Irish chill-hop producer ᴄʙᴀᴋʟ has been on our radar for some time now.
In the past year, his profile has risen significantly due to his frequent collaborations with UK underground artists and producers, as well as his soulful beat tape “Hopeless”, which he dropped via Exhume Music. He’s also been featured on our latest Spotify playlist.
He’s currently living in Leicester studying music technology, and working on a slew of new releases for the coming year. ᴄʙᴀᴋʟ caught up with us recently to break down his latest single “Tighten Up”, his production techniques, and his new projects for 2018.
Read through and get to know him! And make sure to listen to “Tighten Up”.
**How would you describe your production style? ******
I think my style is pretty unique – the samples I use are generally darker-sounding than those used in a lot of the chill-hop and lo-fi that’s coming out lately, and then I always have really smooth, hard-hitting drums to go with that. The best producers in my eyes are those that have a sound that’s immediately recognizable (Dilla, Dre, Knxwledge etc.) and that’s always what I’m trying to achieve in my productions.
What software and hardware do you use while producing?
I make all my music in Fl Studio 12 on my laptop, I’ve tried other DAWs but nothing matches the work flow I’ve found with FL. I have an SP404SX but I mainly use it for live sets, less for composing tracks.
What’s the story behind your latest song “Tighten Up”?
Tighten Up is quite a recent track – I made it just before I went home to for the holidays. I wanted to create a nice atmosphere within the track & I feel like I achieved that.
What’s next for you in 2018?
I have an album dropping on my birthday (Valentine’s Day) which will be up on all the streaming sites, and then I have another album which will be my debut vinyl release coming at the beginning of Summer! Keep an eye out for both of those.
