Exclusive - Rob Papen fan Bushwacka! talks to Time+Space!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Matthew Benjamin otherwise known as Bushwacka!, is a DJ and producer who has been very much at the forefront of the UK dance music scene since the mid-90s. Most of his output is either house or breaks based and he has released on labels such as Plank, Oblong and Olmeto.
He is perhaps best know for his collaborations with Layo Paskin as Layo and Bushwacka!. After much underground success, they got to number eight in the UK singles chart with Love Story (vs Finally) in 2003. There has also been a number of remixes for a diverse range of artists such as Roni Size, Bebel Gilberto and Depeche Mode. He was also behind a massively popular unofficial remix of Michael Jackson´s Billie Jean.
Despite being a very busy man, we recently caught up with Matthew to see what he was up to and here´s what he said;
“Gig wise we have had a very busy summer. We have been all over the place, including a tour of Brazil, all over Italy, Bulgaria, Germany, Ibiza, Romania, Holland, Sardinia, Barcelona......the list goes on and on.
The new project we have here in London since The End closed is called Shake It and is our warehouse parties in different venues in London. So far we have had 3 parties and also hosted a Shake It tent at the SW4 festival in Clapham, which was amazing.
Coming up we have gigs in Leeds, Ibiza(me with Carl Cox at Space), Bestival, and a tour of Asia including Jakarta, Thailand, Singapore, and China. Also Our next Shake It party is in October with Laurent Garnier.”
Now down to the technical stuff and Matthew´s studio is Mac-based running Logic Pro, Pro Tools and Ableton Live. He uses a wide range of software plug-ins including Rob Papen virtual instruments which we asked Matthew to tell us more about;
“Regarding the Rob Papen Plug ins....I have used these a lot in my productions.
Blue was the first one I bought and I find it so rich and warm especially for pads, filtered chords, and arpeggio melodies. It is very easy to program and you can get great results very quickly with just a few tweaks.
The new SubBoomBass plug-in has totally changed my productions in a really good way. It is instantly able to add the right frequencies to my tracks with very little altering of the sounds and the balance in the mix so far really works for me. I haven´t delved too deep into the sequencer or effects on it as yet because the sounds often do the job without needing any changes. It is fantastic.”
