JDNB Interview: DJ Komatose
31 year old Ashley Perera, aka DJ Komatose, is a Software Engineer by day and a crowd-pleaser by night. The born and raised Brummie has 17 years mixing experience under his belt, and has been known to work the ones and twos on both vinyl and digital. Now with his own well refined minimalistic and dark style, he’s been producing his own music for the last 15 years but the pandemic and lockdown proved advantageous, as 9 months of hard graft while furloughed saw his production game take off. With his latest release ' Cream of the Drop EP' out now on 24 Karat Recordings, we thought we would have a chat about the release and all things DJ Komatose.
Hi and thanks for chatting with us at JDNB?
Tell us a bit about yourself and where you are from?
I am Ashley Perera, 32 and I am from the sunny city of Birmingham. By day I'm a software engineer and by night I play gully riddims to crowds of people haha.
What music did you grow up listening to?
I grew up listening to lots of different styles of music but to pick a couple of really big influences I would have to say rock music & grime / hip hop. I spent my early teens listening to lots of Nu Metal. Think Limp Bizkit, Korn & Linkin Park. I think the hip hop influences there and the rise of grime music throughout the council estate gave me a natural progression into urban music.
What track first got you into jungle / drum and bass?
I still remember it to this day. It was a CD copy of Shy FX - Shake ur Body. I absolutely rinsed the life out of that CD. It was nice and accessible for a 12 year old with no prior knowledge of DnB.
What would you say has been your 3 biggest achievements so far within the drum and bass scene?
Getting my first ever signing, supporting Break & Halogenix on the first rave back after lockdown. Successfully promoting my own event in Birmingham
How long have you been producing for and what was your first official release?
I’ve been producing for close to 15 years now. But before the pandemic, it was more of a hobby, you know. I just liked making dnb. My output would be one or two tunes a year and a hell of a lot of unfinished projects. Getting furloughed for 9 months during the height of the pandemic was easily the best thing to happen to my production. I had the time to just sit there and make loads of music and with each track came a slight improvement in production quality. Now my output has gone from one or two tunes a year to one or two tunes a week.
MY first official solo release was a drumstep remix of The Infekted’s Dot SK. On the B side was a Dubstep tune called Warrior (i know! Dubstep! hahah). That came out on Special Records in 2012.
What does your studio consist of and what’s your fav plug-in?
My studio is pretty simplistic because I'm not really into hardware all that much. I have a pair of Focal Alpha 65s for studio monitors, Focusrite 2i2 interface and a tiny Akai MPK mini, that’s it!
I can’t stress enough how good the FabFilter bundle is. The Pro-Q 3 is absolutely out of this world. I don’t use any other EQs. Second to that would be the Blockbox HG-2 Saturator plugin. I use that on pretty much all my busses. It has a really nice warmth to it.
Any new producers we should be keeping our ears open for?
Our scene is absolutely blessed at the moment, there is so much good talent coming through. In particular for me is R3IDY, he’s really coming into his own recently. He’s just had a release on Trex’s label Trust Audio and also got a remix of one of my tracks on the way, so keep ya eyes peeled for that. Also my pals Eekyu have just started putting out some naughty jump up style tracks, so watch out for them too.
Your ‘Cream Of The Drop EP’ on 24 Karat Recordings is finally upon us, which track did you have the most fun making?
Now that I think about it, I'm gonna say Bumbaa. Purely because I knew I wanted a sample that shouted ‘bumbaclarrrrt’. So i had to sift through so many different ‘bumbaclarts’ to find the right one. Imagine what the neighbours must have thought?
Where do you get your inspiration from when making tracks?
It comes from a lot of different places. Sometimes I'll hear a track on the radio and think to myself ‘this has bootleg potential’ and even if it doesn’t come to fruition as a bootleg, I might be inspired by some of the melodic aspects of the track.
What bit of advice would you give up and coming producers?
Practice, practice, practice!
Don’t look to get every tune signed as soon as it’s finished. If you’re new to the game, the chances are your tune sounds poop. So sit on it. Store it in a folder for 6 months and then come back to the project with everything you’ve learned since and improve it.
If you could remix one track from24 Karat, which one would it be?
BOTB - I Can Feel It. That track is a bit of me. Dark rolling subs and heavy drums. Right up my street.
Just for fun, you can book 5djs and 5mcs, who are you booking?
A.M.C & Andy C are obvious choices right? Birmingham’s very own Frenetic - she is a wizard on 4 decks. Amoss and Enei.
For MCs i’d pick Azza & Grima, Inja, Eksman & Harry Shotta
What are your goals for the next year?
I’d like to have a release on one of the labels i love. Critical, dispatch or flexout. So just gonna aim for that. A booking every weekend would be nice too.
What would you say you like most about the www.jungledrumandbass.co.uk website?
It’s clean, friendly and 100% around the subject of jungle & drum n bass
Thanks for your time. Lastly, any thanks or shoutouts?
Matt E & MC Daddy G for the support over the last two years. My SkankOut team; Zed, Tone & Mully for being my sounding board, The label heads who have given me an opportunity; Danny Styles, Pablo G, Faysha, High Demand & Enigma and Luke over at Drippyboii.
'Cream of The Drop EP' by DJ Komatose is out now on 24 Karat Recordings: Download HERE
DJ Komatose Socials:
Beatport / Juno / Soundcloud
Facebook / Twitter / Instagram
24 Karat Recordings Socials:
Juno / Soundcloud / Facebook
Interviewed And Edited By: Chilla
Published: 29/05/2022
