This Saturday, as part of the two-year anniversary of The Shelter, Sub-Culture hosts Distance, one of the originators of the dubstep genre. Coming out of South London, Distance was one of the first dubstep producers to be featured by John Peel (he was on his Top 50 of the year in 2004), and he then went on to take part in "Dubstep Warz" on Radio 1. He runs his own label, Chestplate -- click here for a Sub-Culture mix he put together of Chestplate productions for Shanghai -- and for his Shanghai debut, he'll be joined by the Sub-Culture crew and Kongkrete Bass' Dj Wash.

SmartShanghai called up Distance to talk about the beginnings of dubstep, the all-important influence of the metal, what he's up to these days, and the state of dubstep today.

Here's his MySpace and here's the event listings.

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Distance: Well, I think it's only grown so quickly compared to other scenes because of the internet. You know, drum & bass didn't have that pushing it so much. I think it's grown healthily. But I think that a lot of people that have come into the sound don't really know where it's come from.

They've accessed it through the more commercial sounding dubstep, which I think is a shame. But it is opening doors and a lot of people who wouldn't normally be attracted to it have started listening to it, and hopefully they'll look deeper into it and compare the current sound with the past.


Distance: I think they're probably a bit different. In England it spent a lot more time being experimental and it still is in a way. But over on the West Coast it's become more about the ravey side of things very quickly, the jump-up end of things. There are still a lot of producers out there doing different things, but when it comes to England -- I think we just always seem to have a lot more original artists who are looking to bring forward a newer sound.


Distance: One of my best was doing the "Dubwarz" show on Mary Anne Hobbes BBC Radio 1 show. It was the first show there that was dedicated to dubstep artists. And also a DMZ party that happened the weekend before that show -- from that point everything seemed to really kick off. And the second birthday bash of DMZ was a real highlight because we arrived at half ten and there was a queue of 500 people, and were used to throwing dubstep parties where you were lucky to get 50 through the door! It was crazy...


Distance: Yeah that was great, you know at the time I didn't even know. Someone just messaged me on a forum I think, saying, "John Peel played one of your tunes last night." I thought it was a joke until I checked the BBC website for the playlists, and there was one of my tunes. I couldn't believe it. Just from the kind of person he was, he was always looking for the new sounds and people trying to do things differently, so it was definitely a nice feeling.


Distance: I think it's always had an underlying influence without me knowing it. I used to play a new tune in my set, and a guy would come up and say "You played a new tune tonight didn't you?" And I didn't know how they knew, but it was because they could tell straightaway from my drums. Really early on I always used to use double-kicks, which is a really big part of rock and metal. I also always go for live snares, I never liked claps. I really wasn't into the 808 sounding drums at the time, I was more into live-sounding percussion.




Distance: No not at all! At the time no-one knew, and it was only when I got chatting to other producers that they started finding out. But I was into garage beforehand, I didn't go from metal straight to dubstep, it took a good three or four years. When I went to college I got involved in raving, and before then I just wasn't interested in dance music. And that opened my eyes a bit, and then I started to really follow garage because a mate introduced me to it. And then used to follow DJ EZ who had (and still has!) got a show on Kiss FM, and he was really into the darker sound. And then I got really into the darker elements, and that was it really.


Distance: I've just put out our seventh release, and number eight should be coming out late January. So far that's gonna be Menace, and haven't yet decided what's going to go on the other side. And I might end up doing a double-pack at some point because there's quite a few good tunes sitting there which haven't been released yet.


Distance: Yes we just started, he came round to my studio a week ago and we were just trying some stuff out. We've got two things that we're working on.

But I've also just finished another one with Cyrus, another one with Benga, and I'm working with L.D., so there's lots of people really -- just trying to keep busy!


Distance: Yeah yeah, well to me when you go to a night and it says the person is going to be live, and they're sat there on Ableton, that's not live, that's someone sat behind a laptop pressing buttons. If you ask me that's further from live than DJing. If I did a live act it would be with a guitar, and a drum-player triggering samples. So it would be a big task and not as simple as just bringing your laptop along. I'd want to really work hard at it.


Distance: Yeah I still play dubplates, I play vinyl. I don't really have anything against CD or digital. I do truly believe that vinyl sounds better. If I can go one after someone whose been playing CDs, you can tell straight away. The warmth you get from vinyl is just completely different.


Distance: Yeah I've got a lot of new tracks -- got the "Changes" remix I did for Mala. Plus the new track I've done with Benga. And got about eight new tunes of my own I'm looking forward to playing. Should be good!

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Sub-Culture pres. Distance this Saturday at The Shelter. Cover: 50rmb

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