
Calyx and Teebee interview
To all of the Drum & Bass heads in the World, Calyx and TeeBee are renowned for their crisp, memorable and immaculate production. For all of you who aren’t aware of these long-time musical masterminds, their soon to be released LP ‘All Or Nothing’ on RAM Records is the love child of nearly five years worth of music production and continued exploration of not just the D&B world but all other genres of musical influences. Both producers have carefully chosen 12 tracks from their bank of music and are bringing to you an LP that will be remembered as a breakthrough sound collection for years to come. With astounding vocals flowing through some of their records and collaborations with unique artist Beardymann and Foreign Beggars, BBM’s Frankie Salt chats to Larry a.k.a. Calyx about Chelsea Football Club, his working relationship with Teebee and the technique to their production of the Drum and the Bass.
Good morning Larry and happy Monday! How was your weekend?
It was excellent yeah, I had a big gig in Belgium and I did a whole load of work, with a little bit of relaxing.
Things must be mega busy for you at the moment, how long has it taken you to create your LP ‘All or Nothing’?
It sort of stands at about four years, or just over four years, but in the space of that time we’ve actually written about four album’s worth of materials; so this is kind of the first stuff to come to light. We’ve written loads of stuff for other genres and just built up a mountain of music and decided to keep it.
Tell me the history between you and Teebee coming together?
We started working together in 2005, we first met in 1997. But we had both just signed up to our labels, one was called Moving Shadow and the other one was called Rugged Vinyl. We just enjoyed writing music together so much that we did a few more tracks and then it sort of dawned on me that maybe we’d like to team up permanently and working as a duo, which was in about 2007 when we did our first LP together which was called Anatomy.
Where do you guys draw inspiration? Do you ever disagree on the production of a track?
We do work well together because we have pretty similar tastes, and to be honest we usually really like what the other one does, but we have a policy where if one of us feels really strongly about something, then we’ll go with that person’s feeling and instinct. Obviously, if one of us really doesn’t like something then it gets scrapped but that’s really rare. As far as inspiration goes we’ve got a really diverse taste in music, and I think it’s important that we take our influences from our side of Drum and Bass.
How did it come about getting signed to the major RAM label?
Well we’ve always kind of crossed paths with Andy C; he has always supported our music. When we were writing the album Andy would always say, “Oh when you’ve finished it, bring it in for me to look at it”, just so that he could play some of our tracks. When we played the LP to Andy C and Scott, the record label manager, they really wanted to sign us up to RAM Records. We were thinking of releasing it on our own label, but RAM is such a massive label, with such brilliant staff and we wanted to release it with someone that would make the most of your music and make it reach further than our little niche and to a whole crowd.
The production of your music is so tight and clean cut, how do you first go about making a track and how do you know when it is the best it can possibly be?
We just picked the selection that we thought was the best list and really reflected what we’re about at the moment. As for the way we go about producing our music, well sometimes it’s just a sound or an idea and other times it’ll be a melody in my head that I would have thought about before I’ve even got to work. Sometimes it’ll be a feeling or something from another genre that’s really inspired me, and then sometimes I just sit down and experiment with sounds and just see what comes up really.
I love your track Elevate this sound, there are so many layers of sounds and ambience and then your vocals are so uplifting, where do you get the inspiration for your lyrics, do you enjoy creating the vocals?
The lyrics over that song were about me kind of overcoming my inhibitions. I knew for years that I had a good voice I was just too shy and introverted to put myself out there, but as I’ve started writing and experimenting, I’ve put myself out there and thought that if I kind of push myself I’ll be able to express myself in my own lyrics.
How do your collaborations come about with artists such as Beardyman?
We got to meet him at festivals we were doing, first over in Eastern Europe. Turns out he loved our music and I listened to one of his sets and he absolutely blew my mind! Probably one of the most profound solo performances I have ever seen, it just blew me away. I sent him some of the clips that we’d been working on, and he came down to the studio and just released his insanity!
‘Anatomy’ seemed to change a lot for you and was a massive hit, with two mixers and six decks you hit your tour, how did that go down? Sounds pretty mental.
The way it works is to do a lot with communication, it’s not about how many triple drops or double drops you can make it’s about mixing a lot more of the musical elements other than the intros. Just choreographing aspects of musical harmonies from classics through to modern tracks. It is very complex, but we never kind of over complicate it.
Yeah, not over complicating the complicated! When you’re not in the studio and not behind the decks what do you enjoy doing? Do you listen to D&B all the time or other music to allow your brain some rest?
My life is totally dominated by the studio, if I’m not behind the decks or doing gigs, I’m normally the vast majority of the time I’m in the studio. But other than that I’m a big Chelsea fan and I do love a bit of skiing, getting some fresh air.
What else do you have coming up apart from the release of the album this month?
We’ve got the third single, with MC Kemo on it and then we have the album. We’ve got a few other remixes and a few other singles to come out after the album. There’s some juicy remixes coming your way.
By Frankie Salt
Check out the BBM Dance Music Podcast mixed by So Called Scumbags.