About this mix

Hatched is a thing we put together a couple of years ago now, to get another label out there that was pushing the true sound of dubstep, because it'd been getting a very mixed reception in the public eye in the last few years. It's also about pushing through the new, young talent that had been finding it hard to break through into the scene, because there's so many undiscovered talents out there making a really good, proper dubstep sound, and not getting heard beyond a couple of mates. I want to dedicate time to these guys, so I've focused it right down. Originally there was close to fifteen artists I wanted to release, all pure quality, but pretty quickly I worked out that given time and resources, it was much better to get a crew that I can help develop, so over the rest of this year, it's going to be all about Kloudmen, Max Mudie, Cato and Noclu... maybe one or two more if I can.

Everyone knows that dubstep took a wrong turn a few years back, through getting to the point where everyone was trying to be louder than the next man, and we ended up with nothing but chainsaw noises. For a year or two, it was just too easy, it was all square and predictable, you didn't have to have a good ear, just have all the big tunes and hit the button at the right time. I like tough tunes, yes, but not if it means getting rid of everything else we originally loved. There have only been a few labels that have come through it all and kept to that original sound – ones like DMZ, Tempa, Chesplate, Artikal – so that means there's plenty of room for more to fill that space, and that's what I want to do.

And you know what? When I'm in the rave, it gives me goosebumps sometimes. We come in and play all this minimal, tribal, rolling stuff – the majority of my dubstep set now is Hatched material – and people get it straight away, even if they don't know that this is what dubstep really is. Remember there's kids in clubs that probably only first heard dubstep in 2011 when it was all tear-out shit, so to them this is a new sound. They don't even feel like it's minimal or moody or whatever people say dubstep is, either, because it's still got that garage swing in it, the percussion, the groove to it. It's NICE! So I'm playing dubstep, actual dubstep again, and I love it, I'm excited for the next tune to come in. I'm not really a producer: I dabble a bit, but really I'm a DJ, that's my job, and to be back to this, back to having all the exclusives in the bag, to surprising people with each new one, and getting deep into it when I'm mixing, trust me there's no better feeling.

Hatcha