Sheffield born producer Silva Bumpa is one of the fastest rising names in UK dance music. Known for his tracks that touch on bassline, house and classic UK garage, his sound blends infectious drum grooves with vivid and nostalgic synth lines.
We recently sat down with Silva Bumpa in the studio to watch him break down his joyous club track Feel Da Same, and to pick his brains on his go-to studio tools and techniques.
While synth lines and vocal samples often provide the hooks for his tunes, at the heart of any classic, garage-influenced club track is solid bass and a swung drum groove. For Silva Bumpa, getting these elements right comes down to writing and experimentation more than specific tools.
“I always like using good subs and separating them out,” he tells us. “I use a plugin called The Sub [by Iceberg Audio] and I use the SH-101 – a classic sub sound – quite a lot.”
As he explains though, it’s the composition of the bassline itself, and its relationship to the melody of the track, that makes a sub work on a club sound system.
“I like to write stuff that I think sounds good on speakers,” he says. “I try to be very aware of the key of the song. So if I'm writing in D minor, for example, I know that D and E and F, those kinds of notes hit really well for sub sounds.
“If the melody is moving too far up, I might then sort of compromise the key of the song to make sure that the sub is hitting in that 48hz region, just because I find that that works well on the sound systems.”
As well as having a sub that works at the right frequency, Silva Bumpa layers his bass sounds with other elements to add texture and presence.
“It's mostly about the melody and the writing,” he continues. “I think that layering is everything too – separating out the sub and having a mix of stuff that gives punch, gives texture, and stuff that gives powerful sub energy, so that it can hit on a sound system. It's all about hitting on a sound system for me; that's the thing that I'm mixing for.”
As for the drums, despite garage being a genre known for its shuffle, getting the right groove isn’t a simple case of ramping up the swing parameter.
“I often start by just getting the core elements of the drums down, that being the kick, the hat and the clap, and then, depending on where the tune is going, that will then dictate how much swing I'm using,” he tells us.
“If I'm making, like an old school garage or house tune, I’ll probably have a lot of swing. But if I'm making more of a techy, jacking, modern kind of tune, I'd probably use less swing and try to apply it in different ways.
“Something that I do quite often is have ghost snares that are more swung than my shakers. A lot of the time my shakers are actually quite straight, if not actually bang on, not swung at all.
“I might just have one open hat that's swung. I’ve found sometimes that swinging all the elements of the drums doesn't make it groove better.”
Elsewhere in our interview – which you can watch at the top of the page – Silva Bumpa reveals his favourite instruments and effects, how his home town of Sheffield has influenced his sound, and where he sees the future of garage and bassline heading.
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