Sydney based DJ/ Producer Spenda C a.k.a Steve Lind has been genre juggling and pushing boundaries in a number of different projects over the years, including The Hump Day Project and The Mane Thing. After years of keeping party goers busy on dancefloors across the country,he has recently mixed one half of OneLove’s Bass Trap compilation. We catch up with Mr. C for a chat about all things trap, twerk and Jamaican dancehall records…
Pulse: Hey Spenda, how are you? What’s been happening today? Good, just taking the dog out!
Tell us how it all got started for you I started playing drums in bands, and then when I moved out of home and into apartments it wasn’t really tactical for me to be playing drums in apartments so I started djing as a way to keep playing music but to you know, keep the volume down, I could do it with my headphones on instead.
Right from the start though I got myself turntables and taught myself how to scratch, I got a sampler and a Roland drum machine to make beats on, I always had a focus on making music right from the start before getting into the DJi’ng
One of your first projects was as one half of The Hump Day Project. How do you feel your style has changed since then? Musically things changed, The Hump Day Project was more on Baltimore sort of tip, which is actually making a bit of a comeback lately, the approach is the same, songs that have energy and that work in the club, I don’t like stuff that’s too chin stroke-y or too intelligent, I just like stuff you can party to and have lots of fun with.
So the Onelove Bass Trap compilation has just come out, and you’ve had the honour of mixing the first disc – talk us through the selection process I really wanted to cover all sorts of styles that I’m playing in my sets at the moment, also styles which I think are becoming popular, new styles that will become popular, there’s a lot of that standard trappy stuff – it’s called ‘Bass Trap’, there’s a few 100 BPM tunes on there, songs I call ‘twerk’ style, that’s style’s getting really popular at the moment, then I’ve got some deep, clubbier tunes
There’s a song on there called ‘Bring In The Katz’ which is straight up Baltimore club style – I’m really happy that’s on there, it’s bit of a nod to The Hump Day Project days! I was trying to get everything in there that I’m feeling at the moment pretty much and wrap it all up in a way that made sense!
When you started your career, you mentioned you had never really heard of ‘club compilations’ and the like – how does it feel now to be approached to be part of one? I’m really thankful to Onelove for approaching me and giving me the chance to do this. I mean, I could put a mix up on Soundcloud every now and then, a lot of DJ’s do that just to show people where they’re at and tunes that they like. When there’s a physical CD, people tend to put it on when they’ve got their mates in the car, it’s different to say, streaming it on your phone.
I mean how many of us when they’re at home find an old Ministry CD in a drawer somewhere and it just reminds you… it’s sort of like a snapshot of a time and a place in your life – so hopefully down the track someone will find it in their drawer and go ‘Hah! Remember that weird trap music stuff?! That was pretty cool!” (laughs)
You’re touring the compilation with Leah Mencel, who mixed the second disc of Bass Trap, what are you most looking forward to about the tour? Leah and I are doing most of the tour together which is pretty cool – I guess I’m just looking forward to playing these tunes out and plus music in Australia is in a good place at the moment, especially for DJ’s and for me, it’s probably the best it’s been in awhile. I can play whatever I want and crowds respond well to new music, to things that are a bit different - its not the same boring 4/4 130 BPM stuff so they respond well to tempo changes and hearing new sounds which is good,
Trap as a genre in 2013 is quite contentious – there’s been a lot of discussion surrounding the fact there’s little authenticity around it at all-Tell us what first got you interested in trap as a genre To me there’s two types of trap – there’s your typical trap which comes from hip hop, black American music which has been around since the early 90’s which is sort of all related to the ‘trap’ and the drug trade and being unemployed selling the drugs on the corner, cooking the drugs, it’s all related to that. Then there was a switch, when Flosstradamus did a remix of ‘Original Don’ and when they put it up on Soundcloud, they put the genre as ‘Trap’ that’s what made a whole new movement, which brought in the whole EDM side of things, the more aggressive, in your face rave sort of music.
To be honest I sort of sit in the middle, stuff that’s not too lazery or too aggressive but I like stuff that still has that hip hop feel to it – I sort of like to explore all different facets of it
You’ve got all the old school people are going ‘all this new stuff’s not trap’ and you’ve got all these new people saying ‘ all the old stuffs boring!’ – I like to try and play all of it and mix it in.
Do you think artists like TNGHT and Flosstradamus made the trap genre more accessible? Yes definitely, and that’s the funny thing, those two guys, TNGHT and Flosstradamus are part of the two divides I was talking about before. On one side you’ve got Flosstradamus who’s got the in your face aggressive stuff and then you read anything that Lunice (one half of TNGHT) says, he hates the term trap.He can’t stand it, he calls all their stuff rap, he’s like we’ve got nothing to do with trap, we’re rap – he’s on the hip hop side of the fence. It’s funny you mentioned those two guys because on the surface they’re very similar, but their attitudes and their approach is totally different.
When genres tend to get ‘revamped’ the reaction from people is pretty interesting, they get quite defensive and possessive. They do (laughs) but then you’ve got your more cool, intelligent side of things coming through now too, you’ve got Rustie, Hudson Mohawke, Wave Racer and LDRU and Cosmo’s Midnight. It’s all sort of pooling together I think, which isn’t a bad thing - I think that’s why I like trap as a term, it covers all that music. Nobody owns anything, nobody owns a title – its good that people get passionate about it and want to have a conversation about it.
You’ve been a resident at Chinese Laundry for 8 years now – do you think they’re one of the bigger supporters of genres like trap and bass? They’re supportive of more forward thinking music that’s for sure, they’re not the ones to sit back and wait for something to be popular and then jump on it. Paul (Azzopardi, former booker at Chinese Laundry) is quite conscious of trying to pick trends before they break, so they’re very good at supporting new music.
Would you describe the bass music scene in Sydney as healthy overall? I think the scenes are sort of starting to blur a bit which is really nice. I think its good I can go to clubs all over Australia that aren’t necessarily bass music clubs, but they can put on a bass music night and it will do really well – I think its good that there are lots of clubs that are willing to try new music and do new things, I think that’s great for the scene.
You’ve just released a new EP recently – can we expect a full length Spenda C record any time soon? Not anytime soon, but there is a follow up EP also on Klub Kids toward the end of the year where I’ve done two songs with a female MC called Zuri Akoko, which actually feature on the Bass Trap album- we’re going to follow it up with a full remix EP – The stuff I’m writing now is a bit more ‘song-ey’ so I’m trying to write in more vocalists and structure my things where it’s ‘verse-chorus-verse-chorus’ The whole album concept could be on the horizon after a couple of years, if I keep going in this direction!
Anyone you would be keen to approach to appear on the record? There’s a lot of people I’d like to collaborate with – it’s a matter of working up to it – I’m working on a song at the moment with a friend, DJ Butcher from Queensland and another guy Oski from Sydney and MC Kinky, a.k.a. Feral is Kinky from the UK on the vocals – that’s a pretty big collaborative effort!
I notice you mentioned that when you started out, that you used to collect vinyl – any favourites in the collection you’d save in a fire? The records that I play the most actually, are non-dance records, I’ve been collecting Jamiacan dancehall 45’ for a few years now so they’re the ones I pull out the most – I’ve got a little record player that I pull out and just play Jamiacan dance hall sometimes!
Can we expect a vinyl only set from Spenda C some time soon maybe? Yeah maybe, one day - if anyone wants me to come and play a Jamaican dancehall set on 45s I’ll come and do it!
One Love Bass Trap Tour Dates
28.09.13 - King Street Hotel, Newcastle
04.10.13 - Flinders Social, Townsville
06.10.13 - Kit and Kaboodle, Sydney
06.10.13 - Beachcomber, Toukley (Spenda C Only)
11.10.13- Gilligans, Cairns
12.10.13 - Shuffle, Gold Coast
19.10.13 - Electric Circus, Adelaide (Leah Mencel Only)
23.10.13 - Secret show
25.10.13 - Family, Brisbane
26.10.13 - Onefiveone, Woollongong
02.11.13 - Secret show, Melbourne