Drum & bass often prizes impact, but Deep Blue takes a more measured route. Across the EP, Cheryl Holland and Riigs focus on melody, space and emotional weight, building tracks that let the songwriting breathe without sacrificing the energy of the dancefloor. In this conversation with Find Your Sounds, Holland reflects on finding the right balance between production and vocals, learning to trust instinct as a producer, and why sometimes knowing what to leave out is just as important as deciding what to put in.
Deep Blue feels very restrained despite sitting in a genre that’s often associated with big drops and high energy. How did you decide what not to include in these tracks?
Our aim was to convey emotion and to create the space for their vocals to work. We wanted to capture the vibe of Liquid DnB and not depend on huge drops. Obviously there’s the big moment in Deep Blue, but the emotion is what drives it. We also arranged Deep Blue’s composition to enable the mid-section to flow better with the vocals. I tried a few harmonies and ad-libs and decided simplicity was the key.
Your vocal performances feel very intimate throughout the EP. Are you writing melodies with your own voice in mind from the outset, or do the lyrics and toplines evolve once the production starts taking shape?
The way this collaboration worked is that Riigs created the initial idea for the track. So yes, I wrote the vocals with myself in mind. I created them, went to and fro with Riigs, then adjusted the tracks appropriately.
When you’re producing your own music, what’s usually the element that unlocks a track first? Is it a vocal idea, a chord progression, a drum groove or something else entirely?
Producing is a relatively new hat to me, so I have no set pattern. It could be a vocal, it could be inspiration from a random sound, it might be a piano riff. I’m still exploring this one! For Riigs it is finding that one memorable theme – it could be a melody, sample, drum groove or a bassline.
You work across several electronic styles. Do you approach songwriting differently depending on the genre, or do the same creative instincts underpin everything you make?
I work quite instinctively and just write what is alive in me, what feels good, and work with that, whether it’s a hook, verse, ad-lib or theme. Sometimes I don’t even know what the track is about until it’s finished. Sometimes I can think back on a track and it’s totally changed its meaning. But obviously, vocally, the style will change from trance to house to DnB. I’m always up for exploring and experimenting.
Riigs’ production leaves a lot of room for your vocals to breathe. During the making of Deep Blue, how collaborative was that balance between vocal and instrumental space? Were you constantly refining arrangements together?
We were totally open and honest with each other, so it was very collaborative. Luckily, we both instinctively knew what the tracks needed, so there was a little back and forth, but not much. We also had a couple of live sessions in the studio and found you can get so much done when working together in real time.
As both a producer and vocalist, do you ever find yourself overthinking your own demos? How do you know when an idea is genuinely finished rather than simply familiar because you’ve heard it hundreds of times?
Producing is a new hat, and I’m really blessed to be part of some communities that will give feedback on productions and live performances to road-test audience reaction. The feedback always helps, but you just know. You can also spoil a track by messing with it too much. So I’m still learning with that one.
What’s one production habit or songwriting technique you’ve developed over the last few years that has had a noticeable impact on the quality of your music?
I’m always learning! Listen to and learn from others. Sometimes it comes down to personal taste. And never force it.
Looking back at Deep Blue now it’s complete, is there a particular moment across the EP that best captures what you and Riigs were trying to achieve, and why does that section stand out to you? Which part, and why?
I think this is a performance question. When you see your audience singing, dancing or with their arms in the air—those are the parts where you know they’re really connecting with you, the music and the performance. I think the main drop in Deep Blue always hits hard, the reese bass giving that classic DnB pressure and the vocals rising over the top. It is that combination of melody and classic dancefloor energy. It always goes down well!