For anybody who likes their drum & bass deeper, darker and slightly twisted, the label Nerve Recordings will be a very familiar name.

Set up in October 2001, the label has been going from strength to strength, with artists on board such as Noisia, Black Sun Empire, Pyro, Kemal, ICR and Kabuki to name but a few.

Example decided to catch up with the man behind Nerve, Paul Reset, to see what's going on with the label and what he's been up to.

Jonty (Example) -Safe mate, can you tell the readers a little bit of background information about yourself and Nerve Recordings.

Paul Reset - Well Nerve Recordings was born in October 2001, myself and Pyro had been working on some tunes together that'd seen releases on Trouble on Vinyl, Flex etc and we were approached by Dylan (he used to work at a distributors called Alphamagic) and asked if we wanted to start our own label. It seemed like the logical thing to do at the time as it meant we could release our own material on our own timescale and also give exposure to new producers who we thought weren't getting the deserved coverage.

Since then - we've been through a lot of different vinyl distributors, then decided to go completely digital in 2008 and in mid 2009 we decided to launch our new site by giving away the entire back catalogue for free and announced that all future releases would be available to download for free. Pyro has also left to take some time to work on other projects, although he'll still be involved as an artist.

I personally have been dj'ing for nearly 14 years and have been hooked on drum n bass since 1993 when I stumbled across a tape of Randall recorded at The Edge, 

Jonty (Example) - So what was the initial idea behind Nerve Recordings?

Paul Reset - Well, one of the main reasons we started the label was to give exposure to the newer producers coming through who were struggling to get noticed by the bigger labels. At that time there weren't as many labels and it was a lot harder for new producers - these days every man and his dog has a "label" but back then that wasn't the case at all and it was a lot harder to get material released. To that end we put out the debut releases of producers like Noisia and Psidream and also released early material from the likes of SKC and Gridlok.

Jonty (Example) - How would you describe the sound that Nerve is going for?

Paul Reset - Well when I play out I like to cover a variety of styles within drum n bass and I see the label as an open playing field for all styles - from liquidy rollers to hard as ya like monsters via dubby beats and the more techy style. We originally had a bit of a reputation for techy beats but my taste has diversified over the years and I think Nerve has reflected that. As long as it's got a groove, I'm digging it.

Jonty (Example) - Yes mate, agreed. Obviously, Nerve Recordings have seen some huge artists, for example Noisia's first release, Silicon was released on Nerve. Do you feel that you have helped push these artists up through the ranks and do you think that they have equally helped to raise the profile of your label?

Paul Reset - I don't really put too much thought into things like profile - I'm just happy that the artists liked the label enough to let us release their material.

Jonty (Example) - You also have an offshoot of Nerve Recrdings, Nerve Breaks for the more breaky styles. Can you tell us a bit more about it?

Paul Reset - Well I originally launched Nerve Breaks as a purely breaks label back in 2002 - dealing mainly in the darker side of the genre as I felt it wasn't being represented well in the vinyl market. It also gave me a chance to release some of my own material as at that time I was producing more and more downtempo material and much less dnb. I put out 7 vinyl releases and after a bit of stress with getting the planned 8th release out I decided to make it a digital only release in 2005, then put the label on hiatus. There was a wee EP of beats from myself in 2008 but the label properly relaunched in mid 2009 when we launched the new Nerve site - I changed the focus a little and made it just about lower tempo beats - from weird ambience to breaks, dubstep and everything else. There were 7 NB releases in 2009 and we've had two already this year with more lined up and I've got a huge amount of enthusiasm for it.

Jonty (Example) - Sounds good. Onto a bit more about yourself now Paul. Firstly, as your obviously a proud Scotsman, do you feel that the scene in Scotland differs at all from the scene in England?

Paul Reset - Definitely - especially on the west coast. We've always been fighting a bit of a losing battle for drum n bass in Glasgow and Scotland - it's a long story but the breakbeat goodness has never really been received too well - going back to the early 90s. The scene in Edinburgh is fairly strong but the huge influx of English students plays a huge part in this.

On the production side of things I feel that Scotland is really coming through again with producers like Morphy, Linden, Y2D, BZ etc.

Jonty (Example) - How did you get into the drum & bass scene and how did you make the break into it then?

Paul Reset - I first got into drum n bass after hearing that aforementioned Randall tape in 1993 - the tune that always sticks out was Bukem's "Atlantis" and to this day it still sends shivers up my spine - a true timeless classic despite it's simplicity. I first got into dj'ing and production through meeting up with Kemal and Rob Data and they gave me my first ever proper gig back in 1997 and were always up for giving me productive feedback on the production side of things. I then started a club night in 2000 called LiveVEvil (http://www.livevevil.co.uk) with a coupla close friends here and the rest is (kinda boring) history :)

Jonty (Example) - How would you describe your main style when producing and playing out?  

Paul Reset - I don't really produce anymore - main reason being time, not enough hours in the day! When playing out I like to play all styles of dnb and I like to mix it up a bit and take sets through peaks and troughs. I'm resident at a club night here called Xplicit (http://www.clubxplicit.com) and as resident I get to play all sorts of slots so it gives me the chance to play quite diverse sets and cover all the sub genres within dnb.

Jonty (Example) - Who would you describe as your main influences?

Paul Reset - Future Sound of London (circa Lifeforms) and Bomb The Bass were my main influences when I was producing - the atmospherics and depth of the FSOL material and the cut and paste element of early BTB really inspired me and made me want to make sounds!

Jonty (Example) - So, what's next for Nerve Recordings?

Paul Reset - Next up on Nerve we have an EP from a brilliant new producer called Megadrummer - followed by releases from Trisector & Dejaru, Saburuko & Morphy, Y2D, arQer, DBR and NotioN. For Nerve Breaks we have a brilliant release from an Edinburgh duo called The Setup - it's a big rumbly dubstep number with amazing remixes from Tactus and Ronin. 

Jonty (Example) - Quality. Finally, marmite, love it or hate it?

Paul Reset - Hate it!

Photo Credits - RJ Ramsay

http://www.myspace.com/paul_reset

http://www.nerverecordings.co.uk

http://www.myspace.com/nerverecordings