Most 12 year olds have a hobby: usually it's playing football, or smoking behind the bike sheds.
Dom Zilla, though, was making beats. Infatuated with hip-hop culture, the prodigal Newcastle talent immersed himself in the world of production.
Becoming an open secret in UK hip-hop, his beats were picked up by Skinnyman and Raekwon, before he decided to broaden his sound.
Now 19, Dom Zilla's new EP 'ii' is a lucid collection of electronic explorations, each seeming to point the producer in a fresh direction.
Clash is able to air new cut 'Tonight', and it's warm, flowing colours are reminiscent of those early Flume tracks, sluiced through a hip-hop mindset.
Check it out now.
How did you get into hip-hop? What were your early influences?
I got into hip-hop through my Dad and older brother. They used to listen to all sorts, from Snoop to Wu-Tang to Tribe and De La Soul. After hearing these artists and what they were doing, I really got in to it and discovered other artists, such as Slum Village/Dilla, Busta Rhymes and Sean Price.
What made you start making beats? Can you remember your early style?
Pretty much wanting to do something that no one else was doing musically. I've always made electronic stuff but most of the people where I'm from wanted to play Rock and Indie music… I never really wanted to be in a Rock Band so I picked up an MPC and started sampling haha!
Does Newcastle have a developed hip-hop scene? Do you want to give any other artists a shout out?
Yeah it has a scene, but people don't usually travel far out of the region. It's hard to make Geordie hip-hop crossover for some reason… maybe it's the accent? Haha I'm not sure. The people that have done well, such as Rick Fury and Three Kings High have adopted different musical styles in to what they do, but have still kept it hip-hop. I have to shout out Mark Rae from Rae and Christian obviously. He's been doing things a long time and always has that quality that I strive to get in my music.
You've supplied beats for some incredible rappers – Raekwon, Skinnyman – how did this come about?
They happened because of my ex-manager. He was really well respected in UK Hip-Hop and had done some groundbreaking things over the years. He introduced me to a few people while he was managing me and asked if they wanted to jump on some beats. Some said no, but luckily Skinny and Rae said yes.
New EP 'ii' feels like a slight change in direction, what prompted this?
I decided to go less dance-orientated and dig in to my musical roots a bit more. The M.S.I thing wasn't really going to get on there but I played it to a few people and they convinced me to put it on the E.P. The intro is an instrumental version with a different bass line and the remix is the Outro featuring Dave Okumu (Jessie Ware/The Invisible) and Skinnyman. I thought that I'd use the track like bookends to open and close the E.P. The sound is pretty much the same as the first E.P though, same Rhodes and guitar bits but with a more down-tempo approach. I wanted to take the same route as 'Cold' mixed with 'Take Home' from the first E.P so I'll probably develop more of that style on the next one too. A bit darker and more experimental I think.
'Tonight' airs first on Clash – what can you tell us about this track?
I wrote Tonight to have a similar vibe to ‘Take Home’ from my previous E.P. It starts slow and then builds to a crescendo at the end, in a similar fashion, but with more focus. Although it isn’t as experimental as ‘Take Home’, programming-wise, I feel that it has more of an excitement about it. It was written just after the release of the first E.P and marked the official start of writing for my second E.P, ‘II’.
The track originally started off with a drum beat and the chorus vocal, which is one line re-sampled and chopped up. After adding this, I built the track out from there. I then added the verses and then resampled them, putting them through my KAOSS PAD to add layers to the background of the track. I then added piano to the original, which I also re-sampled and chopped up. It was at this point that I rewrote the verses because I felt that they needed to be more conflicted.
This was also the last track to be mixed for the E.P, although it was the first recorded. I did this because I wanted to ensure that the mix was just right, considering all of the layers and tracks that went in to making it. The topic of the track is essentially about the juxtaposed self conflicts you experience when you are alone.
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'ii' EP is forthcoming.
