Disregard what you may have heard about 2017 producers to watch—the one you need on your radar is Aweminus, aka Brandon Famini, a name synonymous with the rise of the new generation of dubstep artists. With Famini’s productions making the rounds on the circuit since 2013, his noted breakthrough remix of Getter’s “Fallout” caught everyone’s ear and has kick-started him on the path he’s on today.
Widely praised for his versatility, this youngblood stands out among a sea of aspiring beat wizards, releasing both dubstep and drum & bass on acclaimed labels. To celebrate his recent signing to Never Say Die’s prestigious Black Label imprint, Bassrush grills the rising star on his musical background, the origin of his new Short Fuse EP, and his opinion on the word everyone loves to hate: riddim.
Where are you originally from?
I’m originally from Las Vegas and moved down to the SoCal area from Sacramento a few years back.
What brought you down here?
Music.
What kinda music were you into before you started producing dubstep?
French house, Daft Punk, Justice, Eminem, Metallica, disco—all kinds of random shit. [I had] a lot of chiptune on my iPod [as well as] video game music like the Quake soundtrack and the classic Doom soundtrack.
How did you get into production?
Playing classic Doom on this source port that let you play with mods; there was always a bunch of cool music. I wanted to write tracks for mods.
What was the first you ever wrote?
A trance tune.
Tell us about how NSD approached you for this massive EP?
It happened after my set at Toxic Summer. Me and Definitive went to back to back and SKisM heard that, or maybe it was when I posted a video online of me and Phiso opening Phiso’s set with our new collab, “Hijinks,” which I posted on Twitter. They hit me up about that tune and wanted to see about an EP. I already had some stuff I was working on and the rest is history.
That collaboration with Phiso is humungous. How did you guys first link up?
We met through Acting Damage. Somehow Acting Damage, myself and Ripple were working on something and Acting Damage wanted to add Phiso into the project. We met over the internet writing “Four Horsemen.”
Out of all the tracks of the EP, is there one that is your favorite?
It’s a tie between “Under the Bed” and “Hijinks.” Everyone seems to like the flute in the intro to “Pyramids,” [but] everything is special on the EP.
What DAW are you using right now?
Ninety percent of the time I’m using FL Studio but I also fuck around with Reason. If I’m working with Definitive it’s Cubase, with Rawtee it’s Studio One. I’m pretty bad at Ableton but I can use that, too.
We loved your Dead Simple EP on Heist’s Calypso imprint. Do you have any plans to release more drum & bass?
I’ve actually got another release with Calypso coming soon.
Speaking of D&B and jump-up, who are some of your favorite jump-up artists at the moment?
Rawtee, Replicant, Definitive, Sub Killaz, Simula, anyone making D&B in So Cal.
Tell us about your thoughts on the word everyone loves to hate: riddim?
Everyone is calling this really cool sound “riddim” and now people associate riddim with certain artists and everyone tries to sound the same because it’s riddim—it creates this tiny little box of zero creativity [just] because you call it riddim. If you were to take that word out of the equation you could write any kind of tune you want and not put any other word to it other than dubstep. It’s already a sub-genre, there’s no reason to pinpoint a dubstep track as a certain sound.
What are your goals for the New Year?
I’ve got some actual plans this year, before I was just winging it: big EPs and big shows.