to the best DJs in the world there was no place I would rather have been at the time.
Dog Walks
Before I got my dog I had been known to not leave the house in between gigs, sitting in my home studio and trying to make music constantly. It didn’t work out so well creatively, now I am forced to leave the house and walk for at least an hour a day, it’s great for clearing my head and to take some time away from working on a track and come back to it with fresh ears.
Spencer Kincy mixes
When I was a kid Andy C was my djing hero. I would try and ID and track down every record from his sets. These days it’s Spencer Kincy, the only music I have on my phone is 5 Spencer Kincy mixes and if I am on the move they are perfect listening material. I have notes on my phone with times in the mixes for IDs to track down and I reckon I probably have about thirty records that I heard first in his mixes.
Maxforlive
Ableton is a fantastic piece of music software, but Maxforlive pushes it to another level. Theres a whole bunch of amazing synths fx and midi devices but my favourites are Magnetic, Bengal, Oscillot and the Granulator ii.
xxxy will be released on Ten Thousand Yen on June 19th. Pre-order your copy here.
