Rebel Bass chats with Brighton-based badman, Hadean, about In The Face, forthcoming tunes, festival season and more.
Hadean, thanks so much for chatting with me. For those who are new listeners, please introduce yourself.
My name is Hadean, I’m 24 and live in my hometown, Brighton, when I’m in the United Kingdom. I also spend a portion of every year living in Asia. I got into music production at a young age, learning the basics by playing around in Reason and Cubase until about 7 years ago – when I decided to start taking production more seriously and created the alias “Hadean”. I took influences from early Off Me Nut, Mutant Bass Records and future garage/neuro. This was around the same time In The Face came into fruition.
Tell us about In The Face Records – how did you first get involved? Also, feel free to chat about your affiliation and involvement with other greats like Off Me Nut and Chip Butty.
The In The Face crew came together about 10 years ago through the then thriving free party scene in Sussex. Putting on free parties developed into club nights, and for a long time we were the only regular “bassline” event in Brighton. We’ve worked with the Off Me Nut crew often since having them down at the first In The Face club night in 2010, and have since had a wide range of great artists. A few years after starting the events, we decided to start releasing music from ourselves and some of our regular artists. The first being a 12″ from Kanji Kinetic, who was a huge influence for me and a great supporter since the beginning!
*If you’re in Brighton, our next event is my birthday party on the 20th July with Culprate, Zenji, Sample Junkie, Coxon and residents.*
You’ve got quite a tasty track with Bushbaby out July 13th on CruCast’s “Shake the Bass 2”. Talk about about how you first became acquainted with Harry, and a bit about the production process/inspiration behind “Clean Up” (I’ve been bumping the SoundCloud snippet recently and can’t wait for the full version).
From speaking to (Harry) Bushby just now, we’ve realized that neither of us remember how we actually met, so it must have been a good night! We used to play together on Trickstar radio occasionally and often hung out together with the Southpoint crew around Brighton. A few years back, I invited him to share my music studio with me, which is where we became good friends and regularly met up to write together. I think “Clean Up” was the first track we wrote together, and it actually came together pretty quickly. We’d both been listening to a lot of neuro/dark DnB at the time, so I feel it was a bit of a neuro-bassline crossover.
You have a stacked month of August ahead with Bassfest and Boomtown both around the corner. What is your favorite part about playing larger festivals, and what has been in heavy rotation for you lately?
Festival season is my favourite time of year, and it’s one of the main things that draws me back to the U.K.. You can’t beat playing to festival crowds, everyone is extra hyped! Ashton (Gash/King Hydra) – who I co-run In The Face with – and I have become regulars at a number of festivals, our favourites being Bangface, Balter and Boomtown! The Jobcentre at Boomtown (its’ only dedicated bassline stage) is run by Ashton and our friends and curated by In The Face, so definitely check that out if you’re new to the scene! My live sets mostly consist of mine and my friend’s tunes – Taiki Nulight, Kanji Kinetic, Pelikann, Toad Reactor crew, Vellum, Off Me Nut, Chip Butty and Night Bass are my go-tos, just to name a few.
Give us some insight into what we can expect from you in the upcoming months. Any solo tracks, more collabs or EPs in the works?
I’m sitting on a lot of tunes at the moment. I’ve got 3 separate releases coming out this week. The aforementioned collab with Bushbaby is out July 13th on CruCast, a remix for Rico Tubbs is out on the 15th on Bass = Win and a collab with Taiki Nulight releases the 16th on Night Bass. I can’t reveal too much else at the moment, but I have some more solo originals out soon, a couple of remixes in the works and some big collaborations.
Shout out to all the listeners and everyone supporting. I’m looking forward to sharing all this new music with you!
