Skream

Ollie ‘Skream’ Jones is on a major roll. The 24 year old Croydon DJ, producer and original dubstepper had the festival anthem of last year with his Let’s Get Ravey remix of La Roux’s ‘In For The Kill’; he’s just been featured on the cover of NME with his Magnetic Man co-stars Benga and Artwork; and as we speak, he is all over Radio 1 with the first single from his second solo album, Outside The Box. The tune in question, ‘Listenin To The Records On My Wall’, is the perfect introduction to why Skream’s current level of success is just the beginning. It’s a joyful, ragingly energetic celebration of the last quarter decade of British street music, inspired by the hardcore and jungle records used by his older brother Hijak who was part of Grooverider’s Internatty Crew. It’s also a brilliant pop record that makes perfect sense to everyone who grew up surrounded by the breaks and beats of the 1990s – and to those who didn’t.

In the early days of dubstep he and his Big Apple posse made music for themselves and a select band of listeners. There might have been 20 people at FWD>>, the night where resident DJ Hatcha first played Skream’s records, and where he first DJed, but it didn’t matter. Gradually, more people got involved, drawn in by the raw power of the music and well-documented tipping points like Mary Anne Hobb’s Radio 1 show and an influential online forum. And if they heard anyone, they heard Skream, who became an enthusiastic regular on the international dubstep circuit and made an early anthem in ‘Midnight Request Line’. “That tune was when people from the mainstream started looking into the underground. They weren’t embracing it, they were like ‘wow there’s this movement’… and they moved on.” Then, in 2006, he got the parts to Hot Chip’s ‘No Fit State’ and began playing it out. The following year he contacted The Klaxon’s record label for the parts to ‘Not Over Yet’, stripped it down, added synthetic rushes and major bass power, and made it his own. Then came La Roux. Skream’s now infamous remix of “In For The Kill” that got leaked, downloaded thousands of times, and then before long Annie Mac was championing it, urging listeners to get the mix to Number One.

He has always made tunes at an incredible rate: he has two albums (Skream! in 2006 and Outside The Box), two compilations and 81 tunes released since 2003 and many hundreds more he’s played during DJ sets. There are 872 finished songs on the hard drive he’s been using since 2007 (and about the same on the hard drive he used between 2001 and 2007) and at least 20,000 song files in his current studio which is still in his old bedroom at his parents house, which is useful for both continuity and tea and toast on tap. “I work at a fast rate. If I’m not into an idea after 25 minutes I start something else.”

Album aside, life’s busy for Oliver Jones. He’s back DJing after taking some time out at the start of the year, switching up his DJ sets to include 4/4, techno, garage and grime – in fact there’s a brilliant track with Newham Generals ‘I Can’t Wait’ that missed the album tracklist by a whisker – and, most weeks, hosting his Rinse FM show–now alongside Benga–where listeners get to hear new tunes and Skream and Benga’s inimitable banter. There will be a bonus edition of the album with another four or five tracks on it, and another Skreamizm EP later in the year, as well as the Magnetic Man live shows and album. It’s going to a big summer, inside and outside the box.