Producing since the late 1990s, Modal was active through the genre’s formative years before stepping away for an extended hiatus. During that time, he built a successful, award-winning career as a TV composer and sound designer, developing a refined sense of narrative, texture, and dynamics that now defines his return to drum and bass.
His solo releases have appeared on respected labels including DSCI4, Repertoire, Rebel Music, and BETA, earning support from across the scene. Alongside his solo work, Modal is also one half of the collaborative project JAG, formed with Jem-One, with a substantial body of material lined up for release.
What were your main inspirations behind the album? Does this include any particular clubs, producers, or event brands you can tell us about from your past growing up in drum & bass?
The album came about by accident to be honest. I wrote a track, the first one of what became the album called “Long Way Home”. It was just the result of making a track and wanting to experiment and do something different. I liked it a lot and I though id like to make a few more in this style to fit with it, so I did. From then it just snowballed, I kept making music in the same theme. I wrote all of the album to picture. I was essentially scoring the album to slow motion night walks around various cities like Tokyo, New York, Hong Kong, London. Putting myself in the feet of a character moving through these metropolis cities, seeing the people, the architecture, the culture and the life. I hope that it gives the feeling of a strong arc and continuity throughout the whole album. That its a soundtrack to a life. It was very intentional.
At the time I was listening to a lot of autonomic drum and bass, Cloud lord, Heron Flow, Krust, and lots of ambient music like Tangerine Dream, Arc of Doves, Hiroshi Yoshimura, Kakashi, These were all big influences to the album.
I grew up listening to drum and bass. I started buying vinyl as a teenager in the mid 90s and was raving in what a lot of people call the golden period (98-00). I always loved the metalheadz sound, ed rush and optical, Full cycle, digital and spirit, Dillinja…..I was a massive dillinja fan, Bad company, Marcus Intalex. I used to DJ a lot in my local city and scene, thats Derby (UK), my hometown, and got to support all the big acts at our local events. I fell out of love with the music in around 2005, drum and bass just wasn’t what I loved anymore and I didnt resonate with the music, I think it was a partially shit period for dnb. I left the scene and went and make other types of music, sort of Radiohead inspired stuff. It was only about 2015 when I started to hear what new producers were doing and it brought me back in.
Which labels and artists do you look up to, and why? This can span the entire electronic music spectrum.
In terms of drum and bass there are so many artists that I admire and look up to. I think the biggest would be Blocks and Escher, Quartz and Jem-One. The are my top three without a doubt. I think they are the absolute pinnacle.
Blocks and Escher I think are untouchable in everything they do. Every release is fantastic in every way you look at it. The musicianship, the production. I think they made one of the greatest dnb albums of all time. The Escher tune “late snare” actually got me back into drum and bass after about a decade away. I fell out of love with the music in about 2005. I went and did other types of music. When I heard late snare (I guess 2015 more or less) it just spoke out to me, that there were people making interesting drum and bass, stuff that was different, and pushing boundaries.
Quartz, I think is the best producer in DnB, technically hes amazing, vibe of the tunes, the hooks he writes, theres just so much to admire. He can go dark, soft, aggressive, warm….whatever he choses to do is always an inspiration.
Jem- One, Im lucky that Ive collabed with him for the last two years on our JAG project. We make music together everyday (remotely as im in Barcelona and hes in the UK). Everyday he sends me sketches, parts, bits of music and they are so good, its a total inspiration and I enjoy doing that music with him so much.
Clearly theres a wider list of people like Krust, DBridge, Goldie, Mako, Oliver Yorke, Kid Drama, Jaise, they are all a constant inspiration and all share the same qualities, they all push and try to do different things. They keep evolving, and stay true to themselves and the music.
Label wise Metalheadz is still the peak for me, after all these years. Id love to release on that label at some point. Exit is clearly another. CNVX, R&S, Soul In Motion, Utopia, Narratives, UVB76/Droogs, theres just too many to name.
Outside of drum and bass my musical hero is John Frusciante. I love his solo work and the constant evolution. Im obsessed with a Japanese band called Toe at the moment, they are a instrumental math rock group who are just on another level. I dont listen to a huge amount of electronic music. I spend so much time making it I prefer to listen to jazz, hip hop, reggae, groups like Radiohead/Thom Yorke
etc.
What did you want your album to communicate? And how do you think it’s gone down so far?
Difficult question. I want people to be open to listening to something different. I dont think it really sounds like anyone/anything else, and that can be a hard sell. At the risk of repeating myself its a listening record, its not something to smash a dance floor apart. I feel like I sound pompous if I say its meant to be an experience, a soundtrack to something, I dont know what though. It was two years work to get here and I hope the care and love I put into it comes across.
The reception to it so far has been good. I need to big up Alley Cat who has been a massive supporter of the whole project and given it lots of air play. Ive had great feedback from the DJ mail outs, including people saying “best album of the year”, “best autonomic album of the last decade”, which is all amazing to receive. I guess I just want people to listen and share it. I think as an independent musician and it being self released this is the most important thing. Having people share it. Theres no money in this, most artists do it for the love right ?!?!? And the way that people can support you is sharing it.
You’ve won awards as a TV engineer and sound producer – can you tell us more about your background outside of drum & bass?
Im really lucky that ive made a career in music. I worked as a recording engineer and then fell into the world of sync. I was a TV composer/sound designer for a very long time and got to work on all sorts of amazing projects. I worked with BAFTA, The Olympics, loads of commercials, tv etc. Now im a music supervisor, so I sit not the other side of the desk and source music for media, oversee composers, work with producers, deal with licensing, rights etc. It taught me a lot of skills that I carry over to making drum and bass, being focused, being professional, maintaining high quality control, working fast and not focusing too much on insignificant things…..keeping moving and being able to finish projects.
Tell us about your journey with different imprints – why did you choose to self-release, too?
Ive released on a modest collection of labels, but for the most part they have treated me really well, Repertoire has become like a little home for me, they have been incredibly supportive and I cant say nice enough things about them (Big up Ben and Rick).
Trace at DSCI4 again, has been great and I cant thank him enough for all the support. John B actually put out my first release as Modal, on BETA and hes always been a top guy and a great supporter. I was a new producer, he liked the music I was making and essentially let me do whatever I wanted.
Self releasing was a difficult decision. I had “finished” the album, it was originally just a passion project, I didnt really have any intention to release it during the production. It was an exercise to see if I could write an album, have it be different, follow a theme and see it through. Once it was written I decided to get Bob Macc to master it, so it was as polished as possible. I think the masters really shine. I played it to friends and they all encouraged me to do something with it. Honestly I would have liked a drum and bass label to take it, just for the ease of having it out there, and them having established audiences etc. The sad truth in drum and bass is that theres a very small group of labels willing to take risks, especially big ones like my album. Its not a dance floor or club record. Its a listening album. Its essentially autonomic dnb and meant to be a listening experience. Its different and thats how its intended. Commercially its not going to make sense for 99% of labels to put it out, even if they like it. Its a niche of a niche. So it leaves you with one option…..do it yourself. I work in music so in some ways it was easier as I already had people to help me. Andy Robinson at Interstellar Music was an enormous help (apart from being a great friend) and without him Im not sure if the album would have come out at all, but, here we are. Its coming out on “Scripture” which is my own imprint. At the moment im only planing on using it for self releases but Im open to signing music and releasing/distributing if something comes along in the future.
What have been your favourite collaborations with other artists?
I haven’t done a huge amount of collabs. I like working on my own for the most part. I wrote a few tunes with Jaise (Metalheadz, Dispatch) a few years back which came out on Rebel music and Repertoire, They were really easy to do and im still happy with the music. Jaise is a really good friend and the music came easy.
For the last two years ive been in a group with Jem-One called JAG. We’ve had releases on DSCI4, 117, Repertoire and Locked Up. We just signed another EP to DSCI4 that should be out in the summer. I love working with Jem. Again, its just easy, theres no conflict and we are always pulling in the same direction. We want the same things, we have the same ideas, and without sounding stuck up….we have the same vision for the music. We both bring different skills and qualities to the music and it just works welll. Its easy, I think thats the key with collabs. The music is different to my solo work as Modal. That stuff is very autonomic inspired, where as the JAG music is very much “Rufige”.
My next single for the album “Long Way Home” is out 24/04. Free Download on Bandcamp
The Album “Where Light Never Ends” is out 01/05 Long Way Home | Modal
The next JAG release is “Figure of Eight” on Repertoire. Thats out in May, and we have another EP out on DSCI4 in June.
Thanks for the questions !