London Electronic Music Event Diary

The Attack team spent the weekend at the London Electronic Music Event, which took place at Rich Mix in Shoreditch, east London. Read on for our diary of the weekend’s events, including an insight into the way Radio Slave and James Masters run their Rekids label, and a nerve-wracking encounter with Goldie.

Host Bruce Aisher welcomes the crowd to LEME

Saturday 10.15

LEME host and Attack contributor Bruce Aisher welcomes the crowds to the 2013 London Electronic Music Event. We’re expecting 250 people through the doors this weekend and the main venue is filling up already. Early reports suggest we’ve only lost a couple of dozen people in Rich Mix‘s mazy corridors.

More Bucks For The Bang: generating an income beyond record sales

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11:00

Really interesting panel in the main room to kick off the weekend. Host Tony Nwachukwu is joined by a group of experts on alternative ways for producers to turn their music into an income. Great insight from PRS rep Alex Beck, who’s explaining how PRS’s new Amplify initiative can help electronic music producers understand how they can register and profit from PRS.

11:45

End of the first sessions. Surprising feedback from Bruce Aisher’s arrangement masterclass – we’ve got producers of everything from trance to filthy brostep here and they’ve all learned at least a couple of new tricks. It’s always nice to be reminded how much we can learn from each other. Sometimes as producers we forget how much we have in common.

12:15

Second sessions kicking off. Upstairs in the cinema screens we’ve got some real hands-on production masterclasses going on. Bruce Aisher’s going in-depth with drum layering in Screen 2, while Attack video tutorial expert Marc Adamo puts the Screen 3 sound system to the test with a guide to creating aggressive bassline and lead sounds in Massive and Sylenth.

12:30

Hal Ritson, mastermind of Dizzee Rascal’s live show, giving some interesting views on live dance music in the main room: “Chill out about whether you’re playing everything live… You’re creating a universe for an hour and inviting people into it… That might be the music, it might be the light show or it might just be your presence on stage. No one gives a fuck whether you’re using Maschine or Ableton Push – you’ve got to work out why people are watching you and work out what your strength is.”

“To make live music exciting you’ve got to have a sense that things could either go well or go really badly.”

Hal Ritson gets animated discussing live performance

No one gives a fuck whether you're using Maschine or Ableton Push to play live!

1:15

Standing room only in Screen 3 for Marc Adamo’s house beat programming session. Downstairs in Screen 2 we’ve got Sharooz explaining the finer points of compression, from subtle SSL-style glue on the drum bus through to pumping sidechain business.

Sharooz giving a compression masterclass

1:45

In the main room we’ve got Capital FM’s Andi Durrant and Mixcloud‘s Nikhil Shah talking about the best ways to get your tracks heard on radio – both traditional FM/DAB stations and online. The consensus seems to be that radio play doesn’t necessarily translate into record sales, but when you can earn PRS of around £70-90 for a 5 minute play on Radio 1 does that matter? As Andi points out: “You have to sell a hell of a lot of records to make a £90 profit these days.”

Andi’s definition of radio plugging? “Paying someone to nag people for you.”

Marc Adamo’s house drum programming session is a little oversubscribed…

15:00

Supplies of sandwiches and beer running dangerously low backstage. We’re launching an investigation. Heading to catch Alex Beck of PRS answering audience questions about Amplify in the main room.

15:15

Good turnout for the PRS session. One of the tutors from LEME partner Alchemea admits that he’s been signed up to PRS for years but hasn’t actually registered any of his tracks. Kicking himself at the thought of how much cash he’s missing out on…

Capital FM’s Andi Durrant and Mixcloud’s Nikhil Shah debating the role of radio in 2013

Barry from Sample Magic manning the SM stand

16:15

Fascinating discussion in the main room with AEI Media and UKF‘s Duncan King, PR expert Charlotte Sweeney and Outpost Media‘s David Silverman on the topic of ‘How To Break Through’. “From a label point of view there’s no point having an amazing track if there’s nothing to follow it up with,” says Duncan. But do you need to develop an online fanbase before you can be successful? An equivocal no. “Quality will always shine through…”

UKF hit 1 billion views shortly before the end of last year. Already at 1.5bn. Currently seeing around 1.5m views a day across the various UKF channels.

18:30

Goldie’s just about to take the stage for a very special two-hour conversation about his life, his approach to making music and whatever else the audience want to ask him about. Huge excitement in the room to hear such an iconic figure in electronic music give us the inside track on his career.

22:30

Just about coming to the end of a very long and thoroughly enjoyable day here at Rich Mix. The reaction to Goldie’s hilariously honest live interview was a highlight of the weekend so far. A few people were surprised to hear just how passionate the Metalheadz boss still is about music. The secret to his success? “Not giving a fuck.” If you think the live interview was intense, wait till you read our full backstage interview, to be published later this week. It’s definitely the closest we’ve ever come to getting into a punch-up while interviewing an artist. We think it ended on a friendly note, though…

Tony Nwachukwu spinning a selection of CDR submissions in the bar to wind down for the evening. Hearing lots of tracks submitted by LEME delegates. A fitting end to the day.

Goldie remembers reaching for the lasers at Rage