Wrapping up our week at 1 More Thing HQ comes man like Konetix with a flaming hot D&B mix for the last weekend the UK summer.
Fresh from a set-of-a-lifetime at Boomtown, the last few years has been a landmark period for Konetix; he’s launched his label Melted Face Recordings, he won a mentorship with Pirate Studios and Relentless, and he’s just dropped an exceptional remix of two of the most iconic pioneers in jungle drum & bass: DJ Rap & General Levy.
To mark the release of Konetix’s remix we reconnected with him to find out more. One of the earliest arists to appear on this site as he contributed to our tribute to the late great Skibadee, we have a lot to catch up on.
Enjoy the mix as we reconnect…
Yes Ben. How are you?
I’m doing good, thank you mate! Really excited about the opportunity to catch up!
It’s been exactly two years and two months since you last featured on this site. This reconnection has been long overdue. How have you been? How has your 2024 been so far?
2024 has been a crazy year so far! can’t believe how quickly it’s gone by. From finding my feet as a new label owner to continuously pushing my personal sound as a producer, there’s been a lot to unpack on my end. I’ve been focussing on my personal music writing, as well as now working alongside a few singers and labels to do some more behind the scenes song writing for people which has been really cool.
Managing the label has been something that has been completely new for me, and the highlight of the year so far has to be Boomtown and I was also one of 12 selected, out of hundreds of entries, to win a competition run by Pirate studios and Relentless to have three months mentorship by an expert in my industry. As a result of this I have been working alongside Sherelle, as well as the team over at Pirate Studios and Relentless to help me to create a project vision that I have, but more on that soon.
Wow! We’ll get to some of that in a second. That’s all amazing. Props. Gotta shout out DJ Rap for this connection too. Last time we connected through a legend, DJ Phantasy, now another foundation hook-up. Tell us how you and Rap linked and how this remix came to be…
Yes yes, big shouts to both Rap and Phantasy for both link ups! I virtually met Rap through a mutual colleague of us both at the time, he came to me presenting the opportunity to have a go at doing the remix in the hopes that Rap & General Levy would like it. Not long after, my Life Of The Party remix was born and I received an email from DJ Rap telling me how much she loved it! Since then, we have stayed in touch and been opening up the possibility of doing much more music work together with some exciting things to come soon.
There’s got to be some extra pressure when you’re handling vocals from a vocalist as iconic as General Levy! How was that?
When the stems hit my inbox, it was a crazy feeling of excitement to get stuck in! Truth be told, I already had the idea of what I wanted to do before I even opened the stems. The opportunity felt more of an honour than any pressure and I was well aware they might not have liked it. But the fact they did was amazing. I remember when I was young, around seven or eight years old, my older sisters got me to learn all the words to Incredible so I could rap it all to them. So to get the full cycle moment and now work with someone as iconic as General Levy is a massive self-achievement for me.
Awww. That’s lush. You’ve worked with a fair few premiership MCs by now though. Skibadee of course RIP! P Money and Y-Zer a little while back, right? Tell us about that one.
I feel very honoured to have been able to work with such talented vocalists. As you mentioned, Skiba. He was the first MC to really give me a push and do a lot for me. Working with other vocalists like P Money and Y-zer was great. Me and Y-zer have done quite a lot of work together now and have a really solid working relationship and friendship outside of that now, this made the whole process behind the song Dreams fun and enjoyable to make and Y-zer is a real professional when it comes to the world of music.
Another couple to mention are artists like Harry Shotta and DRS. Shotta and I go back quite some time now, back to our 2021 hit, Ticka Tock. Since then we’ve done live gigs together, radio shows, and got a couple more tunes in the works!
And DRS, this guy’s work ethic is crazy. He got the beat for The Weatherman from me and Phantasy and turned around the fully recorded idea in just 24 hours and it sounded amazing!
Legend! Who, to you, is the actual life of the party?
I have been raving for a long time now. And, to me, the real life of the party is DJ UNO! Everywhere we go, no matter if it’s a rave in London, Leeds, Birmingham or Brighton, he always has people coming and talking to him, cracking jokes and having immense laughs and stories to tell. I have seen this guy be approached for a laugh by ravers who know him, DJs, producers, promoters, label owners, bar staff and even security and club owners. It’s clear to me that this man is THE LIFE OF THE PARTY!
Big up DJ UNO! Tell us about Melted Face Recordings…
The way that Melted Face Recordings came around was completely organic, I have a LOT of music sitting on my computer that I frequently found myself questioning what to do with it. I then created MFR as an outsource for my own creativity, on my own timeline. Putting out some of the songs that I felt represent me at the time, doing the artwork ideas myself with the help of my incredibly talented graphic designer Halo, (who is also an absolutely wicked DJ, definitely worth checking out for graphic work and DJ sets) and creating my own timelines and promo campaigns… It all just felt so freeing and stress free.
Melted Face Recordings is now moving into a realm of signing tunes off other producers and now looking at growing to be a bigger creative canvas for other producers who maybe haven’t worked with labels much before.
That’s wicked to hear. It’s a real buzz putting music out into the world isn’t it? What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learnt about running a label so far? Share some knowledge!
It is really nice and freeing, being able to dive deeply into the backend of the systems and set things up how I want it, it’s got a good feeling to it. I think I would really push people to start their own labels up. Not to make money or as a business, but it has given me the creative freedom to do my releases when I think it would be best, I can do my artwork my way and have the creative freedom around that. And if there is something I don’t like, I can take it down or cancel a release. I think the best thing is to just start, because until you press go, you’re always stuck at square one.
Wise words. Loving that Pistol EP btw. Ain’t Nobody is cold. Type of tune you could mix with anything. Tell us about that release.
This release was a bit of a turning point for me, not necessarily in terms of a career changing release. It was one of those moments where I had learnt something new in the studio that made my music feel like it could get that point further that I had wanted to reach for some time. It was more a personal checkpoint of self achievement and it felt good to be able to put that out into the world off my own back.
Ain’t Nobody got some great support being downloaded by the likes of Fish56Octagon, Nicky Blackmarket, DJ Phantasy, Kenny Ken, Tantrum Desire, Mollie Collins, Sub Killaz, Kleu, DJ Inter and so many more amazing artists.
Sick. Now tell us about this mix! You go right across the board! One of my favourite blends is that Biana bootleg and Black & White. Always sick when the vocals complement each other like that. That’s the point of no return on the mix for me, I’m locked and I’ve stopped doing whatever the fuck it is im doing. What’s your favourite blend on here?
It’s hard to pick a definitive favourite for me, I just jumped into the studio and caught the vibe and rolled it out. I hadn’t planned the mix so all just got me excited as I was recording to be fair. However, one of my favourite tunes in the mix is the very last liquid song. It is a bootleg I recently made of Sienna Spiro’s Maybe and I have been really loving this one.
Yeah that’s a vibe! This isn’t the only mix of yours going live this week. You mentioned Boomtown earlier and you’ve just dropped that mix on your Soundcloud. Woof! How was Boomtown?
Boomtown was absolutely crazy. As I mentioned before, that set was probably the highlight set of my year! Massive shouts to the team over at Relentless for making this dream a reality for me! Boomtown was actually the first ever event I went to, before I went to any clubs or anything years ago. Since then it was a long term dream of mine to play at Boomtown one day. That was seven years ago. So to finally be able to play at Boomtown, at the Wrong Side Of The Tracks stage, was an absolute dream come true! Not to mention the turnout was absolutely overwhelming. It couldn’t have gone better. Fingers crossed I can be there again next year!
How has your summer been anyway?
My summer has been pretty good. Thanks. I’ve kept my head in the game and got lots and lots of music in the works, learning more each time that I step into the studio and constantly challenging myself for improvement which still feels exciting.
What’s coming up from you next?
I am sitting on a lot of music. I think my plans will be to start pushing out my music after my next release on someone else’s label which will be coming out in October. More info on that soon..
What do we need more of in dance music right now?
Kindness and support and more opportunity for new DJs. I see a lot of the same line ups in places these days.
Too true. Any final thoughts or shouts?
No final additions. Thanks again for this awesome opportunity to catch up with you! I’m excited for what’s next and hope to share more soon.