Releasing his first ever EP 13 years ago on his and Shackleton’s imprint Skull Disco, Appleblim (Laurie Osbourne) went on to become a regular at FWD>>, the club where dubstep began and learned how to DJ on one of the best soundsystems in the UK at the time, at Plastic People. Appleblim is lauded as one of the leading figures in bass music, after launching his Apple Pips imprint in 2008 and with DJs such as Pinch, Peverelist, Martyn and Pearson Sound aka Ramadanman turning to Laurie for early support of their new releases. Over the years, Laurie has been an unofficial resident at the Sub:stance party held at Berghain and released on labels such as R&S Records, Tempa, Aus Music and more recently Sneaker Social Club and Boogie Box – the home of his latest EP ‘Vurstep’. We caught up with the outstanding producer to find out why he moved to Berlin and the city’s reaction to bass music, how his emotions and environment affect his productions and what he has planned for the future now he’s ticked off an album release.
Your productions are heavily influenced by UK sounds, when you first moved to Berlin how did you find their reaction to your music? I’ve heard that, for example, dubstep is often under appreciated in clubs out there.
I rarely play dubstep these days to be honest. I play the music that I would say is the modern equivalent in terms of bass music – Livity Sound, Wisdom Teeth, Timedance etc – but I am very out of touch with 140 stuff. I still enjoy Youngsta’s Rinse FM show and still enjoy checking things out, but I rarely make it past garage/2step into actual dubstep. Regarding Berlin it depends where you play. Clearly a 140 set at PBar is gona be hard to pull off! But there is a smaller but very enthusiastic set of peeps who wanna hear something outside the standard 4×4 deep house / harder techno spectrum. Nights like Version and our own Sneaker Social Club (and plenty of others I’m sure)
You’ve been living in Berlin for over a year now and of course, a lot of artists make the trip there but what is your connection to the city? What was the deciding factor that made you want to move?
I first came out and played the Sub:stance parties a lot at Berghain about 10 years ago, for about 6 or so years, I was kind of unofficial resident, I fell in love with the city and made some firm friends here. My old mucker Shackleton has been here a long time, and I have some other older mates here too. I needed to get out of London for a few reasons, not least Brexit was happening and it felt shitty to be there, and just went for it. It’s a very interesting city, although living here is obviously different to coming over to play and party all those years! It is an intriguing place.
Your latest release, ‘Vurstep’, presents contrasting moods with the title single being quite grimy whilst ‘Dream Wisdom’ is a lighter, bouncy beat. What would say this is a reflection of? Is it your mood at the time of recording or would you say it’s a reflection of your environment?
It’s all mood based, emotions based. Making music is a form of therapy basically, like all other creative work, when you find ‘flow’ it is your subconscious and emotions coming to the surface and being let out. So it depends on how you feel at any moment I think. I am a very up and down person, and tend to the depressive/melancholic state, so most of my music reflects this I think…I love the fact you can’t define an emotion in music, it’s its own language and thats just a very important thing, to express something without anyone else ever really feeling the same thing as you when you made it, but maybe a shade of it, mixed with their own mood, experiences, or vibe.
Do you feel that, in general, your environment or life experiences have helped shape your sound over the years?
Inevitably yes, music is life, life is music, the people you meet, the places you go, they all go in, whether it’s blatant like someone shows you how to do a certain thing or technique, or whether a friendship results in shared creative work, or if you feel hemmed it by your environment or at peace or whatever.
The EP is quite heavily focused on sound design, do you find that this takes precedence over everything else when producing?
For me the most therapeutic part of making a track is the initial sound design process – thats when I lose myself most…other people I know do the same with beats, or perhaps even the whole process….but for me the initial exploration of sound is the part I love the most, it then gets more and more difficult for me as I go on.
You’ve enlisted Shed and Forest Drive West for remixes, why did you choose them for the project?
Well, who wouldn’t want a remix from Shed?! I’ve been a fan of his music since his release ‘Well Done My Son’ and he’s just one of the most amazingly versatile producers out there, a constant inspiration.
Forest Drive West is a great example of someone more up and coming who has a similar multi-faceted approach…his stuff on Rupture is serious Photek/Source Direct schooled d&b and he finds time for techno/dubby steppers on Livity, and much more…I don’t put my tracks into the same bracket as theirs at all, mine are just little experiments really, but it’s a pleasure and an honour to have them involved.
Earlier this year you released your debut album ‘Life in a Laser’, 13 years after your first EP. What made this year the right time to release a full LP?
Someone said they’d put it out! No, I mean Ive always had LOTS of ideas kicking around, my problem is finishing to point I’m happy with them or willing to let them go. I sent Jamie who runs Sneaker Social Club a load of tracks, he picked the ones he loved most, and I finished them of..simple as that really.
What did you learn from producing your first album?
You must enjoy the making as much as you can, because everything else is kind of nonsense, it is very hard but you must try and make art for arts sake I think, and not base your judgement of yourself by others opinions. It is hard when certain places or shops don’t seem to be buzzing off it, but what can you do? It was the same when first putting out music, before being deemed ‘popular’…this is the conundrum of having some attention, it can fool you into thinking your either doing something right, or that the worth of art lies in it being praised! Strange notions.
When you go into the studio to produce, do you go in with a concept or idea in mind of what you want to create or is it quite improvised?
Never a plan or concept really, thought I would love to do more of that. I teach music too and the students sometimes make their best work when coming up with a strong concept first. Not always though obviously, it’s all valid, it’s all creativity.
You originally started in an indie band, how did the transition happen into electronic music?
We were a psychedelic math pop band actually (lol) although I was also in an indie band at school! I was always interested in electronic music, any kid growing up in the 80s had to be really, how could you avoid Soft Cell, Herbie Hancock, Steve Silk Hurley etc, these were all massive radio hits in UK…so it all goes in…I started raving in 92 and really went from N-Joi, Oribital, Aphex Twin and early rave and hardcore on R&S, Reinforced, Moving Shadow, etc into jungle / drum and bass, and then a mixture of everything…the reason I started trying to make electronic music was that my band split up and I didn’t really have any songwriting skills or a studio..so I started from the ground up, went to Uni, met some amazing people, and grime and dubstep happened! That just made you feel you HAD to be involved in some way, it was such fresh and exciting music.
Who would you cite as some of your early influences?
Too many to mention, Nick Drake, Neil Young, The Pentangle, My Bloody Valentine, Flying Saucer Attack, Top Buzz, 4 Hero, Shut Up and Dance, 2 Bad Mice, LTJ Bukem, Sasha, Orbital, Autechre.
When you started playing for parties such as FWD>> and DMZ, you often found yourself pigeon-hold to play a certain genre – how did you combat this? How did you get promoters and punters to understand that play more than just dubstep?
At FWD>> and DMZ really I played a mixture of warm-up tunes, ambient, a bit of techno or house, dubby stuff, and then would go into the newest stuff I was being sent by people like Pev, Pinch, 2563/Made Up Sound, Martyn and so on…I wasn’t a very good DJ then! I kinda learned in front of people, scary stuff when all your heroes are checkin your first sets out! Both DMZ and FWD>> had a very open minded policy, play what you feel, you could hear broken beat, garage, jungle and dub at both those nights. as well as 140/dubstep..it was later when people just wanted 140bpm that it would sometimes be tricky, but, you have to learn to handle clearing the odd dancefloor in your time! Just play what you love, educate and entertain…after a while people get that you can be eclectic and still keep a certain vibe. Nowadays it’s kind of expected for everyone to be a ‘Selector’ and jump between genres and tempos…but it wasn’t like that back then…I feel I perhaps took a few hits for the future openness!
Now that you’ve ticked off an album, what else would you like to achieve as Appleblim? Is there anything you’re still aiming to do creatively?
Many things, live bands, studios full of gear, pop projects, watch this space (these will take me another 13 years though!)
Buy ‘Vurstep’ here and catch Appleblim playing at Houghton Festival from the 9th to 12th August