Natural Selection NYC, a Drum & Bass party founded by Adam ‘Adred’ Baker and Raf Salvador, put on a banger of a party this past Friday, June 13 at Tammany Hall in NYC’s Lower East Side. The venue’s intimate basement was the perfect setting for a DnB party with a great sound system and a layout that provided plenty of room for fans to dance into the wee hours of the morning. Brooklyn Radio’s Lara Gamble was able to talk with the DJs about their involvement with Natural Selection, as well as what they have coming down the pike.
(Photo Credit: Zoey Monstar Productions)
Adred, what can you tell us about Natural Selection?
Natural Selection was started by myself and Rafael Salvador in June of 2011. We wanted to start a party that featured all the artists we like in Drum & Bass (ie Calibre, dBridge, Marcus Intalex etc). I came up with the name Natural Selection when I was on a fan boat in the everglades in South Florida. I couldn’t help but think of Charles Darwin with all of the interesting one-of-a-kind birds and animals. I thought to myself, “This is a perfect name for a party.” It captures everything I want the party to represent.
How are Natural Selection parties different from others around the city?
We tend to stick to the deeper side of Drum & Bass. The other parties in NYC usually go in other directions. It’s great that we all generally have our own musical directions and rarely conflict.
How do you think the Drum & Bass scene in NYC compares to other cities?
I think DnB in NYC has been on the rise. When we first started the party, there weren’t any parties aside from Konkrete Jungle and Camouflage doing things regularly. Now there are quite a few crews doing great parties.
What are your favourite tunes right now?
There’s too many good tunes to mention, but I’m really feeling Calibre’s, Enei Kasra’s and Seba’s new tunes. I could go on for days about artists. 😉
Do you have any new tunes/releases in the works?
I just finished up an album with Robert Manos under a new name, “Eastern District.” It’s been signed to a well-known, well-respected Drum & Bass label out of the UK. It hasn’t been announced publicly yet, but it should be in a month or so. I can’t tell you just yet. 😉
Is there anything else you would like to add/promote?
I’d like to promote our website naturalselectiondnb.com and our upcoming parties in august. We have Marcus Intalex at Tammany Hall on August 9 and Doc Scott at Tammany Hall on August 16.
Dave Shichman, how did you become involved with Natural Selection?
I’ve known Adam and Raf of Natural Selection for a few years now via the DnB scene. I’m not involved with Natural Selection at the moment, but I do play parties with them occasionally. They throw excellent DnB parties and it’s always a pleasure to play for them. My affiliation is with Direct Drive, another NYC DnB promotion.
What was your favourite moment from your B2B set with DJ Strife?
Hard to pick one moment, but there were a few times where one of us played a tune the other was going to play. We never discuss what we are going to play, so that was fun. Also both of us played a lot of music from North American producers, friends and people we really respect, so it’s nice to support our scene.
How do you think the Drum & Bass scene in NYC compares to other cities?
NYC is one of the bigger scenes in North America, but much more importantly, it’s filled with really passionate junglists who really want the scene to survive and thrive. There is a lot of unity, lots of collaborations, lots of respect. It’s a good time in NYC right now.
What are your favourite tunes right now?
Duoscience – Stranger In Prauge, Serum – Wiretap, Lenzman – Always, Kasper – The Low Road, Mixmaster Doc – Drunken Strings, Dave Shichman – 5th Sentence (Random Movement Remix)
Do you have any new tunes/releases in the works?
Yes, I have a lot of new things forthcoming and in the works. Ditmars EP on Liquid Drops out in September, Youth on Think Deep in August, and also forthcoming music on LuvDisaster, Chillax Trax, Pattern Awareness (with Somejerk), and a Random Movement remix of my tune 5th Sentence on Deeper Vision. A few other things in the works I’m really excited about but cannot share anything yet. The next year should be really interesting.
Is there anything else you would like to add/promote?
Drivenam.com, thanks.
DJ Strife, how did you become involved with Natural Selection?
Adam and Raf started Natural Selection a bunch of years back now and asked myself and Raw_Q to be residents because they thought the sound that we bring fit in well with what they were trying to produce with their events in NYC.
What inspired your alias DJ Strife?
I was looking for a new DJ name around 2001, as I originally started out playing Hard Trance and Hard Acid, and a friend of mine suggested “Strive” but I thought “Strife” sounded more like me, as I’ve gone through a lot of conflict and harder times in my life so far.
What is your favourite thing about playing with Dave Shichman?
It has to be every time we host our annual Drum & Bass BBQ. It’s a pretty chill day, so I play a lot of older, classic tunes that I love mixed in with new bits. This year is our 10 year anniversary, and we are super excited, as it’s looking like our biggest and most special year yet!
How do you think the Drum & Bass scene in NYC compares to other cities?
I think like most cities in the US, it has its ups and downs. Sometimes there’s no rhyme or reason why some events do better than others. But of course, summertime is always the best of the year with lots of people coming out to events, and no matter what time of year, a strong dedicated core of people who support it fiercely.
What are your favourite tunes right now?
The new Lezman album is fantastic with tracks with Martyna Baker “Paper Faces” and Steo “My Tearz” being my top two. Also my Brazilian artists are really killing it right now with tunes from DJ Chap “Song for Lovers”, L-Side “Honey” bootleg and Unreal remixes of “Fighter” & “Fear.” Also Jaybee out of Florida’s tunes like “Been a Long Time” and “Check this out” are really bassy and heavy.
Do you have any new tunes/releases in the works?
Yup, please check out my tunes at www.soundcloud.com/djstrifenyc
Is there anything else you would like to add/promote?
10 Year Annual Drum & Bass BBQ at Cedar Creek Park, July 12th!
https://www.facebook.com/events/543083229143888/
Seba, how did you become involved with Natural Selection?
I met Adam (Adred) a few years ago. I don’t remember how, but I think we got connected by people that we know. He wanted to book me in New York, and I was like, “Yeah, let’s do it.” And this is the third time that he booked me, and yeah, I love it.
And we love you. What are your favourite tunes right now?
In Drum & Bass? I don’t listen to Drum & Bass a lot. The kind of music that I listen to most at home…hey, I just turned forty, so I’m allowed to listen to contemporary jazz. Robert Glasper. I love that. And Christian Scott. Contemporary Jazz is what rocks my boat.
Does Contemporary Jazz influence your sound?
It does. Definitely. It’s not like I’m just going to put a lot of trumpets and a lot of bass in my music. It’s just the depth of jazz music. It’s hard to reflect in the music that I do.
I’ve always heard a bit of jazz in your sound. How does the Drum & Bass scene in New York City compare to other cities you’ve played in?
I’m going to be honest with you. I think that New York is a bit hit and miss. You never know what’s going to happen in New York. But I would have to check out my Facebook and check out if people attended the event and how many comments I get on the event. I’ve been to cities in America where the events have been better than those in New York. LA is always good. RESPECT is going to be quality – same thing with Boston and Elements. But they’ve been going on for fifteen years. You know it’s going to be good.
And then what’s your favourite European city?
That’s a hard one. I don’t know.
Do you like playing in your hometown?
I do because it only takes me forty-five minutes to get there as opposed to six hours of flying. But I enjoy playing in Russia. I have a massive following in Russia, and I love playing in not only Russia but also Eastern Europe. It’s great.
Any new releases in the works?
I’m working on an EP. I’ve just released one in March, so I’m working on a second EP. I was thinking about doing another album. I released an album a year ago, but I just decided it’s too soon, so I’m just going to do two EPs in between, and then I’ll do another album. At the moment I’m mainly working on my label Secret Operations. I do an occasional one off on another label, but I’m just trying to focus on my own label.
Is there anything else that you would like to add or promote?
Secret Operations. If you’d like to listen to my music, just check it out.
Are you and Paradox going to do any more collabs?
Oh yeah. We have some tracks that will come out on Secret Operations, so we haven’t been working since 2006. It was a long time ago, but I just went to see him. He moved to Lithuania a couple years ago. We have three unfinished tracks that we need to polish and there you go.
Can we expect any surprises in your set tonight?
Oh yeah. I have some new tunes. I actually have a track that I’ve been working on while on tour. I love doing that. I love playing a track out that I’m working on, and then trying to refine it. I took a train from Boston to New York, and it was what? Four hours on there? And I was working all the time on this track, so let’s see if it sounds better tonight than it did last night.
