Huxley

The time spent working on the album must have had a big impact on the way you make music. How do you think you’ve progressed as an artist and producer over the last couple of years?

Self-doubt was my major problem at first but I think by the end of it I’d got over that. In terms of production skills, I started off making it in my house in Watford, then I moved to London and got a studio, made some of it there and then came back [to Hertfordshire] and finished most of it here. I think each step in those studios progressed my production level as well. By the end of the time in my studio in London I was the most happy I’ve ever been with my mixdowns, then here I felt that I was experimenting more with different sounds, whereas in Watford I’d never been out of my bedroom, basically. I’d always been a bedroom producer. Moving like that was kind of symbolic for me.

Just the change of location?

Yeah, I think so. Moving to a proper studio almost made me feel like a bit more of a professional, rather than some guy pissing around in his bedroom. It forced me to push myself a bit harder on making what I thought was a more professional sound. Not that some of my older stuff couldn’t pass for that, but I listen back and I find it hard listening to some of those records, production-wise.

But that’s really how it should be. There’s almost an assumption that once artists reach a certain level of success they’re the finished article, but it’s obviously rarely true.

Anyone who stands still, that’s when you get complacent.

As an artist you have to promote yourself but that shouldn’t mean you can’t admit there are still things you have to learn.

I think any good artist should try something different from each phase to the next. This album is kind of the end of a chapter for me. I’m not completely gonna change – obviously that’s not gonna happen – but now I want to move on to a bigger project.

Moving to a proper studio almost made me feel like a bit more of a professional, rather than some guy pissing around in his bedroom.

Have you already got ideas in mind?

We’ve got ideas bubbling around at the moment but there’s nothing concrete. It’s something a bit more interesting, I suppose. But nothing too concepty.

I can tell you’re not going to give me many clues here.

[Laughing] No, I’m not gonna tell you!

How has your self-confidence improved?

Two years ago, if someone sat in a room with me and asked me to listen to my own record, I couldn’t have done it. I’m still my own biggest critic, but now I have a bit more confidence to listen to my own stuff and be content with what I’m releasing. Before, my self-confidence was at a point where I couldn’t even understand why people listened to my stuff or liked it.

But this is back in 2012, when you were putting out loads of tracks and having plenty of success with it?

Yeah, people were feeling it. But now I think I’m getting to the point where I don’t give a fuck what people say as long as I’m happy with it. I still get annoyed when reviewers don’t like stuff, but it’s just an annoyance.

Do you read your own reviews?

All of them. I have to.

Yeah? Do you ever learn anything from them? Do you see that as constructive criticism?

Yeah, I think so. A lot of the reviews last year were talking about why I was just doing the same thing again, and that made me think, ‘Why am I doing that? I don’t need to.’

Looking back, what was the point where you first realised things were taking off for you and turning into something really serious?

When was ‘Let It Go’ released? Start of 2012? I can’t remember, but the summer before that I was releasing things on certain labels and it was going OK. I was having two or three gigs a month but I was still living at home because I couldn’t really support myself. It was starting to get a bit frustrating, being at home when you’re 26 and nothing looking like it’s going to turn a corner, then I did ‘Shower Scene’ and for some reason a few people like Kerri Chandler and Dyed Soundorom picked it up. I didn’t find that out until later in the year. By that point I was thinking maybe I’d start sending CVs out and get a real job, just do the music as a hobby. I’d already signed ‘Let It Go’ to Hypercolour and I liked it but I never knew it was going to do what it did for me, which was push my name further than just the small bubble of producer-DJs who were playing my stuff. ‘Let It Go’ was the turning point, then ‘Box Clever’ came out and it built from there.

I was thinking maybe I’d start sending CVs out and get a real job, just do the music as a hobby.

When you realised that you’d stepped up a level did it change your mindset at all? Did you start to second guess yourself about whether stuff was good enough or whether it was what people wanted?

For about six months to a year afterwards, every time I went in the studio I tried to write the next big record. I eventually realised that’s not the way to write a big record. You’ve just got to sit and jam and do what you feel, not try too hard.

I suppose I’m quite a competitive person. I always want to go bigger and try better things – I get bored very easily. I like to think of the next challenge, but you can never tell – it’s such a fickle business.