JDNB Interview: Redpine & Solo
Redpine & Solo (aka: John Stuckey & Sam Moss) return after a brief hiatus, although they’ve been far from absent from the wider drum & bass scene.
Solo is part of the License to Jungle crew following a plethora of performances at the renowned venue The Old Red Bus Station in Leeds. Playing host to the likes of Fracture, Om Unit, Dom & Roland, J Majik, Mantra, Dillinja, Klute and Ant TC1, it was inevitable the club night would solidify his place within the underground drum & bass sphere. And whilst Solo may have been keeping the world of music entertained, Redpine was living in sonic solitude to work on his own Workshop and Design Studio. However, they now join forces once more for their collaborative effort Redpine & Solo, which sees them pulling together their immense skillsets for their recent EP on Studio Rockers. A place both artists have frequently called home.
Missrepresent sat down to catch up with them.
Thanks for taking time out! How has 2020 been for you so far what with the COVID-19 situation?
2020 before covid was looking like a great year – we had some music due to come out on Studio Rockers, Licence To Jungle (the Leeds club night that I help run) had some big plans, and I got engaged to my partner. Then when this situation took hold, a lot of those plans were up in the air. It’s definitely been tricky, as everyone must be feeling. Not seeing family and friends has been tough and the constant negative news cycle has definitely taken its toll. Looking for positives – there has been more time to write music, which has helped keep me sane.
Tell us about the names Red Pine and Solo. How did you come to these?
So the name ‘Solo’ was something I chose before the Star Wars reboot had been announced, which with hindsight, was a dreadful idea, haha. I should have thought a lot harder about finding a more unique name because it’s virtually impossible to find my music on the Internet! We decided on the combination of Redpine & Solo rather than trying to come up with a new name mainly because we were still building our individual identities. Shameless self promotion really.
Take us back to beginnings of both of your music careers, how you got into music and what genres always attracted you.
I was into the Californian Punk / Punk-Rock stuff (Fat Records, Epitaph etc.) as a young teenager which got me interested in playing the guitar. John (Redpine) and me went to the same secondary school and both played in local bands around this time. My band self-recorded our album, and although I was very much an observer rather than the engineer, this definitely started my interest in using computers to write and record music. As I started to get into more electronic based music, I managed to get hold of a cracked version of Reason and started dabbling with that. John was already doing a bit of live sound and recording bands, so I used to hassle him to show me how to produce and mix. Genre wise, Drum and Bass has been the one constant interest since my mid teens.
Studio chat : What is your Daw and who takes the lead, do you bounce stems being from Leeds and London?
I’ve been using Cubase for close to 15 years now, and John is mainly on Logic. We lived together when we started the Redpine & Solo stuff so we would tend to write a track both sitting at 1 persons computer, maybe bouncing stems right at the last stage so we could both tweak stuff separately. That’s obviously changed a lot since we live in different cities. Now we go back and forth a bit with stems to develop an idea (buying a Dropbox account has helped this a lot!), and talk stuff through on the phone. Once we’re fairly happy with the elements of a track, I’ll start building out the structure and working on the mix here in Leeds. Finishing a track usually involves a lot of emails with feedback (along the lines of “2:42 – something lacking. Add shakers?”) until we’re both happy.
Do you enjoy working together and any studio pet hates?
Haha, I’m sure John gets a lot more irritated with me than I do with him! When we were younger, John and our friend Martin would call me “Long way round Sam” cos I would always have some inexplicably long-winded way of doing something pretty simple. That’s what working in Cubase does to you though!
Tell us what is coming up for you in 2020 and beyond.
Well we’ve got another EP coming on Studio Rockers later this year and more planned for next year. There’s an album that we’re currently putting together as well, so I’m sure that will keep us very busy.
Tell us about your latest Time For Change EP ! What inspired you and when is it out?
The inspiration for the title track came from watching an interview with a man from Leeds who was asked about his feelings on Trump, prior to his UK visit in 2019. The guy dismissed talking about Trump and instead talked about the shortcomings of all world leaders and people in power. He ended with the very strong message “Its time for change, you know, and we bring the change. Good news, you know”. I already had an Amen/808 idea that I’d was working on, and when I dropped that sample into the project, it just worked.
Nebula Two and Echo Chamber were both developed from testing out ideas on the License To Jungle dance floor. All credit to Tony Thorpe at Studio Rockers for recognising that those 3 tracks complimented each other in an interesting way. The EP is out now from all the usual places.
Goatshed said and I quote : " The final track ‘Echo Chamber’ for me, is reminiscent of Commix’s Underwater Scene in vibe and structure, with a trancelike progression of evolving drums, begging with an airy hypnotic rattle, then making way for a punchy switch up of the snare, all the while underpinned by pulsing sub bass and guttural aggressive sweeps"
You must be stoked with such a review?
Absolutely, that whole review is amazing – huge thanks to Jon (Imprint) for the kind words! He’s a really good producer as well as a writer, so it means a lot coming from him.
Give us your top 5 tracks right now.
ASC - In The Shadows [Samurai Music]
Clarity – Torsion [UVB-76]
ILL_K – Persecution [Through These Eyes Records]
Special Request – Special Frequency [R&S Records]
Special Request – Family Doggo [R&S Records]
So you have a debut album forthcoming, tell us what is inspiring you to write that and how many tracks will we see?
So that came about from our work with Franceskah, who features on our previous tracks ‘The Love’ and ‘Hindsight’. The 3 of us are all living relatively separate lives, so I think our inspiration for writing is coming from lots of different places, which feels like a really good thing. We have a lot of Redpine & Solo tracks that would feel out of place on an EP, so its really exciting that we have an opportunity to develop those tracks in the context of a more fitting format. We’re aiming for between 12 -15 tracks max.
What do you like to both do in your spare time?
Not much right now! I’ve spent a bit of lockdown going to empty car parks and trying to skate for the first time in years.
Tea or coffee?
Tea!
What is your one best favourite dnb or jungle track, that if you were stuck on a desert island you could listen to over and over and forever?
Photek “Knitevision”. (Honourable mention: Kid Drama “In Mind”)
Any favourite MCs?
Yeah, Stormin (r.i.p.), SP:MC, and the License To Jungle MCs: LD50 and Salem Focus.
If you could collab with anyone, who would it be and why?
That’s a really hard one, there are hundreds of people I’d want to collab with just for the studio tips! I think from the Drum and Bass world maybe someone like Blocks & Escher. Their music is so well written and every sound is perfectly placed. It would be amazing to try and get deep with them. I imagine I’d mainly be making the teas. “Blocks & Escher & Redpine & Solo”. Catchy name!
Goals for the next 5 years?
Finish the album!
Thanks for your time out.... lastly, any shouts and thanks?
Shouts to Tony Thorpe, the License To Jungle crew, and everyone supporting the new release x
----
Redpine & Solo:
Beatport / Soundcloud / Facebook
Studio Rockers:
Soundcloud / Facebook / Twitter
Interview Conducted By: Missrepresent
Edited & Posted By: Messenga
