Amongst the growing list of boundary-breaking and charismatic producers, Sandy Finlayson’s Seppa project has remained a tenured and potent force at the very helm of the international bass music movement. His audacious studio productions and iron-clad impact on stage are the unassailable result of years of dedicated experimentation, and the last year huddled up at home may have been his most fortuitous yet. Returning to the active listening rotation amidst an explosive revival of live music across much of the world, The Rust is proud to host the premiere of “Boosted”, the first single of the upcoming dual release package Boosted/Forked.
“Boosted” takes a departure from the oft-trodden territories of half-time and neuro-hop, and instead wields a mutated garage rhythm interspersed with generously distorted downbeats. It’s the kind of high intensity, low-riding roller that goes straight for the neck, eschewing downtime or respite in favor of sheer force. Reflecting the duality of the full release, “Boosted” is the slow-churning companion to the upcoming track “Forked”, with both reflecting the new bevy of upcoming material that Seppa is slated to release throughout the rest of 2021. It’s all within his carefully established wheelhouse while simultaneously displaying the developments and affects of his own personal year in the locked-down UK.
As a companion piece to the “Boosted” premiere, we felt compelled to have a succinct dialogue with Seppa about his experience across the pandemic, his developments as an artist and a label head, and his own self perception in the face of his hard-earned success.
The Rust: As of now, the world is spinning closer to its usual beat; Where’s your head at right this moment?
Sandy Finlayson: It’s in a pretty good place honestly! I guess you could say I’ve become very acclimated to limbo in the last 18 months. It’s definitely nice to have things like gigs on the horizon, but we’re still not back to business as usual here in the UK. It might happen soon, but it’s draining to get too invested at this point. If good things happen, then great, if not, then more studio time! It’s certainly been good to have some time to get into some healthy habits and do some uncomfortable but necessary staring into the void. It’s easy to build an identity solely around what you do, which is ultimately kind of unhealthy. Having that taken away has been a lesson in reframing who I am and what makes me me. I suppose everyone needs a reality check sometimes, whether they want it or not!
The Rust: Are you chomping at the bit for a return to the limelight, or are you content laying low as the rest of 2021 progresses?
Sandy: I wouldn't say I've ever really been into the limelight. I've always felt like I want my music to be successful and well known, but I don't really want to be a famous individual. That's pretty at odds with the accepted way things work these days but fuck it, I'm the only one that has to live with all my choices. Having said that, I do absolutely love playing music to people and sharing that really magical experience en masse. Touring and meeting so many great people, bringing everyone together through sound, is one of life's great pleasures and I'm definitely keen to get back to it! I'm not gonna rush it though, there's some stuff in the pipeline but I can't talk about it yet!
The Rust: Speaking of the limelight, you’re surely at the top of many lists as tour routes and events begin to propagate the map again; are there any cities or events in particular that you’re eager to return to?
Sandy: Oh man it's really hard to pick honestly, as I've played to great crowds all over! In terms of places that always go off - Denver, New York, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta all spring to mind, but that’s by no means an exhaustive list. The Black Box is always a favorite venue to play, that's been the weirdest one to be away from for so long! Plenty of great festivals too, with Infrasound and The Untz being two of my favorites so far. If the sound is good and the vibe is good, it's gonna be a good time. I’m sure there’s so many awesome places I haven’t experienced yet!
The Rust: We’re well into a year after the initial global lockdowns; can you talk about the impact that has had on you and your artistry, and on your label?
Sandy: It's been a weird one for sure! As a collective we mostly just took a bit of a pause in some respects last year, with fewer releases on the label, though people were still working away on music behind the scenes. Personally, I put out Split the day after the lockdown hit here, and then just disintegrated a bit. I think it was partly burnout from the previous couple of years, and partly the fact that the ideal delivery method for my music had been banned for an unknown amount of time. Either way there was a heavy air of "fuck it" going on for a while there. In hindsight though, it was a really needed bit of space and time to reassess what I was doing and the music I've made off the back of it has felt really fresh to me. These next couple of tracks (Boosted and Forked) are really just the first bits of material I've got lined up for release in the near future.
The Rust: Your inception as Seppa involved a production knowledge base that had already been honed in through your years under the Duskky moniker; do you feel like your creative process has matured alongside the Seppa brand in the years since then?
Sandy: Oh yeah, massively. In a lot of respects, where I started with Seppa is where I really started to take things to a whole new level. Creatively, my horizons have expanded; technically, it's night and day. But I think that's not specifically because of changing my name, it's just a thing that happens naturally over time if you're really committed to mastering a craft. You get out what you put in. In some respects it was nice to have a "fresh" start as I feel like the quality of the Seppa stuff has been high from the beginning, which I can't say so much for the Duskky stuff. I started releasing as Duskky within a couple of years of starting to produce, so there was a lot of learning the fundamentals going on and it was never gonna be polished from day one. I've definitely gravitated towards increasingly dancefloor-focused material, at least with my solo stuff, which is really just down to the fact that destroying the dance is a pretty unmatched feeling. The air gets totally charged with happy energy, I love it.
The Rust: What sort of stumbling blocks do you still find yourself experiencing during your creative process? Have they changed as you’ve grown as an artist?
Sandy: There's always barriers to overcome, I don't think that ever changes. To start with they might be more on the technical side - how to get a track to sound competitive, how to make full use of a sound system, that kind of thing. As time goes by it becomes a bit more conceptual - how to keep introducing new ideas, how to break out of patterns you have established in the way you work. Really being creative professionally is a running battle with your own psyche. “How can I get the most out of my brain on a given day, how can I navigate the somewhat dubious feedback it gives me at times?” I guess, for me, the main thing is to try and keep finding excitement in what I do. That might mean switching directions and doing something really different for a while, or absorbing ideas from music outside of my normal spectrum. I see a lot of producers get jaded because they box themselves in to doing the same thing over and over again. Perhaps it's the sound they got most well known for, or they're stuck deploying the same methods over and over again and (unsurprisingly) getting the same results. If you're not enjoying what you make, why do it at all. Better to just switch up and go down some weird rabbit hole, even if nobody else gets it. People can feel the passion you have through the music.
The Rust: We last spoke on the record 3 years ago, in May of 2018, when Slug Wife had really begun to sink it’s maw into the American landscape. What’s your perception of your label’s experience in the time since then?
Sandy: Wow it's crazy how quickly that time went by. It's been a pretty wild ride! I personally wasn't able to get out to the USA until about March 2019, so at the time we spoke I really had no idea what was coming up. It's been really positive for us as a crew, the American crowd is our home crowd in a lot of ways with so many serious fans. It's blown my mind how far people will travel to come see us play, and how ready they are to get stuck on the dancefloor, whatever we throw their way. In a lot of respects it hasn't changed the label's approach all too much, as we're still focusing on a fairly select group of artists and releasing things we really enjoy. There's a temptation to get caught up in the music industry machine and just push out whatever the flavor of the month is, but we never envisioned the label like that and (for better or worse) are always gonna trust our own taste when it comes to what gets released!
The Rust: Has there been a significant change in the way you process incoming label submissions, given the explosive interest your label has experienced?
Sandy: Yeah I suppose we've had more people sending music our way. I definitely get people hitting me up directly with demos. I'm always happy to listen and appreciate it massively when people share their work (I know it can be a really nerve-racking experience). We have very, very specific requirements of what we want to release though, so I would say the overwhelming majority of stuff doesn't really fit for us. We'd rather put out a smaller number of high quality releases which are 100% our jam, than just pack out the release schedule. There's a numbers game that gets played by a lot of labels - social media platforms expect you to post constantly, therefore there must be new things to post about constantly, so the calendar gets filled with whatever and there's a new release every 2 weeks. That probably is a good way to get high follower counts and good interaction etc. but essentially it's more about being a brand/influencer/whatever than it is about music. We'd rather just focus on music and not get caught up in the popularity contest.
The Rust: Can you talk about the perception of your label at home in the UK? What’s the landscape like for our mutual flavor of broken-beat bass music these days?
Sandy: I guess it's a little hard to say as there's been very few events for the last 18 months. There's much less of a scene here for our music than in the USA, but the people that are into it are great. It's just a way more underground thing I guess! But then most electronic music is really, there's less money going around, but perhaps a bit more creative freedom and a seriously hedonistic attitude towards partying which creates some very excitable dancefloors. There's a lot of genuinely great vibes flying around in the rave scene - it's been funny to see videos of pretty run-of-the-mill free parties getting shared by American producers saying "woah these people are really going for it!" - that's mostly what parties are like here. People wanna cut loose, they don't care if they look like someone just dragged them out of a canal, they don’t care about being judged for how they dance or whatever. The music often reflects that by being really high intensity, faster and generally as rowdy as possible. There has been, even before the pandemic, a bit of a death of the multi-genre parties that I grew up on, but fortunately there's people like Ash/Scheme Boy from Varispeed trying to turn that around with his Varispeed Socials event that's putting all our favorite flavors under one roof.
The Rust: Having found yourself in headlining positions across the US for a few solid years now, you’ve had a heavy hand in influencing the current generation of grassroots producers; what’s your perception of your influence? Is it something that you pay any mind towards?
Sandy: Yeah it's always worth being aware of that. I'd like to be someone that inspires and encourages people, rather than gatekeeps. I do a lot of mastering, mixing and teaching, so I've been lucky enough to get connected to a lot of up and coming producers through that, and I've gotta say there's a lot of great people out there making awesome music with a solid attitude. Hopefully I can inspire people to just make the music they want to make, and not feel like they have to sign their lives away to be successful. Mainly it's just nice to talk to people who are as excited about music as I am!
The Rust: What are your plans for the Seppa project as we round out the rest of the year?
Sandy: So Boosted and Forked are coming out on Friday, July 16th (just in time for my birthday on the 17th) and represent the first solo stuff I've released in a while! These two are the result of some really fun experimentation, and probably represent the more...mellow end of what I've got to follow. There will be more music coming out steadily through the rest of the year. It’s all gonna be self released through my own Bandcamp. Social media reach is unreliable at best, so if you wanna make sure you always hear about my new releases head to seppa.bandcamp.com and hit follow for email updates. Touring is on the way too, but you'll have to keep your eyes peeled for info on that! If you’re interested in booking me hit up nicole@subdotmission.com and she’ll sort out the details.
With all eyes set on the road ahead, it’s only a matter of time before Seppa’s name starts to populate the top line of concerts and festivals across the US and beyond. This year of imposed downtime has given many creatives a previously unimaginable amount of time to fortify their crafts, and the premier Slug has boded his time wisely. As the rest of 2021 makes landfall, a new collection of Seppa tracks will meet the light of day, and we’ll all continue our ongoing dive into the fierce musical machinations of Sandy Finlayson.
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