So many of our fans are aspiring producers. What was the first step you took to becoming a producer of bass music?

I started making music properly around 5 years ago, probably a bit longer than that now even! I remember hearing Skrillex – “First Of The Year” on the radio while I was in the car and i couldn’t quite understand or believe what I was hearing. These days it’s like 90% of what I listen to but back then there had never really been anything that sounded like that before. I went straight home that evening and opened up my old copy of Fruity Loops and started trying to learn how to create music like that! I quickly moved into Ableton and found it much easier to use for me personally. I think in terms of my first steps, I learned pretty much everything I know online, from youtube tutorials mostly or from lurking on music production forums. I think there’s a huge amount of information out there these days–you can learn a great deal if you’re willing to put in the hours of scouring the web!

What was your most important production tool you used on this EP?

The most important thing I have when it comes to making music in general is Sonnox Inflator. Not many people have heard of this, and, when I’m doing a collab, it tends to cause problems because I seem to be the only one who has it, but for me its absolutely essential! I’m not even sure exactly what it does, I think its some kind of exciter/distortion plugin. Its basically a magic plugin that makes things sound a lot louder without raising the actual volume and without compromising audio quality (within reason).

What would you say to critics of bass music who feel it has strayed too far away from its roots?

There certainly was that attitude here in London when America got hold of Dubstep and morphed it into the crazy noisy beast that it is today. But to be honest there’s no need to get yourself annoyed about it, things change, especially music and that’s definitely a good thing. The old school sound of Dubstep still has its place in the world, Caspa & Rusko are still making music and the DMZ lot are still about every now and then playing shows. Yes Skream left to make disco or whatever he does now but you can still go and listen to his old filthy tunes from back in the day if you want, he’s not going to stop you!

If bass music is to innovate, what needs to happen?

I think Virtual Riot needs to stop making preset packs. Just kidding haha, shout out Virtual Riot… But seriously I hear a lot of new producers coming through who are clearly talented and their music is well produced, but sometimes the ideas and the sound design isn’t anything new or exciting and it sounds a little bit contrived. I think it’s important for people to switch it up and experiment with different tempos and styles. It’s easy to fall into a trap of making a certain style because you feel its what people want to hear, we’ve all been there I think. But lately I’ve been having a lot of fun making Breakbeat at House tempo (around 125-135bpm) for instance my track ‘The Discoteque’ . Breakbeat was pretty popular in the UK in the late 90’s early 00’s and i think with a bit of modern production and some heavy bass and crazy sound design it could potentially be reborn.

What is the best way to waste time?

I think the best way to waste time is social media. Sometimes i quickly check my twitter & facebook for 5 minutes and when i’m done i realize an hour as passed and i’ve started 5 different online beefs with people i don’t know.

He also sat in to do a guest mix for our Lock and Load mix series, and it’s insane. So read up and go listen, like, and repost the mix. Share it with a friend! They’ll love you forever.

Pre-Order Defect on iTunes here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/defect-single/id1146110858

Many people might know your aliases of the past, what is Fed-Up bringing to the bass music scene that you’re excited about? 

Hopefully I’m bringing some new sound design to the table. Not calling anybody out or hating at all but I’ve noticed lately a lot of tunes have been recycling similar sounds and its gotten quite stale. Sound design was a leading factor as to why I got into producing so its very important to me to keep pushing the boundaries of my own stuff. Expect some cool noises in my upcoming releases! Also shoutout to Xfer’s Serum, you the real MVP.

The EP is so gnarly and yet so expertly produced. What, to you, is the most difficult part of the production process? 

Thanks! I’d say getting in the way of myself. Staying stoked on a project and not getting lost in my head and saying it sucks/doubting everything I’m doing serves itself a challenge. Most things I make that people think are cool I tend to hate and I honestly couldn’t tell you why. Theres nothing wrong with being critical on yourself but once you cross the line and it becomes self destructive for you emotionally, mentally or whatever, its time to step back and take a break.

What are 3 things you are absolutely fed up with? 

Spiders, video buffering and CPU overloads in Logic.

What’s one thing about the industry you like to see happen or like to see change? 

I think it would be cool to see more producers step out of their comfort zones, make some crazy/weird stuff and not worry about the final outcome. Its easy to fall into the mindset of “oh, I have to make this style or genre to stay relevant” which ultimately stops things from progressing. Getting less caught up in the analytics, hype and “the popular sound” and instead focusing more on making the music that gets you stoked is what’s important.

Why aren’t people playing Pokemon go anymore? 

Honestly I have no idea. I only got to level 6 before the game logged me out and then forgot my info. I’m definitely not qualified to answer this question haha

So stoked to have you on FP! You put a ton of hard work in. Describe the path you took to get to a point where you are releasing an EP on Firepower Records?

Thank you! I’m so stoked to be a part of the team. So the road getting here took a lot of time and focus. I sent in a couple Demos to Firepower. I used to make a completely different type of music — more of a Robostep kind of feel — and Datsik saw potential where I couldn’t. He told me to try something different but didn’t tell me exactly what to make. So I took this and tried some different styles of music, more melodic, more of a style I can reach a larger spectrum of people with. So I sent in some songs. Datsik really liked this new style I started but it still wasn’t quite there. So back to the drawing board. This is when I reached out to an already good friend of mine, Skyloud, who recently started a new alias Zetta which was Him and Deltabot. We Skyped for the entire collaboration of Ice Shield and they taught me a lot about creating this style of music I was doing but needed an extra push. So after the Flatline release of “IceShield”, I had a bigger arsenal of tools and new information about sound design and just actual production. I sent in a new Demo, and that’s when I got the green light on a 4 track EP. I was so excited about this that I finished the EP within a couple months. Every track I sent in was accepted. It was a huge change in sound from what I was originally doing, but I have to say I’m really enjoying this new style of 12th Hour! That being said this was about a year in the making, and I hope other artists keep pushing to reach their goals!

How do you see your sound evolving after this release?

So after the release I think I will continue with this style I have been doing for the past 6 months, I’m going to work on some new sound design, I think that is the biggest thing I am going to work on, evolving the 12th Hour sound even more, as well as come up with some really interesting bass patterns and longer drops. I’m really excited to see what the future of my new style will bring and I hope my fans and peers are also!

If you wanted to create the world’s worst mashup, what two songs would you put together?

The worst mash up? haha! This is a pretty unique question, I’d half to go with Iggy – “Team”, and Rebecca Black – “Friday”, I’m laughing just thinking about how this would sound. Lets go Team Friday! At least the mashup title works! I have 3 sisters, I hear a lot of music I’d never listen to on my own haha.

If the firepower crew came by for a visit to your home, what awesome dish would you insist we eat?

Definitely our Pizza. My dad owns two pizza places and that is actually my full time job, running one of the stores. So if the squad came over, I’d make, hands down the best pizza they ever had. And might as well throw in our home made pasta, cant forget the drinks too!

What’s your life philosophy in 5 words?

This is a questions I’ve never been asked but lets see if I can put this in 5 words.  Stay Humble, put in work.   Coming from a family where I had a job waiting for me and didn’t have to graduate from college to start making money for myself, I’ve never beat my chest about it.  This goes with every aspect in someones life, put in your work and stay humble on the road to success.

We got PhaseOne to sit on the hotseat and answer a few Questions. He also threw down as our Guest DJ for the next installment of the Lock And Load mix series. So, blast this mix across the universe, like, repost, share it with homies. Let’s let those extraterrestrials know we can rage hard.

Your new single UFO is insanity. What did you focus on with this release that was different than previous releases? 

You’ve been a fixture in bass music for a while now. What’s a significant moment in your career when you feel you evolved the most as an artist?

There are two of you representing the force behind Zetta. How did this project come together?

This all started around October when I found Matt’s music on a Soundcloud recommendation. I made a “Spotlight” for him then we became friends, did few collabs on our own projects, and then we decided we should work more closely together.

“Ice Shield” is a crusher of a track, where’s the name from, and how does the name represent the sound?

Nothing really, lol. ‘Ice Shield’ was the name of the project and it was never meant to be the final track name haha! 12th Hour liked this name too so we just kept it this way.

What’s next for you? Where can we see you play next?

A lot of stuff is coming up from us next actually! We just finished our debut EP and already started this new massive second EP with our buddy 12th Hour. We plan to make a lot of music with friends from Firepower Records squad! Unfortunately, we can’t travel yet because we’re underage. If we got the chance to travel, we would love to travel all the world together.

If you were making a compilation for a person you were trying crush on, what would be the first song and why?

Spicy question you got there haha! I think we would put Sex Whales & Fraxo’s “Dead to Me”. Why? Just in case they cheat on us.

If there was a hostage situation and you could blast any song over a massive speaker system that would wear the Hostage taker down psychologically until they just finally gave up, what song would it be and why?

Definitely Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”! I think they would release us ASAP just to get home, get on YouTube, and like that song!