Australian D+B producer Royalston a.k.a Dylan Martin talks to us about his new release on Med School, the “Cerulean Blue” EP, life in Sydney, his favourite but elusive studio snack and plenty more…

Hi. Can you briefly explain who you are and what you do?
I’m Dylan (Royalston) from Sydney, Australia and I spend most of my waking hours making electronic music at 170+  beats per minute.

You’re from Sydney Australia. So, what’s better….

Home & Away or Neighbours?
Home & Away
Fosters or Castlemaine?
Neither! Coopers Pale Ale
Koalas or Kangaroos?
Wombats
Hugh Jackman or Heath Ledger?
Heath as The Joker
Beach or BBQ?
Beach
Cricket or Aussie Rules?
Football (with a round ball). I’m hopeless at cricket and Aussie Rules is much bigger in Melbourne

Now you’re no stranger to Med School. We’ve had a couple of releases from you before – “The Test” and “Glitchbitch” – which we love! Tell us what you’ve been up to since “More Blood 010” last year?
Its been a busy year! I’ve been working on and released plenty of  tunes, released a mix CD with Nu:Tone, remixed London Elektricity, Art vs Science and played plenty of great shows around town. I’ve also been honoured to work with local producers like Dizz1, Mark Bionic and Linken.

How would you describe the key characteristics of your “sound”?
Clean drums, dirty bass.

What would you say are your top 5 studio essentials and why? (can be either hardware or software)
Despite being a total gear slut, I wholeheartedly believe that less is more. For my top five:

1) Ableton Live – I’d be happy with nothing else.
2) A fast computer – I had a slow one until recently and it changed my life!
3) Room treatment – I spent a lot of time researching some good effective cheap acoustic treatment. It looks ugly but it helps a lot.
4) Mackie Big knob – really useful in so many ways. Makes things quicker and easier and when using different monitors its very helpful. Great when recording vocalists.
5) Decent monitors –They don’t have to be too big either.

NB: If you want to find out more about Royalston’s studio set up, head over to Music Radar to have a look at his “Me In My Studio” feature!

You’ve got a new release on the cards. What can we expect from “Cerulean Blue”, which came out on 21st November?
It’s a fairly dark EP and one I am very proud of!. Tribal drums and steppy, percussive elements. “Cerulean Blue” was inspired by a reality dancing show. Bonesinger is a distant nod to Doc Scott’s  epic “Shadowboxing” which is one of my all time favourites. “Japanese Bones” is one to make you cry and “Mantequa” is a South American rhythm gone evil.

And how did the MA remix of Japanese Bones, which appears on the digital package, (which has been getting a lot of love, by the way!) come about?
MA are an Australian pop duo (just releasing their second album). One of them, Drew Crawford, was my teacher at music school and I asked if I could do the remix. He put a lot of love into the song writing & recording process and I wanted my remix to enhance and work with this. We’re trying to collaborate on some more stuff at the moment.

Talking of remixes, we’ve all been loving your remix of Art vs Science – “Magic Fountain”. Do you enjoy doing remixes? Any more in the pipeline?
I really enjoy remixing and I’ve done quite a bit of it over the last year. With ‘Magic Fountain’ it started off as a bootleg but the lovely guys from Art vs Science liked it and made it official – which I was very happy about. There are some amazing crazy rhythms in the original, which I had to simplify at 170 bpm. I was shuffling hi hats until the last hour of the release deadline to get it right.I’ve recently done a remix of one of MA’s new tracks which I believe Tony has played on his podcast and I have a new remix of Ou est la Swimming Pool’s ‘Jackson’s Last Stand’.

Now you’re a proficient DJ as well. What’s your DJ schedule like as well. Have you been anywhere exciting?
I play around Sydney quite a bit but I haven’t travelled much for DJ-ing. Next year I’m hoping to do some gigs in Europe and North America.

One last thing that’s been on our minds – in your “New Blood 010” interview last year, we asked you about your favourite studio snack? Can you explain what it is? We’ve been puzzled ever since!
From memory, I did that interview from Indonesia. They had these strange, versions of Kit Kats called ‘Take it’s”…they taste so good. I can’t get them here, and I ate the box I brought home, so studio snacks are back to biscuits and tea.

Make sure you grab a copy of Royalston – “Cerulean Blue” EP which is out now on Med School Music HERE!

	“New Blood EP” MEDIC7 – £3.95 – vinyl The original EP that kick-started the series back in 2008 and featured the likes of Randomer, Martsman, Minotaur and Infiltrata (better known now as 12th Planet). BUY IT HERE.
	“New Blood 010″ MEDIC18CD – £5 – CD The first ever full various artists compilation CD released on Med School last year that helped propel the likes of Synkro, Stray, Enei and Joe Syntax to wider audiences for the first time. BUY IT HERE. “Raucous… soulful… lush” – ResidentAdvisor.net
	“More Blood 010″ MEDIC20 – £3.95 – vinyl Off the back of the runaway success of “New Blood 010″, Med School followed up six months later with even more stunning music by Stray, Synkro, Royalston and Circa on this 2×12″ EP. BUY IT HERE. “Four nigh-on perfect groundbreakers that caress different nerves.” – DJ Mag

Don’t forget, all vinyl purchase come with the tunes in MP3 format for no additional cost!! Grab your copies now while stocks last!! For a limited period only!!

BEST DJ…
Flame

BEST BREAKTHROUGH PRODUCER…
Abstract Elements
Bulb
Spherique
Unquote

BEST TRACK…
Enei — Z Grab

Head over to http://dnbawards.ru/voting to vote.

Featuring artists such as Joe Syntax, DJ Madd, Enei, Synkro, Royalston and more, the “New Blood 010″ album made a huge impact on the further reaches of the D+B scene and beyond into the world of experimental electronica when it was released in March this year. Receiving support from such lumanaries as Mary Anne Hobbs, Blu Mar Ten, dBridge & Instra:mental, Utah Jazz and plenty more, “New Blood 010″ stormed into the Top 10 iTunes dance album charts.

In case you missed out on it, you can buy yourself a copy HERE.
Keep eyes peeled for “New Blood 011″ next year!!

And in the meantime, head over to Headphone Commute to see what they had to say in their ‘Best Of 2010′ round up summary…

All you have to do is click the “Pay With A Tweet” button below, you’ll be instructed to post a link to Twitter or Facebook which will give you access to the track. Enjoy!

To celebrate the release of ‘New Blood 010′, Med School take over room 3 at Stealth this Friday with Sabre, Stray, Randomer and So:Flow on the ones and twos.

BUY A TICKET FOR THIS EVENT
CONFIRM YOUR ATTENDANCE ON FACEBOOK

If you haven’t already grabbed the album, you can get it from iTunes… click here.

YouTube.com/MedSchoolMusic

Music:
[00:00] Derrick, Tonika & Implex ‘Personal Diving’
[01:24] Royalston ‘The Test’
[02:55] Joe Syntax ‘Expectra’
[04:20] Helios ‘First Dream Called Ocean’ (Stray remix)

BUY ‘NEW BLOOD 010′ NOW ON 2×12″ VINYL, CD AND MP3…

The vinyl promos flew out the shops within a matter of days but we’ve got plenty more in stock, along with the full 12-track CD and digital formats, all with glorious bloodbag artwork. Keep your finger on the pulse, this is one you do NOT want to miss!

BUY IT NOW ON 2×12″ VINYL, CD AND 320k MP3…

Full release info here… MEDIC18 (2×12″) | MEDIC18CD 

YouTube.com/MedSchoolMusic

Also available from quality music retailers including…


 
Catapult | dnbsource | Drop | Intense | Mirage | Seismic | Kaizen | IMO | Swag

Click here if you use iTunes, or here if you use other podcasting software.

Tracklist and more info here.

‘New Blood 010′ is released everywhere on vinyl, CD and digital download on Monday.