Dropping The Boom Stick with Galvatron

‘Ghetto Dub’, the hot, all new, forward thinking underground bass music label from Vinyl Junkie and Rachel EC are putting another solid gold bar in their yellow brick road this week by dropping an all new banger from newly signed label mate Galvatron.

Not only is the forthcoming digital single a fine addition to the ‘Ghetto Dub’ roster, it is also completely free to download, in an effort to showcase a taste of things to come from some of the supremely talented people involved.

That being said, just who is Galvatron?
I went to find out just what it is about this breakthrough artist that has got ‘Ghetto Dub’ so excited about both his future and the future of the label…

Galvatron – how are you Sir? Good weekend?

“Easy Jon. I’m very well thanks mate and had a top weekend gigging and chilling with the family.”

Excellent, glad to hear it. Let us get down to business. How would you describe yourself and what you do to a complete stranger that didn’t know you? Also, love the name, did it happen to be inspired by a certain band of infamous ‘Robots In Disguise’?

“(Laughs) You guessed it, I’m a massive fan of the original ‘Transformers’ TV series and toys from the 80’s and 90’s and the name actually comes from the original animated movie when Unicron transforms the dying Megatron into Galvatron, I will stop there before I go all geek boy on you with former-facts!”

I don’t mind, I love Transformers, I also was traumatised by the death of Optimus Prime! But we digress, a little about yourself…

“To describe myself and what I do to a stranger, I would probably say I am a mash-up jungle, breaks and bass DJ and producer that likes to use and mix up old skool styles and inspiration with modern, cleaner, futuristic sounds.”

Good shout! Which is the bigger challenge do you find personally and why… a) Producing tracks b) DJ’ing live c) Promoting events d) Running a label e) Running a sound system

“Thats an easy one, promoting events without a doubt! Making sure everything comes together and runs smoothly no matter what happens is a right challenge. I have a love / hate relationship with promoting ‘SUB:CULT’ events. The reward of seeing everybody happy, dancing and enjoying our events is priceless but it is also one of the most stressful things that I do that I don’t usually enjoy myself until it’s over or until I’m on the decks.”

That being said actually, which one do you also enjoy most passionately above all others and more importantly, who and what inspired you to start them all?

“That’s also an easy one, DJ’ing to a crowd of any size or even just on my own at home. The bigger the crowd the better but it could be to 10 people and I would still get that same rush. I don’t want to sound corny but it is a feeling I can’t really describe as anything other than a full body buzz, I just proper love playing loud music that makes people want to dance.

If I’m totally honest I’ve never really thought about what inspired me to start them all until today, but after much thinking I would have to say my Dad was my biggest influence and supporter as a kid and when I first started with music.

My Mum and Dad used to take me and my brother to the Pubs on weekends to see my Uncle’s band and was both always playing music in the house. I always loved singing and dancing as a kid but when I was about 12 years old (1996), I was chilling at a older friends house who had some turntables set up in the corner of the room with a big stack of old skool vinyl. I watched him on them for about half an hour before he played Stretch and Vern’s ‘I’m Alive’ on 45rpm instead of 33; I had never heard anything like it, it sent me wild. I begged for a go on the decks and was just fading between wrong speed dance tunes for hours. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, thinking back it must have been the worst attempt at mixing you could ever hear (if you can imagine Stretch and Vern at double speed then you know what I mean!)

I had never felt anything like it before though, no sport or hobby I had ever entertained made me feel like that and I begged him to sell me those crappy Synergy belt-drive turntables with pitch dials instead of sliders, he agreed so I ran home and then begged my Dad to buy them for me.
My dad being the type of guy he is, had other plans. He loaned me the money for the decks and said the way to pay it off would be we would both set up a mobile disco and the money we made of birthday parties would pay off the loan, so yeah, I then became a mobile DJ with my Dad from the age of 12 to 17 playing parties for all ages (and still do the occasional gig with him now a days too).
In that time I also managed to play for a few under 18’s night clubs and events and the passion for playing loud dance music to people just kept growing and growing.”

What’s unique about you and your talents, as a creative person, that you would say makes you original and keeps you competitive and one step ahead? What would you say you were doing differently that makes you a brilliant stand alone artist?

And also, as a DJ, how do you find the balance between playing something new, that you love and presenting a new piece of material to a crowd versus playing what they want to hear and reading them properly, so that a good balance is struck between you and your audience, how do you do that?

“I’m not really sure what makes me or if I even am unique from anyone else but I know that I do what I love and love what I do. Hopefully people can see this and connect with the energy I like to put into both my DJ sets and my production. It’s now 19 years since I got my first turntables and around 14/15 years since I started producing but I still have the same passion and love for it today as I did when i first started.

I think the experience of all them years helps now when it comes down to just getting myself out there and not worrying too much about what others are doing.

As a DJ I play music that makes me want to dance, not necessarily what i think the crowd want to hear, obviously I know the bangers that everybody knows but I actually try to stay away from those and stick with the more underground sounds unless I see the crowd is not really feeling it or what ever but then I know from experience to just throw one of those bangers on again and get everyone back on side.

I think I’m actually quite lucky in the fact that no one quite knows what to expect from me and I could be playing some pumping breaks one minute and into a completely mental ragga jungle tune the next minute as that then allows me to switch between styles and take people on a bit of a journey.

In my opinion though, no matter what you’re playing and what you’re doing, if you’re not enjoying yourself then the people are not going to enjoy it either. If you are up there having it as much as they are as well as looking them in the eye and smiling, making that contact with the crowd on a semi-personal level and having fun then people will always enjoy it more.”

Gig wise, you have enjoyed many, please provide a rundown on events you have played at, are due to play at, looking forward to playing at and what’s big for you right now, diary wise?

And in closing what are you most looking forward to as an artist, DJ, producer, performer, for the rest of the year both independently and as a part of Ghetto Dub?

“I have indeed, too many crazy events to even remember to be honest but the biggest one by far and definitely the highlight gig of the year for me was playing in The Fortress at ‘The Beat Herder Festival 10th Birthday’, what an amazing event that was!

As for the rest of the year im looking forward to starting my new residency for LOW END in Harrogate in September and also putting plans into action for another possible ‘SUB:CULT’ event or two before Christmas so we can get our sound system out again. We have a few gigs coming up with the system powering other events but when we power our own for all the family and crew it’s that bit more special. I cant wait for whats coming up!
As for the production and releases side of things, I’ve got a free promo track coming out with Ghetto Dub titled ‘Boom Stick’, its a hard hitting Jungle / DnB tune with a dark vibe and heavy breaks and bassline. I’m really looking forward to dropping this track with Ghetto Dub and working with them on more releases in the near future.

I’ve also got a few tracks signed with Flex and ASBO Records that are due for release this year that I’m excited about and feel blessed to be working with so many talented yet down to Earth and hard working solid labels, be it some of the OG’s or the new kids on the block like ‘Ghetto Dub’.

Thank you Galvatron, and it has been great to hear both about your journey, but also get to know you and get an insight into what’s new, before you go though, you’re in a lift, the lift breaks down. It’s going to be some time before an engineer can get you out. You can choose one record to play whilst you wait and only one on the tannoy and then that record must stay on repeat until you are sprung from there.

What record do you choose? And why?

“That is almost impossible to answer as I know for a fact if i was to say just one track then half an hour later I would be kicking myself for not picking this or that, so instead of a single track I’m going to bend the rules a little and pick a whole record album, Roots Manuva ‘Brand New Second Hand’. It doesn’t matter what mood or vibe I’m on, that album just soothes my soul and makes me happy and chilled where ever, when ever!”

Ryan, thank you, good shout, great choice, catch up again soon!
‘Boom Stick’ is available as a free download now on Ghetto Dub.

Download Free: http://hypeddit.com/index.php?fan_gate=0EedVfVZM2TGnoiZOWc0

For more information make sure you join them on Facebook via https://www.facebook.com/ghettodub to keep up with all the latest and get more details on all of their forthcoming releases.

http://twitter.com/ghetto_dub

https://twitter.com/ghettodub_uk

For more information on Galvatron, go to https://www.facebook.com/galvatron.subcultmovement

https://galvatron.bandcamp.com/

https://hearthis.at/galvatron/

Dropping The Boom Stick with Galvatron