With only 3 weeks to go until our Brixton show hype is beginning to circle the event. We’re adding the final touches to the production and the soundsystem is being hauled into an articulated lorry. Tucked away in their studios, Hospital artists are trying to finish off their latest tunes for showcase at Brixton academy.  Among a bill of great artists sits the Hospitality front line.  The most recent edition to the roster is the mighty Netsky. It’s fair to say 2010 has been his year, and 2011 is shaping up to be even bigger. Over at Hospital we talk to our artists every day, so on this occassion we handed over the interview reigns to Belinda Rowse http://thednbwench.ning.com/ . She caught up with Netsky to talk about his rise to fame among other things.

Hi Boris. How’s it going? What have you been up to recently?

Very good thank you! Had a great summer so far, full of festivals. I’ve been active in the studio too though, worked on a couple of remixes and started working on new tracks for my next album.

When I Googled “Netsky”, Wikipedia came up with the definition “computer worm” – would you describe yourself as a computer worm?

Netsky is indeed also a computer virus, funny that the wikipedia page says ‘Other symptoms of Netsky included beeping sounds on specified dates, usually in the morning hours.’

That’s what I usually get on a Monday after a hard weekend.

How did you get hooked up with Hospital in the beginning?

Since I started making drum & bass Hospital Records has always been one of my big influences. I kept sending my tracks to the Hospital HQ from the beginning and after I while I started to have contact with Tony and Chris. The first track that caught their attention was Memory Lane, which was featured on Sick Music 2.

I kept sending my new tracks and after a couple of weeks we had a meeting in London where they asked me if I was up for a 3 album deal. It took me about 2 seconds to say yes

What’s the D&B scene like in Belgium, where you’re from?

It’s amazing! I got so much support from Belgian radio and television at the moment. There are some great nights here, especially in Antwerp. It’s still very different from the scene in England but we’re definitely getting there!

Would you ever considering moving to the UK to further your artist development, or do you think you will stay in Belgium for the time being?

I’m in love with England but I’m not thinking about moving over just yet. I got my family and friends in Belgium and they all mean a lot to me.

I don’t think my career would suffer too much if I’d stay in Belgium either, Antwerp is closer to England than most people think. It takes me 50-60 minutes to fly from Antwerp to the centre of London.

You’ve had a fairly meteoric rise to fame – what’s it been like for you over the last few months? How has your life changed?

The last couple of months have been really busy for me, my life has become a little bit hectic but I love it! I quit uni since I started working on my album so it’s all music for me now. It’s really good to have so much freedom, I wouldn’t be able to combine music with work or uni. I’ve met so many great people and I’ve seen a lot of beautiful places. One of the things I love the most about being a dj must be the travelling. I can’t wait to go to places like New Zealand and Canada.

I was at your album launch party in East Village a month or so ago – the crowd reactions were huge and there was a lot of attention, particularly from the female contingent. Is this the same wherever you DJ?

I really like East Village and it’s a perfect club to do an album launch. The crowd was amazing and I had a lot of friends with me witch definitely made it a night to remember for me. I noticed that a lot of girls are into my music which is great! I remember going to dnb raves when I was young and standing next to 80-90% blokes so I’m really happy that’s changing a bit.

What’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened at one your gigs?

There’s been loads of crazy things on my gigs lately. I had a guy trying to steal my laptop while I was dj’ing. A girl who jumped on stage and didn’t let go of me even while 3 security guys where trying to catch her. Fire alarms in the middle of my set. A tent collapsing in the middle of the night.

Some of your album got leaked on the internet prior to the release – was that a major set back for you and the label, or do you think it helped create more hype?

I can’t really tell, I don’t think you can ever look at piracy as a good thing. But in a way it was good to see there was already a lot of attention for my album 2 months before we released it.

Your next single pays homage to this (‘Pirate Bay’) – what do you think needs to be done to combat music piracy on an international scale?

I think it’s important for people to know that the Music Industry is a business like every other, if a label doesn’t make enough money it will simply reflect in less quality in their output. It’s up to the music lovers to keep the scene and Hospital running.

I don’t think there’s much to do against Piracy in general though, it will always exist.

Comparisons have been made between the buzz/hype surrounding your debut and that of High Contrast – is he an artist you particularly look up to?

High Contrast has been one of the reasons I started making music. He’s still one of my personal heroes and to hear people are comparing me with him is a big honour.

You’ve recently remixed Swedish House Mafia – do you like house music and other genres of dance music?

I was very happy I got the chance to remix ‘One’ as it’s one of the biggest house anthems I’ve ever heard. I like a lot of house music. It’s always good to listen to new house releases to get ideas too.

The album’s been met with pretty much unanimous praise. What’s next for you?

The next Hospitality event at Brixton should be a good one.

Can you tell us anything about it – any sneak previews or cheeky secrets you can let us in on?!

I just did a remix of a ‘Release the pressure’ by Leftfield. That’s the latest remix I did so I can’t give you any more exclusive news than this!

And finally, are there any shout outs you want to make or anything you want to add?

I want to thank everybody who supported me with my album, all the promoters who booked me the last couple of months and of course the hospital family and all artists involved. One big last shout to Danny Byrd, loved working with him and I hope we can start on a next collab soon!

See you at Brixton !!

[posted by Josh]

This article was posted by Josh.

Tags: academy, belinda rowse, brixton, danny byrd, dj, drum and bass, hospitality, interview, netsky

This entry was posted on Friday, September 3rd, 2010 at 4:02 pm and is filed under Blog, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.