Ben Snow has experienced a very fast rise through the ranks of the D&B scene. He’s not let that steep learning curve phase him, he’s embraced every opportunity with open arms.
Over the past few months he’s been planning the next phase of his global domination, the launch of his very own label Catch22! We had to find out more about the man himself & this new label…
I think I first heard your name a couple of years ago. How long did this overnight success actually take?
It really was overnight to begin with. Back around the start of 2018 I’d been taking producing more seriously which led me to making my track ‘Ganja’. I posted it in the DnB Talk Facebook group to get a few opinions only to check back later to a comment section filled with people asking if & when they can get it… I was gassed to say the least! A few months later I released ‘Enter’ which was even more of a success, this is what led to meeting Friction and Gardna who introduced me to the Born On Road team. These last few years have been amazing but I feel like I still have so much to learn and a lot more to explore musically.
What first sparked your interest in wanting to make music?
I think it was around 2011 when I was really into dubstep and just been introduced to liquid DnB. I was on my mum’s laptop and found garageband, that’s when I realised you could make all this music just sitting at home and since then I’ve never stopped.
Did you have any particular influences when you first started out?
If I had to pick one person it would be Netsky. His music is amazing, pretty much always had his stuff on repeat when I was younger.
You’ve had big labels such as Born On Road, DnB Allstars & Elevate releasing your music. You must be pleased with the success you’ve achieved?
I still can’t believe it myself, it’s all seemed to happen so quickly. I’ve played some unforgettable nights with all these crews as well, the dream job!
What do you put this success down to? It’s not an easy thing to get recognition in this game with your first few releases
Hard work and a lot of luck haha. I feel like if I’d missed the opportunity to post Ganja into DnB Talk it would have taken me a lot longer to really get my name out to people and to meet the people who run these labels. The fact I could do that for my first track must have caused enough excitement and talk of my name that people were looking forward to seeing what else I had coming.
You’re now starting your own label. Where did the name Catch22 come from?
The whole label idea started last summer but I spent a long time thinking of a name, when it came to the second lockdown i had the idea of including something personal to me, it ended up being my age that I used (I was 22 at the time), and the name Catch22 ended up working really well as the whole lockdown situation. The name fitted perfectly for the time.
Do you have a vision of what you want the label to be?
Just to release good music consistently, no matter what the style of Drum and Bass is and no matter how known or unknown the artist is. As you mentioned earlier it can be really hard to get your name heard from your first few releases even if you’re making amazing music, so I wanted to have a platform that could give these producers the boost that helped me so much when I was in their shoes, this is a key part of owning a label for me.
What artists can we expect to see on the Catch22? Will you be bringing people in? Or will it be mainly your own productions?
So far I’ve got a massive variety of artists lined up, myself, Phantasy, Turno, Disrupta, Furniss, Jappa, Konetix, Amplify and many more. There will mostly be other artists on the label but I’ve got a couple cheeky collabs in there and a single lined up.
The first release is a collaboration between yourself & DJ Phantasy. How did you first link up with Phantasy?
I turned up for my debut set at fabric and I was approached by the promoter who told me that something had come up for Phantasy and he needed to swap to an earlier set time and if i’d be able to play his time instead, I’ve been in this position before so I was more than happy to swap and then just enjoyed my night not really thinking anything of it. A couple days later I saw a tweet by Phantasy bigging me up for swapping sets with him so I hit him up on Instagram and we’ve been good mates ever since.
He’s got 3 decades of experience in the music industry, has he been sharing some of that wisdom with you? If so what bit of advice has resonated with you the most?
He’s taught me a lot about the industry and I feel really lucky to have a legend such as him sharing his knowledge with me! The one thing he’s said which has stuck with me most is be humble and be yourself, if you’re not you never know what opportunities you could be missing. Big up Steve!
How has your lockdown experience been? Have you found yourself using the time productively?
Up and down to be honest, a lot of false hope over the last year. However its given me the time to start a label and get new artists on board, more time to learn and work on my music and I’ve got an amazing team behind me and the bookings coming in ready to smash the second half of 2021!
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