Community Spotlight: Nicky Havey
UK Liquid Drum & Bass music producer
Tell us about yourself
I’m primarily a UK based liquid drum & bass music producer with influences from the trance genre but have tried my hand at a few other styles like liquid dubstep/drumstep and Trance music too. My music is pretty much a “sound stamp” of my life events, from which I draw inspiration from but as I like to travel a lot, be out with nature and hike in the hills and mountains, generally staying active, a lot of the stories come from there!
How long have you been taking your craft seriously?
Well, I’ve always tried to make sure I’ve had fun with music and not to take it too seriously as it is my escape from the normal day to day goings on (otherwise, where would I escape to?) — I’d say probably ever since I bought my music software (FL Studio) back in 2011, I’ve slowly and surely built up the studio over time, learning how to mix and do live shows online. I’ve always put my best effort into everything I do so you could argue I’ve always taken it seriously!
What is the process like for your music production and DJ mixes?
For my music productions, I generally find myself playing around on various sounds, synthesisers and chord arrangements as I have a midi keyboard as well until I stumble across something that starts to sound like it might be worth following through with. Sometimes, it is powerful enough to connect with my current mood or frame of mind or it would remind me of something that’s already happened and I can start building the story, the mood, the other sounds needed for the song to come to its completion. When it falls together quickly it can be a wonderful thing but other times, it can be the most drawn-out process and take months to complete — it’s all part of the journey!
As for DJ Mixes, I usually hang out in the Liquid Drum & Bass section and buy tracks that I like the sound of, open up the DJ mix software (Serato) and then see what tunes mix together really well. I like doing “mash-up transitions” where a new song is created in the process, a great feeling when that happens but overall, I like making sure the cue points are all set up properly and practice a lot to make sure the mixes for the live show are spot on.
What is your connection with liquid Drum’n’Bass?
I first got in to DnB back in 2003 when I first heard my brother play out Bass, Breaks and Beats mixed by DJ Hype and remember really liking the high energy drum beat. The first mix CD I bought was Hospital Mix 4 by Cyantific of Hospital Records and thought, I love the sound of this! High energy but chilled sounds to go with, it’s like you can chill out to it or you can dance to it… surreal sensation! And since then, I never looked back really. Before DnB, I was into trance so when I hear combinations of those two genres, I’m under the spell haha!
Are you currently working on new music or projects? What’s cooking?
After jokingly calling myself the snail in November 2019, I seem to be on a releasing hot streak at the moment with new music coming out every couple of weeks on the label I co-run with Bufinjer and DaveyHub called Electronic Alliance Records. My latest solo EP called Travel Diaries is a perfect example of what my music is all about and my latest EP with Bufinjer is a taste of other genres I’ve dived into outside Liquid Dnb with a bit of breakbeat, electronica and Hardstyle to boot, which is called “Out Of Our Comfort Zone”!
Coming up this year, I have more Liquid Dnb remixes and have resurrected some tracks that got buried deep in my PC, covered in thick layers of digital dust that I’m giving a 2020 lick of paint which I’ll be bringing out later in the year too! I’m also going to attempt to go back to my Trance roots and release an EP with that nostalgic feel to them. Lots to look forward to!
What are your musical goals?
For me, it’s to keep having fun with the productions and share more music to the world really. I’m always looking to meet new liquid DNB fans and share my tunes as well as the DJ Mixes — generally spreading the good vibes! A lot of my music goals have been reached really since setting up the Electronic Music Alliance community and Electronic Alliance Records label with DaveyHub and Bufinjer and we’ll continue to work on that with everyone who’s active and wants to be a part of it. It would be really cool if we can set up a festival but that could well be a pipe dream — never say never though! Otherwise, if I get one of my tracks featured in a Hospital Records mix, I’d be made!
What have you found to be the most frustrating part with your artist journey?
Good question! There have been many frustrations so it’s hard to pinpoint just one. Things such as getting to grips with music software when I first started, trying to get the right sound and not knowing where to look (now of course, there are loads of YouTube videos to help out with that) but probably, before we set up the support network and community of EMA, the struggles such as lack of support with your music when sharing it, that feeling of isolation (even just a friend/family member saying “keep going with it” would go a long way), writer's block, lack of ideas, no-one listening to your music at all… these things all happened to me at various points and so I took the mindset of just having fun with music and it helped a lot to deal with the frustrations. Now it’s on me so I can only get frustrated with myself… thankfully, I can do something about that!
How did you find out about Emanate?
Well, I was on another music streaming platform called Choon which shut down in December 2019 but when they made their post, I saw Emanate and joined the Discord to see what was going on. I was apprehensive to begin with, particularly because when you’ve spent time, energy and even money with other projects and start-ups that have faded away, it can leave an unsavoury taste. However, as I saw some familiar faces on the team and music producers on the site, with very quick, professional support, I thought I’d submit some music — the Travel Diaries EP — and see what’s going on.
How do you think Emanate will evolve or change what you do?
Safe to say, my knowledge with EOS and the Ledger Nano has drastically improved so it’s already had an impact on my blockchain knowledge! In terms of my music though, I’m interested to see how DJ mixes, collaborations and engagement with music fans come to fruition. If Emanate can bring the social side of music streaming back and encourage fan involvement to support the artist and even artists supporting fans as well, then perhaps uploading works in progress would be something I’d do again.
The fact you can distribute through Emanate going forward will be a big deal but also the sharing of streaming royalties will be important too to take out the middle man. Definitely interesting times ahead!
Outside of music, do you have other hobbies/interests?
Too many haha! Before the lockdown restrictions, I was a keen traveller and spent months away last year around Australia and New Zealand. I like to exercise every day either going for a run or hike around the local hills here and am trying to get to 2,020 km this year by a combination of hiking and running to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society. Another music community I co-founded with Bufinjer and DaveyHub called Electronic Music Alliance is keeping me busy as well and I also co-run a fun contest called Your Top 3 where people share their top 3 favourite things of a topic each month. I like to blog when I can as another creative outlet and when I do have some free time outside of that, I relax by playing some computer games like Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon! Safe to say, I keep myself busy!
Do you have any advice for producers working on their craft?
My advice is to just finish a project and don’t spend forever in the final “tinkering” phase because there will always be something i.e. overcoming that “perfectionist” mindset. It’s far better to just get a project finished than to never complete something because you’re forever stuck at 99.9% complete. Truth be told, 90% complete is still good enough In a year’s time when you have completed more music projects you will develop your skills and can use those to go back and work on older tracks if you really wanted to. Also, try to meet musicians that make a similar style/genre to you because then you can bounce ideas off each other and share tunes to each others fans who are like-minded.
Listen now!
Want to get on Emanate?
Jump in the Discord and ask how to get started! — https://discordapp.com/invite/dznxyW3
