Hodgson: London Calling

We encounter a lot of great music on these pages, but even so, Hodgson is quite the talent. With a musical palette that seamlessly veers from house to dubstep to reggae and techno, his truly is a production force like few others in the contemporary domain. It all comes to the fore brilliantly on his debut outing for prominent Hamburg label, Jeudi. The name of the EP is One Spliff – and as you might have gathered from the title, it truly is one that brings the listener on a proverbial journey of epic proportions. With big support already with everyone from Maya Jane Coles to Larse, it’s clear Hodgson is here to stay for some time yet. We caught up with the Londoner to get the lowdown on his latest EP… 

Introduce yourself for anyone that might not yet know you in the style of a blind date contestant please…

My name is Hodgson, I am 25 years old and from London. I am an Artist/DJ/Producer mainly making House music and I aim to fill your chest with bass and your heart with love!

Great stuff. How did you get into dance music at first, what sort of things and where? Why did you fall in love with dance?

[Laughs] Do you want the long or short version? How about I give you the medium version? My first big influences and passion began at age 12/13. My older brother loved Jungle and D&B, had just got a pair of Technic 1210 MKII’s, and taught me the basics . I then I self-taught from there on out. My friends and cousins all loved House, Garage, 2-Step and Grime and we would have house parties all the time whilst we got our vinyl collections together for mixing sessions. I owned a sony walkman at the time too which I carried everywhere and a minimum of one-headphone would be in my ear at all times. So from 12-17 my world consisted of non-stop Jungle, D&B, House, Garage and Grime of sets from tape-packs of the biggest UK raves, pirate radio and my own sets that I would regularly record everytime I bought new records, normally from Soho, London. After that I had a very passionate but brief love affair with early Dubstep, I had always loved Dark Dub, Reggae and Grime so it just made sense to me. I was completely infatuated with it until at around age 18/19 I finally discovered House and Techno and slowly but surely fell in love with the sounds. I slowly found my taste in House and Techno in its deeper, darker sounds and that more or less brings us up to date now. And yes, that wasn’t the long version! 

And when did you decide to start making it? How did it go? 

I actually started quite early not too long after I started learning to DJ, I found this music production game called ‘Music 2000’ on playstation. I began creating music on it and later on the update ‘Music 3000’ on playstation 2. I still actually have the memory cards with my tunes on! [Laughs] Rest assured they are buried and hidden from the outside world but looking back it was a great bit of software to begin experimenting and learning how to construct a song from scratch. Later, at age 15 I got a PC with a copy of ‘Reason’ and continued to learn and experiment. I always knew I wanted to be a DJ/Producer but it wasn’t until about 2010 when I decided to switch to Ableton Live – mainly for the access to third party plug-ins- that I decided I needed to take it more seriously and really begin to push myself to become the best I can be. That said it still took another 4 years to get to this point. Trust me, when you want something so bad but are limited by your learning curve you learn to have the patience of a saint!

How long did it take you to really find your own sound, do you think?  Are you still searching?

With so many influences I think it is hard to make just one type of music but as a “sound” I definitely know what I like to hear in a track and what specifically I want my tracks to sound like. I guess there are some dominating influences I have that will eventually show as my “sound” which you can hear in my latest ‘Babylon System EP’ such as big bass, dark/moody atmospheres and proper breakdowns. I think it is important to never feel too complete with my “sound” and stop searching as that means I would stop progressing and that is what keeps music interesting… the ups and downs, the flow, the cycle, the commercial then back underground etc. it is how new “sounds” and even genres are created.

Defintely. Are you hard or software man? Have you got any ideal bits of kit you would like to buy?

I love hardware but to be honest most of the bits I would like are out of my budget for now! The list is endless… I’d really like to get a Dave Smith Instruments Prophet ’08 or 12, I have heard both synths in action and they both sound and look amazing, if we are talking classic stuff an Oberheim OB-Xa and mountains of outboard processing gear.

So, overall I am a software man but not just by default, I love software too. I am a real perfectionist when it comes to production so I love the flexibility and instant access and recall to almost limitless sounds and set-ups the software domain offers.

Does it take you a long time to make a track or are you someone who works quickly? Do you have a proper studio or can you work on the road?

Yes, it takes me a while. I tend to spend a few days on a idea, leave it for a while then come back to them months later before then spending a couple of months finishing the track with 2-8 hour sessions here and there. I find it hard to work really quickly as I like to live with the track whilst creating it. I will listen to the latest draft of it on the road and then tweak when back in the studio. I don’t really work on the road, maybe small tweaks or just getting ideas down quickly but the real work happens in my home studio.

What are your aims when it comes to DJing – to amaze, educate, edify, entertain?

Can I pick all of the above? I do honestly try to do everything you listed in a way that flows and keeps the crowd entertained. I am a spiritual person, I love positive philosophy and I believe it is my duty to try to spread and share some positive, empowering and enlightening messages in the music I play. I love weaving unexpected tracks into my sets to surprise and educate people too but if I had to pick I would say entertain over everything as I am a DJ first and that is what DJ’s are here to do right? 

What else have you got coming up/are you excited about? 

Well I am looking forward to seeing how the ‘Babylon System EP’ is received by the masses for a start. I am working on a video for ‘One Spliff’ which will have some great scene cameos which I am very excited about! I have a couple of EPs I am working on simultaneously right now so hopefully the next release from me after this will not be too far away. Also after an hiatus I took from DJing to focus on my production I am just beginning to take bookings again, I recently played in Hamburg and Barcelona with the Jeudi crew and I can’t wait to play in more places. 

If you could own one track no other DJ could ever play, what would it be and why?

There are too many! It is so hard for someone that loves music to pick just one tune but to keep it relevant I’d have to say – ‘Roy Davis Jr Ft Peven Everett – Gabriel’ because it has a great positive message in the lyrics, feel good music and a massive amount of nostalgia for me from my younger years.

Hodgson’s Babylon System is out now on Jeudi. Check it out below: