Disconnected Podcast 006: Matthew Burton

matthew burton disconnected podcast

Matthew burton, a UK producer and DJ originally from Nottingham with past releases on labels including Ultra Stretch, Leftroom, Retrofit and Shrink.

Alright Matt, how’s it going? Thanks for doing our latest podcast, we love the mix, especially the first track, can you introduce yourself and tell us what is your back-ground in music?

I have been making electronic music for at least the last 6 years (I cant remember exactly) and I have been djing for the same amount of time.

I first got into dance music when I visited the bomb in Nottingham where I was lucky enough to hear Tyrant on their monthly nights, then I started working at Stealth nightclub as a sound engineer and was able to start djing there on a regular basis and I have been playing records ever since.

How come you ended up in Berlin?

I used to visit the city a lot with my girlfriend Kate and my music course was about to end so we just made the natural choice to head out there and see if we would enjoy living there. It was not really a choice just because of the music scene out there but that definitely helped us make the decision.

We’ve been out a few times and we have always loved it, what’s the scene like from the inside?

Well like anywhere I guess there are good points and bad points. The city is full of producers and djs which is great if you are a networking kind of person, but I personally have never been very good at that side of things unfortunately. However I was lucky enough to meet some really nice people in the scene, when we first got there I met Gavin Herlihy who was really good to us and then met all the vision quest guys (Seth, Ryan and Shaun), and Club der Visionaire became a kind of local to us where you could listen to good deep music and great djs every night of the week if you felt like it and I have not heard or seen of any other city which can boast that.

The bad side to the scene is also the fact that there’s so many djs in the city, or wanna be djs should I say, with so many poor nights playing obvious white noise build up techno all night long, but you learn to avoid these nights and people. The best music in the city is definitely coming from the older guys who have been there a long time like the Perlon guys, Sammy Dee, Zip and most the others that release on Perlon especially a guy called Gerald who plays in the small grotty clubs around the city but his darky groovy techno sessions are some of the best music I have heard for a long time.

Me and Kate got friendly with Sammy and he is the nicest guy, and I am now releasing on his new Ultra Stretch label and playing regularly at his parties and luckily we met him a few months before leaving for London so we have good excuses to get back there quite often.

Recently you’ve found yourself in London, why are you finding the capital?

We moved to London for a few reasons, Kate is now studying here and we always wanted to try living in the capital while we were relatively young and now seemed like the perfect time to try it out.

London is great and full of personality and a mixture of cultures which Berlin doesn’t really have so on that side it’s great to experience these things, and there’s some great music coming out of London, but often doesn’t get the credit it deserves because unfortunately a lot of attention seems to go to the Beatport top 100 trendy artists, but like Berlin it is possible to find great parties playing underground music, like BLM from Fear of Flying who is making some amazing music at the moment and obviously Craig Richards has always been at the front of underground music.

We really like your productions, what’s your set up?

I use Cubase and sometimes hook up Reason for percussion as I find it great and easy to use to get a good groove going.

I have my Korg synth as well but I love recording my own sounds and taking samples from films and have only recently got really into the synth side of making music as I was always more into the organic sound but now I have found it great to mix the organic side with the synthesized side, I think if you get the balance right it sounds amazing.

I have always used my own and Kate’s voice in my music and often when I think of a melody or a sound I want to add to a track I wont automatically head for a synth I would often prefer to use my voice to bring the ideas from inside my head and into the song I am making. Kate has really got addicted to making music now and we often jam together which is great as making music can often be a lonely business and having someone else especially when its your woman to feed off can make things more fun.

Although I sometimes use Reason everything is sequenced in Cubase. The sound in Cubase is great and I find it easy to use, loads of people have been telling me I should use Ableton to make music but I don’t feel the need to swap and I cant see myself steering away from Cubase as I find personally for a PC user it’s the best program to use.

Have you got anything in the pipeline we should be looking out for?

The ultra stretch vinyl only release is coming out in Jan 2011, the A side is I suppose a re-edit of a track from the film running man, its more “having it” than most my other music and the reaction on the dance floor is always amazing when its played so really looking forward to that coming out.

I also have Snuff It coming out on Left’d which I made with Nick Lawson and our other track Gruff It will be coming out next year on Visionquest.

I have the next Retrofit EP coming out on vinyl in Feb 2011 which is a collaboration between myself and Jay Shepheard with a remix by Ethyl and Flori, all the tracks are finished and the fusion between my style and Jays disco style works well and we are both really happy with the tracks we have produced together, so all in all I am really buzzing about the way things are going at the moment.

Can you tell us what to expect from the podcast? Are their any tracks in particular we should be listening out for?

Yes like you said that first track is ace! haha.. its from the sound track to Teen Wolf, the scene where he first changes into a wolf in his bathroom, when I heard that first thing I did was buy the soundtrack and have been waiting for a chance to use it and this seemed like the time.

There’s also quite a few records from around 2000-2002 which I find the best few years in proper underground stripped dance music, from the likes of Mike Shannon on Cynosure and some old Affected tracks by Sideffects and life projects. There’s also an old Terry Francis record in there near the end which is great, all his old stuff is ace, sort of ravey and very atmospheric.

Also check out the acid track from Adrian Forciniti (class of ’94) and straight after a track from Fast-track then an ectomorph record which is some great dark and heavy electronica. I didn’t pre plan any of the mix as I wanted it to reflect a real set of mine which is always just a reflection of the way I am feeling at the time and my environment and crowd, this time my crowd was Kate and my housemate Chris, anyway I had a lot of fun making the mix and I hope you enjoy it.

If you want more information about Matthew check out the Busta Groove website.

Subscribe to the Disconnected Podcast

In order to subscribe you have the following options:

You can also find the podcast by searching for Disconnected in the iTunes podcast directory. If you need any help or if you have any problems please let us know.

Be Sociable, Share!