The release of pressure as you pop the cork or crack open the can. The playful splash as you start to pour your drink. The gentle rattle of ice or shiny chink of glass-on-glass as you wish your companion(s) some type of cheersy salutation.
It could be fruity, it could be fizzy, it might well be alcohol-free, or it could be something much harder. Whatever.
The most important thing is that you’re with friends, you’re relaxing and, for a moment in your hectic schedule, you’ve found time to enjoy yourself with people who mean the most to you.
To quote Scottish artist Beskar – well, the title of his debut album to be precise – you’re having Liquid With Friends. And life, at that precise moment in time, is good.
In fact life at all precise moments is good for Beskar. Having emerged in 2022 as a keytar-flexing, fresh-faced Mandalorian Imperial Super Commando, Beskar has been a breath of fresh air in drum & bass.
Just as adept at smashing out a neuro banger – or writing massive dancefloor smashers like the one he contributed to last year’s Grand Theft Audio EP called 1 More Thing for that matter – as he is writing an oddball futuristic funk jam, Beskar’s fusion is a unique blend of contemporary sonics and classic singer/songwriting vibes. A multi-instrumentalist, his sounds have found their way onto labels such as Program, Deep In The Jungle, Phase Records and Guzi’s GZ Audio, an open-minded label that’s as musically versatile as Beskar is. It’s where seems at home the most right now, especially as they’ve just released Liquid With Friends.
An album that literally lives up to its name. It’s very much liquid D&B (in the loosest sense of the term) and every track is a collaboration with a friend. Plasmator, HUNTR/S, Ominous, Sebotage, Guzi, Ruckus, Erik Rabe, Oli Lewis, OHARE, Woolf and Sola all feature as Beskar (real name Ruben) navigates as many flavours and forms of liquid he possibly can.
It’s an impressive project from any direction, but even more so considering he’s not particularly known for liquid production… And his first collaboration was only a year or so ago!
If you know his music, you might already be intrigued. If not, pour another beverage, have a listen and read on as we explore the process of this album and take in Beskar’s rich musical journey so far.
What’s your favourite liquid?
My favourite liquid track?
That too, but what’s your favourite liquid full stop?
Oh it’s all over the place. I like soulful jazzy stuff but I do love that classic Hospital vocal style too, you know man.
Haha, I meant liquid drink!
Hahah. Oh whisky, 100%. Without a shadow of a doubt. And my favourite all-time liquid song would be The Time Is Here At Last, maybe? Etherwood was the guy who really made me want to produce that kind of stuff.
You can hear his influence on Home, I reckon!
I’ll take that. There’s definitely some influences of his in that. Because I sing and play guitar as well, that kinda liquid lends itself to my skill set and that’s why I might lean in that type of direction.
Yeah totally. I think Etherwood was a major inspiration for a lot of the singer / songwriter style D&B we’ve been hearing in recent years.
Yeah I’d agree. He was the first drum & bass artist I heard doing things in that way and it definitely opened up a whole other side to the music for me. Especially in terms of liquid D&B. I mean liquid is a weird one for me. I produce the full spectrum of drum & bass, but I don’t really play it out very much. I have it on in the house or on my headphones on the bus. I’ve never done a liquid set. I prefer to play more aggy. But if you told me that my debut album would be liquid I’d have said, ‘No way!’
What inspired the concept then?
I was producing loads of different things and I had three or four liquid tracks which weren’t really finding a home. That built up to about six or so liquidy kinda tracks and I realised they were all collaborations or had featured artists on them, so I had an idea that I could do an album that’s all collaborative and in this type of style. Instantly the idea of Liquid With Friends came into my head and it was a done deal. Like, ‘This is fucking happening!’
Wicked. I love Take Me Higher with Plasmator. What an opener. Did you feel that was an album opener when you made it?
It definitely had a vibe and I thought it had potential. I was just over half way through the process around this time but I did feel it would work as an opener. The way it starts with that vocal and goes into those guitars. It sets the scene, I feel.
It really does! I love how it mutates throughout the track, too. Now I’m wary that we could get caught in that listy-style trap where we have to chat about every collaborator but that means we miss your own story. So rather than specifically chat about everyone, instead let me ask you for your perspective on the magic of collaborations…
It’s funny. I made music for 10 years before I did my first collaboration. It was almost like an ego pride thing like, ‘I want my music to be 100% me!’ But the minute I did my first collaborations – with Liam Ominous – I had a very different opinion on collabs. The sharing of ideas, the fact you come up with something entirely different to what either of you would come up with and how you work off each other. It opens up more ideas and that’s what’s so good. It’s nice to have a piece of music together, you know?
Totally!
And I’m a social person. I like making new friends and there’s something about creating together in that way.
It’s a unique experience isn’t it? You don’t find many writers or visual artists collabing but musicians love to jam together don’t they?
They do. I guess you have directors making films together like the Cohen Brothers and the Daniel Brothers. But yeah music lends itself to collaborating more, I think. And the way I seem to do them is that I tend to be the person finishing off the track. I definitely did for this album because I wanted to have the final say. I wanted the tracks to blend together and have a consistency and be coherent so it became an efficient way of working because every producer has stems for a project they’ve hit a wall with, or need some alternative perspective on. I started messaging people I wanted on the album and said, ‘Have you got anything liquidy that you’d like to collab with me on?’ And everyone had something.
Oh I bet. And the cool thing is they don’t know what to expect when it comes back from you! I need to ask about Cthuhluh. Never before has such a dreamy balled been written for such a dark mythical legend…
That’s a funny one. Me and Guzi had the track without vocal but we knew it needed a vocal. I love singing but I’m terrible coming up with vocal ideas. I’m good when I have an idea but it’s that first spark I need. So anyway we have a group online with all the GZ Audio producers and I posted the track on there and asked about vocal ideas. The first person to reply was Shayper. He said ‘Cthuhluh’ and I said ‘done’. It worked.
The outro works too well, too! Jazz Hands with Sola is an amazing way to end the album. Did they have any idea what levels of crazy this track would turn into?
Yeah they loved it. They said ‘only you could make that’. When they sent me it it had the jazzy intro and halftime hip-hoppy drums. I added the guitar and vocals over it. I knew it would work well as an outro. I felt I could go heavier with it too because it was the concluding track. Like we’re going out on a bang kinda thing. The drop was very different for a long time. It was a Reesy kinda bass thing but I wanted something more complex which took me a while to get my head around. That ended up with a lot more back and forths than a lot of the tracks on the album so I don’t think Sola had the ‘wow’ factor because they’d heard it so many times during the process. But when I got Plasmator involved they had it!
He’s such a badboy!
Yeah I’d seen him scratch before and knew he’d smash it. I’m really happy with the outcome. I’ve never heard any D&B sound like it. It’s unique and I’m proud of that.
I think there are a lot of unique sounds on the album. You’re a unique artist. You’re not following anyone, you’re doing what you want to do.
Ah thanks man. I do love making functional club bangers, too. Especially neurofunk because it’s what I love to play and hear live. But yeah there’s something nice about being a little more experimental. I feel I have something unique in terms of that jazzy instrumental vocal drum & bass. Tunes you might not play in a club, you know?
Totally. But have you played Jazz Hands out yet?
Not yet but I will definitely try and get it into a mix at some point. Like I said, I tend to play a lot harder but I do love playing my own music. I got into mixing simply because I wanted to play my own music. I only learnt how to DJ in the last year
Wow!
Yeah! I knew I needed it to further my career. Being a producer who doesn’t DJ seems a bit weird. It’s missing out on a lot of fun so why not.
How do you feel about DJs who don’t produce? I’ve been involved in a few heated debates about this!
Oh life is too short to give a shit about these type of things. I know loads of DJs who are way better than I’ll ever be. It’s an artform in itself. I think most people who DJ want to produce.
But don’t have the time
Exactly. I invested a lot of time in my music production when I was younger so that’s why I’m doing things in my way. People have partners and kids and full time jobs and all these commitmenets and it does take years and years to get really good at production.
Totally! And actually let’s make this very clear. While Liquid With Friends is the debut Beskar album, it’s not your debut as a musician is it? You made loads under another alias…
That’s right. Before I was Beskar my pseudo name was Deadloch. That took a bit of a back seat when I started the Beskar project but I did write a number of albums and EPs as Deadloch. The musical side, the concept and songwriting it something I really love. Production wise it’s awful. I was too focused on trying to write songs and create a grand concept that I never took the time to technically learn how to produce, I never even side-chained a kick to a bass for years which is a very basic thing to be doing.
Haha. Did Deadloch have a following, perhaps locally?
Yeah a few people know all about Deadloch. I did a live thing for a while with a loop machine and that. Quite a lot of people have asked when Deadloch is coming back and I can say the answer is yes.
When? How?
So sadly I lost my mother a while back and I very much used music as therapy. I sat down with my acoustic guitar and sat down in the summer house in the gfarden and wrote down songs about her, talking to her and it really helped.
Oh lush
It really was therapy. I’m very lucky to have lots of amazing friends and Gemma my fiancé is incredible, it’s not like I didn’t have people to talk to but I didn’t want to burden people with my sadness. It was a really nice way to get my head around things and I feel like writing down my thoughts was really helpful. So that’s where Deadloch is at and I always said I’d do Deadloch again if I could do something different like a concept albm or a story and this came together. Mum is the concept in that sense. And it’s not like all the songs are like, ‘Oh I miss my mum’ or anything. They’re about things that mum and I shared or found funny. It’s very personal but yeah that’s where I’m at with that. It’s going to be a while until its finished but that’s how Deadloch will make himself known to the world once again.
That’s lovely. Self release?
Oh yeah for sure. It’s all over the place and Deadloch has never been signed to any label. It’s more of a personal thing. I made it for me. If anyone else wants to listen to it, great. But it’s not about that. I can’t be sending it to labels and going through any type of A&R process, that’s not where I’m at.
Yeah fully respect that. So how are you finding being Beskar? It’s all very new in the scheme of things isn’t it?
I’m really enjoying it. Getting signed to labels has definitely been a great validation and George Guzi will always have a place in my heart as the first person to email me back from my demos. Someone who didn’t know me at all, getting back to me saying ‘I love these, I’ll sign all of them’. That validation spurred me to keep writing and sending demos to labels. Then GTA signed music, then Program and people like yourself playlisting my music and supporting me. It’s nice to know to have people who are known and respected in the scene have an opinion on the music and like it.
You deserve it! I can’t think of many new producers lately where I can recall the exact moment I heard their music and went ‘woah, who is this?’ And I definitely did with you. I was bench pressing and Funky Trooper came on. I nearly dropped my weights it was such a big WTF moment.
Haha thank you! But as I said, I do really like doing straight up club bangers too. I just think it’s very hard to push the concept of something that’s so known and loved and tried and tested. So I’ll make a neuro track which might sound similar to other neuro producers but then I usually swing the other way on the next track and make something like Jazz Hands. There are two sides to every coin. When I’m making it I think ‘no one is going to play this in a club! Is anyone even going to like it?’ But then I think ‘fuck it, I love it and that’s all that matters!’
Yes! What a great way to end the interview. What comes after the album?
Everything is focused on the album. I have a remix on Dirtbox Recordings that will be out by the time this interview it out. That is very much a straight up neuro banger, it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done! So that’s out and after that I have some things I can’t quite mention yet but I’m really excited about.
Watch this space or big things coming?
Haha both!
Beskar – Liquid With Friends is out now
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