Thanks for speaking with us. Tell us a bit about you, what’s your background, introduce yourself.
My name is Tony Corbin and my background in music started way back in the 1990s (obviously I was very young!). I mainly play keyboards, bass and a bit of guitar. I played a lot of sessions with funk bands, a bit of reggae and even some indie rock. My first real release was under the moniker Solid and a track called Outside which was featured on a compilation called Volume alongside tracks from the likes of New Order and The Cocteau Twins. After producing some UK hip hop tracks in the early 2000’s, I started producing indie dance and house under the name Next Door But One (which I still do now). That led to the creation of my label Chemiztri in 2008. In order to satisfy my eclectic tastes, I began to produce under different names and in 2016 B.A.N.G! was born.
How would you describe your music, it has a Jackin’ house feel good vibe of course, what is your sound in your own words?
With B.A.N.G! I explore funk and the funky side of disco set to solid house beats, combining live musicianship and loops/samples. To be totally honest I didn’t really know what Jackin house was when I started B.A.N.G! but now I find myself in Jackin charts which is cool.
Talk us through your upcoming My Escape EP on Chemiztri Recordings – talk us through the original and then the Electrick City involvement remix?
With Escape I had a simple disco strings and keys loop which I chopped and embellished with more strings, added the strummed guitar chords and then decided to go with a rolling sub bass which, when locked with the kick, adds a kind of tech element which is what I like to do sometimes rather than a straightforward disco house arrangement. When I use sample pack vocals, as I did here, I take the same approach as I do towards music samples. I chop them up, stretch, transpose and even make words by splicing sylables so that the words have the meaning I want (sample pack vocals are usually cliched and lyrically basic which I guess is understandable) . It’s a painstaking process but rewarding and I don’t want to have vocals on a track that can be simply replicated. Now is probably the time to reveal that Electrcick City is also me. I thought the track would work well with a piano house remix and I think it does.
With Covid looming over the industry, what’s your opinion on how things will be in say, 6 months time?
That’s a tough one. Dance music has had enough obstacles in recent years in finacial terms, with streaming, illegal downloads etc. and now the club scene faces a mojor challenge. The live streaming thing has been pretty good but people are clearly itching to get back out there. I’m hoping that this second spike is just a result of countries trying to open up again and, while it’s still a major concern, it won’t reach the scary heights of the previous wave. If that’s the case I think clubs will gradually reopen and 2021 festivals will go ahead and be massively successful. I also hope that those who have lost jobs find their way back when things improve because, despite what some MPs seem to be suggesting, not everyone is cut out to be a care worker!
What piece of studio equipment, if any, would you consider something you couldn’t live without?
Kjaerhus Audio Classic Master Limiter is a studio essential for me.
As we are far away from clubbing anytime soon, can you recall one of your favourite clubbing moments, what happened?
I remember being at The Wag Club in London some years ago and the DJ (not sure who it was) did something I’ve remembered vividly since. He started to play Prince’s Alphabet Street until it reached the word Tennessee, which he seemed to loop and then launched into the Arrested Development song Tennessee. I thought that was genius and went crazy on the dancefloor poitning out to my friends what he just did!
Just before lockdown I went to Printworks here in London and Disclosure dropped some seriously funky tunes that got the crowd rocking. thats memerobale now because I would not have known it would possibly be a year or so before I could expereience something like that again!
Who would you say has been your biggest inspirations and peers during your career?
I used to work as a music journalist and was fortunate enough to meet and talk to the likes of A Guy Called Gerald, Jazzy B, Mark Ronson and Mary J Blige. Nice as a journalist and massively inspirational as a musician.
Finally, share with us, in your opinion, one of the greatest tracks to have been released!
I love Mr Fingers ‘Can You Feel It’, an atmospheric thing of beauty that showed how house music can connect on an emotional level.
B.A.N.G! – My Escape is out on Chemiztri Recordings on 16th October:
