Touching Bass: Stooki Sound

Stooki Sound are one of the UK's biggest exports in the global industry of trap. They're both London residents meaning their interpretation of the genre is equally as Dalston as it is Dirty South. But y'know, trap isn't a new thing, it's been existing in a more rudimentary form since 36 Mafia started popping collars so it's fair game to anyone. Stooki have developed the genre into a one night stand between Southern US hip-hop and ADHD electronica and in the process created one of the biggest hits from this side of the Atlantic, "Ball So Hard" - a collaboration with fellow UK trapite, Hucci. That lead to a US tour that saw them joining their own mosh pits and LOLing at our British weather from afar. We caught up yesterday to talk Pokemon, being jetlagged and the problem with current trap. Oh, and there's an awesome half hour mix alongside as always.

Noisey: Hey man, what have you been up to today?
Jelacee: Nothing much, I’ve just been chilling. Not been feeling too well so I’ve been taking it easy.

On that medicine?
Yeah man, Lemsip.

Oh damn. But it’s really nice weather.
Yeah, I know. I don’t really like the heat anyway. It’s too much for me. I just like to chill inside with my air con.

Air con win. So how are things going with Stooki Sound?
They're good. We’ve got Forest Festival in Belgium soon and then we’re also playing at Plastician’s Terrorhythm and a couple of other smaller things here and there. We’re taking it easy at the moment because we just came back from tour in the US which kicked some life out of us.

I can imagine. What was the States like?
Too big. Flying from London to NY is about six and a half hours, flying from NY to LA is six hours. When you’re doing a tour that’s on both coasts it kicks it out of you. But it’s funny because everywhere you go in America is different. It’s like going to a different country each time.

I envy your air miles but what was the craziest/funniest thing that happened?
I jumped off the decks to create a mosh pit at the show in Webster Hall [New York]. That was legendary. When we went to LA the next week, people were talking about it there.

Really? But it must also be quite nice to be back on home turf?
When I got home, obviously I was jetlagged for ages but I thought to myself how much I’ve underestimated my bed. I’ve got my PS3 and my Xbox there. Just before we got back, The Last Of Us had come out so I was banging that out as well as FIFA because I’m a FIFA addict.

Same. Who is your most potent FIFA team?
I play a lot of Ultimate Team but probably PSG.

Ibrahimovic?
Yeah, them five star skills.

So what was your favourite childhood games console?
It’s between the N64 and PS2. I would say Gameboy Colour, but I only played Pokemon. I remember them days when you could get your Playstation chipped and get all the games for cheap. Games wise, N64 was way ahead of its time. But I’ll probably go with PS2 simply because that’s when all the games started raising the levels.

Keeping it equipment related, are you a hardware or software man when it comes to production?
I’ve got an MPC lying around but I don’t really use it because I need to do a lot of stuff to it. it’s the old school one with the floppy disks. I learned on Fruity Loops which is mostly mouse clicking and I’ve brought that through to Ableton. I’ve got my keyboard and my launch pad but I’m not really on my hardware. If I need to do pitch bending, modulation or anything like that I’ll use my keyboard.

Who taught you how to use Fruity Loops?
My best friend used to hang about with some of the top producers in the area, especially for grime. He came to me one day and was like “you need to get on Fruity Loops”. I started making some 8-bit block riddims. Back then it was more about trying to make things sound like a finished product. As you get better you start to learn how to use sounds properly. I’m still learning how to use certain sounds.

Nice. On a controversial tip, what would you say is the biggest problem with trap these days?
A lot of scenes are very generic in their style. With trap it’s all 808s and chopped up samples but if we want the genre to progress we’ve got to start making the genre ours. There are only a few producers that I can name that have done that. That’s the reason why hip hop has lasted so long because its a culture not just a genre. Same with house.

Is there a big difference between UK and US trap?
Before I could safely say UK trap was a lot more grimier because it had grime influences. Especially when we came into the scene, there was Hucci and Muramasa and everyone had those grimy bits that was fresh because no-one had heard it. When we went over to the US, it was more upbeat. I’ve been listening to a lot of UK stuff and sadly a lot of it is starting to feel the same. I never made trap before “Ball So Hard”. I used to make house, dubstep, hip hop…It just made sense to make trap because it was a mixture of electronic with hip hop.

Makes sense. So the mix, what have you gone for?
The mix is trappy but there’s a lot of hip hop influences. There are remixes from Nas, a Sango edit. There’s Kaytranada, Djemba Djemba, Muramasa. Just people that I feel push the boundaries, then there’s some more unknown stuff.

Finally, a couple of quickfire questions for you. What did you get your mum for Christmas?
Perfume. Very Irresistible by Givenchy.

Your favourite Sky channel?
I don’t even watch TV. Can it be a Freeview channel?

Yeah.
BBC Three. I rate it. Family Guy, American Dad, Russell Howard and then all of the documentaries. If you want to watch something good between 10-1, hit up BBC Three.

Russell Howard is a cunt, but thanks.

TRACKLIST
Kaytranada - Holy Hole Inna Donut
Djemba Djemba - Chronic Heart Failure
Muramasa - Hustleblood
Mr Carmack - Ego
PSY - Gentleman (Kaelin Ellis Remix)
Nas - You Owe Me (Ft. Ginuwine) (Sango Edit)
UZ - Untitled (Bonus Track)
Stooki Sound - Im Really Hot
JWLS - JWLS is Bored pt VI (Lobster Beat)
Stooki Sound - Dracula
Jackal - Shakedown
Stooki Sound - Geddit (SWZY Edit)
Stooki Sound - God Willn (Prod. By Benny St Claire)
Wizard - King Raah
Nas - The Don (Tom Wrecks Remix)
High Klassified x Da-P - Fuzija

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