As some of you may remember, a couple of months ago we did an "Introducing" feature on up and coming bass music DJ / producer Nathan Patel a.k.a. Cloaka (Read Here). Since then we have been in close contact with Cloaka and not only has he very kindly agreed to do an interview for us but he has also recorded an exclusive downloadable mix for the pleasure of the MRgruff readers. You can Listen to the mix & read the interview below. Enjoy.
For those that dont know can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I’m a producer/DJ from South London, I adopted the
alias Cloaka during the first half of this year. I really like Lamb Kebabs.
How did your alias "Cloaka" come about?
I knew someone would ask me this eventually! It came about because Boxwork wanted to play a couple of my tracks for his Mary Anne Hobbs guestmix, I didn’t have an alias at the time. It’s meant to be pronounced like ‘Cloaker’ but I gave it the odd spelling… which resembles another word meaning something completely different! Now it’s kind of funny!
If you were to have a dinner party, which 4 people would you invite? (Can be absolutely anyone Alive or Dead)
Danny Devito, Oprah Winfrey, Megan Fox and David Bowie. I think they would all bring really good bottles of wine round.
You have mentioned before that you "make music with low end in mind", is this something that you pay a particular attention to more than other aspects of the production during the track building process?
It used to be what I would spend a large part of my time concentrating on creating, I’ve gotten quicker at it now and use it as a basis to build my tracks around. It’s music for clubs after all, so I’d say low end and rhythms are where the majority of my attention goes.
Playstation or Xbox?
Haha! I have a PS3 but don’t play it much, I’d never finish any tunes! FIFA controls are the same on both though so if anyone fancies a game I’m ready!
If you could collaborate with anyone or release on a certain label, who / what would it be?
David Bowie & Prince on a grime beat I’d produced… that would be nuts and probably the worst collaboration effort of all time. Haha! Nah but seriously I’d love to release on Hessle Audio or Swamp 81, labels like that have just put out so much quality stuff.
Do you have a preference between producing and playing out?
Right now I’m much more confident producing, purely because I only have myself to please and I can just do what I want without worrying if anyone is dancing or not! I don’t play out too often at the moment but will probably do it more next year.
Whats your Dream Car?
There are too many to choose from, living in London I tend not to drive so something like a Go-cart would be useful.
How would you like to see your career in music develop? Is there anything in particular that you are looking to focus on?
Right now I’d like to keep the momentum up and try and raise my game with each track I produce, so just working hard in the studio is a big focus of mine. Maybe make my tracks a bit more melodic… maybe…
What 5 tracks are u liking at the moment?
Good question, it changes too often so here are the last 5 from my recently played list in itunes haha.
5. Boxwork – "What I’m Feeling Like"
What are your plans for the next year? Anymore forthcoming releases we should look out for?
Next year I want to work with other people a bit more, I’m working on a couple of collaborative projects at the moment. Getting releases out for them hopefully. I’ve just had a release with Boxwork on Madtech’s new download label MTDL which I’m very excited about and then my own EP via Four40 records is coming early December. Also working on a remix featuring Roll Deep’s Flowdan also coming via Four40. I’m not in a rush to get stuff signed as I want it to be the best it can – quality over quantity!
Can you tell us a bit about this mix you have done for us? What should our listeners be expecting?
The mix is 30 mins of stuff I like at the moment, with a few of my own productions in there and some unreleased/forthcoming stuff from some other producers I’m enjoying at the moment. I kept the mixing as raw as possible and treated it as though I was playing out.
Many thanks Cloaka, we look forward to seeing more to come from you. Big ups!
Soundcloud
