Originally posted on Realtime
Hush House is UK blog based in Leeds dedicated to fresh beats, bass and melodies from the underground. They have been on the crest of such beats for two thousand nine and show no signs of slowing. Here I caught up with Nathan Brush of HH for a few words about the blog itself and it’s contributors.
So, who are you, where are you from and where are you living now?
I’m Nathan Brush, 19 years old and originally from Manchester. I moved to Leeds in September 2010 to go to University and probably won’t be leaving anytime soon!
How long have you been contributing to Hush House?
I started writing in April 2011 after seeing a post on the blog saying they were looking for new people. I hadn’t done a lot of this kind of stuff before but felt I had a bit of spare time on my hands so was pretty pleased to be made part of the team.
How has your time spent with Hush House involved you in your local music scene?
Yeah, it has helped tremendously. Leeds isn’t a massive city but it’s got lots of really good clubs so the music scene is thriving. Everyone’s at least a friend of a friend really and people tend to help each other out. Through the people I’ve met the main thing I’m involved with now is a night at Wire called Square One, representing the UK house and ‘bass music’ side of things. I also help out with a project started by a couple of friends called Vic53, a weekly live stream where we play a few records and get friends of ours to come down and jam too. I also hold down a couple of radio shows, on Leeds Student Radio and the Manchester-based Heavy Rain TV.
We have our launch party in Leeds coming up on 3rd March but unfortunately we can’t announce the full line up until 11th February. Keep your eye on the Facebook page for more details.
How many of HH’s contributors DJ and or produce and under what names?
Stewart (out in Philadelhia) DJ’s under the name Sideswipe and has a show on Rewind FM. Dylan has got a fantastic taste in all things house and techno and always contributes great mixes to our show on ESS Radio, as well as experimenting with some beats and edits of his own. Adrian (in sunny Barcelona) DJ’s as Thade and is the man behind our ‘Hush The Fuck Up’ mix series.
Joe, Josh and I DJ as well. So yeah, we all keep pretty busy!
You guys have been around for years now. You’ve seen your share of trends move through EDM in that time, what has been the most notable?
I think for me it has been following the work of the young crop of guys who just seem to do it all. People like Bok Bok and Pearson Sound who have got their roots in dubstep, grime and UK garage but haven’t been swallowed up by one specific sound. With these two in particular, I feel their DJ’ing, production and record labels all seem to feed into each other, creating something really unique.
I have to ask about Dubstep. Where do you see it and where do you see it going?
The thing is, I obviously wasn’t old enough (or living in the right place) to go to clubs and appreciate what ‘the originators’ were doing at the time, but I just worked my way back through the history of it and have been fortunate enough to go to nights like Exodus / DMZ in Leeds. It’s music that needs to be heard on a proper soundsystem and not enough clubs have good enough setups to do the music justice, despite there being an increasing demand for dubstep DJs to play. I can understand why some people get annoyed when producers they love start making tunes more suited to Radio 1 than a dark club but you’ve just got to let go. There’s no point waiting around for classics to be remade and so many of the ‘dubstep’ labels are still putting out really forward-thinking dance music, just less of it is at 140bpm.
At the end of the day, the dubstep scene was a great vehicle for a lot of artists who will carry on making great music. We never consciously decided to post less dubstep, there is just not as much of it that we’re feeling.
Is Hush House a record label?
Yeah, we have got plans to start releasing some music. It’s still very early days at the moment though! Producers can send their stuff to us on this address: label at hushhouse dot net
What’s HH’s rapport with other established labels out there?
We’re really fortunate to receive a lot of music from well-established labels and we’re really grateful for it. If we like it, it’ll almost certainly end up on the blog, in a radio show or getting played out in the club. It’s always rewarding when artists and labels recognise what we do.
You guys have a great ‘Introducing’ segment. Always good up and comers, and more often then not, when it says in a post “a name to look out for,” it’s well worth following or liking on Soundcloud. Sources of new music?
I honestly think the best way of finding new music is from your friends, they know you best and are most likely to point you in the direction of something you like. Apart from that, I just check out a few blogs (shouts to Inhabit Magazine and AOAO in particular) and listen to loads of radio shows. Alexander Nut’s show on Rinse is one I always catch. Those of us lucky enough to still have a reputable record store in town should make the most of it!
Top 3 artists you say people should keep an eye out for:
John Talabot, Mano Le Tough & Ziro.
Top 3 sources for new music:
I’ve been listening to NTS a lot more lately – Jon Rust and Dark Sky have particularly good shows. The Autonomic, Numbers & Hessle shows on Rinse FM always leave me with a long list of tunes I want to track down. The FACT mix series is really well curated and there’s literally hundreds to sift through!
This was great, thanks much. Anything you’d like to sign off with?
Not really, just read the blog and come to our nights and we’ll be happy!
