Zomby is one of our most talented, most enigmatic producers. After 2013’s With Love, a sprawling, hypnotic, two-disk collection of beautiful, introverted outlines, he’s back with Ultra.
Relocating back to his native London from New York, where he’d been living for a few years, Ultra is tight, amorphous, structurally experimental; the sound of Zomby at his dense best, confident and self assured. Ultra is a record that sounds free and open, Zomby sharing production credits with a host of other incredible producers; Burial, Darkstar, Rezzett, and Banshee all make guest appearances.
If Zomby albums previously have relied on accumulation, sketching out ideas, leaving them to exist in a kind of stasis, propelled into the next idea; Ultra’s tracks instead feel bright, alive and kicking, full of movement, totally uncontainable. Drawing in influences from grime’s first wave coldness, jungle’s euphoria, and Zomby’s own inimitable approach to building rhythms, Ultra was the standout electronic album of the year.
We caught up with Zomby after he played a Stone Island showcase in Glasgow for a rare chat with the producer.
Ultra sounds like a very confident record, musically. It’s much tighter, less sprawling that With Love. Do you react to the things you’ve done in the past when working on new things?
I mean I’m pleased with the outcome of the album and the intent it carries. The title refers to an ultra-modernism movement in music. Ultra has a different method, and angles itself against some of my previous work. I guess maybe it can seem that I’m reacting to my older work, but I don’t really listen back to stuff after it’s released, but I’ll listen to them feverishly until that time.
How do you feel personally about the record?
I like Ultra a lot. Its intent was to go to extremes with a few styles, themes and methods I’ve been working with for a while and I think it was successful in accomplishing that.
How do you feel about With Love now?
All good.
This is the first full length record you’ve made since being back living in England, has it had much of an influence?
I’ve written and produced a few since I returned to London from New York. I had a Remix for Gwilym Gold on Eddies Peake’s Hymn label, I did a record with Wiley on Big Dada, then two EPs on XL. This is my first album release since With Love, which was written in New York though, so yeah.
What is it like being back in England? Do you miss it when you’re away? Do you like London?
I don’t miss it actually, having grown up here, I know it well enough, but I still love London.
What made you come back?
I’ve lived in a few different places and I like to move around especially with the freedom music gives me
Does where you are, geographically speaking, have an effect on your music? Or is that too simplistic?
I mean it can, it just depends on what’s happening at that time
It’s been three years in between records — a long time — was it a hard process to put together the album?
Well no I mean I’ve been working and releasing music the whole time so to curate an album is just a treat.
There’s quite an amorphous quality to the record, it’s maybe your most experimental in this respect? Do you agree?
Yeah I think you’re right.
Usually your songs find a rhythm and groove and kind of get stuck into it, but a lot of these tracks feel freer, more confident, in the way they can move around and play with things?
I’m not sure the arrangement of my compositions get stuck into a groove much but the angular nature of the work on Ultra sits very different as an extension of my structures from previous work.
There’s elements of the record that sounds very first wave grime influenced, not nostalgic, but using it look forward in a way, twisting it out of shape. Is that a fair interpretation?
Yeah I mean I started to write music seriously around 2001-ish so naturally a lot of the synths and production tools of that era are encompassed into my sound as well and in turn influenced me but now I want to use them to make something completely fresh and new.
Have you been following the grime resurgence recently? What’s your opinion on it?
All good yeah, a new generation of kids are on the job, nothing wrong with it. I mean it was expected wasn’t it?
Do you get bored of talking about Twitter/your anonymity/all these things I’m sure journalists always want to talk about?
Yeah it’s pretty dull isn’t it?
What was the Stone Island show in Glasgow like?
Yeah it was great! The best thing maybe the visuals of myself projected behind me for my set, they were fucking awesome I’m sure you’ll agree! There’s nothing like Stone Island, beautiful, unique clothes.
Do you have a favourite Stone Island era?
Maybe the early 90s, because that was my introduction to Stone Island, although my brother had a couple of pieces from the late 80s. Favourite pieces are the classics, the beauty of the current modern designs, Shadow Project and of course Stone Island Marina — I mean what’s not to like! But a single favourite piece, yeah I’ve a few to choose from, but I’m not that easy.
What else are you feeling about in fashion now?
I get bored of fashion as fast as it goes out of fashion. I usually want something much more thoughtful and interesting these days
What’s your live set like at the moment? Do people expect you to DJ? Or play a live set? Or DJ your own productions? Does an audience’s expectation impact on what you might play?
No, I wouldn’t say it impacts on what I’m going to do really. I don’t DJ all my own productions that’d be quite bizarre.. I usually won’t have any particular plans it’ll just be whatever I’m working on at the time expanded into a setting I can conjure further outcomes from with variation or if I’m DJing whatever I’m listening too pretty much. The party was great yeah, such an honour to be invited to DJ!
Credits
Text Felix Petty