Bassrush

Experimenting for endless hours with sonic soundscapes and full frequencies, Mefjus has rightfully earned himself a reputation for producing some of the most crucial, future-thinking drum & bass out there today. The career trajectory of this technical juggernaut has been on the up and up since finding himself under the wing of Critical Music label boss Kasra back in 2013.

With a consistent string of guest appearances outside of Mefjus’ home label, 2016 has already seen his sought after compositions landing on Viper, Inspected Records, Disciple, and Blackout Music, to name a few. After his explosive debut at Beyond Wonderland and Funktion, Team Bassrush met up with Mefjus to chat tunes and learn more about his day-to-day grind in hometown of Linz, Austria.

 

You’ve been in the studio quite a bit; we love your “Senescence” collab with Current Value.
To be fair, it’s 95% of Tim’s [Current Value] work. He was playing this show near Linz where I’m from in Austria and gave me a shout saying, “Yo, I’m gonna be in Linz you wanna hang out?” I’m like, “Cool­, let’s make a track!” I picked him up the next day and he was in my car saying, “I waited for you for three hours so I started something.” We went to the studio and installed Ableton Live and pretty much the whole project was already written. I asked Tim if was there anything I could do and he said, “Yeah, I want to hear your interpretation of the intro and breakdown and shit.” So that and the third main part of the main section is mine as well. It was cool because it’s really interesting to work with somebody who really knows what it is he wants to do; he’s got this idea in his head of what the track should sound like. The session was about four hours long and then on to the next one.

Who was on mix down duties?
It was in my studio but using Ableton Live so I think it was about 50/50, but honestly the project that he brought into my studio that day was pretty much done already so I have to give him the credit for the track; it’s his sound design.

I’ve noticed you feel really comfortable collaborating on tracks?
I’ve been working on solo tracks for 11 years now so it can get really frustrating in terms of creativity. Sometimes I find myself just looking at analyzers for like half a day—looking at frequencies, EQ bullshit, spectrograph bullshit, mid-side EQing—but the actual track doesn’t have a single vibe; it’s just kick, snares and a bass sound. Collaborations are a way to get myself out of this deadlock. It’s more about the vibe.
Your remix of Audio’s “Ultron” has gone down extremely well. What was the first thing you wanted to do once you got your hands on the stems?
The whole track lives from the riff. Honestly, the track was done in one day, maybe a day and a half. It’s all about the riff and secondly it’s all about the first breakdown where he used all the Transformers samples and machines. My idea was to make those sounds myself because if you listen to the track, the sounds Gareth [Audio] used were samples from a movie and I thought it was cool but you can do it by yourself as well.

https://soundcloud.com/mefjus/mefjus-noisia-radio-riiiiiiiip

What synth did you end up using?
I used FM 8 and Serum to make the sounds from scratch and make it more interesting and futuristic­—kind of Transformers-ish. I guess it’s hard to describe. (Laughs)

Outside of production and DJing, what’s a typical day like for you in Linz?
Honestly that is my day. I have zero friends anymore, zero relationships. Its just get up, get breakfast and go to the studio. Monday through Thursday is studio and Friday through Sunday I’m on the road.

You’ve been dedicated to tech for many years. In your eyes where do you see the future of this sound heading?
In drum & bass and every other genre it’s always a sine wave, isn’t it? One year it’s up and another year it’s down. I think it’s great that drum & bass is getting a bit of attention. There’s Rudimental and Camo and Krooked on the radio in Europe, which is great. I think it’s positive that those tunes are on the radio, giving us a wider acceptance. Five years ago my parents asked me what I was doing. I said drum & bass. They said, “What the fuck is that?” Now there’s fucking Netsky on the radio. I think its cool that it’s growing.