Component is an Irish techno producer whose new album Plan G is a diverse listening experience, as it combines industrial sounds and euphoric vocals with hypnotic percussion. Plan G is a 13-track release with driving energy and captivating emotion, and it’s picked up support from DJs including the likes of Nicole Moudaber, Marcel Dettmann, Secret Cinema, Slam and Chris Liebing.
The album is out on Component’s self-titled record label, but his past releases has been signed by other imprints such as Gobsmacked Records, ITU and Archivio 01. It’s a really compelling album that has a lot of unique elements, so we invited Component for this interview to learn more about Plan G and his background as a producer . . .
Hi Component, it’s great to be talking with you today, can you start by running us through your background in music?
I’ve been producing music for around 13/14 years now, and releasing tracks across various house and techno labels for around 11 years. I also owned and ran a record label for 3 years, and DJed here and there, but I would consider myself a music producer first and foremost.
Tell us about where you live, and how the local scene has influenced your sound?
I’ve lived in London for over 10 years now, but I don’t go to local events very often, after the closing of Printworks last year. I travel extensively every year, and this has been the biggest influence on my music production. I’ve visited clubs and festivals all across Europe, and Partying at Closer in Kyiv on New Year’s Eve in 2019 when there was blistering snow outside was one of the highlights. I’ve also visited clubs in Warsaw, Budapest, Sofia, and many other locations. Most recently, I was in Athens for a few days, and it has a thriving local techno scene with great crowds. The first Stone Techno festival last year in Essen really inspired me to get back producing music again after a two-year break. Also, I’m a big fan of this new wave of Eurodance techno or whatever you want to call it, with artists like DJ Heartstring, Southstar, Narciss etc, leading the scene. This has been refreshing to hear these last couple of years, and it made me feel inspired to start producing more vocal tracks with catchy lyrics. I didn’t like the idea of having to stick to aggressive industrial techno style for every track and be confined to one sound.
At what point in your life did you decide to become a DJ and start producing music?
When I was 9 years old, I borrowed a cassette from my sister that had just “The Prodigy” written on it, and I was obsessed by the music. Turns out that cassette was Experience album by The Prodigy, and it was the first album I truly fell in love with, as it was so crazy, but amazing! That Christmas I asked my parents to get me some music making software called Rave Ejay, and I started producing fast and heavy rave/techno style music. When I got into my early teens, I started getting into the DJing side of things, and would create DJ mixes for friends etc. Eventually, I started getting a few gigs here and there, but I only wanted to play my own sounds which span across multiple electronic music genres, rather than the commercial stuff that a lot of bars and clubs asked me to play. When I was 22-year-old, I came into a bit of money, and I decided to buy a record label that was being sold by its founder. I rebranded it, got contracts drawn up, and started singing some new artists. This taught me the inner workings of the music industry, and I started making connections with DJs and music producers. Around the same time, I got back into producing, built up a decent home studio, and started taking my music more seriously. After a couple of releases and some remixes on my own label, I had my first major release in April 2013, which was on one of the biggest dance music labels in Ireland. I signed with the record label just before I moved to London in 2014, and that imprint also had multiple labels under one music group/umbrella, and I did various releases and remixes for them. In 2016/2017 I started moving to a more techno focused and underground sound, and travelling to Berlin/Eastern Europe where that music was very popular. I decided to create the alias “Component” and focus on a more defined techno sound. After going to ADE, and refining my sound, I started releasing industrial techno across various labels like ITU, DISSKGHAST, Gobsmacked Records and Archivio 001. After the Covid lockdown, I took a break for a couple of years to focus on other projects, and now I’m back with my new album, Plan G.
Talk us through your new album release Plan G, and tell us about the concept that links the tracks?
“As it’s an album I wanted to produce some different styles of music, and have some musicality about it rather than 10+ tracks of similar sounding pounding techno. It was freeing to not create tracks tailored to suit a particular record label’s style. “My aim was to open the album a bit trippy and experimental, then track by track start upping the tempo and intensity, almost like a DJ mix. “Female vocals and ethereal FX feature across the album, and I also wanted to do a couple of throwback tracks. For example, “Detroit Fairground” sounds like an old techno record from the ‘90s, and “Hidden Light” is a throwback to the late ‘90s early ‘00s trance, then “Anarchy in the IRE” is a throwback to old jungle/breakbeat records of the early ‘90s. “I wanted to challenge myself across different styles, but keep a club focused techno sound, and I’m pretty happy with the results considering how long it took to all come together and get finished.
Is this your first time producing an album, and how did you approach the project compared to an EP?
I actually made an album when I was 10 years old using Rave EJay, it had some video game vocal samples and sounds from a sample disc. It’s absolutely mental, and has some 140-150bpm rave bangers on it. I need to dig out the CD and sample it someday. But yes, this is my first proper album release. After a long break from music production to focus on other projects, I set aside a 3-month period this year to produce as many tracks as possible from Jan to March when my schedule was less hectic. I started working on multiple tracks simultaneously, and when I got stuck or fatigued with one, I’d quickly switch over to a new project or a sketch I’m working on. This kept the process fresh and interesting, especially as there were now different genres of music in the mix to work on, and I didn’t have the limitations of producing for a particular record label. As the project moved along, I started looking for vocalists and musicians (for example, that’s a real violinist on the last track, “Trill”). I used only female vocalists to contrast the heaviness of the drums, and none of them had worked on this kind of music before. I wrote original lyrics track by track, and everyone did a great job. I was super happy with the results, but some tracks I hired a couple of vocalists to see who would suit it better. Most of the time I liked parts of both, and on a few of the tracks I also experimented using two vocalists who each sung two different parts. The editing and chopping of vocals, cleaning up popping and clicks was at times quite tedious, but was worth it in the end. I ended up with around 17 tracks, and refined this down to the final 13. I spent April mixing down all the tracks in a proper studio with good monitors, then got all the mastering done at the same time.
Can you list some of the equipment that was essential to the production of the tracks on your new album?
“I started making loops using Native Instruments’ Maschine to quickly sketch out my ideas. This is how I used to start productions many years ago, as I’d record drums and synths live, then tweak various FX on the fly. Lots of Elektron gear was used across the album, as you cannot beat that raw analogue sound. I used Elektron’s Model:Cycles the most to make drum and percussion sounds, and recording a few live takes for each track. Also, Elektron’s Model:Samples, Syntakt & Digitone I used to add analogue saturation to kicks, snares and some fills from a TR-909 drum machine. The Vermona PERfourMER and DRM1 feature heavily on “With Me” along with various FX pedals recorded in live. On the software side, lots of the usual suspects like the Soundtoys, D16 plugins, Arturia V Collection, Valhalla Reverb etc. and I’m a big fan of all the UAD plugins like the Manley and Neve pre-amp, The Lexicon Reverb, and as well as the Opal and PolyMAX synths.
What other record labels have you worked with, and what else is coming up in your release schedule?
I’m moving into a new house very soon, and I’ll be kitting out a dedicated music studio room, so I’m looking forward to this. I’ll aim to get back into it around October, and get a couple of EPs ready for release in 2025.
Thanks for taking the time to talk with us today, is there anything you would like to add before we finish?
I would like to thank Giorgio Cadamuro from Fish Sank Studio in Hackney Wick for mixing down the majority of the album, and Pierluigi Di Camillo from Arcn lab Berlin for additional mixing and for mastering the album.
