“Limitation is creatively inspiring – too much choice can impair you.” – An Interview with Fez the Kid

Fez the Kid is certainly one to watch. His raw, old-school jungle tracks somehow feel like they have realness woven between their typically frantic breaks. A relative youngster exploring the music of a supposedly bygone era, his new EP, BODYMOVER, is the second release on Nia Archives’ exciting UP YA ARCHIVES label. I sat with him to talk musical community, authenticity, and music’s relationship with skating.

My favourite track on the new EP is ‘cus it feels right’. What was your mindset going into making it?

Something with me is I don’t want too much repetition. The track should be constantly evolving and changing. That song is like four tunes in one – it changes so much, but I feel it still flows naturally between sections. Sometimes I think my songs change too much, but ‘cus it feels right’ seems to have done the job.

Another of my favourites is ‘flute tune’, how did you get the flute sound – is it sampled or synthesized?

It was sampled from an old E-mu. I just modified the envelope and wrote my own line in. That song’s a little bit cleaner than my other stuff, a bit more modern, I suppose. Yeah. Just the flute sound, for me, sounds retro but modern at the same time.

You walk that line really impressively. Is that something you intentionally do?

Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m trying to do – use old school methods in a modern way, make everything sound like it could be old, but isn’t.

What’s it like being backed by the biggest jungle artist in the UK at the moment?

Since getting in touch with Nia, her and the team have been doing everything they can to help me grow. Being involved with someone who is making such waves, not just in England, but across the world, has been amazing. She reached out to me off the back of some tunes I made with Cheetah, and we’ve been in touch ever since.

What was it about UP YA ARCHIVES’ ethos that felt right?

When I was last in the studio with her, she was explaining that she wants the label not just to be about her and the artists, but about building a community; bringing up talented people who might not yet have the platform. That’s so powerful and really resonates with me because I think without those around you, you’re not really anything.

You’re into skating and I know Nia is inspired somewhat by skater culture. What is it about music and skateboarding that creates such a big crossover?

I guess with music, you have to be prepared to fail over and over again before you find something that sticks. It’s like that with skating, you’ll try a trick thousands of times before you land it. In music it’s the same sort of thing. If you’re committed and passionate enough, you’ll get somewhere.

What was the first piece of music that you fell in love with?

Oh god, that’s a hard question actually. In terms of jungle, it was probably ‘Piano Tune’ by Peshay. I remember that was one of the first jungle tunes I heard that I was like “yeah this is something special”. That kickstarted my interest.

Were you making music before you got into jungle?

I started off producing drum and bass, but it was not really what I was into. I mean, I was at the time but not in the same way I am with jungle now. Then I saw a couple of jungle sets and was like “yeah this is definitely my thing”. Since then, I haven’t looked back. The more dominant, mainstream drum and bass sound is the foghorn-y, jump-up sound of artists like Hedex and Bou.

Why aren’t you drawn to that style?

For me, that whole subgenre feels super reliant on screechy noises and aggressive sounds just to get a crowd reaction. It’s just not musically exciting to me. It’s more just about the drop. I guess it’s kind of like when dubstep became brostep.

What is it about the older sounds that drew you in? Is it their relative subtlety?

I guess that’s probably part of it, but a large part of it is that if you’re sampling breakbeats, there’s a human element there – a lack of quantization. It’s more interesting because there are subtle nuances in every phrase. Whereas if you have just a kick and snare loop, nothing changes. It all sounds quite mechanical and robotic.

I’ve seen you on Instagram playing around with an old Atari computer. What is it and what’s your impetus for using this?

It’s an Atari 1040ST. It’s got under two megabytes of RAM so it’s extremely slow. I connect that all up to my vintage samplers and then outboard gear. It’s basically just a MIDI-sequencer but creates a super unique sound. I also like the hands-on approach. I’m really into feeling out the music.

What prompted you to take that step and invest in this hardware? I assume you started on a laptop.

For the longest time I was just in the box, but I started researching old-school methods and hearing about artists who use old hardware nowadays such as Kid Lib and Phineus II. Their production has been such a massive inspiration to me. So ever since I found that out, I wanted to get my hands on some hardware and as the music started picking up a bit, I could justify spending the money on it.

So, there’s no possibility of you working just on a DAW now?

I sometimes combine both things – I might process things through hardware and then arrange it all on Logic. Logic has its benefits – it’s quicker and its easier. But if I want the authentic sound I’m definitely going for hardware.

That is what I want to get on to next: authenticity. Does using this hardware from around jungle’s heyday feel more authentic?

Authentic is a funny word because it’s so open to interpretation. When I say authentic, I mean old-school jungle from the nineties. That’s the stuff I really love. I want to do my best to recreate that in my own way, but without neglecting modern methods. But you can equally make authentic music without hardware – they’re not necessarily tied together.

Are there any other kind of methods that allow you to attain authenticity?

A lot of it comes down to where your inspiration stems from and what you’re paying respects to. Jungle can be just breakbeats and subs. That’s pretty much it, so it’s more about the mentality behind the music and why you’re making it that makes it authentic.

There was a release you did on Basics Records that I think was exclusively physical. What made you want to do that?

My friend Pete owns Basics. I’ve always supported him, and he’s always supported me. When we were preparing for release, it gained massive support from Nia and some others. I wanted to stick to that original dubplate run because I like the idea of it being really limited. I know certain tunes that came out in the nineties and when I look at them on Discogs,
there’s only 60 out there. That illusive appeal can make something way more valuable and exciting.

Do you think we have lost something with digitization and the decline of physical media?

Nowadays you can pretty much get your ears on any song that’s ever been released. But I often think with excessive choice you can actually be limited. If there’s too much to choose from it can be hard to know what’s right. Limitation is creatively inspiring – too much choice can impair you.

I’ve seen you on kurb’s YouTube channel doing the crate digging challenge. Are you digging all the time, or do you sample digitally?

There’s variation. If you want to record vinyl for samples, it’s really fun but it’s time consuming and expensive. Sometimes I’ll be in that mood where I want to go to a record shop and have a dig and it can massively inspire me. Other times I just want to get something quicker, and I’ll go on Spotify Radio and record straight into my Akai sampler. Both methods give a different sound, minimally. But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with digital sampling.

Is there anything you’re looking for on the artwork of a record that might indicate it’s got something sampleable on it?

Funnily enough it can be quite obvious what vibe the record has based off the artwork. Going off that is generally a good idea. Like, if it’s got minimal artwork, it probably sounds minimal.

If you could pick, do you prefer making tunes or playing them live?

I definitely prefer to make tunes. But I love doing both. Playing shows is a great opportunity to play new bits and connect with an audience. With making music there’s a disconnect as you don’t get a direct response. People might message you saying “I love this” but it’s different when it’s in person. If I had to pick one, it would be producing – that’s my true passion.

Is there a favourite live set you’ve done?

I just got back from a festival called An Experience which was quite an intimate vibe. We had a quadraphonic speaker set-up from Scotland Yard which sounded amazing, and the tent was packed out. That was probably my favourite.

What do you think the most important aspect of DJing is?

Definitely selection – just having a good set of tunes and knowing them well. People put emphasis on technicality and, obviously, that’s good, but I think its way more important to have good tunes that flow well together.

Have you got one tune that every junglist should have on their USB or in their crate?

A timeless jungle tune is the 95 Relick version of ‘All The Crew Big Up’ by Roni Size and DJ Die. That’s such a great track and I play it in every set. It goes off every time.

You’re based in Bristol. I’ve heard the music scene there is pretty healthy. What’re some of your favourite venues?

Bristol’s next level. My favourite in Bristol is Strange Brew. There’s also The Crown which is a small pub space with like 120 capacity. It’s such a community-driven hub and I’ve played many, many sets there. I think that’s what it’s all about in Bristol – creating a mutually beneficial community and building it up together. The Crown is one of the staples of that.

Speaking of Bristol, I saw you were in the crowd at Loves Saves the Day when two of your tunes were dropped by other artists. What’s it like to experience that?

It’s something you don’t really get used to, especially for Nia Archives. The size of the crowd there was pretty mad…I dunno, it obviously feels very good, but hard to explain. But when my tune gets dropped and the crowd erupts that’s a really good feeling. It’s those kinds of moments that inspire me.

Words and interview by Charlie Edmondson