In our new interview series we have Dj and Producer PROPRAGANDA.With a busy international DJ schedule and just as busy release schedule, we managed to track him down for a chat about the history of propaganda, becoming a solo artist and what he’s up to at the moment.
If you’d be so kind as to introduce yourself to the people at home…….
Hi my name is Andy Buckley I’m 31 years young and hail from sunny Southampton in the UK.
To start things off maybe you could tell us a bit about how Propaganda started out?
I was djing on the south coast from 1995 until 2001 and ended up meeting Matt(react) he was doing a similar thing to me and we became friends. Around the year 2000 we both felt a bit disillusioned by the majority of the music that was coming out and the record buying became minimal so we decided to put the djing on hold for a while to set up our own studio and ultimately create music that we loved & could play out.
With the original pairing of Propaganda splitting. At what point did you decide to carry on the Propaganda name as a solo artist?
In 2007 we were finding it increasingly hard to both be in the same place at the same time and Matt decided he would have to quit music to concentrate on his own business. I’ve have had a love for music & djing for many years so I took the natural step of going solo.
Once you had made your mind up to become a solo artist, what kinds of problems did you encounter?
I think the first problem was where to put the studio as we had a very big analogue studio so I made the decision to go to a digital set up and now have my studio at home. Next was working alone as we had always worked together. When you work as a pair you seem to specialize in a certain areas for instance if we was in a band I would have been the drummer and Matt the bass player also Matt was lead engineer so it was a daunting task.
Making a studio must have been quite hard choosing what to go with, what set up did you go with?
I use a mac book pro running logic 8. I have tried various DAWs but I feel comfortable with logic, everybody has their DAW of choice but for me logic is the most solid. Plus the way logic 8 is set out it makes programming very quick and simple and all the on board logic plugins are very high quality. I use a PC mainly for audio editing in soundforge and sampling. I use a Novation remote master keyboard - again very simple but does what it needs to. Then on to hardware I sold most of it off but held on to the Access Virus c, a Yamaha AN1X and a Nord lead 2. If I’m feeling creative I will fire em’ up make some sounds and then bounce them back into the EXS24 (sampler). The hardware synths have a much warmer vibe to them rather than the software sounding a bit on the thin side. On the monitoring I am using Tapco S5 Active studio monitors they are like the mackies but less on the price tag!! Other bits include a Mackie 1402 mixer, Edirol 8in 8 out digital audio interface and a pair of CDJ1000’s.
At what point did you feel you had made something that you wanted to release?
After some head scratching and some advise off some close friends I was ready to unleash my first solo 12 Mercenary/ Blu 82 and I felt very happy not only with the music but with the creative freedom and I felt that my sound had evolved and I was now a producer in my own right.
How does it feel seeing the reaction of the crowd when one of your own tunes is played?
It’s always a great buzz for me especially when you have just finished a track and you’re playing it out for the first time and the crowd goes nuts (rewind), that’s amazing.
What can we expect in the way of forth coming releases?
Up next from me is a digital album for Offkey that I have been putting together for the last 7-8 months. It’s a collection of 8 solo tracks & 2 collaborations with Meth. We are currently finalizing tracks and will get a release date out very soon. The track list so far looks something like this. Internus sententia, Stun gun, Grass roots, Spoonfed, Brap, Shank, Blue notes (with Meth), Clue, Motive, I need to freak (with Meth).
There are some more in the pipeline but nothing 100% yet so watch this space!’
Are you currently working on any projects or releases you can tell us about?
Yea I have been working on a project with Paul (Meth). We have written some tracks over the last year or so but due to a hard drive blowing up and us not backing up we lost the last 3 tracks before we got to mix them but we are not ones to sit around moaning so we are back in the studio this week and have been coming up with some interesting results. We have been friends for many years so working together we have a good balance and a buzz in the studio so plenty more to come. Also I am pressing on with the solo stuff this year I’m taking the Propaganda sound deeper but still maintaining a hard edge but with more emotion I guess. It’s hard to explain but you will hear the results very soon.
You mentioned the fact you started out djing first of all. Do you have a favorite place to play?
There are many places that I love playing like Spain, Portugal, Belgium but a favorite of mine has to be Budapest - I always really enjoy that place.
Just in case people don’t know how did you hook up with the offkey camp?
Well going back to the djing on the south coast scene where I had met matt(react) I also met Jarman (Raiden) at a club in Portsmouth “believe it or not hehe”& we became friends instantly due to a love of the same music, comedy, fine wine lol & taking the piss out of absolutely everything ( I had to put aside that he was fro Pompey because he was such a cool gezza lol) and this is before any of us had made a dnb record. Then Jarman(Raiden) evolved and began making some ground breaking music and releasing tracks on some of the scenes biggest labels. This was very influential to us and other friends like The Sect, he was pushing the music to new levels and it was exciting to listen to again. We talked a lot over the next few years about ideas for a label and what would be a great concept. Then a little way down the line Raiden started Offkey and we released a collaboration for the first single (Machine soul) Offkey has just gone from strength to strength since then and it will always be a home from home for me ‘as long as I haven’t pissed Jarman off with the Pompey piss taking’.
What does the future hold for Propaganda?
I am always looking forward creating and experimenting with new sounds & music. Who knows what the future holds but that is half the fun the freedom of creation. I still have agreat love of djing and am looking forward to taking my sound further around the globe to all the weird & wonderful places and meeting many more crazy people.”
