Dan Miracle‘s latest single, Kinky Bitch / Sherbet Dip Dab, is due to be released on System Shock Recordings on November 17. Dan Miracle, aka Daniel Jobbins is a multi-talented producer and engineer with a long-time history of releasing drum & bass on classic labels like Reinforced Records, Valve and Chronic. Kmag catches up with Dan to find out more about his new tracks and the launch of his imprint Dan Miracle Music.
What motivated you to start DJing and producing?
I first started listening to rave / hardcore / jungle / dnb when I was nine years old. When I was 12, I began learning how to make video games on the Amiga computer and realised that my game ideas needed sound to bring them to life. As I mainly listened to Jungle, I wanted to make something similar. Soon after I saw a documentary on Channel 4 about jungle music and it featured Shy FX producing music on his Atari ST.
That made me realise I could do something similar on the Amiga and within weeks I was chopping up Amen break beats in Octamed, a classic Amiga tracker-style sequencer. I wasn’t until I was 15 though, after hearing Grooverider play Dillinja’s Fluid on Radio 1 for the first time that I decided to take production seriously and focus on it after leaving school.
DJing however, I’ve never really had any proper motivation for, despite having decks, a controller and a sizeable vinyl and digital collection. I’ve always struggled with basic beat matching, shame on me, so I decided to leave DJing to “the real DJs” and focus on production instead. Having said that, due to the advancements in DJ technology – its more forgiving nature and locked tempos, I’ve actually just managed to record my first ever DJ mix! But I’m still not a DJ…
When did you link up with System Shock Recordings?
Callide contacted me a few years back to see if I was still producing music, as he liked my style. Admittedly, I had pretty much given up at that point as I was focusing on my career outside of music. Thankfully his encouragement inspired me to get back on it again and through my other careers taking off; I was able to invest money from those avenues into building a better studio to improve my production and engineering.
How would you describe the tracks Kinky Bitch and Sherbet Dip Dab?
Kinky Bitch is basically my attempt at a simple, fun party tune. Big bouncy beats, a nasty bassline, playful intro and a catchy, albeit rude vocal sample.
Sherbet Dip Dab on the hand has harder drums, futuristic-cyborg-basslines alongside a “sweet”, sugarcoated intro to provide a balance to the bitter, “sour” drop. In other words, both tracks are big & loud and aimed at making people dance across dnb club land. “Kinky bitches” are more than welcome to attend and dance too!
https://soundcloud.com/callide/sets/dan-miracle-system-shock-recordings-019-out-november-17th
When it comes to producing multiple genres, how do you balance your work-flow in the studio?
I generally have an idea before I open up the sequencer and whatever the tempo roughly is in my head is the tempo I start the project on. Personally I don’t really see myself as producing multiple genres as such though, just multiple tempos generally 130bpm, 140bpm, 160bpm, 175bpm.
To me it’s all drum & bass at the core— the same emphasis on big drums, percussion and heavy basslines, all using D&B inspired production techniques. As a child I grew up on reggae/dub music so producing 140bpm half-speed tracks feels quite natural, as does 160bpm choppage jungle style.
Many of my ideas do start off as drum & bass though and occasionally I may try slowing down a dnb tempo track I’m stuck on to see if it my idea would work better at another speed.
What does 2015 look like for you?
Music wise, 2015 will see me focusing on drum & bass again and continuing to work with Callide and other like-minded individuals who have supported my sound over the years. I have been developing a new way of programming drums over the past few months (still keeping them big and electronic, but adding more of a live acoustic feel to them too) so I’m looking forward to making new material!
I do also plan to launch my Dan Miracle Music imprint officially at some point, which will initially focus on albums containing remastered versions of my past releases and new remixes from artists I’m into. Following that it will become a multi-tempo label with each release catering for four tempos 130/140/160/175 bpm.
I plan to overhaul the Dan Miracle app, actually launch a Dan Miracle website which should’ve launched about 10 years ago really, and potentially practice DJing enough to be good enough to play out. Possibly.