British club music talent Scuba has been at the forefront of the UK music circuit for years, known for productions such as ‘Adrenalin’ and ‘The Hope’, alongside running one of the most successful imprints in electronic music with Hotflush Recordings.
Now preparing for the second edition in his Digital Underground series – ‘D:U:2’ – which drops in a few weeks, he brings 12 new productions and a fully fledged live show to the table.
We spoke to him about how the new project came to life, where he draws inspiration from, and what else we might hear soon on Hotflush. Read the full discussion with Scuba below.
Where are you right now, and how is life in general for Scuba?
I’m mostly in London right now, working on a music project and recording what seem to be endless episodes of my ’Not A Diving podcast’. So life is good!
You’re currently preparing for the release of ‘D:U:2’ – the second volume of your Digital Underground mixtape – how would you describe the project in your own words?
Yeah it’s the second part of a series I started last year which explores the classic era of hardcore, which is one of my absolute favourite periods of dance music history. It’s been a lot of fun to put together and the second mixtape gets into some of the themes that we didn’t delve too deeply into on the first one, so it’s a great continuation of the series.
The album is also accompanied by a brand new live show, something you didn’t do for the first volume, why the change?
I spent a lot of time figuring out how best to perform this stuff live, and it took a little while to come together. But I’m glad we took the time because the show is great and the gigs so far have been a lot of fun.
Across the twelve tracks we’re treated to acid, rave, jungle, and everything in between – what were some of your biggest inspirations during the production process?
Jungle really emerged from the era of hardcore we’re talking about here, but I didn’t cover it at all on the first mixtape so that was something I wanted to dip into. And we get a bit more into the deeper techno side of the era too. It’s a little bit darker and more atmospheric than the first part, but of course it has a lot of euphoric moments too.
Have you ever considering getting remixes done for any of the tracks?
Yeah we certainly have some remixes in the pipeline, wait and see on that.
Let’s talk about Hotflush – who can we expect to hear on the label in the coming months?
We’ve just released a fantastic album, ‘Triple Transit’ by Braille. That’s been in the works for a while so it’s great to finally get that out. We have some amazing remixes coming of tracks from the Bodhi EPs we’ve been releasing, the originals are amazing and we’ve got people like Kassian and Denham Audio on board to add something extra.
We also have the return of our techno label Who Whom coming shortly with amazing stuff from Spanish producer Yoikol, on Hotflush we have a great EP coming up from Ackermann and we are also welcoming a brand new artist to the label too.
And what changes have you noticed as a label owner with the growth of things like Instagram and AI?
The underground recorded music industry is on its knees. That’s the truth of the matter, but we carry on regardless.
Lastly, what else can we expect from yourself in the near future?
More music and more podcasts.
Anything else you want to mention before we go?
Yeah, please tell everyone to buy music. Don’t just say you buy it on social media, actually do it!
Scuba – D:U:2 LP is out August 30th on Hotflush Recordings.