Out on 22nd January 2021, I released “Bit Of Fizzy.” Reviewed by fellow producer JaySan as a “darkside beast” which, I just had to use as the description when I emailed this out. My description up to that point was something like “Jump Up” and maybe “bubbly.”
Is it jump up? That doesn’t really matter as it’s drum and bass and mostly everyone who enjoys listening to the genre is well chill. Does it make you jump up compared to say a roller? I’d say yes, that’s what I wanted it to do.
Initially I started the track and was given a drink of rum with something fizzy in it. Looking for a name to call the draft I went with “bit of fizzy” a funny phrase that I kept giggling about for some reason after previously dropping it mid conversation to my partner as a way of asking, “would you like a drink this evening?” She indeed did want a bit of fizzy that evening.
This track wasn’t so good to begin with, it had some cool elements but didn’t quite sound like a standard DnB tune. I had been sending a lot of tunes out to producer friends and DJs, but one DJ I was following at the time had caught my attention. Bad Habitz.
Mid 2020, with nothing to do for much of the day, the brilliant Bloc2Bloc HQ run by Jack Banner, was posting regular live streams on Facebook, almost every day. Showcasing many local DJs and DJs from further afield, showing off their skills and dropping bangers.
It was a long summer not socialising, not partying, but Bloc2Bloc helped that along. One of my favourites on there was Bad Habitz, playing many blends of mostly jump up stuff. Her streams would regularly pop up in my feed.
Bloc2Bloc had a winning formula. It was great to see so many new talented female DJs on this channel, in an industry that was male dominated for a long while.
I emailed Bad Habitz asking what she thought of my tunes, asking for feedback. Naturally I want every DJ on Earth to play my tunes right away (so impatient and eager that I am), but wanted to first ask what she thought, you know, just in case my tunes were actually garbage. I was asking expert ears here. A DJ who probably listens to more drum and bass than I do over a 7 day period.
I got a response! I was slightly nervous. Nerves that come from exposing my novice creative works to an expert, as well as it being to someone who I had given a bit of idol status. A famous person speaking to me! Funny how that happens.
Thankfully I was in good hands. I wasn’t just asking for feedback from anyone here. She politely gave me some really useful feedback, at just the right time in my career (what else to call it) where I was very open to it. I knew she knew what she was talking about. I was very grateful. I thanked her a lot for taking the time to reply.
Instead of going back and re-working the project, I abandoned it. Keeping in mind the useful advice I then continued to new projects.
Weeks later, I decided to re-open the project and destructively mess around with what I’d already created. I had nothing to lose! I had time to think about what she said. I started bouncing all the parts to audio so I could edit them with great control. This helped enormously. I made it simple. Much simpler.
In the past it was all to easy to dive into a project and edit aimlessly, tweaking with no end, with little progress, and no finished tune to show for it at the end of a session. This behaviour had to end. I wanted results. I wanted finished tunes now.
After a few more tweaks, it was done. Simplified. Got rid off the chaff and kept the wheat. It doesn’t all need to be in there.
For the artwork I wanted bubbles to fit the track title. I spent a huge amount of time looking for free bubbles or fizzy pics but nothing really popped out at me, or had low resolution. Even premium photo websites didn’t quite have what I was looking for until. That was until I found the work of a Russian photographer who had done a series of completely unique photos of bubbles in ice. They looked incredible and unusual. Not just like a fizzy drink.
Rather than pay through one of those stock photo sites I decided to contact the photographer directly. It was quite easy to find her on Instagram, which I expect all photographers have an account with. I bought one photo directly from her which meant we didn’t have to give a huge cut to a big stock photo site. Win win.
I got my frozen bubble to picture to use as cover art for “Bit of Fizzy” and got to experience a pleasant business conversation in English with a Russian photographer who kindly used a translator. Doing international business from my bedroom was fun. Thank you oh great creators of Internet, the world wide web, and social media apps.
Check out Bad Habitz DNB and Bloc2Bloc HQ for some top live streams from Manchester way, and various productions from JaySan, my producer DJ freeparty buddy. Thanks also to Ylyakozulya who’s photos you can see here.