The Stateside drum & bass scene has bloomed in recent times. Artists like Justin Hawkes, REAPER and Kumarion have launched themselves into the D&B stratosphere and found success on both sides of the pond.
We’re seeing many a flyer for American events boasting international headliners accompanied by homegrown artists. Labels like Soul Deep and Flight Pattern are becoming more recognised as the US are on the offensive with bass music in general.
Dorian Whitcomb aka Bad Syntax, head honcho of Abducted LTD has had drum & bass fans hands in the air and has pushed the scene to wider audiences with shows, podcasts, releases and most recently by Twitch streaming.
Abducted LTD spawned from it’s mother label Abducted Records in 2014 and has since seen it’s path lead towards focussing on neurofunk releases with the latest coming courtesy of Transforma and Mind Theory, Rave/Hades is out now.
We recently spoke to Dorian all about Abducted LTD’s roots, some of the highs and lows he’s faced along his journey, the scene in the US and much more in this deep conversation. The Twitch-verse is a vastly unexplored terrain for many and was only more recently unearthed by Dorian as we chat about some of the benefits of Twitch and some real success stories.
Boasting artists like Skynet, Mefjus and Neonlight (before they were known as Neonlight) to their ever-growing roster, Abducted LTD are certainly amongst the most consistent labels over in America and continue to spread bangers and good vibes across the ever-expanding scene that side of the Atlantic Ocean.
So buckle up and tie those shoe laces, read on below to get deep into the mind of Bad Syntax as we delve into Abducted LTD…
Let’s take things right back to the start, how was Abducted LTD born?
So I started listening to drum & bass in the late nineties. I used to be and still am a metal head but fast forward a few years and I became a DJ when I went to college. I worked at a radio station and taught myself how to DJ on their turntables after hours when the radio station was closed. I started one of the longest running drum & bass weekly’s in the country which went for about six or seven years out of Jacksonville, Florida. I then partnered up with my old friend Dustin joined Dioptrics. So the evolution of all of this made me think I should start a record label. I’m very business minded and my brain leads me more towards the business side of things. At the time I was working at a sandwich shop earning eleven dollars an hour, getting twenty hours a week. So it was 2008, and dubstep was really big at the time and I started the main label, Abducted Records. We were releasing dubstep and drum & bass and had the likes of Neonlight, before they were actually called Neonight, Koan Sound and Mefjus release with us just in the first few months. I feel a lot of the big labels looked to us to see who the next rising stars were, and I was fortunate enough to be able to give them that kind of exposure. I’m really glad I got to work with these artists, I got some really dope tunes from them. Then, drum & bass started seeing a resurgence around 2012 so I thought that would be a great time to launch a label that focussed on D&B. At first I launched it as a multi sub genre label because I love all types of drum & bass. But I found we didn’t really achieve the best results until we narrowed it down to neurofunk.
So is Abducted LTD a solo mission for yourself or have you got other people involved with the project?
Over the years I’ve tried to get people involved with the A&R side of things. I’ve had people who say they want to help and not much has really come from it. On the other hand, my wife helps me with a lot. Luckily, she also loves drum & bass and she pitches in a lot behind the scenes that people don’t really know about. She does the artwork for the weekly “Bad Tunes” and helps me with feedback when signing. There was one release where I wasn’t too sure about it, she said “you need to sign that” and it turned out to be one of our best releases. It’s rare to find somebody who is there for the culture and the growth. For me, starting out it was just partying all the time. I’ve been under a spotlight since elementary school where I did performing arts, so I’ve always had that addiction to the spotlight from a young age. The only place I feel right is on stage or behind the decks and that’s not because I want you to idolise me, it’s just that it’s literally the only place on earth where everything makes sense.
Can you talk to us a bit about some of the artists you’ve got on your roster?
There’s so many artists! I’m flabbergasted at the quality of the artists that work with us. We kicked things off with Skynet, he’s been on the label twice now. I love his sound, all of the basslines come together in a way that takes you somewhere else in the universe. We had The Sect for one of their last ever releases, artists like Subsonic, Loxy & Resound in the early days. We’ve had Nemean release with us and E-Sassin is somebody who we’ve been pushing a lot who I don’t think gets enough credit. The Dose – Cultivate Remix by myself and Hanm was one of my favourite personal releases I’ve done. Hanm is now part of the legendary SOLA and that remix we did got onto NOISIA Radio which is where the intro to the podcast came from, you can hear Noisia saying “not so pleasant, but very intense.”
We’ve seen a number of Abducted LTD releases hitting some heights recently, how does that feel?
We’ve had a number one of all genres with a dubstep release on Abducted Records a few times, that was always awesome. Recently with the FauxRealz and MOMENTUM release, we got in the top fifteen releases of all genres on Beatport, which is great! But then following that, our Otherworldly album which is real top quality material didn’t break the top fifty. So it’s an up and down game, I have tonnes of people on the promo mailer and tens of thousands of people listening to the podcast and pushing it out there. I feel like I spend more time troubleshooting than celebrating, I think that’s the artist in me. I am constantly on the hunt to hopefully do what’s best for the amazing artists that entrust me with their music.
I understand you have a release by yourself coming soon?
Yeah I have one coming real soon. I really started producing mostly to push the label and honestly I struggle with it a lot. I’m very self critical and I realise I’m at a point now where I have to double down and push myself, that’s the way I’m going to grow as an artist. I’d say I’ve solidly been producing for about a decade and been dabbling in it for about twenty years. If I want my artists to grow, then I have to grow as well. I have a tune with Stonx and Sindicate forthcoming on Eatbrain which has been signed for a while, that’s top of the heap for me. For my next release, I’m excited about it! I’m trying to teach myself to not linger on projects for too long and let them stress me out. So hopefully that works out in my favour.
What are some of the challenges you’ve faced at Abducted?
It’s mostly promotion tactics. I work from home, I started my own web design company with my wife. Now that lets me be the poster that you see on social media that’s constantly posting. I do feel like I’ve not really figured much out yet, like I have no clue on how some of our most popular releases, are that popular while some of our less popular material isn’t doing as well. I find myself having a particular taste, like I usually tend to not favour the A side of that release, I like all the stuff that’s a little bit different.
So what are some of the highlights you’ve had?
Definitely Bad Syntax & Pish Posh – Dark Planet (Skynet Remix), not only is the original tune something that means a lot to me. With the original track, it’s one of the first tunes I really feel like I had more input into the final product. With the Skynet version, somehow he plugged in and made it exactly how I wanted it without me having to say anything. Another highlight for me as mentioned before is doing the Dose remix that landed on Noisia radio. I remember Tobax sending me the link saying I’d made it on there and now the clip of them talking about it is always on at the start of my podcast. The fact that we’ve got to work with so many of these amazing artists and they’ve had something positive to say about the label is awesome. I’m immensely proud of every release and I think I have a proud reputation, especially from the main label where I’m not going to sign something I don’t believe in.
Let’s talk about Twitch, what are some of the benefits of Twitch streaming for artists/labels?
So the pre cursor for me and Twitch would be my podcast, I’ve been doing that for like thirteen or fourteen years now. Just before I moved to California, I had just gotten kicked out of my house, I was sleeping on my ex-girlfriends couch and I decided it was time for a change. I packed up all my belongings, and with no job or even prospects, I moved to California. When I arrived, I found it quite hard to break into their scene. I wasn’t really getting booked but many of the artists who were headlining, they played either Dioptrics or Abducted tunes. So it was apparent to me I needed to create a new outlet, and I wanted to do it in such a way that allowed for anyone to be involved. It was essential to me to find a platform to express myself, grow and create a community and Twitch has been essential to fostering that. I only recently started the whole raid thing on there, basically what it is, you start a command on the platform and it takes your crowd and brings them into another channel. It keeps the music going, it’s making a bigger event out of smaller singular events. Guddah is the guy that got me into it more, he literally does Twitch as a full-time job and I saw the numbers he was making in terms of interactions and I was just blown away. I’m sure in very large parts, it’s because he’s a very nice guy and an awesome DJ.
I love that! Certain people can’t always make it to live events and love to socialise in forums and chat rooms which keeps the community together! What’s the community and scene like over in The States?
It’s probably the healthiest it’s ever been, since I’ve been around anyway. With the money and popularity in the scene over here, comes the natural popularisation of drum & bass which, even though it may not be my personal taste, it creates opportunity. I personally haven’t seen much of a difference within my hemisphere of neurofunk artists, but I do notice a big rise in shows in general. I do wish it would spread out a bit further though. Its kind of weird, an example of what I mean is, one of my personal favourites to go and see out here is one half of Mob Tactics, he’s a great mixer, has super popular releases on the biggest labels and is also just fun to be around. But even artists like this in my opinion are not getting booked enough. Justin Hawkes, one of the biggest upcoming artists in the world, not just America, he’s getting booked but not as much as I would expect. It’s a weird juxtaposition of, there’s a tonne of shows with new fans being introduced to drum & bass. But the success hasn’t really sprinkled out to those outskirts where the people who are really maintaining and pushing stuff hard when it’s not as popular. Drum & bass is about what’s happening right now, and that’s what I like about it, it’s constantly evolving. It’s in a good place here though, seeing people like Shaq saying it’s the year for drum & bass is awesome but let’s face it, he won’t be dropping Messiah any time soon.
This has been awesome! What’s the near future looking like for Abducted LTD?
It’s our ten year anniversary in April so I’ve got to make something good happen for that. I’m more stacked up on releases than I’ve ever been, Transforma and Mind Theory just released with us. I have my own single coming out next month, I have Xylym who has just sent me master for two tracks to release and so much more. Just hustling really, I’m going to try and do more streams and keep pushing as much awesome music as I can.
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