Ocularist interviewed by WTC
English breakcore maestros discuss about their onslaught of wonderfully fucked up and heart raising tunes.
First of all, can you give a brief introduction on yourselves and your work?
Olti: My name is Olti Krasniqi. I'm 15, Kosovan, and proudly so as I think I'm the only Kosovan person to ever run this shit in the game. I love music. I've been producing for 5-ish years, mainly under the alias 'nitroii', with a decent number of albums, EPs, singles, and mixes under my belt. Aside from my solo work, I've been working with Marcus for a few years - me and him make up 'Ocularist', a duo project that has gone through way too many stylistic changes. Right now we're right where we wanna be, with a new album coming soon, but more on that later.
Marcus: My name's Marcus Keeton, I'm 17 and born and raised in Sheffield, UK. I've been producing for about the same amount of time that Olti has under the alias "Bypass" and "DJ Smoke Alarm", including a few other smaller projects under different aliases that aren't exactly that important. Released quite a few albums under all these aliases, always working on new shit too. Ocularist has been put on the backburner for a while since our 7 inch lathe release, but shits been picking up!
What were the main inspirations to start Ocularist? How did you guys get started?
O: Ocularist started shortly after I first met Marcus around Christmas of 2020. We were both from the UK, had experimental rap/rock phases, were both somewhat educated on the breakcore scene. I think it was our interests and influences, as well as our desire to produce and create, that got us working together. Shit was tight as fuck though. before our discovery of piracy, we both downloaded the latest FL free trial, and would produce tracks. Because you couldn’t actually save project files on these trial versions, me and Marcus would have to both work on our individual tracks, jumble them together into an album and hope nobody realised these were separate works by separate people. This is what we did for the first four albums - so up until Mashitup!. Four if you count ‘Manifest The Biennale’, even though that was nothing but sloppy amen breaks, sloppier sound effects and too much noise because some days we were too lazy/edgy/shit to make any more breakcore.
M: Yeah as Olti said, basically as soon as we met we hit it off. I remember sending him a short snippet of some breaks I had chopped and the next thing I knew he downloaded FL Studio and sent me something back! We were definitely both influenced by the breakcore, mashcore and IDM scene, it's clear to hear in most of our tracks. Since then we've spread our sound to sample more different genres like grime, pop, hardcore and fuck knows what else. Anything we get our hands on, we will mashup, and by god will it be mashup!
I know this was slightly mentioned beforehand but what is the creative process like for both of you? You've both amassed and released a lot of material within a fairly short period of time. Where do your ideas come from?
O: For me the ideas come mostly from what I'm listening to at the time, what's going on in my personal life, what I see around me, experiences with alcohol and other nasty shit, et cetera. I'm always looking for new music to sink my teeth into, as a fraction of it will probably seep its way into my music sooner or later. As a Kosovan with a lot of history in the family, I grew up around a lot of traditional regional music, but being born in the UK in the late 2000s also exposed me to a lot of electronic music on the TV... I think this mixed exposure is especially expressed in music. On top of that, it's just the passion that Marcus and I have to make music that compels us. I spent my summer in Kosovo, with my friends and family. Most memorably, I somehow spent a night raving, went to plenty of bars and listened to a lot more music, whether that be breakcore or grime or what was on the radio at that time. I was truly at home and comfortable and it gave me more time to kick back and enjoy what I wanted to enjoy minus the burdens of the UK. when I flew back, i produced "Militant Eastwards Connection", which is the lead single to my next solo album. That track was inspired by a lot of music I heard overseas: Fleetwood Mac, Dizzee Rascal, Crazy Titch, Oasis, et cetera.
M: Adding onto what Olti said... our best track "Ultraportable Skin Graft" off our latest release was made purely from a mediocre intro that Olti had made, so I added to it then sent it back, then he added to it more and sent it back, and soon enough we had a fucking banger. It's all about sending back and forth, it's like being able to have 2 brains to work on one track. We both have such similar yet different workflows too, our producing techniques form into one big mess of a thing. It was a similar story with the first track 'Gullysidescrewface' off the latest release which was just a crappy demo I had made, which I then sent to Olti and he added a load of new ideas.
If we're also talking about our own way of getting ideas, to be honest I mainly focus on samples or remixing someone's track. For example recently, I remixed a track for Caybee Calabash, took about 5 hours to do, and it came out great, because when I'm given a baseline to work off, I find getting ideas so much easier. Solo tracks that aren't based on any remixing or sampling are usually melodic, those are very likely to be inspired by Bogdan Raczynski or Datach'i, with my own breakcore twist.
On a similar note, I realise both of you have solo projects - how do these operate? Are these just for your own ideas that don't work for Ocularist or just for fun?
M: Not at all for me. My solo work is purely me, with the aid of some samples of course. My upcoming album "Changing On A Saturday Night" is just a collection of solo shit I built up over the past year or so. Definitely had some ideas from Olti, or some help with production, also includes a remix of one of Olti's solo tracks, but apart from that, that's all totally me! Same goes to him, I do like to watch and help. I remember when he was producing 'Welcome: Chickenhead' off his debut album and he made this hardcore section that was like 5 seconds long, there I swung down like a guardian angel and told him to extend it hahaha. All jokes aside, our solo work is solo work, but we do aid each other with ideas for sure!
O: A portion of the stuff we make solo ends up mutating into some fucked up variant as Ocularist, and we're abusing the shit out of that concept since we just pirate everything now, and passing project files back and forth is so much easier. Take the first two tracks off the Ocularist 7" for example, that was mostly fragmented kick sections and shit that we passed to each other, not thinking much of it. It went pretty wild though. for me, producing comes much slower, and I put a lot of effort into my tracks, to the point where I'm even dropping in tiny little specks of details where nobody's really gonna notice them on first listen. But then that's sick too because when I'm around my friends playing them my newest demo, I tell them "Yo, listen to that shit I did there" and the usual response is "Woah I didn't notice". In my music, I'm always trying to add some sort of unique spin or twist to it - trying not to sound like anything or anyone, which actually comes quite easily for me, because when you're inspired by so many artists and you incorporate that into your music it all becomes a garbled mess - completely disconnected to the source material - like some genetically mutated brainchild. It's fucking wicked though. I'm juggling some shit right now though, mostly school related. After that, the second album will be in full swing. As well as the Ocularist album. Hahahaha… double trouble.
Can you both provide information on South England Hate Club, the label both of you run together?
O: South England Hate Club began in the summer of 2023 after a series of 'angry remarks' I made that got me into a little bit of trouble with a couple labels... but that's old news, dead and buried. Naturally a change had to be made - I couldn't prove to everyone that I wasn't a prick, so I thought 'fuck this shit, I'm starting my own label, whoever supports it supports it', and I absolutely could not have done it solo - Marcus has been a shoulder to lean on every step of the way! The label has come a long way for sure; I remember having to run to WHSmith after school every Monday, buy a 25-pack of blank Verbatim CDrs, then go to Snappy Snaps and get all the artwork printed off all glossy and reflective, then I'd go home, do my homework, and spend the rest of the evening trying to get my old Toshiba laptop to work so i could burn the audio onto the discs. it sounds stupid but I'm honestly really proud of it. The label as an idea and as an outcome has evolved into something i never expected it to - we're dishing out CDs in clamshell cases and clear 7" records. Ocularist last year would be very, very proud.
M: SEHC is an attempt at old school breakcore revival. so far it's been somewhat successful, but we certainly aren't done trying! like Olti said, our career beginning was super rocky, a lot of shit went down, so we decided to take matters into our own hands. To be fair at first it was just something to cure summer holiday boredom, but it soon turned into something serious! Seriously cannot wait for the future of South England Hate Club, we've got some major shit planned for you lot. Keep your eyes peeled for some shit coming up already in the works too, some known names will be featured!
Recently you guys have been playing live shows in local venues - how did that come about? Do you have more fun performing live or working with each other online?
M: For me it was totally my college tutor. He had me play my first show in college to a few other students, was absolutely shitting it. But after that first show, I've been rid of my stagefright. After this I played a few more shows at college, then started getting myself spots in the Sheffield Electronic Music Open Mic, a great night of 15 min quickfire sets. Such an inviting and kind community of people. College also had me play a few other public shows which were good too! I'm also trying to work on my live sound, moving from VirtualDJ to Ableton for my own music performances. Of course, I'll keep DJing because that shit is so fun, but I really want to develop my live sound and techniques. So far, Ocularist has only done URL concerts, which we regret. They were mediocre at best, and the lineup of people were somewhat questionable... but we definitely aim to perform together under Ocularist, the future is looking up for live sound!
O: Both have got their ups and downs. My live setup consists of my laptop and a Korg Kaoss Pad 3. Obviously it's a lot more difficult to carry all that shit around back and forth and do shows but that's completely compensated for by the audience and the way they consume the music - the way they try to find ways to move to it, jump to it, groove to it. it's music that's challenging, without lacking rhythm or tempo.. I've received nothing but big love over the past two shows. My first ever show was at the end of may at South Street Studios, organised by my Year 7 drama teacher, funnily enough. reggae, dancehall, jungle, noise, breakcore, and everything inbetween were all in the mix. The feeling of being on a stage knowing that very few people have stood in that spot spinning this type of music is exhilarating. working online and passing project files back and forth can be equally as exhilarating - it's like waiting for a present. You don't know what changes have been made, and you're biting your hand not to jump into it and tear it to pieces. It's a very exciting process, however it can be very slow sometimes… mostly on my part. Back to the live aspect of things - it's looking good. As Marcus said, we're aiming to perform together sooner or later. It's gonna tear the roof off. Boom boom pow!
Aside from your music, both of you handle the artwork for all your releases. What influences both of you, and for Olti especially, why do cities appear so prominently in your art? Is there a strong interest in architecture?
M: Well to be honest most of my artwork is by Olti hahaha, I'm terrible at making artwork, but I'd love to learn! Hpwever to put credit where due, when Olti is making my artwork I do try direct the idea of what I would like. Blessed to have him for artwork, but if it was me making my artwork I think I'd have failed completely in music.
O: I do the artwork for all my releases, as well as most of Marcus's. Do I get tired of it? Never. Architecture has and still does play a major role in my life. It's influenced me massively. It's everywhere you look, yet has become so unimportant to the public, especially brutalism. I'm into that most of all. It shouldn't take a deep cut to figure out I'm big on all buildings gritty and worn out, specifically in the United Kingdom as it's such a fading scene nowadays, and there's almost this form of bravery you can see in these buildings, as they stand here in 2024 amongst all these glass structures. It works out though, because the connotations of brutalist architecture as a style tends to align with the music I make most of the time - urban, brutal, gritty, hectic, and loud.
Thanks so much for allowing me to interview you guys! Are there any last words or future plans either of you have?
M: Bring on 2K25. More Ocularist. More SEHC. Oh, and send your breakcore to southenglandhateclub@gmail.com for Sampler 3, submissions are still open and don't close until June 2025! Peace out!
O: Nuff respect and big love! Thank you too for taking the time to interview us. On another note... big things soon. More South England Hate Club, and more Ocularist. Cavalier Attitudes out soon. CDs and records all over the place. Big ups. Never surrender. TKO