For My Dawgz [X002] drops on X01 Music on 25 September. Behind it is Antihero, a DJ and producer from Ostrava who moves across the full spectrum of UK bass music. Ahead of the release we talked to him about the road from dubstep to drum and bass, the Ostrava scene, and how his first track for X01 came together.
Antihero has been involved in bass music since 2018 and has refused to sit in a single genre box from the start. His selection is built on dubstep, UK garage, grime and deep or soulful drum and bass, with UK bass culture as his biggest inspiration. You can hear it both in his sets and in his own productions.
Behind the decks he focuses on building atmosphere and moving smoothly between styles, from deep minimal tracks to more energetic territory. Instead of chasing trends, he bets on a distinctive selection and on digging for music across the whole scene.
As a producer he has releases on Next:Gen Audio and Sinful Maze Recordings. He has played over a hundred events across the Czech Republic and performed in Poland and Slovakia as well. For My Dawgz is his debut on X01 Music.
Interview
It all started with a few dnb events I went to, and then my mate “Kuny Lee” and I started practising mixing together. First on a controller, then on players. Alongside that I slowly started getting into production, but it took years before it went anywhere ๐ Then some gigs started coming in and music naturally kept pulling me in. I really enjoy making it. It often happens that I sit down “for a minute” in the evening and suddenly it’s 5am ๐ Music has also introduced me to loads of great people and it has always helped me through bad periods.
Even though the music has different rhythms, I feel like a lot connects it. Personally I think there could be more events that aren’t focused on one single genre. I’ve always enjoyed sets where you don’t know exactly what to expect the most! Visages were a big inspiration for me and I really took to the concept of playing half the set at slower tempos and then switching to drum and bass. Of course it depends on what kind of event it is. I also do full dnb sets or full 140 sets ๐
I like how deeply electronic music is rooted in the culture there. They’re in a completely different place than us ๐ Like when Goldie got an award from the Queen for his contribution to music? Nothing like that would just happen here… And in general the way sound systems are often out in the streets there and people feel really close to that sound, across generations. I think there’s plenty we can learn from their music scene.
On the dnb scene here the deep sound is largely seen as something you play in a club at 9pm as a warm up for neurofunk, which personally makes me sad.
At the same time we have a great club here, Etรกลพ, which tries to give space to all kinds of genres. I’m really glad about that! A lot of clubs just do neurofunk, dancefloor, techno on repeat and that’s more or less it… So thanks to Etรกลพ I see the local scene in a much better light now and I really hope the club does well and that things here grow in the right direction.
On top of that we’re just launching a new project there called “Low End Culture”, where we’ll be trying to bring names to Ostrava that you won’t hear here otherwise, break down the barriers of genre boxes, and build a community of people who are open to different sounds. Our first event takes place on 16 October and Bristol producer Klinical has accepted the invitation as headliner, his first ever performance in Ostrava! I’d like to invite you all ๐
