“X Colour is a melancholic journey with different styles and stories, reminiscent to scenes of a movie. I’m very much a person based on feeling and the same goes for my music.”
Interview by Sadie Bell
Photography by Katie Thiebaud
Sadie: You are from Bristol, a city rich in culture, and you continue to travel the world because of your music. How has culture influenced you and in what ways have you absorbed it?
Redlight: I grew up right outside of the city. It was a very inspiring experience because of the musicians and creative vibe. Bristol has it’s own rebellious, self sufficient flow. From bass heavy music to smoking weed, you could be a part of everything without having to spend a lot of money. I was lucky to have been DJ’ing from my teenage years. I was playing festivals such as the Ashton Court Festival. It was free and everyone from the city would go – it was the place you’d find your teacher smoking weed to the music.
It’s a different generation now, but that time was very special for the city. There’s still collectives like Team Love and Gutter Funk holding it down, good people doing great things in Bristol.
Sadie: How has being a part of the thriving electronic scene in the U.K. influenced the person and musician you have become?
Redlight: It’s my whole life. Literally everything, my upbringing, the formative years as a young adult playing raves, warehouses, boats, etc. I was making music for people to dance and create real feelings.
Sadie: How has having your own independent label Lobster Boy influenced the way you make music and work with other musicians?
Redlight: Started LB in England when everyone was into Dubstep. No word for Bass Music – garage, fidget house, grime, etc. Always wanted to make music with a core in dnb. Best thing to do this was to create Lobster Boy – putting out music to fill a whole and to release music I was proud of. English people are obsessed with anything new – ‘first to hear this’. Six-years later, heap of releases and label artists. Animal Youth mixtape, slowly turning into a real, serious label. Want to make it a full fledged project – other artists releases.
“It’s about always trying to better yourself – keeping yourself current, finding new inspirations, trying to stay awake – everyday life can be a challenge.”
Sadie: What do you feel your debut album X Colour says about you as an artist?
Redlight: X Colour is a melancholic journey with different styles and stories, reminiscent to scenes of a movie. I’m very much a person based on feeling and the same goes for my music. I love to travel – I visited New York for the ASTR vocals, mixed X Colour in three different studios throughout London, found a number of different orchestras to work with – these are just a couple example of how X Colour was created. I wanted to make something different from everyone else and stopped listening to other albums in order to do this.
Sadie: With the release of your album, you developed an app “Imagine Music As Colour.” How do you see sound as color and how did you come about finding this relationship?
Redlight: To be fair it’s not entirely my own idea. If you have an imagination you’re going to see color, you also dream in color as well. X Colour has ten tracks representing ten colors. Each one reflects different shades, moods, settings – that’s what the album is about. Does it trigger people to think about music as color? That’s what I want listeners to see – 10 scenes from a movie with different colors representing each track. Within these productions you’ll find specific elements that reflect a particular color i.e. this specific high hat is meant to illustrate a shade of purple.
Sadie: You have been making music for awhile now and continue to develop your sound. How do you continue to challenge yourself?
Redlight: It’s about always trying to better yourself – keeping yourself current, finding new inspirations, trying to stay awake – everyday life can be a challenge. You have to find yourself waking up to do something different and something that you might not have thought you could have done.
Take Gold Teeth for example: it’s a vibey little production with vocals that you and your friends can have fun listening to. It’s different from the tracks that were inspired by my experiences working with those orchestras. There needs to be a proper creative process behind serious tunes because at the end of the day, they take serious time to create. If you’re making a club-banger for local dancefloors there isn’t always the need to be serious as a producer.
