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Dubstep is on the way back, so says GhostChant
Other | Wednesday 23rd September 2015 | Christina
GhostChant, aka Joe Cornwell, is one of the country’s most exciting new producers. Inspired by the likes of Burial, Bonobo and MJ Cole, he creates rich, ambient electronica that has already won support from Rob Da Bank, Rinse FM and BBC 6 Music. We called GhostChant up to discuss his album drop, defying genres and the dubstep revival.
Hi Joe, how’s everything going?
Yeah it’s going well, just working towards the album, which is coming out, getting digital promos, singles and remixes ready.
Cool, and how’s your summer been?
It’s been nice, a lot of writing, writing new music. I had a little summer vacation to Spain, been doing a few gigs in London, DJ sets.
Nice! Did you do many festivals this year?
I haven’t done any festivals this year, I’ve just been focusing on getting the album together and all finalised really, that’s where the efforts have been going.
Have you not got an actual release date yet?
Yeah, it’s the 25th September and we’re going to have a single out in October, and probably another EP out in March with a few bonus tracks and stuff.
Are you going to do a lot of touring once the album’s out?
Yeah, we are talking to agents at the moment and trying to sort out some live shows from January on really.
So give us a bit of background – how did you first get into music?
I was really into like punk and hardcore and metal when I was about 14, 15, that’s when I started falling in love with music. Then when I got to uni and started getting into some more electronic stuff, from about 21 and then really worked on a sound, spent a lot of time writing electronic music influenced by dubstep, garage and hip-hop. I got a few residencies at some warehouse parties up in Liverpool supporting some good people and then developed the live show, quite a minimal live show supporting people like Submotion Orchestra and Gold Panda. It’s gone from there really with the BBE album and gigging and writing songs for the release really and for the label.
You said you were into hardcore and metal, did you ever play in a band?
I did yeah, I played in a few bands. I was in a band up in Liverpool and I’m actually playing bass in a hardcore band quite casually at the moment as well.
So how much has Liverpool influenced and impacted on what you do? It’s quite a big scene up there, you’ve got warehouse parties and Chibuku and things like that.
Yeah, yeah I owe a lot to Liverpool really, it gave me a lot of opportunities. The party scene is sick, there’s sick line-ups all over the place and as you said there’s a lot of warehouse things going on. I DJed at a night called Release for a couple of years, it had people like Zed Bias, XXXY, Klose One come down and play. It was awesome and it really helped me develop.
Did you actually study music or was it on the side?
No I did, yeah I studied music but didn’t really go in as much as I probably should have but I spent a lot of time writing music. I was there for three years and then stayed up in Liverpool for another year doing some DJing and it was all good really.
You probably get asked this next question a lot but I’m going to ask it anyway. How would you describe your music because it doesn’t really fit into one genre? You have bits from hip-hop, bits from dubstep, bits from garage, electro, so what do you call it?
Well I think I would just broadly term it electronica but being a bit more specific, maybe ambient bass music. Like you said there’s a combination of lots of different beat patterns and influences, that’s just what I’m going to try and stay true to with the rest of the releases, just keep experimenting with different tempos and style of beats but still keeping that aesthetic and sound that I’ve been trying to work on.
When I first heard your stuff, the first thing I could hear in it is dubstep. A lot of people have said that dubstep is dead now, do you think that the genre as a whole will ever come back or do you think we’ve moved beyond it and people are just drawing influence from it rather than making out-and-out dubstep?
I think it’s actually coming a little bit back on the up. I think a lot of the old school is resurging, the DMZ night on the other month was absolutely ram packed. One of the last sets I did at Release was with Mala so I think it’s coming back and still with the old school roots. I think when it did hit that media slump when it was twisted into something else, I think that was an important point and people being influenced and sort of spawned off into different sounds, and that’s where I found myself. But I think it is coming back, I think it’s both; I think people have developed and done their own thing with the old school dubstep sounds, and also I think the old school sound is coming back. A lot of pioneering DJs are getting more bookings, the Outlook stage still goes off, so I think it is coming back up.
That’s interesting because a lot of places in London like Plastic People, that was quite famous for a lot dubstep nights, have closed, but is it going to come back in a new way?
Yeah it’s coming back in a new way, those DJs can still find themselves on modern sounding line-ups. That whole UK bass sound has been an amalgamation of things like garage, dubstep, house and techno, so yeah it’s a nice little melting pot and I think the dubstep can still slip easily back into it all.
‘Reasons’ and ‘Habituary’ have both recently come out, you must be really pleased with the reaction they’re getting?
Yeah, yeah it’s been good, it’s been cool. ‘Reasons’ is bit of a personal favourite of mine because it was written with a good mate from uni, we’re mates now still, a very talented singer and we had a lot of fun doing that track. The ‘Habituary’ record was cool, it’s got SpaceGhostPurrp on it, I really like the beat, yeah really happy with it. People reacted in a good way and maybe in pockets of music that wouldn’t necessarily get to know me.
How did you get SpaceGhostPurrp to guest on it?
That was through a management thing about a year ago, a guy that I was working with back then got in touch with a contact who could sort it out, we sent him the beat and he wanted to do it. He made a few vocal tracks and sent it over to me.
And when you go about creating the tracks do you do the lyrics first or the beat, or does it depend if you’re writing with someone else?
Yeah the beat always starts first and then I’ll start getting a feeling for if it’s just going to be an instrumental or if there can be some good top line action going on top. Then I’ll send it to a vocalist who I think would fit the sound and do a good job with it.
You have quite a few guest vocalists on your tracks but do you sing yourself?
I don’t sing myself, no [laughs]. I’m terrible at singing. I’m blessed with knowing some very good singers.
Fair enough! Now do you have a show on Hoxton FM or do you just do guest stuff for them?
No I do, I have a show once a month on the first Saturday, 7-9pm. It’s a show hosted by myself and I just play really whatever I want, hip-hop stuff, electronica, dubstep. It’s a bit of a mix for about an hour, and then I get a guest DJ who I like and I get them to do a live mix for the last hour.
And how long have you been doing that for?
I’ve been doing that since May so it’s quite recent. I’ve got my mate Integer coming down to do another set. He smashed it the first time and really enjoyed it. He covered last month because I was away so I’ve got him back again because he’s quite hooked now. Then I’ll hopefully get Chris Read from BBE, I’m going to talk to him about it. Yeah maybe BBE next and a few of other DJ friends from London.
I’ve spoken to a couple of other DJs that do radio shows, like Low Steppa who does a show on Rinse, and he said that actually doing a radio show is much more preparation than doing a DJ set. Do you find that or do you find it more work doing a show?
Kinda, sometimes I might be lucky and find loads of good music really quickly but there might be times where I’ve left it to the last minute and I’m struggling to find good new tracks for the show. Yeah it’s a bit more impulsive when you go with what the crowd are saying, so I suppose it is a bit more preparation with the show rather than going with the flow like when you’re doing a live DJ set in a club.
You’ve been getting radio play yourself over in America, some stations New York and LA, is getting out to the States on your to-do list?
Yeah definitely, that’d be sick. I’d love to go to America, I’ve never been.
Oh haven’t you? That would be good if you could get some shows out there.
Yeah that would be sick.
Do you have any pre-show rituals you do before you play?
Just make sure all my new equipment is working, have a cigarette and a beer, that’s about it!
What’s been your proudest moment so far in your career?
I think the Bestival set was pretty sick just because I had loads of technical difficulties at the start. For about 20 minutes there was no one in there and by the end it was pretty rammed.
You pulled it back from the brink.
Yeah exactly. And I went out to Hong Kong, that was pretty cool, to do Clockenflap Festival. That was a live show at night on reclaimed land by the sea, we had the skyline, and it was the first time I played abroad as well. I’d just been writing music in my bedroom and now I’m on the other side of the world doing this, so that was cool.
What’s the worst job you’ve ever done?
There’s a lot [laughs]. I suppose picking up rubbish. Or dishwashing. I was a dishwasher boy for a while. That or picking up rubbish at a festival.
What’s the best party or gig you’ve ever been to?
A lot of the Release ones we put on in Liverpool were really good, and they were sick because it was me and my friends putting it on. Well I wasn’t putting it on but my mates were involved, getting some DJs down. Sharing those nights were always pretty good.
If you could fill a swimming pool with anything, what would it be and why?
I dunno, I think beer really.
Solid answer. So you said you’ve got the album coming out soon but what else are you most looking forward to for the rest of the year?
Really just doing a lot of shows, I think the most enjoyable thing about being in music is the live aspect of it, so just trying to get as many cool shows in as many cool places as possible.
So one more question, what would you do to make the world a better place?
Abolish all arms. Yeah.
Follow GhostChant on Twitter.
