5 Steps with A Sides

A true veteran DJ, producer and engineer, A Sides has an epic collection of releases to his name making him one of the most prolific and versatile artists in drum & bass. Over the course of his extensive career, A Sides has never limited himself to a single style and has proved to be a highly capable selector whatever style he is drawing for.

Reaching out with a sound that has truly global appeal, A Sides has been producing music since 1990 and has released well over 500 tracks to date across many of the scene’s biggest labels such as Metalheadz, Valve, True Playaz, Bingo, Innerground, Reinforced, Advanced, Liqweed Ganja, Spearhead and Hospital to name but a few. A Sides has a discography of truly epic proportions.

A veteran of the scene from the early days, through hardcore to jungle to drum & bass, his influence has been immense. Over the years he’s taken on the role A&R for many labels, including of course his own imprints Fuze and Eastside, and was among the first to recognise and nurture the talent of producers such as Break.

We asked him to take on our 5 Steps feature, choosing the 5 pivotal points in his career to-date. 

Jah Free

I have an Uncle who is an established Roots Reggae artist who records under the name Jah Free. At the time he was in a Reggae band called Bushfire who were based in Basildon in Essex and he also had his own recording studios named Rainbow Studios so when i left school at the age of 15 he took me on under a youth training scheme to work at his studio and begun to show me the ropes. It was here i learned about mics, mixing desks, effects, live recording, 8 track tape machines and also how to program drum machines (Boss Dr Rhythm & Roland TR505) That experience was enough for me to want to pursue things further. I already financed my first set of SL1200’s and mixer from working a milk round and paper round when i was at school so my next move was to invest in my first drum machine (Roland TR606) and a 4 track porta studio so i could do my own home recordings.

Forest Gate

In 1991 i was part of an East London Hip Hop group called Armed & Dangerous. We linked up with a guy named Alex who was the rapper from Sudden Impact who had a release out at that time called Game Of Love.

Alex was also part of Reel 2 Reel Records alongside John and they took an interest in what i was doing which ended up in my first solo release Burning Up coming out on a white label release named Test Press. I then had other releases out, Burn Cali Weed, Brothers In Arms and the Mix To The Max EP’s which dropped on Reel 2 Reel productions. The label system there was a little messy so some of the discographies and catalogue numbers we a little off par lol. it’s a mystery to most old school collectors.

Things then took another turn when the De Underground Records shop was opened by John’s brother Mike who kicked off his first label I.E Records with We Are I.E by Lennie De Ice which blew up and around that same time i began working with Cool Hand Flex and Uncle 22 at the back of the record shop and releasing more material on the numerous labels coming out of the shop. De Underground Records, I.E Records, U No Dat and Ruff Groove.

Stage One

Stage One was a distribution company based out of a small flat in Silvertown and they used to run there operation out of the back of 3 Mini Metro vans. The company was owned by 3 people. Ola, Laura and Paul and it was mainly Ola and Paul out on the road doing the distribution and that is how we all connected through the De underground shop.

Ola was interested in setting up some P&D deals for labels and at the time i was speaking with the Subterra guys who were also doing tracks for Reel 2 Reel and we decided that we would like to set up our own label together hence the birth of Bombastic Plastic and the forming on the group Citadel Of Kaos (Myself, Jan Salisbury and Simon Carter aka Earth Leakage Trip)

We released 6 releases on Bombastic Plastic before breaking off to do our own ventures. Jan continued to record under the Citadel Of Kaos name and i kept the Bombastic Plastic label. Ola then set up his own labels Just Another Label, Bear Necessities and Genetic Stress and i then started working on material for those labels under other pseudonym’s Tight Control & Sunshine Productions. That was the end of the Happy Hardcore / Rave era.

I then linked up with Mark Ryder at Strictly Underground and did many many releases for his labels under many many pseudonyms working with Mike James, Austin reynolds, D’ Cruze etc before approaching Ola again around mid 1996 which is when i decided i wanted to start my own label hence the birth of Eastside Records.

Up to this date i still work with Ola. We have worked on many projects over the years from Record Labels to Publishing Companies to Music Library Productions.

Metalheadz

I consider Metalheadz to be a large part of my musical journey and it is interesting the way this connection came about. In the Summer of 1996 i went to Auckland in New Zealand to visit my Brother and he was listening to a radio station called BFM which is based in Auckland University. The next thing you know i hear one of my tracks being played on the radio so i got the number for the radio station and called the studio and the DJ on air was Nathan Haines. We arranged to meet up where he introduced me to a few other Drum & Bass crew in Auckland and that was where the links were made.

Nathan was planning on heading to London later that year so we agreed to link up and try and work on some music together and that Summer we did just that and created out first release together as Sci-Clone which was called O.D. From there the connection was simple, I was friends with DJ Randall from the De Undergound Records days and i knew he was tight with Goldie and Metalheadz so i gave him Randall a Dat and asked him if he would play it to Goldie and before you know it i have Goldie calling me wanting to sign the track to Metalheadz!

From there we became regulars on Metalheadz releasing Melt, Everywhere I Go, Red Fever, Lucid and Hold On. Further down the line i also had several solo releases on Metalheadz and over the last few years myself and Nathan Haines have begun working on new Sci-Clone material which may end up being released on Metalheadz in the future. The project takes time as we both live on opposite sides of the world but i spend 2-3 months of my year in New Zealand so we are getting there slowly. Expect some nice announcements on that project in the first half of 2017 🙂

Quart

For me completing the Quart LP is definitely a big landmark as it celebrates 25 years since my first vinyl release so i am very happy about that. Looking back in time my first release was in 1991 so i wanted to do something special to celebrate so i figured a 25 track album would suffice (And then i may throw in some bonus vault content)

I am releasing the LP over 5 sectors for several reasons. To prolong the press and publicity side of things and to build the momentum for the album over a longer period of time and also i get sent so many LP’s nowadays and i feel that a lot of them just get lost due to the amount of tracks that feature on them. It’s so hard to just pass things by nowadays so for me to prolong things is good which is why i chose 5 releases over a 5 month time span to give the project some longevity.

Right now i have the first 3 Sectors complete and mastered with Sector 4 nearing completion and Sector 5 will be remixes from Serum, Spirit, Voltage, Break and myself which will bring that project to a close in mid December.

It’s been a long journey for me and i look back over many good times with a smile on my face. i got the feeling that 25 years is just the beginning 🙂 Thank’s for having me!

Mernywernz