Interview: Sam Binga

“British dance music is essentially a big conversation between the Caribbean sound system world, American Hip Hop, and UK Rave culture”, says Sam Binga, who’s recently returned from a U.S tour. “My aim with the album was to try and maybe add a small sentence into that conversation, without sounding out of place or irrelevant.” It’s a modest way to describe Wasted Days, one of the most progressive UK dance records of the year. We talked to its producer – who was previously known as Baobinga and is also half of Behling & Simpson – ahead of his appearance at Motion on New Year’s Eve. 

Like a lot of Bristol artists you came from somewhere else. Where did you grow up?
I grew up near Hull, in East Yorkshire. Still love going back up North to see family – it’s a massively under-appreciated part of the country.

What was the first music you fell in love with? 
Michael Jackson – probably Bad or Thriller. Once I got to secondary school though, I was lucky in that I had a bunch of mates who were always making really varied mixtapes – as in actual cassette tapes we’d swap between ourselves – so I was exposed to a wide range of music from early on. From there, the first musical styles that I really felt a strong loyalty to would have been jungle / drum & bass, and funky techno.

What brought you to Bristol? Were you already active in music at that point? 
I came to Bristol from Manchester – I was already doing a lot of work down here with Ginz (of Purple City fame, now smashing the art-noise world as half of emptyset), and for various reasons I was ready for a change of scene. As I arrived, nights like Dubloaded were really at full throttle, and the musical energy of the city was so immediately obvious. I also found that very quickly, I’d started to meet loads of people who were involved in the music scene and who were very willing to open doors for me, to work with me and generally bring me in. I think those are probably the reasons I’ve stayed as well – it’s a friendly and accessibly city that punches well above its weight musically.

Your roots are in the breakbeat scene, which was pretty big in Bristol a decade or so ago. Was it a good thing to be a part of? 
Well, it’s definitely one of the areas where I learned my technical chops, so I’m grateful to it for that, but overall, I wish I’d moved on from it earlier than I did. I always had high hopes of the harder end of breaks linking up with the emerging dubstep / breakstep scene to create something fresh, but that never quite popped the way it could have, and instead the scene drowned in a slew of terrible bootlegs and cheesy rave stylings. 

You were one of the people behind the Bass Music blog (one of my go-to places for new music for a couple of years). You packed that in around the same time you ditched the name Baobinga. What happened?
Well, as breakbeat died, and dubstep rose to dominance, there was also room for a whole bunch of interesting music around the 130-140bpm tempo range. Jackmaster was putting out all those great Dress2Sweat records, which were the first time I’d heard much in the way of Baltimore Club music, Baile Funk from Brazil was suddenly starting to pop, and UK Funky was just starting to emerge. For a while we were finding loads of music that didn’t fit into the standard categories of house or dubstep or drum & bass but which we found super exciting – lots of energy, different rhythms and sonic approaches, new ideas and so forth, so we started the blog as a way to bring all these disparate ideas together. And for a while it worked really well – we had an early mix from Julio Bashmore, we had production Q&As with some really interesting producers and we were able to showcase a lot of interesting music. 

In terms of what happened, that’s kind of twofold. First up, keeping a blog going at anything above the most minimal level is a lot of work – you need constant new content, and it has to be quality, otherwise readers will desert you for richer pastures. And quality new content takes time to source or create – as the blog got bigger, we found it hard to maintain the level of energy it demanded. Secondly, as dubstep started eating itself, it seemed like a lot of the producers we’d been excited by, who were working in and around the fringes of that sound, switched what they were doing to a more traditional house or techno format. Not that they stopped making good music, but it felt increasingly unrelated to the original ethos of the blog, and so we gradually found it harder to become excited about the music that was coming through. A combination of those things led to the blog falling into disrepair – and then the platform we used to host it stopped being supported. Which pretty much put a stop to the whole thing.

You did some great joint productions as Baobinga and the new album is full of guests. Are you a good collaborator?
Yeah, I really enjoy working with other people – when a collaboration goes well, you can get this surprising chemistry, where you create something that sounds like neither of the people involved. Plus it helps keep the energy levels high in the studio – if you reach an impasse, you can let the other person take over for a minute!

Are there any tracks on Wasted Days that stand out for you? Which ones are you most proud of? 
I think my favourite track on the album is Greatest Distance – I love how atmospheric it is, and the process of making it was so painless. Romaine and I just really caught a vibe in the studio, and as we built the vocal harmonies up.  I think we could both tell that something special was coming together. I love the video for the track as well. Beyond that, I like Badman Skin – I love working with Redders and he always brings a great energy to our music, plus I’m really happy with how the beat came together. I had an idea for the beat, went in the studio, built it, and it worked! It’s quite rare that you can get an idea out of your head and into reality without it changing vastly along the way, but that beat is a fairly straight line from conception to realisation.

Was there something particular you wanted to achieve with the new album? You’ve always had a style but it sounds like you’ve found your voice. 
For me, British dance music is essentially a big conversation between the Caribbean soundsystem world, American hip-hop and UK rave culture. My aim with the album was to try and maybe add a small sentence into that conversation, without sounding out of place or irrelevant. So working with people like Warrior Queen (Jamaica), TT The Artist (USA), Slick Don (Birmingham) and of course Redders and Rider Shafique, over beats that are as influenced by Timbaland and The Neptunes as they are Ray Keith or Roni Size helps bring all those elements together. I think as a producer, I’m probably a bit more confident in what I make these days as well, and I’m lucky to have people like Om Unit as friends, who can give me honest but incredibly useful feedback on what I’m doing. 

You’re a bit of an outlier on (drum & bass label) Critical Music. How does that work for you?
Critical have been incredibly supportive throughout the whole project – and in fact, (label head) Kasra was talking about working towards an album from pretty much as soon as I signed AYO a couple of years back. I think the influence of footwork, and the rise of non-standard beat patterns in the scene, have helped drum & bass open up and be willing to accept different approaches to that tempo range. 

You’ve also worked with 50 Weapons and Gutterfunk, and seem friendly with the Levelz lot in Manchester. Are there any producers or DJs you feel close kinship with or are you a movement of one?
Yeah, Chimpo is a good mate and we have a similar approach to the music we make – vibe over technicality would be one way to look at it! People like Fracture and Om Unit are also close friends who are constantly pushing boundaries, and then there’s people like Moresounds in Paris or Danny Scrilla in Munich – not to mention the Ivy Lab boys, Alix Perez, Hyroglifics. There’s definitely a bunch of people who are trying different ideas out.

You recently toured the U.S. How was that?
I just got back this week, and it was great – pretty tiring, as it tends to be late nights and early flights, but really good fun, with crowds who were very open to hearing what I was trying to do. I’m looking forward to heading back quite a few times over the coming years.

What do you enjoy more – making tunes or playing out?
I think they go hand in hand really – it’s amazing to build something in the studio and then see it do exactly what you wanted it to on the dancefloor. If I spend too much time doing one or the other I feel unbalanced – they’re both vital.

Sam Binga plays In:Motion presents NYE on Thursday, December 31.  Hear more at soundcloud.com/sam_binga