Czech D&B Talent Confusion Gives Us A Reality Check

We caught up with Czech Drum & Bass artist Confusion as he get set to release his latest neuro flavoured single ‘Reality Check’ on the Hoofbeats imprint.

We discuss everything from the Czech D&B scene to meditation in this insightful interview….

How did your journey as a drum & bass artist begin? Who were your early influences?

I used to do beatboxing as a child where is lot of fast rhythms so I listened to fast music to copy those beats. I was always visiting some dance competitions as a break dance and popping dancer, and there was a lot of dance music in my playlist was music from Athilla, Atrocity Solution, Ska-P, Mac Miller, Oliver Heldens, Hardwell so quite a mix! From DnB I was listening to lot of Noisia, old Macky Gee, and stuff I found on UKF, like Rudimental, Camo & Crooked, Sigma, Netsky etc.

I used to do a DNB Step, watched some dnb step tutorials and that’s how I discovered harder styles of drum and bass. I used to visit DnB step school with Skyten and there was lot of new music I never heard before. Almost everytime I met someone who played a cool song I asked him what was that song and if he could give me his library.

I had my phone with tons of downloaded music and I was usually playing on my DJ app on my phone and bluetooth speaker for friends in school and friends from Jemnice and they liked it so I was motivated to practice more so I bought a Pioneer controller and I was playing as a DJ on birthday parties for friends and family from house, rap, metalcore to local pop bands hits and one day on high school I went to my first Czech Drum and Bass rave and from that moment I was full time dnb head!

My friend knew one club owner who organized dnb raves in Moravské Budějovice and he had CDJ’s so despite it being a 1.5 hour drive, I went to the club to practice on CDJ’s. After couple months practice I played in the club for the first time.

As a producer I started with house and liquid D&B in 2015 but I never actually finished anything. As I slowly learned the basics of music production I tried to make stuff like Current Value and Aggressor Bunx. My first tune on Soundcloud is Problem which I put there in later 2018.

From the start I was doing my best to create my own basses and drums which later created my signature sound.

My main influences within DnB are Current Value, Noisia, Aggressor Bunx, Maztek, Macky Gee, Ozma, State of mind.

How would you describe the D&B scene in your country? Are there any local events or artists that had a significant impact on your musical development?

The Drum & Bass scene in CZ is very broad, we have lot of great events every weekend, in bigger cities, even throughout the week and we have lot of great DJs and producers of all dnb subgenres. Czech people really like heavy music like Neurofunk, but other subgenres are gaining more popularity, the are a lot of great producers who are bringing new styles in to Czech DnB.

I think that Czech producer Rido had a big impact on my music. When I was starting out and I had my first tunes for listening, I played them in a small studio at the Beats Evolution Conference before summer Let it Roll and the reaction the people to my tunes was really good, Rido said its not bad for beginner… That really kicked me up a gear and motivated to learn more.

If you had to recommend 1 track from your back catalogue, to sum up your sound for people who’d never heard your music, which track would it be & why?

I think it could be ‘Bad Luck’ which is kinda fast Neurofunk with sort of Psytrance buildup and rhythmic drop. I’m influenced by lot of genres of electronic dance music such as Psytrance, Tekno, Techno, House, Bass House, Dubstep. I love when I’m in front of speakers in the rave and when the DJ plays heavy drops and proper basslines… I think ‘Bad Luck’ describes me quite well.

‘Ashtray’ and ‘Reality Check’ are tunes which could describe sounds which are stuck in my head… Some kind of space indescribable neuro

Your latest release, ‘Reality Check,’ is coming on Hoofbeats Music. How did you first link with Hoofbeats?

I was invited to gig in Olomouc with Aggressor Bunx and we had a conversation about my tunes so I sent them some tunes and they liked ‘Reality Check’

Describe the creative process behind ‘Reality Check’. Where do you start when producing a track like this?

I was playing with synthesizer Serum, doing sound design as I usually do and I made a high resonating plucky sound which immediately started up my state of flow. I delved deep in to the sound more and started to play the piano came up with a melody which I don’t know how to describe, but when I hear sounds like that its like some subconscious space/vibe which is inside my mind which I would describe like oh „sh*t that’s the atmosphere again“ which gives me intense goosebumps

Speaking of your creative process, we like to get tips from all the artists we speak to – to help educate & inspire any would-be producers reading this… What’s your favourite plugin, and how do you use it?

I love to use Kick2 for making punchy drums, mostly for Kicks because the interface is very nice and you can easily make/adjust you desirable kicks.

Izotope Trash for saturation, texture, filtering, snare tails. Izotope trash is really good for making basses because you can put the effect just on basic sinewave or square wave which you don’t need to generate in Serum but in basic OSC which Fl studio has as a stock plugin and Ableton has Operator so you can just put it on there and with filtering you can make great crunchy neuro bass.

If you can’t spend money on Trash2, you can use DAW stock wave shaper and with that you can make awesome distorted basslines aswell.

Cherry on cake would be OTT by xfer which is free plugin and its aggressive multi band upward & downward compressor which I use for basses and every sound which I need to highlight and make sound cool.

You’ve also recently launched your own platform for presets, sample packs & mentoring. Tell us more about that.

Yes I want to help other producers with crating their sounds, making their songs better so they could be happier with it and achieve their goals by giving them tools and steps how to do it.

I learn every day how to be better at mixing, mastering, making sounds & productivity which helped me a lot to get where I am now with my sound.

The website is for people who want to save some time in the studio and who want to improve their skills quickly.

Mentoring is for people who wanna get better at making music and its focused on one on one calls where you can ask me anything you want, I can show you how I work in my projects, you can show me how you work in your projects and I show you what could be better and together we improve what’s needed.

Very soon there will be a subscription for sound design tutorials, tips, notes from self improving books, unreleased tunes and other great benefits.

Aside from music, I noticed on your Facebook that you spent a lot of time meditating. What does meditation bring to your life & do you feel having the peace & quiet of meditation is a good balance to the loudness of Neurofunk? A kind of yin & yang?

Yeah I meditate a lot because my mind is really jumpy and its sometimes very hard to quiet it down. I have lot of ideas and thoughts flowing in my mind and when I do some work such as working on a song its very easy to jump on to that thought, get distracted by it and suddenly after 20 minutes I find out that I been working on something completely different that I was doing before.

With practicing meditation I can be mindful of my thoughts, know about them and I can get to them later if they are interesting. Of course there is like milion thoughts in a day so I usually write the interesting thought in my phone, reminders so it doesn’t disappear forever.

It’s really important to find time, at any time of the day, to just take a break, slow down, do a quick walk and focusing on your breath. If I work without breaks I tend to overlook certain details and with breaks I’m more relaxed and I can do more stuff.

Try anytime during the day just stop and do one conscious inhale through nose and long exhale, you can do it couple times in a day and its life changing. You get more present and cautious about your decisions and feelings.

For me is best to meditate before sleep to calm down but during the day usually after lunch I do Yoga Nidra/Non sleep deep rest which relaxes my nervous system so I don’t stress that much.

Finally, looking ahead, what are your aspirations and goals for the future of your music career? Are there any upcoming projects or collaborations you’re excited about?

My goal is to improve my musicality and sound design so I can truly express the music which is in my head.

My project for next year is to make an LP because I’ve discovered lot of new techniques which brought me in to another world, but I need to swim in that for a while so I can implement the knowledge and the music I make with that will be really dope and interesting.

I have a collab EP in progress with two Czech awesome producers and I can’t wait to finish it.