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Reso - aka Alex Melia - has only been releasing music for a few short years, but he’s quickly established himself as one of dubstep’s top filth-mongers. Recently, he’s branched out into DnB, spinning out tracks such as Slap Chop on Hospital Records and a tearing 170bpm remix of The Qemists’ Your Revolution.
But Alex’s first steps into music didn’t point to a future as a cutting-edge producer, let alone a dubstep one; his introduction to production was pretty low-tech, and live rock used to be more his thing.
“I’ve played drums since I was nine, and I played in bands and whatever too. My mate Jamie got a computer when he was 18 and we first started messing around on HipHop eJay and Dance eJay!” confesses Alex. “They were wicked because they teach you arrangement - you haven’t got to make any music, you can maybe do a little bit of automation, but that’s it.
“Eventually I got a computer and a copy of Logic when I was 21. I made crappy breaks and DnB - it was rubbish! I was introduced to dubstep, and eventually it took over what I liked about breaks. I began making dubstep and developing along with it, and then my friend Rogue Star - who runs Urban Graffiti - introduced me to a bunch of people in the scene and I started giving tunes out. I got offered £50 to DJ for someone, so I promptly learned to DJ! Eventually I got some tunes released - first on mates’ labels, then elsewhere - and I kept improving my production and making better tunes.”
More recently, Alex has turned his attention to the sounds of DnB and drumstep. “It’s not that I wasn’t into DnB back then, I just wasn’t good enough to make it. Now I just scrape through being good enough!” says Alex.
He’s being modest - in the following tutorial, Alex takes us through his method of creating huge dubstep/DnB beats.
