Drive

Drive is my first track to explore a darker sound palette using distorted brass textures, heavy bass and hard hitting drums. When creating the track my goal was to merge my Cinematic Electronica with Trap to create a high energy drop that would lift people off their feet.

The song started with the distant vocal chant, which I recorded whilst exploring the souks of Marrakech, and it became a key element in creating the dark atmosphere. The melody was one of the first musical elements I composed and I then created the drums and bass to highlight and play off of the melody rhythm. Almost every sound in the record was processed heavily with a range of effects and distortions, and this gave it a more intense overall texture.

The most difficult part of the whole track was creating the drop as it took many iterations to make it sit right and even after weeks of working on it I still wasn't happy. I finally cracked it however when I pulled the initial bass slide back by a dotted crotchet and doing that just made the drop feel right. It also allowed enough space so the first snare hit of the drop would really punch.

The vocal sample over the second drop is a female vocal saying 'baby' which I then altered to eventually get the effect that is heard on the record. Originally I had it playing over both drops but decided to leave it for just the last drop so that there was a new element that would keep it interesting.

For the artwork I knew I wanted something dark and mysterious but simple so I experimented with a few fonts and when I dropped in the Japanese font I just liked how it looked. I then added the reflection and I knew I was done.