Main Photo: Stephanie Elizabeth Third
Silver Waves doesn’t really do half measures. The Bristol producer’s latest release, EP3 is as chaotic and pummeling as his previous two, twisting drum & bass and techno influences into a form you’ve never heard before. “Artists who excite me aren’t ones that limit themselves to making genre exercises in noise music or dance music,” he explains, “but ones that make music that sounds like themselves.”
This uncompromising, forward-thinking approach bleeds into his songwriting method as well, driving him to constantly evolve as an artist. This latest wave of material was constructed out of a need to better his other EPs: “I knew what I liked about the previous releases and what I didn’t like about them any more, what to build upon, what to abandon and what to do the opposite of. I knew the feeling that I wanted the new tracks to impress upon someone when they heard them and the method of operation, so I just worked with that.”
Photo: Ping Sheng
Bristol label Howling Owl has always been a home to artists looking to challenge and push boundaries, so it makes sense that they’ve taken Silver Waves under their wing, so to speak. He feels Bristol’s scene really helps to foster artists like himself: “I’ve always considered the musical community in Bristol to be linked through people’s passion for, and values in, music rather than any particular genre, style or clique. It’s more welcoming and open-ended than that.”
Excitingly, EP3’s release is a joint effort from Howling Owl and Berlin-based label Portal Editions. What perhaps excites Silver Waves the most, however, is that it features remixes from fellow Bristolians Giant Swan and Ossia: “I’m often much more inspired by and stoked on my friends’ art than some distant operations in the electronic underground, so it was a pleasure to have them re-fashion the tracks in whatever way they fancied.”
EP3 is out 22nd July. Check out ‘V’ below: