“I got woken up at 3 AM by a fan spamming my DMs. I looked at the stream and was like, ‘no way!’ I’m still in disbelief”: UKG phenom MPH on featuring in Thomas Bangalter’s comeback DJ set

For any artist early in their career, it’s never easy to know if you’re on the right track. Getting signed to a label, racking up streaming numbers, selling out shows – these are all signs that you’re killing it, but there’s perhaps nothing more validating than the endorsement of a truly legendary artist.

That’s what British producer/DJ and UK garage phenom Myles Fairbairn – better known as MPH – received when Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter performed his first DJ set in 16 years just a few weeks ago, making a historic return to the decks alongside Fred Again, Erol Alkan and Ed Banger Records’ Pedro Winter in a surprise performance in Paris.

Bangalter’s set featured not one, but two MPH tracks: the unreleased Flex It and Raw, a relentless bassline warper built around a pitch-shifted sample of Anti’s Red Light, Green Light. The latter was mixed into Daft Punk’s Digital Love, offering the ultimate cosign from one of electronic music’s most iconic figures. (As if Bangalter's backing wasn’t enough, Fairbairn has secured support from Skream, Disclosure, Floating Points and Chris Lake, and recently remixed Calvin Harris.)

It’s safe to say that Fairbairn has earned his stripes, then. Armed with little more than a laptop, earbuds and a handful of plugins, the Canterbury-born producer is cooking up riotous, speaker-rattling UKG that’s placed him at the forefront of a new wave of producers reshaping the genre for the next generation, alongside names like Sammy Virji, Interplanetary Criminal and Oppidan.

Fairbairn is currently in the midst of a US tour in support of his third album, Substance, released in October. While the meaning of the title might seem obvious, there’s a subtext here. The album is a tricky format for dance music artists: even with the best of material, it’s all too easy to end up with a loose collection of individual bangers lassoed together on a full-length project with nothing to meaningfully join the dots between them.

A concept album at its heart, Substance evades this trap by charting the narrative of a night out across its 13 tracks with Suffolk rapper EV acting as a lyrical guide. Not only capturing the peak-time highs of a crowded dancefloor, it takes the listener through pre-drinks, house parties and early-hours raving all the way through to the end of the night and the next day’s comedown, bottling that bittersweet feeling of having had just a little too much fun for your own good. In other words, it’s got substance.

Still early in his career, Fairbairn is dutifully reverent of those that came before him, noting DJ EZ, Todd Edwards and The Streets as inspirations and making liberal use of the synth stabs, vocal chops and swinging hi-hats that laid down the blueprints of UKG. But his intoxicating take on the genre renders those influences in high-definition 4K resolution, charging his hard-hitting productions with a degree of sonic punch and impact that’s unmistakably modern.

We caught up with MPH to find out more about the making of Substance, his stripped-back studio set-up, and how he feels about featuring in Thomas Bangalter's momentous comeback set.

First off, congratulations on featuring in Thomas' set in October. That must be pretty validating?

“Yeah, thank you. I got woken up at 3am by a random fan spamming my DMs being like, ‘wake up, wake up!’ Then I looked at the stream and I was like, ‘no way!’ I’m still in disbelief now, to be honest.”

Looking back a little bit, how did you get involved in music-making to begin with?

“I was a DJ first, actually. I started DJing because I used to watch DJ EZ’s Boiler Room videos, the three-and-a-half hour one. I used to watch that all the time and just be amazed by whatever he was doing, even though I didn’t understand any of it. I picked up VirtualDJ and started messing about on that, then got the classic Numark Mixtrack Pro 3s that everyone starts out on. Then from there I just started DJing garage – it was always UKG. Then I figured I could only get so far by just DJing, so I took a stab at producing.”

What kind of set-up were you working with?

“I started on FL Studio with just a pair of KRK Rokit 5s, which I still use to this day. But yeah, it was on FL Studio first, and I was just watching hours of YouTube videos and just trying to structure tunes, basically. There was a lot of trial and error.”

What was it that drew you to UK garage over other genres?

“I like the tempo, and the swing. And the fact that you can go two ways with the sound. You can either go really bassy and gritty or you can go light-hearted, or you can do a combination of the two. The lines are blurred nowadays as to what is classed as UK garage, and what is just UK bass.

“Those fundamentals are what drew me in. I used to listen to DJ EZ’s Pure Garage Anthems Vol. 2 that I had on my iPod, back when they were a thing. I would sit on the bus and listen to the whole thing on repeat and just also be amazed by the blends. That's what got me into it.”

What led you to pick up FL Studio first off?

“What drew me in was the sequencer that opens up as soon as you start the project. It's super easy to just make some drums straight away. Then I was in the studio with DJ Zinc a couple years ago, he's in Bitwig, but a lot of the shortcuts and the way it's laid out was kind of similar to Ableton. So I was learning the shortcuts on that, and then after that session, I went back to FL and I was trying to use these shortcuts and I was like, ‘I've gotta change. I've got to move on.” So I grabbed Ableton and haven’t looked back since.”

Did you find it a smooth transition?

“Oh, super smooth. Before that, I always thought it looked confusing, like I’d never be able to wrap my head around it. But after watching a couple of tutorials… and I already knew the fundamentals of producing. It was fun learning Ableton, to be honest. Now I couldn’t use anything else, the workflow is just unbelievable.”

Tell us about the new project. Why another album, and why now?

“I wasn’t sure what to do after the last one, but I had learned a lot. At the start of the year, I had a few tracks – I think we had just put out Hold On, which was the first single from the project, but it wasn't a project at that point. Then there were a couple other tracks I had which sat well together, and they kind of already told that narrative of like a journey through a night out.

“The concept album idea stemmed from there, and then it was a case of just finding the right person to narrate it and come up with a storyline for it. I wanted very much like an Original Pirate Material, Human Traffic kind of vibe. My manager sent me EV just out of the blue, and I was like: ‘this is perfect’. We got in the studio soon after.”

How did your collaborative process work?

“When we got in the studio, we actually did it all in one session. All of the tracks were done and all structured in a way that we could just go in, work around it and figure out how we're going to blend each track and where the little skits are going to be.

“At that point, two of the singles were out, so obviously I had to work around stuff that was already released. For example, Hold On was already out, so it's like, ‘how are we going to blend it in?’ There's a little bit in the narrative where my mate tells me ‘everything's going to be all right, just hold on’, and then that goes into the tune. So it was little things like that.

“Working with EV in the studio, it was very natural, very easy, because we're both the same age, and we both kind of grew up around the same area. We both did similar kind of things and went to the same kind of parties when we were younger. So it was very much just reminiscing and thinking, ‘oh, we should get that in?’, or ‘maybe we should mention that’, you know.”

What made you want to take a concept-driven approach rather than just a collection of tracks?

“I've always wanted to do a proper concept album, and I kind of did one with 132.00 FM a couple of years ago. But what I learned from Refraction was that they were all just tracks put together. There was no real meaning behind it. Now I feel that for albums, I definitely want a full structured storyline where everything makes sense together and the tracks work together.

“So, like I said, at the start of the year I had a few done already, which weren’t intended to work together, but they just kind of did. That inspired me to start this storyline of your first time going on a night out. So after that, it was quite fun making tunes to support that, like Pre’s, for example, was purely made just for a house party vibe. It was kind of reminiscent of the stuff you’d hear in 2015 if you were to walk into an average uni house party. That's what made it super fun.”

You mentioned a few already, but in terms of other artists or albums, what were the key influences on this project?

“Kendrick was a massive one. Back when his album Good Kid, M.a.a.d City came out, I was fascinated by the storyline behind it and the little skits in between, and how every track blended into the next. And then for a more UK kind of vibe, it was The Streets and Human Traffic. Me and EV sat down and watched the monologue of Human Traffic before we started writing.”

Can you talk us through your current studio set-up?

“To be honest, it’s just a laptop and in-ears. I have the Sony WF-1000XM5s, they’re just an AirPod equivalent. Because I’m travelling constantly, that’s what I use the most and it’s what I listen to all music on, so it makes sense for me to make music on those.

“I’m very rarely at home, but when I’m at home, I use a SubPac and Beyerdynamic DT770s which I’ve had for years. It’s just what you’re used to. A lot of the time I use the Macbook speakers as well, It’s really good to see how stuff translates on those.”

Can you tell us about a few plugins that are fundamental to your workflow or your sound?

“The obvious ones would be Massive and Serum, I use those back to back, depending on how I’m feeling. I think you can get a certain sound out of Massive that you can’t get out of Serum and vice versa.

“What else… OTT. I use OTT on everything, even just subtly. It helps a ton. And then just FabFilter Pro-Q 3. Those plugins, I can’t live without. Obviously all the Ableton stock plugins, like Saturator and EQ-8, I use all the time. But those are the fundamentals that I always go for.”

Is that Massive X or the original Massive?

“The original. Massive X doesn’t seem as user-friendly. Maybe I’ll get around to it – I’ve been using Arturia Pigments recently, which is interesting. And literally just before this call I bought the new Omnisphere, so I’ll be tackling that soon. I’m excited to dive in.”

Are you someone that builds patches from the ground up or do you tend to grab a preset and then tweak that to your taste?

“It’s a mix of both. I like just having chaos. For Refraction, the entire album was made on Synplant 2, because it has that feature where you just drag a sound into it and it really badly tries to recreate it, but you get loads of interesting sounds. I will scroll through presets and just tinker and accidentally make stuff. That’s pretty much how I’ve made 90% of my sounds is by complete accident – that’s how the best stuff comes about.”

Synplant 2 is amazing. You made the whole album with that?

“It was just the bass sounds and the leads. I started off with basses, then I tried chord stabs, I put my own voice through it. You can just put anything in there and see what happens.”

Is there anything that’s on your wishlist at the moment, hardware or software?

“It was the new Omnisphere, but I just grabbed it. At the moment, I’m perfectly happy with just the Mac and my earbuds. They serve me very well, and have done. I’m sure there’s some plugins that I’ll be hunting after in the future, but for now I’m perfectly happy with how things are.”

Did you experiment with any new techniques on the new project?

“Arrangement-wise, for sure. Working with Chris Lake a lot, his approach to music has definitely influenced mine in terms of song structure and songwriting in general. Same with other collaborators on the album, Habstrakt and Chris Lorenzo, I’ve learned a lot from those guys. Mixdown stuff as well, I’ve learned a lot. In the past year I’ve really started to appreciate OTT, I’m using it on everything.”

One thing that defines your sound is the level of punch and impact in your mixes. OTT must be contributing to that, right? Where else do you think that comes from?

“Sample selection and layering is key. Clipping your drums and keeping your kick and your tops separate, and clipping your tops. It’s just levels and making sure there’s not too much going on, the sub isn’t too loud… it’s really just years of doing this, and training my ears to know what I like and what sounds good to me.”

Where does a track typically start for you?

“I usually start with drums. I'll take a lot of time just finding the right sounds and getting the groove right, and then I will just throw ideas at it. And nine times out of 10, it will all sound terrible, and I'll just keep coming back to it, taking parts from different ideas that I make with those drums, and then just splicing things together until something clicks.”

What’s your usual workflow when it comes to drum production?

“It’s all audio on the timeline, and I manually swing. I have a swing that works for me, and I see where it is on the grid and put everything towards that. All of it’s audio and massive amounts of layering. Some tunes I’ll have six or seven claps layered together and then squashed together with Saturator. That’s probably what I spend the most time on is drums. Second would be sound design stuff.”

As someone that primarily works in UK garage, what do you think are the most important elements of a UKG track?

“Swing is definitely one of them. A lot of promos that are sent to me, you can tell where they've used a speed garage drum pack and and the swing’s been off on the two different loops. You can really tell that they’re not taking into account that everything has to be on the same swing. It’s a world of difference.

“Swing, and then great drum samples and a solid mixdown… and not over-complicating things. There's an art in simplicity, especially with this genre: a great vocal, a great bass line, a great chord sequence is just perfect. Once upon a time, I used to just try and fill every space. But it's good to let things breathe and have a solid idea.”

You mentioned you’re dialling in swing manually on the timeline. Is that something that took a long time to master?

“I’d say so, it was just trial and error. I didn’t really have any idea what I was doing. I was just looking at speed garage top loops and I’d just place things where they were in reference, then over time, you can kind of hear where your swing sits and you know when things are out of place.”

Are you ever tempted to use Ableton’s Groove Pool feature?

“No, no – it’s weird, I don’t like it. Anything like that, I just feel there’s not enough control. I know Chris [Lake] does that, he uses the Logic Swing quantization, but I just prefer placing it where I want.”

Where do you usually find your samples? Are you using platforms like Splice?

“A bunch of sample packs I've collected over the years from various websites. For drums and effects I'll mostly use Splice, but only for that. I would never use a Splice vocal or anything because everyone uses them. The rest I make myself or I draw for sample packs that I've had for years.”

I wanted to ask about 160 – it’s a tune that was probably the introduction to your music for a lot of people. Can you walk us through the making of that track?

“That was made on Massive, the donk-y bass sound. That was by accident, because it was completely different at first. I’d saved the project, gone out and come back a few hours later, and then restructured it. That sound I just tweaked, I think it was the Ring Mod knob on Massive, I did something to it and then suddenly the sound was there. Then I just quickly made that pluck and the rest fell into place.

“I didn’t think it was a good song, to be honest. I thought it was obnoxiously bassy. I didn’t think people would like it, but then people like Darius Syrossian and Fisher started playing it out. That’s how Chris discovered me. It’s crazy.”

Where did the vocal sample come from?

“That was from an old YouTube video, I think – I can’t even remember. I basically sampled a bunch of stuff in another session, I did the horns from the beginning, and I thought that it needed something else that people were gonna remember. I think that was literally the first thing I put in.”

For a relatively young producer, you’re killing it. Have you got any advice for any other rising producers or DJs early in their career that are hoping to achieve something similar?

“Be consistent with your music. No one knows what's going to do well anymore, or what’s going to go viral, so try not to follow a trend. Try not to copy what everyone else is doing, because it's very oversaturated at the moment, with people sounding like each other. To stand out, you've got to really just hone in on your own sound, don’t be afraid to experiment and make what you know you would want to hear in a club. Don’t just chase quick success, it’s about longevity.”

MPH's Substance is out now.