Chatty and full of energy, Matt Harvey from Auckland gave Bangalore a dose of some of the best drum and bass last weekend. Performing under the artist handle Concord Dawn, this was Matt's first tour of India as part of the quarterly Bass Camp Festival.
When asked about what his signature style behind the console is, Matt quipped: “It's all shades of drum and bass. Even within that there are several niches and approaches.” Matt's style covers an entire spectrum within the genre and is not limited to being either too dark or too up-tempo, making his performances enjoyable to a variety of listeners.
Gaining traction
Drum and bass as a genre started off in Europe in the early 90s and only recently has it percolated into our listening spaces.
The genre has gained tremendous traction in India over the last five years through festivals like Bass Camp, while it continues to make a gradual exit in Europe. “I would say despite a late start, people's passion for the music seems to be very strong here in India. More local producers, I think will help push the scene,” he said.
Matt's foray into drum and bass began after he quit playing drums for his band in school, but continued to nurture the urge to play loud music to a big audience. “I had listened to a lot of electronic music and was beginning to like some of it, but being a drummer, when I first heard drum and bass, it blew my mind,” said Matt, telling the story of where it all began for him. From then on, Matt began to dabble in production and saved up money to invest in gear and equipment to take his interest to the next level.
“This was quite some time back when you couldn't use a computer for everything (we had an IBM 486 with 16mb RAM). So I had to really save my pennies to buy the equipment needed to produce tunes. But it was worth it !”