Creative Conversations 028: Wave's Vanguard Outsidr Unpacks 'Consquences'
Words by Luke Byatt
An early adopter and vanguard of the Wave scene, Outsidr releases ‘Consequences’ on acclaimed UK label, Liquid Ritual. Influenced heavily by film soundtracks and artists such as Lorn, Ital Tek and Telefon Tel Aviv, Outsidr injects a cinematic feel into the traditional Wave sonic. Delve into the UK Outsidr creative world as he unpacks ‘Consequences’ and much more.
Futuremag Music: Hey Outsidr, how're you doing in this COVID world?
Outsidr: Hey man I'm doing okay. As much as it's messed up, the lockdown has allowed me to get back in the swing of things and come back to the music world. I think it's put a lot of things into perspective for a lot of people and I realised that I really want to make the music thing work. I'm fortunate enough to have kept my job during this, and now I'm back at work I'm just trying my hardest to keep up with both worlds.
Futuremag Music: Before we jump into 'Consequences' could you talk us through your musical journey?
Outsidr: Sure thing, I've been involved in music since maybe 2005, I used to play the drums and guitar in bands in school. Once I left School I got really into electronic music, particularly old school Dubstep and Drum and Bass. I've probably been producing music since about 2011-12. I've always been pretty off and on with music but I really went for it around 2014 and onwards when I was making Lofi hip-hop. I think university bogged me down with too much work and I had to hang it up and by the time I'd finished in 2017 I'd discovered Wave music. The rest is history I guess!
Futuremag Music: 'Consequences' is a beautiful record, can you outline the meaning and production process for the release?
Outsidr: Thank you! I think when I make music, I have an aesthetic in mind and I really wanted to capture the feeling of the night-time in London (Jordan did an amazing job of capturing this aesthetic in the artwork!). I work a pretty demanding job in central and i was staying at work til pretty unsociable hours, and I thought of the chord sequence on the train home. I don't know if there's any inherent meaning behind the track but the cold London night was definitely the inspiration behind Consequences.
As far as production goes, I didn't really have a process so much as developing the chord sequence into sections and making something out of it. I've started using a lot of samples, noise ,random percussive foley sounds and SFX from video games in my tunes and, in the case of Consequences, it really made it feel a lot more organic.
Outsidr (Provided)
Futuremag Music: You're a fairly fundamental figure within the blossoming Wave scene. With the genre being so varied, what do you pull from it and inject into your releases?
Outsidr: I think the greatest strength to wave music is that you can pretty much take any of your musical influences and turn it into a wave track. It's really cool how varied it can be and the only real limit is your imagination. Y'know, an Enjoii track sounds wildly different to a Klasey Jones track, which sounds so different to a Noah B track, etc. I think I take a lot of influence from outside the wave scene, my biggest influences are Lorn, Burial, Ital Tek, etc. I'm trying to lean towards a dark cinematic kind of sound, somewhere between Wave and Future Garage but also not really either of them.
Futuremag Music: Keeping on the notion of Wave, could you give us some insight to the current scene and how you see it developing moving forward?
Outsidr: Like I said, I think the best artists are the ones that have a really definitive, unique sound to them. Enjoii, Klasey Jones, Noah B, Dyzphoria, etc. I really want to see more artists have their own unique sound and push the genre as far as it can go. I'm really impressed with DotMPEG, I think his/her music has that uniqueness to it that I mentioned.
I'm also hoping more labels pop up and push their own kind of sound. I like the dynamic that the Drum and Bass scene has with its labels where each one has a very unique sonic identity, and it would be really cool for the wave scene to imitate that.
Futuremag Music: To wrap it up, if Outsidr was a cocktail, what would be in it to best describe the project's sonic and mood?
Outsidr: I'm not really a big drinker so I'm not really sure! Something cold and dark I guess. A long island Ice tea maybe? Lets throw some pale blue colored liquid nitrogen smoke on top to add some mystery!