Over the past 12 months, Vishscale has gone from best-kept London secret to hero of the techno underworld. We caught up with him to find out more about his influences and to bag this ferocious mix full of anger and etherial power.
Hi Vish, can you describe the Scale Trax ethos and your personal sound for our listeners?
Hey Jaded. The way I would describe the Scale Trax ethos would be putting people on and shining light on them through quality music. Of course techno is what the label is about, but I believe the label is about pushing boundaries in the genre – it’s not about following BPM trends or what’s fashionable within the scene atm, but more about quality music that will stand the test of time in years to come; long after I’m gone.
As for my personal sound, I know from looking from the outside in you can call it harsh or aggressive but it’s based mainly on things I’ve done, seen and felt in my life. If I could rap I would have a proper story to tell! But if I define the Vishscale sound into a few words I’d define it as dark & light with hard times and pain thrown in.
You take much inspiration from film, and from your own experiences boxing, can you tell us more about these influences and how they relate to your art?
Yes I take loads. As for films, I was and still am a 80s and 90s science fiction, Kung Fu, horror and gangster film fanatic. So movies like Terminator 1 and 2, Scarface, Menace to Society, Donnie Brasco, Enter the Dragon, Halloween I love.
So yeah, I use to box and compete. I had 13 fights altogether, I still do box but just don’t compete no more. Musically, boxing has played a massive influence. When you go to perform (DJ) in front of a crowd you feel nervous – similar nerves I used to get before a fight. So boxing has taught me how to deal with those situations. The nerves will never go, but you learn how to perform under pressure be it with a crowd watching, bright lights etc.
Anyone involved in techno or just the music scene will also know how hard and difficult it can be. So boxing has taught me how to stay focussed on myself and my goals and to bite down work hard and the results you want will come your way.
Paula Temple has been championing your releases heavily! How has her support affected your work?
Yeah that was pretty amazing Paula playing my music like I still can’t get my head around it to be fair.
I’ll tell u something – u may laugh: the day I saw her post a video on insta of her playing Dark Or Light I listened to the video about 5 times and still didn’t realise it was my track. I thought it sounds similar to my track, but didn’t realise until I went on my Soundcloud played the track and compared it to the video she posted.
Her support of playing my tracks the video she posted and being on her list of most played artists of 2019 has affected my work by giving me the validation to myself that I am someone within Techno doing something good as an artist. And the desire to work harder. It’s all about self-belief and people can have a lot of self-doubt, so it’s always nice when people can lift each other up rather than put people down.
Follow:
@vishscale
@scale-trax
@jadedlondon
