Stay ConnectedPaul Rose aka the musician, DJ, and label boss known as Scuba talks to people of significance from the world of electronic music about their experiences, observations, and attempts to cultivate a life for themselves in the murky and sometimes treacherous waters of the music industry.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Copyright: © Copyright 2023 Scuba
Music Not Diving is supported by Acid Nation (formerly AC55ID)... head over to www.acidnation.com to check out the fastest growing electronic music marketplace, a central hub for music discovery, streaming and purchasing!
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Watch the video episodes of Music Not Diving over at youtube.com/@WeNotDiving
Pendulum are the biggest Drum n Bass act of all time. A controversial statement perhaps but one that ChatGPT agrees with.
El Hornet is the band's DJ, a member since day 1 of Pendulum in Perth, Australia, and a man who has been on every step of the journey along with Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen.
They have a new album out called Inertia, and it's their first one since 2010. It's both very modern and very recognisable as a Pendulum record, which might say as much about their wider influence on dance music as anything else.
We discuss the scene in 90s Perth, playing in punk bands, moving to the UK in 2003, taking over the scene and ultimately outgrowing it. Oh and playing before Beyoncé at Glastonbury.
Some mad stuff in this one - you're gonna enjoy it!
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If you're into what we're doing here on the pod then you can support the show on Patreon! There are two tiers - "Solidarity" for $4 a month, which features the show without ads, regular bonus podcasts, and extra content. And "Musicality" which for a mere $10 a month gets you all the music we release on Hotflush and affiliate labels AND other music too, some of which never comes out anywhere else.
You can also make a one-off donation to the podcast using a card, with Paypal, or your Ethereum wallet! Head over to scubaofficial.io/support.
Plus there's also a private area for Patreon supporters in the Hotflush Discord Server... but anyone can join the conversation in the public channels.
Listen to the music discussed on the show via the Music Not Diving Podcast Spotify playlist
Chapters:
00:00 Join Acid Nation
00:59 Intro
02:43 El Hornet
03:14 The new album
06:40 The influence on Skrillex
08:00 Breaking the DnB mould
08:57 Knife Party and being competitive
09:52 DJing after Andy C
11:09 Lightening up
13:03 “You blink and you’re a legacy act’
19:03 Genres are important
20:50 Dubstep in the US
26:07 Perth, Australia
35:14 Mining and meth
39:15 Moving to the UK
51:10 Breaking through
57:15 The new record
01:03:00 The DnB ethos
01:05:28 Singing over Drum n Bass
01:08:06 Current state of the scene
01:11:00 Beyoncé at Glastonbury
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Music Not Diving is supported by Acid Nation (formerly AC55ID)... head over to www.acidnation.com to check out the fastest growing electronic music marketplace, a central hub for music discovery, streaming and purchasing!
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Watch the video episodes of Music Not Diving over at youtube.com/@WeNotDiving
We are finally back with a brand new episode!
Kelly Lee Owens is one of the most notable UK electronic musicians to emerge over the last decade. An album artist, she released her first LP back in 2017 and the most recent, Dreamstate was released on dh2 in 2024.
We discuss her past as a Taekwondo black belt, experiences with the supernatural, making music without knowledge of theory, the mechanics of releasing music today, as well as the challenges facing musicians and the scene more widely.
This is a good one!
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If you're into what we're doing here on the pod then you can support the show on Patreon! There are two tiers - "Solidarity" for $4 a month, which features the show without ads, regular bonus podcasts, and extra content. And "Musicality" which for a mere $10 a month gets you all the music we release on Hotflush and affiliate labels AND other music too, some of which never comes out anywhere else.
You can also make a one-off donation to the podcast using a card, with Paypal, or your Ethereum wallet! Head over to scubaofficial.io/support.
Plus there's also a private area for Patreon supporters in the Hotflush Discord Server... but anyone can join the conversation in the public channels.
Listen to the music discussed on the show via the Music Not Diving Podcast Spotify playlist
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
03:18 Episode starts
03:43 Wrestling stan
06:13 The 5 tenets needed for Taekwondo and Music
07:30 Haunted hotels
10:35 Welsh folklore and wizardry
17:40 Music theory and the decline of music education
27:45 Waiting for the magic to happen
28:54 The importance of collaboration
32:42 "The weight of an album will never change''
39:10 The creative process shouldn't be easy
43:30 Making the first album
49:55 The album campaign lifecycle
54:58 The rise in marketing and branding
58:40 Flogging artists and mental health
01:04:16 Working as a nurse
01:05:22 Ozzy Osbourne
01:07:24 The importance of a manager
01:09:45 Getting into Dance music
01:12:58 Decline of small venues and culture
01:18:23 The rise in touring costs
01:20:24 The Festivalisation of Dance Music
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Music Not Diving is supported by AC55ID... head over to www.ac55id.com to check out the fastest growing electronic music marketplace, a central hub for music discovery, streaming and purchasing!
--
Watch the full video version of this episode over at youtube.com/@WeNotDiving
Skream was the poster boy for the early dubstep scene, then made the charts as part of Magnetic Man, and since then forged a unique path through different areas of dance music while always maintaining the personality that made him a star in the first place.
This conversation was first broadcast in September 2023, episode 85 of our previous incarnation, the Not A Diving Podcast. And more people have listened to it than any of our other 200-odd episodes.
We discuss what the very early years of dubstep were really like, and what happened when the Americans got involved. What it was like being marketed as an old fashioned rock n roll hellraiser, the fun that was had and the pressure that came with it. And we get into how the music and the scene has changed along the way.
This is a great chat with a legend of UK music - worth a re-spin even if you listened the first time round, and absolutely essential listening if you missed it!
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If you're into what we're doing here on the pod then you can support the show on Patreon! There are two tiers - "Solidarity" for $4 a month, which features the show without ads, regular bonus podcasts, and extra content. And "Musicality" which for a mere $10 a month gets you all the music we release on Hotflush and affiliate labels AND other music too, some of which never comes out anywhere else.
You can also make a one-off donation to the podcast using a card, with Paypal, or your Ethereum wallet! Head over to scubaofficial.io/support.
Plus there's also a private area for Patreon supporters in the Hotflush Discord Server... but anyone can join the conversation in the public channels.
Listen to the music discussed on the show via the Music Not Diving Podcast Spotify playlist
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
02:45 Skreamizm 8
08:12 Lockdown Tunes & Addictive Process
20:40 Staying True, Not Conforming
30:48 Different Definitions of Success
34:15 Transition to House
43:46 Autonomic Influence
50:32 Stories Before the Sober Journey
1:00:41 Generational Marketability
1:07:54 Upbringing, Escapism, Maturing
1:15:55 How Magnetic Man’s Pop Sound Influenced American Dubstep
1:23:33 Genre Gatekeeping in DNB, Jungle, and Garage
1:28:40 (Big) Apple Records
1:39:10 Scene Development Differences
1:47:33 Panorama Bar & DoLab Experiences
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Music Not Diving is supported by Acid Nation (formerly AC55ID)... head over to www.acidnation.com to check out the fastest growing electronic music marketplace, a central hub for music discovery, streaming and purchasing!
--
Watch the video episodes of Music Not Diving over at youtube.com/@WeNotDiving
--
If you're into what we're doing here on the pod then you can support the show on Patreon! There are two tiers - "Solidarity" for $4 a month, which features the show without ads, regular bonus podcasts, and extra content. And "Musicality" which for a mere $10 a month gets you all the music we release on Hotflush and affiliate labels AND other music too, some of which never comes out anywhere else.
You can also make a one-off donation to the podcast using a card, with Paypal, or your Ethereum wallet! Head over to scubaofficial.io/support.
Plus there's also a private area for Patreon supporters in the Hotflush Discord Server... but anyone can join the conversation in the public channels.
Listen to the music discussed on the show via the Music Not Diving Podcast Spotify playlist
Chapters:
00:00 Intro and Bandcamp alternatives
07:50 What is Bandcamp and D2C?
15:45 Bandcamp vs the whole industry
19:00 Growth, efficiency, takeovers
26:00 Single point of failure?
36:00 Are dance music fans stingy?
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Music Not Diving is supported by Acid Nation (formerly AC55ID)... head over to www.acidnation.com to check out the fastest growing electronic music marketplace, a central hub for music discovery, streaming and purchasing!
--
Watch the video episodes of Music Not Diving over at youtube.com/@WeNotDiving
Stuart McMillan is half of Slam, one of the most important UK techno acts in history and absolute key players in the world of Scottish electronic music.
The new Slam album, Dark Channel is out now on their own Soma imprint - one of the most important UK techno labels and a conversation in itself.
We discuss the story of Slam from the mid 80s onwards, traversing the Acid House experience in Glasgow into the 90s rave era and beyond. We talk about Daft Punk releasing their early singles on Soma and the history of the label more generally. And we discuss the modern techno scene in Scotland and across the world.
Another point of conversation is the 2018 Slam album Athenaeum 101 - a really great piece of work which very much deserves another look and listen.
Scotland has been criminally neglected on the podcast up til now so this is a great way to start addressing the balance!
--
If you're into what we're doing here on the pod then you can support the show on Patreon! There are two tiers - "Solidarity" for $4 a month, which features the show without ads, regular bonus podcasts, and extra content. And "Musicality" which for a mere $10 a month gets you all the music we release on Hotflush and affiliate labels AND other music too, some of which never comes out anywhere else.
You can also make a one-off donation to the podcast using a card, with Paypal, or your Ethereum wallet! Head over to scubaofficial.io/support.
Plus there's also a private area for Patreon supporters in the Hotflush Discord Server... but anyone can join the conversation in the public channels.
Listen to the music discussed on the show via the Music Not Diving Podcast Spotify playlist
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
02:54 Glasgow techno scene
12:20 New Slam album - Dark Channel
21:50 Divisions in society and music
28:45 Is techno political?
34:10 Early years in music
40:40 Acid House and rave in Glasgow
01:01:50 Early Slam productions
01:15:30 The label - Soma
01:18:30 Discovering Daft Punk
01:27:55 The best club in the world
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Music Not Diving is supported by Acid Nation (formerly AC55ID)... head over to www.acidnation.com to check out the fastest growing electronic music marketplace, a central hub for music discovery, streaming and purchasing!
--
Watch the video episodes of Music Not Diving over at youtube.com/@WeNotDiving
No full episode this week but an update on our scheduling woes and what we have coming up for the rest of the summer.
Oh and the world's worst Spotify take.
--
If you're into what we're doing here on the pod then you can support the show on Patreon! There are two tiers - "Solidarity" for $4 a month, which features the show without ads, regular bonus podcasts, and extra content. And "Musicality" which for a mere $10 a month gets you all the music we release on Hotflush and affiliate labels AND other music too, some of which never comes out anywhere else.
You can also make a one-off donation to the podcast using a card, with Paypal, or your Ethereum wallet! Head over to scubaofficial.io/support.
Plus there's also a private area for Patreon supporters in the Hotflush Discord Server... but anyone can join the conversation in the public channels.
Listen to the music discussed on the show via the Music Not Diving Podcast Spotify playlist
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Music Not Diving is supported by AC55ID... head over to www.ac55id.com to check out the fastest growing electronic music marketplace, a central hub for music discovery, streaming and purchasing!
--
Watch the full video version of this episode over at youtube.com/@WeNotDiving
We've covered techno quite a lot over the years, but this episode is definitely one of our favourites.
Originally broadcast May 2024, we were discussing the LB Dub Corp album Saturn To Home. But we talk about a lot more than that!
Normal service will resume on Tuesday 29 July.
--
If you're into what we're doing here on the pod then you can support the show on Patreon! There are two tiers - "Solidarity" for $4 a month, which features the show without ads, regular bonus podcasts, and extra content. And "Musicality" which for a mere $10 a month gets you all the music we release on Hotflush and affiliate labels AND other music too, some of which never comes out anywhere else.
You can also make a one-off donation to the podcast using a card, with Paypal, or your Ethereum wallet! Head over to scubaofficial.io/support.
Plus there's also a private area for Patreon supporters in the Hotflush Discord Server... but anyone can join the conversation in the public channels.
Listen to the music discussed on the show via the Music Not Diving Podcast Spotify playlist
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:52 Luke Slater's definition of Techno
05:20 Techno vs Rave
09:30 Dance music vs Rave Culture
15:40 Modern festivals
18:30 Early 90s Techno wars
30:00 Using aliases
35:00 LB Dub Corp - Saturn To Home
43:00 Vocalists on the album
57:20 On very long tracks
01:05:30 Berlin clubs
01:13:00 Problems in the modern club scene
01:24:00 Different eras of Hard Techno
01:33:40 Internationalism in the dance scene
01:37:00 Techno recommendations!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Music Not Diving is supported by AC55ID... head over to www.ac55id.com to check out the fastest growing electronic music marketplace, a central hub for music discovery, streaming and purchasing!
And for artists and labels... use the code Scuba6 for six months free use of the platform!!
--
Watch the full video version of this episode over at youtube.com/@WeNotDiving
Denise Devenish is a psychotherapist who specialises in treating musicians, offering a specialist service for those working in music and the creative industries.
She describes herself as having grown up "in a family steeped in the music business and having been surrounded by musicians and industry folk my whole life" and having "witnessed first hand the unique highs and lows that working in the industry entails."
So of course this is an interesting person to talk to!
We discuss the extent of the mental health crisis in the creative industries (as well as the wider economy), the differences in the younger generation and their attitudes to drug and alcohol, the "art comes from pain" and "genius requires madness" tropes, and the changes that digital music has brought to participants in the industry.
The book we refer to is Can Music Make You Sick? by Sally Anne Gross and George Musgrave (aka Context). A key input into that is Jodi Dean's Communucative Capitalism (2005), which I also recommend.
This a really interesting discussion of some pertinent issues!
--
If you're into what we're doing here on the pod then you can support the show on Patreon! There are two tiers - "Solidarity" for $4 a month, which features the show without ads, regular bonus podcasts, and extra content. And "Musicality" which for a mere $10 a month gets you all the music we release on Hotflush and affiliate labels AND other music too, some of which never comes out anywhere else.
You can also make a one-off donation to the podcast using a card, with Paypal, or your Ethereum wallet! Head over to scubaofficial.io/support.
Plus there's also a private area for Patreon supporters in the Hotflush Discord Server... but anyone can join the conversation in the public channels.
Listen to the music discussed on the show via the Music Not Diving Podcast Spotify playlist
Chapters:
00:00 Intro and how you can support the show
03:39 Who is Denise Devenish?
07:45 Mental health challenges in creative industries
13:30 The realities of creative work
20:40 Suffering for your art
27:30 On-stage characters
30:50 Challenges of different levels of success
36:10 Metrics of value in digital music
43:30 Are young people really drinking less?
50:00 What are the treatment options?
01:07:00 Early experiences
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Music Not Diving is supported by AC55ID... head over to www.ac55id.com to check out the fastest growing electronic music marketplace, a central hub for music discovery, streaming and purchasing!
And for artists and labels... use the code Scuba6 for six months free use of the platform!!
--
Watch the full video version of this episode over at youtube.com/@WeNotDiving
This is easily in my top 3 favourite episodes of the 170-odd we've done. The sound of it was originally pretty terrible though, it was a constant battle in the early days of the podcast to get people recording in good spaces.
Luckily we kept most of the individual mic channels and the software has come on leaps and bounds recently, so it's now very easy to convert a very roomy mic recording into something that sounds like it was done in a proper radio studio.
Steve Davis was one of the very biggest sporting celebrities in the 1980s. He totally dominated the sport of snooker in Tiger Woods-like fashion, winning the world title six times and setting unprecedented levels of excellence in front of enormous television audiences. The 18m who tuned in on BBC2 to watch him lose the 1985 final on the final ball of the final frame, well after midnight, is still a record.
But he's also a major music head, DJ and modular synth-playing member of experimental group The Utopia Strong, who has always been a very interesting character. The Utopia Strong releases since we first broadcast this conversation two years ago are... well, strong, especially the BBC Sessions release which was recorded in a live session at the legendary Maida Vale studios.
And he's also Eddie Hearn's Godfather.
So we talk about all of the above, but perhaps most interestingly the experience of fame at that level and how to cope with it. Having a really top manager helps, we discover.
This is well worth a re-listen if you caught it first time round, and if you didn't - well, you're in for a treat.
--
If you're into what we're doing here on the pod then you can support the show on Patreon! There are two tiers - "Solidarity" for $4 a month, which features the show without ads, regular bonus podcasts, and extra content. And "Musicality" which for a mere $10 a month gets you all the music we release on Hotflush and affiliate labels AND other music too, some of which never comes out anywhere else.
You can also make a one-off donation to the podcast using a card, with Paypal, or your Ethereum wallet! Head over to scubaofficial.io/support.
Plus there's also a private area for Patreon supporters in the Hotflush Discord Server... but anyone can join the conversation in the public channels.
Listen to the music discussed on the show via the Music Not Diving Podcast Spotify playlist
Chapters:
00:00 Intro and how you can support the show
04:45 Warming up for Blur
10:50 The legend of Magma
12:40 Starting a DJ career
21:15 Getting into modular
25:15 The Utopia Strong - influences
28:30 Playing music live vs playing professional snooker
40:00 Dealing with nerves
42:30 Issues with quitting professional sport
48:00 Longevity in music careers
54:00 Professionalisation of snooker
59:00 Management and Barry (and Eddie) Hearn
01:13:30 The pressures of fame
01:21:30 On Stephen Hendry and Jimmy White
01:24:15 The 1985 World Championship Final
01:29:30 The similarities of flow in sport and music
01:33:40 On going on I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Music Not Diving is supported by AC55ID... head over to www.ac55id.com to check out the fastest growing electronic music marketplace, a central hub for music discovery, streaming and purchasing!
And for artists and labels... use the code Scuba6 for six months free use of the platform!!
--
Watch the full video version of this episode over at youtube.com/@WeNotDiving
James Holden is a highly respected electronic musician from the UK. He first broke through in the late 90s with his trance-crossover anthem 'Horizons', and quickly became established as an expert producer and DJ. Following his first album 'The Idiots Are Winning', released like almost all of his music on his own label Border Community label, his sound has evolved in expansive and unexpected ways, culminating in 2023's 'Imagine This Is a High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities' and most recently 'The Universe Will Take Care Of You' with Waclaw Zimpel.
We discuss his changing approaches to making recording and performing, his relationship with nightclubs and DJ culture, the specifics of making his most recent albums, and the nature of music as art.
We also attempt to get him to dish the dirt on big name DJs but he turns out to be the model of discretion!
This is a good one, stick it on, and then listen to his recent catalogue - it's truly amazing work.
--
If you're into what we're doing here on the pod then you can support the show on Patreon! There are two tiers - "Solidarity" for $4 a month, which features the show without ads, regular bonus podcasts, and extra content. And "Musicality" which for a mere $10 a month gets you all the music we release on Hotflush and affiliate labels AND other music too, some of which never comes out anywhere else.
You can also make a one-off donation to the podcast using a card, with Paypal, or your Ethereum wallet! Head over to scubaofficial.io/support.
Plus there's also a private area for Patreon supporters in the Hotflush Discord Server... but anyone can join the conversation in the public channels.
Listen to the music discussed on the show via the Music Not Diving Podcast Spotify playlist
Chapters:
00:00 Intro and how you can support the show
03:33 DJing and nightclubs
09:30 Playing live
13:00 Originality
16:00 Meeting Waclaw Zimpel
21:30 Improvisation
32:10 Jamming or songwriting
36:30 Awful superstar DJs and meeting heroes
39:40 Composition and coding
48:30 Is recorded music a historical blip?
57:00 Recording session in Morocco
01:08:00 DJing as art
01:14:40 The Animal Spirits
01:19:30 Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities
01:28:30 Influential albums
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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