When it comes to big time D&B promotion and events, no one currently comes close to the behemoths such as Worried About Henry and Dnb Allstars. But are we now starting to see another brand slowly making similarly XL moves to the summit of the events game?
It certainly seems that way with Bass Camp LDN, an ambitious crew who’ve emerged post-COVID with an exciting roster of talent, a killer line of line-ups and a sense of adventure that suggests they’re here for the long haul.
Of course the expedition to the peak of the events mountain comes with many hurdles along the way and we recently caught up with one of Bass Camp’s leading ladies Anny Sha, who kindly rolled back the years, traversing through their short but challenging climb to where they are now.
Together with partners Kieran Kaizah, Chris Babylatch and their loyal followers, Bass Camp have steadily been trekking their way through some impressive events including partnerships with the likes of In The Lab Recordings and Phase Records, also throwing events including headliners like Bensley, Tantrum Desire and Voltage.
Since launching pre COVID, the Bass Camp crew have also represented at big events like Spring Break Amsterdam, but all of this has lead them towards a major event for them which takes place this evening, Friday January 26.
Bass Jump sees artists like The Prototypes, MUZZ and Amplify fully sending it at The Steel Yard from 11pm. The Prototypes will have a three hour 360 AV Show set and room two will be spearheaded by none other than Neuroheadz.
We spoke to Anny about the humble beginnings of the brand, the challenges of COVID, the pro’s and con’s of social media for artists and so much more in this inspiring insight into what it takes to run an events brand.
So grab your harness, put on an extra pair of socks, get your helmets on, listen in and read on, Bass Camp LDN are in the building…
What inspired Bass Camp LDN to launch?
Bass Camp was founded before I even personally listened to drum & bass, by Kieran Kaizah, Chris Babylatch and Event Horizon. We were all mutual friends from uni and I went to one of their events they threw in Brixton, post COVID, and I just loved the energy and underground spirit of things there. Literally just a group of guys who loved drum & bass, who wanted to make something happen. So the inspiration behind it was a shared love for the music. We also wanted to make an effort to celebrate the underground scene which is something we all strongly believe in. We want to champion, we want to really push and help the lesser known, up and coming DJs and producers and give them all a platform.
Love it, that’s what it’s all about! Always love hearing the stories of the brands that support, and continue to do so through the rise, is it still the same at Bass Camp?
For the very longest time at Bass Camp, all we did was we used to run these regular free nights in a basement of a pub somewhere. We would get friends of friends involved, artists that wanted a platform and they would play for free. The venue was also free and everything was low cost but places like this are so good to just meet new people within the scene. About two or three years ago there were artists like Toronto Is Broken, Corrupted Mind, Aduken and Tengu, and now a lot of these guys are going somewhere! We all just kind of started out in that basement together and I feel it’s very heartwarming to see how well everyone is doing.
It’s really nice to see the rise of the artists involved in projects like this, fully deserved too!
Yeah I’m so proud of them because everyone starts somewhere and I love that we’ve been able to be part of the journey for these guys, they are so talented! I’m so excited and gassed for them!
So when exactly did it all begin?
So I personally joined in 2021, officially it’s quite hard to say when it officially became a thing because it was a bunch of friends deciding, when do you throw the first event? That was pre COVID initially but didn’t actually happen because of the pandemic. So really, when did it actually start?
It was definitely a challenging time for the industry. Those challenging times look to be turning into promising opportunities now, you’ve got a special event coming up right?
It’s so surreal. Steel Yard! I said to Kieran “Our dreams are coming true!” But yeah we’ve got a really big event happening, The Steel Yard, we are so excited about that. I think the part that makes me really happy is on the line-up, we’ve of course got The Prototypes, Nick is great, he’s very old school and although he’s a massive artist, he’s still very underground. But it’s also because we have Neuroheadz, In The Lab Recordings, Phase Records, all very underground labels. It feels like a line-up for the people, for the ravers.
You’ve got that perfect blend of some massive names, partnered with some really successful up and coming labels! You must feel proud?
I grew up in Singapore, in a socially conservative Chinese school and this is not where I thought my life was going to be! It’s amazing, I love it. I think drum & bass music brings people from all sorts of backgrounds and upbringings together. Relationships between labels and promoters are healthy and supportive, everybody raises each other up. It’s just all so nice, real, human and positive which I think is needed today more than ever.
Absolutely agree with you there! So tell us about some of the artists and brands you’ve worked with at Bass Camp?
Wow, where to start? So for Steel Yard we are of course working with The Prototypes along with a big line-up. We’ve got MUZZ, Bensley, Amplify. We’ve worked with Bensley before and he’s really funny actually, he’s such a lovely guy. In The Lab, we’ve known and worked with them for over a year now and from day one, what struck me about them is how genuine they were. It was a real community of people who got together for the love of drum & bass and they love having a laugh about it. Neuroheadz, obviously I love my neuro and they are just incredibly inspiring, they are really driven. Before this we had quite a streak of running events at Basement 45 in Bristol where we had the likes of Tantrum Desire, Freaks & Geeks and Subsonic to name a few. For us, we really like the venue. If you go into Basement 45 you’ll see all of these old flyers and it’s crazy because it really shows you the evolution of drum & bass over the years. You’d see the likes of A.M.C closer to the bottom of a lineup. All the guys that are at the top today, you see where they started out then. So it’s an amazing venue, the owners are awesome, they are old school ravers and we just wanted to work with artists where we really respected their work. Take Tantrum Desire, he’s one of my favourite producers ever, he’s not somebody who’s very big on social media. In drum & bass now, there’s this whole social media thing that you have to do.
Speaking about the whole social media debate, there’s pros and cons to it. With there being many socially awkward artists out there, that comes with its challenges right?
Unfortunately, I feel like social media does present a bit of a barrier of entry for them. I personally don’t have TikTok, but it’s actually something that Bass Camp are looking to start up with soon. We have to realise that this is the new generation of ravers. Like it or not, that’s an area that’s really growing so we’re just going to give it a go and decide for ourselves if it’s worthwhile. I have a lot of friends, producers especially, they’re not the most socially active people. They want to sit in a room and make sick, filthy drum & bass and they’re amazing at it. But then if you don’t play that social media game, you can’t get people to hear your music. For me, I’m a very sociable person and I try to represent my friends where I recognise their talent but I know they are very uncomfortable with self-promotion social media. So when I play a set, up to half of the playlist I hope to fill with my friends tracks and I’ll do some stories on my socials for them of me playing their tracks so they can repost it, they don’t have to make any new content. Also when I get booked, I’m always thinking, who is somebody I could possibly loop in and get on a B2B, somebody who doesn’t have that social media following because they’re a bit shy. So this is something I’m always trying to do personally and now definitely through Bass Camp. I see both sides to the whole social media thing, I like to see myself as the bridge in the middle and give those who aren’t doing so well a platform.
So let’s talk about the mix, what can we expect to hear from you guys?
So this mix is an interesting one, three of us have pieced this mix together. It’s meant to represent our sound, which I would say ranges from dancefloor, to neuro to dark and techy. I sit on the solid neuro side, Kieran is more heavy dancefloor and I’ve got a friend in, Charlie aka Payload. I got him in because he’s been very involved with the brand and he’s a great DJ.
This is of course music to my ears. Let’s talk about some of your residents and friends of the brand?
Let’s start with our core residents, it’s myself, Kieran Kaizah and Chris Babylatch. We’ve had a few friends come and help us, people like Jess and Jazmine. They’re not DJs yet, but they are just on it and love drum & bass and that’s how I started! Guys like Giles aka Aduken, he’s played for us many times over the years, Mojay and Corrupted Mind, Premonition. It’s literally all of our friends and always has been, they just want to play drum & bass and now we’re all coming up together.
We love to hear it! It’s not just drum & bass you guys deliver is it, you also delve into other genres?
So for the last event at Basement 45, our room two was a very respectable full dubstep line-up. We had the likes of Saint, who kindly gave his mates a call and it was a room full of artists who just live and breathe dubstep. This was our Freaks & Geeks night at Basement 45, and we thought dubstep in room 2 was only appropriate given that the headliner duo made their name initially through dubstep as Doctor P and half of Roksonix! It’s something we’re definitely going to explore more now that we are involved with SYN LDN. I think music is an educational process, there is something to be said about going to see new music to educate your taste and understanding. Me for example, I really don’t understand jump up, but I still go to jump up events because I find it educational and I learn things from their mixing style. Understanding where drum & bass is going as a genre is very important, and that in turn also involves listening to other subgenres. I also listen to a variety of music from classical to techno, I think its important to have a broad repertoire of musical knowledge and inspiration no matter what genre of music you perform.
I couldn’t agree more! So have there been any challenges along the way with Bass Camp?
Yeah definitely, I think the biggest challenge that all promoters face is all about money. I think any promoter can tell you that even breaking even on a smaller event can be challenging. We don’t want anybody to be massively out of pocket when they perform with us, so whenever we’ve made a profit in the past, we’ve split it evenly across however many people were involved in the project. It’s hard in this day and age with the cost of living crisis, people aren’t going out as much anymore and often don’t have the luxury to buy tickets in advance. I also think another challenge is that we are now in an environment where there are big companies with contracts that lock artists in with them. That has an effect on smaller brands like us where we are finding it more and more difficult to book the bigger artists in places like Bristol because they are with these other companies. But we understand the risk behind it all, we do this out of love but there can be some really challenging times. We recently had our strategic meeting and one key point we talked about was how to remain true to the underground spirit whilst we grow with bigger artists, labels and venues. How do we continue to do that? Achieve the growth but remain true to the underground roots. We need to remember the original spirit, intention and the original goals of why we do Bass Camp in the first place. Ultimately, we just want to throw events that celebrate the music, and we want to push our boundaries as promoters by putting on bigger and more exciting events.
So Bass Camp is of course events and promotions focused, is there any chance of you guys perhaps releasing music or going down other avenues in the future?
We have talked about it but both myself and Kieran have very full on, full-time jobs and Chris is a doctor! So we’re focused on investing the little free time we have in what we’re best at and enjoy the most for now. Plus we’ve been incredibly lucky to partner with outstanding labels like Phase Records, In the Lab Recordings and Neuroheadz which helps fulfil the curiosity around that area of the music business.
This has been amazing! Lastly, what can we expect from Bass Camp in the next year?
It’s pretty simple to be honest, we’ve got our vision. We want bigger and better events, we want to learn from our past mistakes. We want to talk to people and gain knowledge and experience from other promoters and labels. Maybe some smaller events thrown in to keep with the underground vibes, or collaborations with smaller up and coming promoters and labels. Both me and Kieran try to get to as many of the smaller events as possible to support them, we will always tell the promoters “this was literally us two years ago!”
