Seppa. is an artist who’s evolving by continually pushing his production skills and technical advances to innovative phases.  In a rooted world of underground gems, he’s staying focused and determined to share his love of music.  Hailing from Bristol, he’s been in the beat making game for a while and holds a promising experience.  Having recently self-released YesYesYes EP, he’s a member of the Slug Wife crew, holds numerous collaborative efforts with other pioneers such as Kursa and is gearing way to spread his sound in more live settings.  Seppa shares his inspirations, gives a huge shout out to sub.mission and goals for this new year as well as general thoughts about music, art and the music industry.  Check it out for yourself!

A chat with Seppa

Share with us your story, Seppa.

Hi! I’m from Bristol, UK and I make electronic beats. I’ve been making and releasing tunes for a while now, previously under the alias Duskky. About a year ago I started to get visions of sentient slugs. After tracking down a few other people having the same experience (Kursa, FFINN, the management team Dave and Lisa) we started Slug Wife, a label focussed on pushing the Slugs’ favourite sounds.

You’ve released your latest adventure, YesYesYes EP.  Tell us about it.

YesYesYes is a four track dancefloor EP. It pulls together a sound I’ve been trying to nail for a while (if you want to know what that is give it a listen). The title tune is actually a couple of years old but i could never fit it in with the other stuff I was making. Sometimes good ideas pop up at the wrong time. It was nice to be able to finally put it to good use.

Who’s the visual artist?  How do you typically go about finding reflective art?

It varies a bit from release to release. Generally, I like to find someone I trust stylistically and let them get on with it. I’ve been lucky to have Funi and FFINN do covers for me in the past. The cover for YesYesYes was originally drawn by Fat Pat and then I coloured/textured it with a bit of help from Kursa.

Your collab debut with Kursa on Slug Wife, as well as your latest collab, Gooth, is a brain twister.   What triggered the formation of this collective?

It was a perfect storm of a shared musical goal and a twisted waking nightmare. I’ve collaborated with Kursa quite a bit in the past and we’ve been pushing our tunes in a similar direction for a good few years, so it made sense on that level. In all honesty though the thing that kicked it all in to overdrive was being relentlessly hounded by increasingly aggressive hallucinations of slug-like creatures. They only really seem to relax when there’s the right sort of sound track playing. The music is primarily a survival mechanism for us.

What’s your main goal within it?

Keep building something new. If we don’t push forward we stagnate, if we stagnate we die. For me music has always been about reaching for the future whatever that may entail and that’s exactly what Slug Wife is. That means it could be quite different in a few years time, but always on our own terms. We’re not chasing a trend.

Preview YesYesYes and support by purchasing his 4-track EP

Who’s one of your main inspirations?

There’s a lot to be honest. If I were to pick a person right now who’s crushing it, I’d say Fanu/FatGyver is really doing something cool. I’ve been listening to the guy’s tune for about 10 years now and he’s always pushing himself into something new, improving his skills and his knowledge and he’s always doing his own thing. That’s the stuff that’s inspirational to me.

Share with us the moment that triggered, “Aha, I want to produce music”!

I’ve always made music in some form. I’ve played instruments for as long as I can remember. I was in London and surrounded by loads of new underground music and parties. I was also trying to put bands together but finding 4+ people who are all similarly committed to the same musical goal is difficult. I always cared more about writing music than playing it (though playing shows is wicked too), so building tracks on a computer just made sense. You’re a one stop shop. It took a while to get all the skills together but the ability to go from a blank project to a mastered, release ready tune is invaluable. On top of that sound system music is SICK.

When producing/designing, what’s usually the first step for you?

Make loads of sounds. Like loads. And then when you think you have enough make some more. It makes the writing part much easier.

Do you like to read? Any favourites?

Yeah here and there, screens have robbed me of a lot of what used to be reading time to be honest. Mostly it’s SF for me. There’s always some kind of interesting point being made about the human condition plus loads of mad weird shit happens. Win all round. Recent highlights for me have been Embassytown by China Miéville and The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks.

What would you like to accomplish in 2018?

Make more music than I’ve ever made. I had a similar goal for 2017 and smashed right through it, in big part due to collaborating with some awesome musicians, Kursa and Chalky deserving a special mention. I’m also keen to take it all over to the USA and Canada. There’s been so much support over there the past few years, but it’s tricky to get out there. It’s great to be working with Nicole at Sub.mission to make a US tour work, I’m excited to see what 2018 will hold!

What do you enjoy most about collaboration?

You create stuff neither of you could have thought of individually. It’s a brainstorming exercise, you can all leave at the end with a heap of new stuff to try out solo. It’s the best way to learn technical stuff too, you can swap tips and put them into practice.

What would you like to see more of/less of in the music industry?

Honestly, I’d like to see less music industry in the music industry. The bottom line is it’s the creative people that lead the way and create new art and fresh ideas, but they’re not always treated so well and are often chewed up and spat out in the name of profits for others. Having said that though, I think underground music has some of the best opportunities it’s had in a while to avoid that nonsense. Don’t believe the hype when people say the music industry is dying, it’s the rotten money grabbers that have nothing to do with music that are shrivelling up and disappearing. They’ve been on borrowed time for a while now anyway. Fortunately there’s a lot of heads out there doing it for the right reasons and pushing what they believe in. More power to em.

YesYesYes Review

YesYesYes, a four track representation of infinite possibilities of galactic slugs brought to you by experimentation.  Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes enters a well crafted melodic electronic design and rising synthesizer leads which dive into a world of glitched-out neurofunk transitions.  Rhythmic beats, reverbs and unimaginable bass design makes for a full possibility of yes before breaking it down even further as it circles around and continues to blend through dope vocal samples.  Under is a reflective moment as silky sounding as fluid bass of dubstep vibes balances out in hip hop fashion as you hear “Never underestimate what I do”.  Soon there’s a shift into full on drum and bass, upbeat percussive patterns formed with exhilarating trippy melodies built to last.

After You is a mystery unfolding.  Funky leads falls hard into a blinding signature sound of neurofunk fuels. Composition is filled with layered effects and minimal trap beats, yet it is elaborated more through gnarly and lusciously slimy sonic slush. Holding It Down is a smooth electronic entry as you’re reassured in an instant gratification through arioso instrumentation. Hip Hop insertions provide confidence as effective blend of grimey sounds unfold a valuable connection through mind melting synth, heavy street bass and straight out of this world blast!

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