When your forever searching high and low for a track that catches your short attention span in the world of music, You come across a few tracks by a name that you’ve never stumbled across. You begin to show attention to this one alias/Band and start wondering more about who this person is?

     Ambient, Soulful, Emotional is how I’d sum up the first time I heard Phil Tangent’s "Billie’s smile". After grabbing a copy of it when it came out on the famous Soul:R I had to find out as much as I could about Phil and what else he had to offer. We caught up with the Bedfordshire Buzzard too find out a little about him.

EXAMPLE: So thanks for taking the time too do some Questions for us. Firstly could you tell us a little about yourself?

PHIL: My name is Phil Winn a.k.a. Phil Tangent.  I’m from a little town in Bedfordshire called Leighton Buzzard named after the species of bird but to this day I have never seen one. I’ve been Djing and making music for twelve years collectively and have an unconditional love for it.

EXAMPLE: What style would you label your sound?

PHIL: This is a difficult question for me as I like to explore different musical avenues – one day I might make a bright summery tune then another day a dark roller. Whatever I create, I try to incorporate an element of soul in there whether it’s a feeling of euphoria or sadness. For instance, when I was making “Lunar” I wanted the listener to imagine they were on a space mission to the moon. When Marcus heard it, he described it as a ‘journey tune’ which is exactly what I’d hoped for.

EXAMPLE: What are your main influences?

PHIL : My parents are big Motown and Soul enthusiasts – I’ve been digging out their old records since I was young so I’ve been inspired by artists such as Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Diana Ross, Gladys Knight, Isaac Hayes etc. In about ’96, I came across LTJ Bukem  - the Logical Progression tapes hardly left my walkman. I used to play house music before I took the leap to Drum & Bass however and was really into the Detroit/Chicago sound that these guys Onionz and Joeski were making at the time not forgetting some of the soulful vocal stuff that Blaze were producing. I wanted to find the same kind of soul in Drum & Bass and discovered Calibre through his track on Creative Source – “Deeper Everytime”. In terms of production, I try to encapsulate the same feeling in my music that these producers have given me but I seek out and listen to lots of old jazz, latin, reggae and hip hop records – J Dilla was a true genius.       

EXAMPLE: Can you tell us how you became part of the soul:R crew?

PHIL: It all started with Bailey, he has a show on ustream every Tuesday where he invites new producers to send in their music. I sent Billie’s Smile to him – he played it and really liked it. At that moment, my laptop decided to crash – I hadn’t realised he’d sent it to Marcus Intalex by this point. A couple of months passed and Marcus contacted me saying that he was going to sign Billie’s Smile and needed a B-side. I’d been working on something called “Lunar” so I sent it to him and he wanted that as well. Soul:R was and still is one of my favourite Drum & Bass labels and to be among artists such as M.I.S.T, Calibre and Lenzman is a huge privilege for me.

   
EXAMPLE: How long have you been at the production game? Plus any tips for budding producers?

PHIL: I’ve been fascinated with music production since I bought a copy of Rave Ejay for PC years ago. I also asked my parents for Music 2000 on the Playstation one Christmas and entered a song-writing competition at my school with a track I’d made on the game. Unfortunately, I was disqualified because the performances had to be live. I moved onto Fruity Loops – aka FL Studio and have been using it ever since. I decided to give up my job to pursue music and fortunately enough it paid off. My tips for any budding producers out there would be not to worry about the studio set-up - mine is very basic – but as long as you can create music you’re half-way there. Make sure you finish your tunes, even if you don’t like them as this will help you in terms of structuring and (something about patience). Also, visit production forums like  www.breakbeat.co.uk – the people there are friendly and always willing to help on any issues you experience.    

EXAMPLE: Where do you see Drum and bass going in the near future?

PHIL: I think Drum & Bass is in a really healthy state right now with lots of new producers generating new and original ideas. Eveson, Flaco, Technicolour & Komatic to name a few are all coming out with some great stuff. Generally minimal DnB isnt the kind of material that id tend to play or make but  it’s certainly made an impact on the scene and has encouraged producers to push the boundaries and experiment more which is a great thing for the genre as a whole. It’s difficult to say where Drum & Bass will be in the near future as it’s constantly moving and evolving – the early bad company days - were as I see it the golden era of dnb - it was a very exciting time as the sounds being produced were a real break away from other electronic genres. In today’s scene, i see DnB with great diversity and a real amalgamation of all electronic genres.

EXAMPLE: Are there any collabs in the pipelines soon?

PHIL : I’m currently working on a track with a guy called Karpay that we’re just putting the finishing touches to.

EXAMPLE: What else is set for Phil tangent?(Releases,Dates)

PHIL: I have a few projects on the go and a few remixes I’m working on. Watch this space.

EXAMPLE: If you had to choose between an armless man and a legless man street fighting who would win?

PHIL: The legless man would win because the other guy’s ‘armless ;)

EXAMPLE: Last but not least many many thanks for taking the time out too do this. Also anything you feel mentioning please do.

PHIL: No problem – I’d just like to mention that I have a radio show every Saturday afternoon at 4pm (GMT) on   "http://www.dnbradio.com"  and special mentions to; Bailey, Marcus Intalex, ST Files, Karpay, Itchyfingazzz, Romayne, my parents, my brother, Bassline Collective, R0b0t Redford, Muwookie, Tim Reaper, everyone who’s supported and purchased the twelve and last but not least, Joanna Head who’s supported me throughout.