JOZEF comes to drum and bass with years behind the decks and roots in grindcore and dubstep. His Uncharted Territory EP on Dirtbox Recordings marks his first release in the genre. We caught up with him to talk about the music and the route that brought him here.

You’d already spent years DJing before drum and bass drew you in after the pandemic. Was there a tune, a set, or a night that made you think, ‘I want to make this’?

Hello, thanks for having me. So grateful to have this opportunity!!

Shout out to my mom, I love you 💚

So there was this dubstep show I went to. Haha, and it didn’t feel the same anymore. The culture of dubstep I had gotten into was over and a generation was here… The show felt off and after I left, I made a decision I was done with dubstep and it’s time to make drum and bass.

You grew up on grindcore, so heavy music was there long before the decks. Is there a record from that time that still shapes what you want your own music to do?

The Acacia Strain’s Continent. If you know ya know :)

You moved to Columbus to pursue music. Who or what in that scene helped you find your feet, and what have you carried with you since?

Jordan Reid aka BBX and Joanathon Ely aka Druminite found me in 2015 right after I moved. I opened with Planet Purge by Midnight T. Back in the laptop Mixtrak pro days haha.

And we are really good friends still. I just played dubstep “riddim” with them for Jordan’s birthday!

And Bryson Hatton, he put me on so many shows back in the day. I was direct support for Subtronics back in like 2017 lol. Cool as hell, but a lot of the homies we’re connected with helped too, so shout out to all of them. You know who you are!

How did the connection with Dirtbox come about, and how did you settle on an EP for your first drum and bass release?

Alex “SUPA DADDY DIODE” haha.

I joined his Twitch feedback one day and I sent in a future release, and he linked me with Dirtbox and I had some tunes I was sitting on already and it’s been on ever since!

As for the EP, I felt like I wanted to leave a statement, kind of like I’m here, I’m not perfect, but I’m here. And I felt like a single wasn’t enough to kinda let me tell a story. Also, I think I just said I have enough for an EP haha.

Across Uncharted Territory, the sound effects feel like part of the storytelling. How do you choose those sounds, and do they tend to spark a track or come in once the musical idea is there?

Funny, like in my last response, the storytelling. They speak to me, ya know? Like I wanted that Simula sound but my own. And I feel like, sometimes sounds register a part of our brains that allows us to remember or connect sounds with a movie we saw or like anything relative to make that link. And it makes you feel the music more and pay attention… Maybe that’s a theory of mine haha.

But I pick ’em that resonate with like the mood or the vibe or the story that I’m trying to tell. Like what would you hear in a video game if you were like doing this and like, I don’t know, like the intro to Immortals is like in Troy when they hide away on the side of the cliff and the Trojan comes up and finds them and he gets shot with a bow and arrow. Just things like that haha.

Unit 56 opens with sirens and dog barks, alongside police-dispatch samples. What drew you to those sounds, and how did they shape the track?

I have a German shepherd and I live in the south side. So there’s action going on sometimes.

You enrolled with DNB Academy to develop your production. What’s one lesson that made you go back into a project and approach it differently?

Unit 56! We had a feedback session and it was just like remembering to level out your extra effects like risers and fallers and back noises. Clipping and whatnot. I was also told I needed to figure out arrangements with minimal jump up so that it still holds the listener’s attention.

When you’ve spent hours inside a tune, it can be hard to hear it with fresh ears. Who gets the first listen to your music, and what feedback has made the biggest difference to a track?

Jerem Medaise!! He’s the audio engineer who masters all of my tracks. I send any project to him and he gives me very detailed feedback! He’s the best in our scene! Love ya buddy!

Moving home meant making more time for being a dad as well as production. How has that changed what a good week in music looks like for you?

My son is my number one supporter and I try to make the best balance I can. I just put him first a lot more but he also knows everything I’ve been through and sacrificed for this. So he gets it.

You’re stranded on a desert island with one turntable, a generator, and one record. What’s it going to be?

Castaway by Benny Benassi, favourite tune of all time.

Found it in like 2009. I was 16 and man oh man, what a day that was haha.

Thanks to JOZEF for talking us through Uncharted Territory, from the sounds that spark a story to the feedback that sends him back into a project.