Spherix - In Spherix
3D chats with Melbourne dubstep/atmospheric techno producer Spherix, an osteopath by day and floorfiller by night.
For the benefit of the 3D readers who may be unfamiliar with your work, can you tell us a little about yourself-
I’m Josh Lamaro, AKA Spherix, from Bendigo, Victoria. I’m an osteopath by profession but music is my love, and I have been producing probably about six years now. I started producing dnb – some people may have known my work solo, and with international collab team (at the time) Catacomb. Now it’s just a solo venture, with collabs happening here and there; more so in dubstep and dub influenced techno (and everywhere in between!)
Yours was the debut release for Sub Continental Dub. Do you and Rhyece O’Neill go way back-
To be honest I cannot even remember how I met Rhyece! (Sorry mate!) I think we have known each other at least two and a bit years, I remember when I first met him “in person” in Melbourne at a show he was down for, but we probably spoke a bit on AIM before that!
When can we expect your next record- Plans for a full-length yet-
The next release should be out any day now, it’s part of a compilation album on 3.5 Recordings, the tune is Rule of Three. Full-length album is something I’ve been exploring through a collab with Sigha, as we’ve been building tunes a couple months and have about six under our belt already, which are more suited to full-length albums than 12s probably, although a couple have been signed to Immerse, which should come out in May or June. I’d like to explore the full-length stuff solo, but I reckon an album should be thought out and crafted, rather than just being a collection of tunes, which a lot of “dubstep” albums tend to be, so I’d want to invest the time and energy into it properly if I were to do it. (Time is not something I have an abundance of at the mo!)
One of the reasons we love dubstep is for its cinematic qualities. Would you agree that there is a cinematic quality to the style- Its ability to evoke imagery is something that we feel lifts it above most other electronic genres.
I’d say some dubstep producers are able to grab the cinematic thing, particularly people like F, Kontext, Appleblim, Sigha and Scuba for instance. I see creating a visual or emotional attachment to my music a big part of my work; there always has to be an idea, or an image or feeling behind it, or nothing gets done!
Are your sets littered with lots of your own re-edits and original tracks, or do you like to play other people’s songs-
I play lots of my own stuff, but not all my set is just my stuff. I play a lot of the things I get sent from around the globe. Usually the only stuff I would play are the tunes I relate to, or those that fit with my style of beats. I try and play mainly things that relate to me because I feel DJing has a tendency to cater only to the dancefloor “energy” and not so much the cinematic vibe we spoke of earlier. I reckon energy can come from depth and progression as much as it can come from the “big rave tunes”, so I try and get on that tip and see if I can bring people with me in that way, instead of taking more obvious paths to dancefloor heaven, haha.
What’s planned for the remainder of the year for you-
The rest of the year is just focusing on making music and getting a few more 12s happening. Myself and Kwality are also launching our label Lowercase Recordings this year, at the moment we are pleading our case for distribution! Haha. Other than that renovating the bloody house and all that junk.
Finally, if we were to make an iPod mix for our friends overseas, featuring only great new Australian dubstep, down-tempo techno, dubby garage and whatnot, who would you tell us to feature-
Definitely Flippo, for all those styles. Man is just a musician, and not limited by genre pigeonholing, which is just great. Westernsynthetics is also always coming with his own style, and Thesis, of course, for that tribal dub techno stuff you know I love. Steve AC23 has also stepped up his production this year and recently sent me something new, which was excellent! Of course the mix would start and end with Spherix, wouldn’t it-
WHO: Spherix
WHAT: Plays Index at Civic Underground
WHEN: Friday 17 April
MORE: voidsound.com