Reading’s electronic music scene is currently thriving. Nights such as CUBED at Sub89 have been on a roll as of late, booking the likes of Bondax, Jackmaster, Boddika and Richy Ahmed, and we recently interviewed some up-and-coming talent from the town in the form of Ben Bowles.
SG Lewis can officially be added to the list of reasons to get excited by the Reading scene right now. At just 19 years of age, he’s been featured on the much-worshipped Majestic Casual Youtube channel – racking up over 500 thousand views no less – and has got plans and ambitions that would be nothing more than a pipe dream to most students. Here’s what we chatted about…
Hi! Can you give the readers a brief introduction as to who you are, where you’re from and what kind of music you make?
My name is Sam Lewis, i’m 19-years-old and i’m from Reading, although I currently study in Liverpool. I produce music under the alias SG Lewis, and have done for about 12 months now. My style varies quite a bit, but R&B-infused electronic music is the rough basis for most of the songs I guess.
All the stuff on your Soundcloud has a very bright, summery vibe to it, and Bondax instantly came to my mind as a comparison. Do you think that’s a fair statement to make?
I love Bondax’s music, and would definitely list them as an inspiration. I think we both produce music that centres around melody and song structure, and is less club-focused than a lot of music being produced at the moment, so I think that helps place us in the same category. I’d say there is a lot of difference in the overall vibe – I think Bondax are experts at providing a feel-good quality to their music, whereas my music tends to verge on melancholic at times, but I am flattered by the comparison!
Another thing I noticed is that all your tracks are remixes, but the tracks you’ve remixed are all rather eclectic – for example, Justin Timberlake’s ‘My Love’ is a million miles away from Klangkarussell’s ‘Sonnentanz’. How do you choose what tracks you want to remix?
In complete honesty, I think a lot of the reason for the variation has been the process of me finding my sound as a producer. The remixes show me experimenting in different styles, but I think the common theme of melody and song structure is the main thing. The sound I have on the ‘Smoke & Mirrors’ remix is the best indication of what you can expect to hear from me on upcoming tracks, although I feel that variety is very important in production, so I will continue to try and push myself creatively on that front. In terms of how I choose what songs to remix, if a song has a part that speaks to me, I try to re-imagine it in a completely different style and go from there.
Do you have plans to make any original material?
Yes! As of yesterday I finished my first original track, so that will be online in the very near future. I’m working on an EP of songs collaborating with some amazing vocalists, which has been both challenging and rewarding so far. I think that the freedom original music gives you means that the process is actually harder to finish, and you can often cripple your own creativity with perfectionism. None of the tracks are very club-friendly at the moment, it’s just music I wanted to create, so it will be interesting to see how they are received.
Your most successful track thus far has to be your remix of Patríce’s ‘Smoke And Mirrors’, with over 500k plays on the Majestic Casual Youtube channel. Did you feel like you’d made something great when you finished it?
The S&M’s remix was a really unusual process for me. I sat in front of my computer every day for two weeks scratching my head and wrestling with the vocal, and was close to quitting it. Then one night I started all over again and finished the bulk of the remix that night. When I played it back, I knew it had a lot of emotion in it, but I thought there was a lot that was ‘wrong’ with it. For instance, the strings in the breakdown made it feel closer to a film score than a remix, but I liked the end result so went with it. The Majestic upload was a mind-blowing thing to happen to me, as Majestic have uploaded some of my all-time favourite electronic music, and I am a massive fan of the channel. I never, ever expected the track to be uploaded, let alone hit 500k views so quickly!
Someone in the Youtube comments describes the track as ‘chillstep’. What are your opinions on that tag?
I think it’s natural for people to automatically try and classify a track in a genre when they hear it. I myself couldn’t really classify the track without making up a silly long name for a sub-genre. I can see why someone would use the word ‘chillstep’, but it seems like a weird hybrid that implies the influence of dubstep from the name, so I would probably disagree on that front. I’ve found that no one can agree on what genre a track is nowadays, so i’d rather just leave it quite broad and say it’s somewhere between R&B and electronic music!
Can you talk us through your studio setup?
My studio setup is relatively straightforward. I use a 15″ MacBook Pro running Logic Pro 9, and monitor through a pair of KRK Rokit 5’s. I use the first generation Apogee Duet as my audio card, which has been amazing to use – the mic pre’s built-in are fantastic, and it allows me to DI my guitar into Guitar Rig; something I use both for writing and to add layers to my productions. I also use a MIDI keyboard to play in chords and melodies. I have an [sE Electronics] SE2200a microphone for basic recording.
Some of my favourite plug-ins include the Arturia analog synth emulations which help me replicate some old-school synth sounds, and the SoundToys plugins, which I find are great for making things sound a little weird and different. I’m looking to add an [Akai] MPC of some sort in the setup in the near future.
What have you got planned for the next year or two?
The first thing on my list is to finish the EP and do some more remixes, as the Majestic upload has opened some great doors for me. I’m starting to branch out into production for other people which is very exciting for me, and is a completely new challenge. After I have more tracks out there I will look to book more shows and festivals and take it from there. I have a lot of aspirations in other fields, but I think I need to master walking before I can run!
Listen to a recent mix SG Lewis recorded – featuring Bondax, Cyril Hahn and himself (obviously) – below.
South East Facing 