Komonazmuk has cultivated a repuatation as one of the most interesting, forward thinking producers in bass music at the moment. After some top drawer releases on labels such as Apple Pips amd Terminal Dusk, he released his superb self-titled debut LP on the awesome HENCH Records earlier this year to much acclaim.

Komonazmuk is bringing his trademark blend of dubstep, garage and low end house to Cable this Friday the 21st September for the massive HENCH Takeover!! We caught up with him for a quickfire interview…

Komonazmuk, what’s been keeping you busy lately?

After relasing my debut album I started performing my abelton sets and decided to put a bit of time into this. I recently moved house and studio so I’ve had a little break from writing.

Can you tell us a bit about your what you’ve been working on recently?

I was asked to do a remix for Kosheen to follow up from the last remix i did a few years ago. Id recently done several feature’s for Computer music and had wanted to use some of the samples I created for this.
Arkist an I wanted to write a track more gear’d towards the Detroit techno scene. T-Model is what came from this. Its not dubstep in any way or form.

How did you first get into electronic music?

I originally was into hardcore back in 1990-91 and really wanted to be a dj. i collected everything i could get my hands on. Vinyl, Tapes, flyers the lot. this slowly turned into studio equipment and led to Ice Minus

And what came first for you, DJing or producing?

Djing

What brought on the change from your Drum & Bass alias Ice Minus to making dubstep as Komonazmuk?

At the time we decided to stop Ice Minus D&B was in a really funny place. Every tune sounded exactly the same. IMO a bunch of formulated crap. So we stopped. Ice minus was never about cloning what was big at the time. I looked at every tune completely fresh never using the same breaks or sounds. When I was introduced to Dubstep by Headhunter i was like fuck me this is it. Everyone is on there own mission. you could hear the individuality in the tracks, I knew it was where I wanted to go with my sound.

And how would you describe the music you make at the moment?

Im halfway between somewhere and nowhere, I love anything techy. My sound drifts through lots of emotional states. i find most dj’s start as producers so they don’t learn about mixing tunes…. there to scared to take risks and  just play drop to drop. Im from the era where it was rare to hear a dj play the same track as the dj before. Its like going to an all you can eat and just eating the same dish.

How has your production style evolved? 

Well back in the day it was purely sampling so i was limited to progressing the chords etc. now i try to create everything from scratch. Im constantly learning new scales and chord progressions. I think musicians never stop learning or developing there craft.

Who have been your biggest musical influences?

Well this is pretty much everything from day to day life to growing up listening to the creation of Drum & Bass and Dubstep. Ive been lucky enough to have been around for ages, so I’ve seen/heard a lot happen over the years.

And what does the future hold for Komonazmuk?

Im working on lots of collaborations at the moment with people like Appleblim, Arkist, Gatekeeper and a couple of hush hush tings. Ill have the remix package to follow up from my LP shortly. This features some pretty hard D&B. Ive started a ambient LP that will just sit on the back burner until its ready.

You released a brilliant debut LP earlier this year on HENCH, tell us a bit about that, what was it like writing an album?

I was getting loads of bookings for straight dub step sets and it kinda was getting to me as i could hear the sound become so formulated it was getting me down. I took a bunch of tracks to the Hench office and they were straight on me to do an LP.

Writing it took about 18 months. I had 8 tracks that worked really well together but it took me a while to come with the final two. I think as time moves on your sound pallet can change very easily, stuff you thought was great can now annoy the shit out of you.

What 3 tracks sum you up best?

Theorem – Komonazmuk

Bad Apple – Komonazmuk

No Soul – Komonazmuk

Chew The Fat! & Dub All Or Nothing present The HENCH Takeover!

www.thefatclub.com / www.duballornothing.co.uk / www.dstyle.co.uk / www.cable-london.com