Ransom

Follow The Beats : BreakBeat Energy’s Monthly EDM Newsletter – March 2009

It’s a cold Friday night, everyone is ready to get their dance on at Loda – the weekly Friday party at Gallery in Silver Spring, MD. On the decks opening downstairs is Harry Ransom, starting off the night by throwing down the sickest dubstep tracks that he could find. Whether you heard his name for the first time that night in January or he’s been a regular in your social circles for years, Ransom will give you some serious bass face. He’s been a longstanding staple in the local dnb scene – whether on the decks or behind the scenes. BBE could think of no one better to be our first featured local DJ.

BreakBeat Energy: When and how did you hit the EDM scene?

Ransom: It was a bit of a process. As a kid, I liked hip-hop and early techno. I remember being eleven and listening to Baltimore club music, late at night on the radio – but not really knowing what it was. By the time I was sixteen, I was gradually hearing more electronic music, hearing about raves in the area. I had co-workers that were a little older and were going to Fever all the time, but I hadn’t ventured out yet – I would just get the odd electronic album or a cassette single. By the time I got to college, I had picked up albums by Goldie (”Timeless”… bought it because I liked Bjork and had read in Spin Magazine that she was Goldie’s girlfriend), dnb compilations, a few Prodigy albums, the first Chemical Brothers album and a few other random things. Freshman year of college I met a lot of kids that were new to the area, went to parties and had a thirst to check out events in the area. I clicked with them and went to my first raves and club nights in December of 1995. By March of 1996 I was a regular at Buzz and Fever, buying dnb vinyl and mixtapes, and really slacking off with school. I hit it hard.

BreakBeat Energy: Tell us the story behind your first time on a set of decks or playing out at a party for the first time.

Ransom: I think the first time on a set of decks was either Dimitri/DJ Plus One’s dorm room, with a whole group of us taking turns trying to mix; or when my friend Ezra Gold brought his DJ gear to my dorm room for a weekend he was visiting our friend Theresa; or it was in Ben Ko’s dorm room. It was one of those three times. I sucked, but I didn’t care – it was too much fun. First time I played a party was probably one of the Knox Box house parties, in College Park. I couldn’t mix to save my life, but I seemed to be the person in the College Park scene that had jungle/drum’n'bass, and my friends wanted me to play it. Beat matching did not click in my head for a while – it was two years before I could do it.

BreakBeat Energy: What was the best experience you’ve had as a DJ? And what’s the most memorable event you’ve played at/put on?

Ransom: I have played a lot of different events, all over the U.S. – from little dives to a few massives, but my favorite times playing out were:
~ Ben Ko and I’s first time in San Francisco in 1999, where we played at Eklektic at Rico’s Pizza.
~ Bensonn/Wreck and I’s first time playing Buzz in January 2000 with all of our friends out because it was our “Step Syndicate made it to the big time” moment.
~ Ben Ko and I tag teaming at Buzz in 2001, with Sune/MC Escher MC’ing, we opened for Ed Rush & Optical, played a three hour set I think, dropping a lot of dubplates we had just cut, of music made by local dnb legends Sinthetix, and our SF connections in Phunkateck, lots of rewinds and the crowd flipping out, and then the impact of Dillinja’s remix of “Quantum Jazz” off of Renegade Hardware.
The last time I played Buzz at Nation, their last month before the venue closed, playing for three hours and just the excitement from the crowd driving the set.
~ Meeting my friends Matt Nordstrom/MRN and Will Revie for the first time because we all went to Music Now/Yoshi Toshi in Georgetown on the same day, every week, to go through the new drum’n'bass releases. We all were seeing each other week in, week out, and eventually running in to each other at parties, then Will started dating my friend Juhi, who met at a 2 Tuff party that Ed Rush & Optical played at, and so we all started hanging out a lot. I miss shopping for records and meeting people you always saw out, and talking about the music at the shops.

BreakBeat Energy: Which other states/countries have you played/put parties on?

Ransom: I was only involved in parties held in DC, and they included:
~ Proper in the summer of 1999 with the Step Syndicate guys, and we threw a one-off with Ruffneck Playaz Crew at The Edge called Proper Atmosphere.
~ Act Your Age in 2001 to 2002 with a bunch of DCDNB list serv members: Aria, Steve Eternal, Matty/MRN, Brad/Sever and Peter Brown. We had a great run, but the venue we were at eventually changed management and I think the winter of 2002 killed off attendance to the point we had to stop. We all still get people that came to the party and/or played it talking about how much fun they had and enjoyed the range of artists we brought through. Also, Jefferson/Eve Communications was our main designer and scans of his fliers are popping up on Facebook a lot lately, he really enjoyed the creative freedom we gave him with the designs. We also had great flier work done by Travis/Adegen and Avik/Seven.
~ Volume with Jesse Tittsworth, Phil Scott, Dee/Deinfamous and eventually Matty/MRN coming on and our friend Scott Grub helping us run it. Shame that one only lasted two and a half months. And Avik took up the design for this party and our website. Right when we ended it we were sent a cease & desist email from a production crew in New England that went by Volume, but we had not heard of them when we named the party, and they didn’t stress on us once we started communicating.

Outside of the DC/Baltimore area I have played in:
~ Atlanta, GA – I forget the venue, Anthony/Mayhem hooked it up
~ Boston, MA – going up to see my friends Todd and Phil, and getting to play some of the weeklies up there, years ago
~ Buffalo, NY – MC Valiant and Steve/Cable had me out for a party there one winter, super fun
~ Charlotte, NC – a few raves held at an old movie theatre, the night opening for Dieselboy, with Ben Ko was insane
~ Los Angeles, CA – Rob/Machete having me out for Respect and then meeting Don and playing one of his Drum’n'Bassics raves, the most intense dnb rave I have ever been to and hanging out with my CA friends
~ Miami, FL – booked twice at WMC, but only played the Headhunterz Inc. party last year, meeting Mike/Hive, Chris Echo, Eric/E-Sassin and Tom/Klute back in 2001
~ New York, NY – a few different parties, can’t remember the names, Jo-S had me and Ed/UFO! up for one
~ Oakland, CA – a super huge massive at the Home Base warehouse
~ Philadelphia, PA – Platinum and a bunch of other club nights, always a good time
~ Phoenix, AZ – some NYE party, can’t remember the venue
~ Pittsburgh, PA – the 412DNB guys hooked me up a few times, Nick/Binac from Bulletproof and his crew including Jay Alaska and Bagel, one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet
~ Raleigh-Durham, NC – I don’t know if printing the story about this one would be good, haha
~ Richmond, VA – many many trips, sometimes Matty/MRN and I would play NuCo parties, always had a good time seeing Will Miles, Kjell and Aaron/Ill Omen
~ San Francisco, CA – I love SF. So many good times hanging out with friends out there, played some sick shows at 1015 Folsom in the super subby basement and at Juju’s Phuturo parties at The Top
~ San Jose, CA – Thad/Hak and Mitch/Proxy were awesome hosts
~ Santa Cruz, CA – Nick Argon’s radio shows at the school there were always a fun stop when I was in the Bay Area, dude is super succesful with his Argon dubstep label now

BreakBeat Energy: Which gives more satisfaction – production or DJ’ing?

Ransom: I love DJ’ing out for crowds, getting people dancing, but it’s pretty much on hobby-status nowadays, being older, having a job and other responsibilities. If I could have a monthly residency and play by myself or maybe with one friend for the whole night, and have a crowd who are up for whatever I played, that would be incredible. I just don’t have the hustle or the drive to throw something like I used to though.Production is something else entirely. The past year I have made a lot of personal progress, after quitting production for five years because I got too frustrated. Who knew just shifting the tempo and trying to write music other than drum’n'bass would do the trick for me? Also, I got rid of the pieces of hardware I have and currently use just Logic 8, and I’m having more fun writing tracks. It’s not a disciplined practice for me though, sometimes I go weeks without doing anything and then suddenly I get a bunch of ideas and start working through them. Now that I’m getting some tunes sneaking in to friends’ sets, getting feedback and critiques that I can build off of, production is starting to satisfy me more.

BreakBeat Energy: How many CDs and digital tracks have you produced? Do you have a particular favorite out of everything you’ve produced?

Ransom: I haven’t written too much music, to be honest. I probably have 20+ unfinished tunes sitting on my computer, maybe 20 finished tracks. Comparatively, not a lot. My current work I am starting to dig, I have this one 4/4 tune called “Flexotron” that is hyping me up to do more 4/4. I also have plans to work with a lot of different people, hoping to learn some new things and make some cool music. My roommate Bryan/Signal and I recently did a dubstep tune together that we’re both feeling, it’s called “One Vice Too Many”.

BreakBeat Energy: You’ve been around for a while. You’ve seen the trends all these years, in what direction do you see dnb and/or dubstep going from this point forward?

Ransom: It’s hard to say. I am not as diehard or headstrong about dnb like I was from 1996 to 1999, when I started listening to a lot more music of other genres and styles. The past year or two I have been very picky about what dnb I buy for myself, seems to be two or three tunes a month, while dubstep has been a lot more purchases, but also kind of particular/narrow selection. I also used to buy a lot of breakbeat, from 2000 until maybe 2007; I like a lot of early nu skool breaks, thanks to being friends with guys like Jathan/Switchstance, Travis/Adegen and Alex H./Artifact/Rockman, who I used to tag team breaks with as Tears For Jonas. Then I got in to a lot of tear out breaks, which essentially sounded like slower drum’n'bass to me, but a lot of the labels and producers shifted styles and I was not keeping up with what was being released. I get tons of 4/4 music now, since a lot of my friends are playing it, giving me tunes, I’m banging out tunes, they play some of them. I go out to a lot of just straight up dance parties, not even stuff you see promoted on the rave-esque message boards, and get lots of ideas and influences from what I hear.

BreakBeat Energy: Let’s talk about the EDM scene as a whole. It was underground, turned mainstream, and now its out of the spotlight and perhaps even going back underground. In what direction do you see the EDM scene going from this point forward?

Ransom: I really don’t know, tough for me to answer. Sometimes I don’t even think I’m in the whole EDM scene, I just kind of float around, check out what catches my ear, or a line-up catches my eye and I drag friends out and vice versa, they drag me to random shows. I don’t recognize many people at the events, but that’s a good thing, new people out and hyping their friends up on hitting parties and hearing music. I just hope people keep finding accommodating venues in the area, put on more weekend shows (booooo, full time jobs and work weeks…) and people get in to the music.

BreakBeat Energy: What’s your favorite tune at the moment?

Ransom: A few, and what I’m going to mention is probably going to surprise some people that just know of me, but don’t “know” me.
~ Nadastrom’s “Squarez” – forthcoming on Dubsided. They played this at Hometown Heroes in January and I kept bugging Matt to ID it after the party, then once I figured out what it was and got it from him, I probably played it 20 times.
~ Designer Drugs “Back Up In This (Nadastrom remix)” – forthcoming IHEARTCOMIX mabye, it’s got this bounce to it that I really dig.
~ Uncle Jesse from Baltimore just sent me some new ones that are ridiculous, “Pull” is going to be played to death.
~ I love Reso. He has no idea who I am, but that guy’s music is on some tear out dubstep business that gets me excited to just be hearing it.
~ F from France and the SE7EN label has this spacey techno meets breakbeat feel to his dubstep tunes. ~ Martyn, DJG, Komonazmuk, Benny Page, Benga and Skream are also making dubstep that I really get in to, but there is a lot more popping up from people. Jakes’s “Rock The Bells” is sick too, the bass in it is freaky, can’t wait to get that whenever it is released.
~ Culture Shock, Break, Commix and D-Bridge are my drum’n'bass idols right now. Eric/Ill Effect is my favorite local dnb Dj, and I always like hearing him play out.

BreakBeat Energy: How big is your vinyl collection? And what’s your take on the whole vinyl vs. digital argument? Some will argue that one is better than the other. Your thoughts?

Ransom: I probably have four thousand records, mostly drum’n'bass singles and then some other EDM and random records I inherited over the years. I recently got Serato and I have a lot of fun with it, think it is a great tool, but I do miss going to record shops with friends or meeting people. I think vinyl has more of a sentimental value for me, but I am not against playing digital. I was really bad with money when I was younger, so I have a lot of vinyl from when I was reckless with the spending. I probably have over $1000 in dubplates too, and it’s painful to look at them and think “I could have saved that money.” I’ve been recording vinyl, partly to sample, partly for Serato. Selling stuff I don’t have a major attachment to.

BreakBeat Energy: Who are some up-and-coming local DJs that could or is on the way to making it “big”?

Ransom: Nadastrom, a.k.a. Matt Nordstrom and Dave Nada. Matt is the man, he’s probably going to hit me for blowing up his spot like this, but dude is incredible, he’s a hard worker and his production chops are top notch. As a friend, it is awesome to see someone grow and develop like Matt has. He probably does not realize how big of an influence he’s been to me. Dave is a good dude too, I remember him from the college days when he was in ten different punk/hardcore bands, then met him when his DJing picked up and now he’s spreading his fun times. I think my friend Harry Dixon a.k.a. Harry Hotter is going to get some new recognition; he’s like a secret weapon as far as a Dj goes and now he’s working on production plus taking on some new types of gigs for himself. Bryan/Signal has tons of stuff to finish, is working on an album and he’s always plugging away on production. It’s going to pay off for him. Houston and Scotbot’s RipOFF events are doing great, and they are getting a lot of local gigs. Marcio/Telemetrik had an album out last year, and Rob Hyx is getting releases out there. I’ve been chatting with this guy Nishant/NumberNin6 who is in school down in Richmond, VA, and his dubstep tunes are sick. He’s got some releases forthcoming, will see how his DJing schedule goes. The Headhunterz guys are doing well with their endevours and various projects. Recently ran in to Dave Cortex, who I worked with years ago, doing the dnb line-ups for the DC Skillz early parties at the Tunnel, and he’s doing well with his production. Jesse Tittsworth is already big, and he is a monster. His work ethic and hustle is motivating, and just hanging out and talking about music is good for me.So many people in the area doing big things, it’s really hard to touch on everything and not forgot accomplishments.

BreakBeat Energy: What advice would you give to up and coming DJs/Promoters?

Ransom: To the Djs, keep an open mind and check out what is out there. Work on production if you can and put more of yourself in to what you are playing, stand out with your work. If you get in a rut, try something new.Promoters – make sure communication lines are good with the venues, the party goers, the artists you book and with each other. Go for good design on the promos, I think that is very important.

BreakBeat Energy: Any additional information or things you’d like to express?

Ransom: Be sure to check out Expansion Broadcast (www.expansionbroadcast.com). Promoters book me more often please. Be sure to check out the mix compilation ‘The District: Washington’s Dubstep Sounds’, mixed by Dan Amitai, has my track “With You” on it and features a whole range of local dubstep producers.
I have various web pages up too:
~ myspace.com/ransomdj,
~ virb.com/ransom – can host more music on here then on myspace, plus I like the layout and design better
~ Facebook fan page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Harry-Ransom/84609635288?ref=s,
Also I have a couple gigs coming up:
~ March 5th: The RipOFF presents The Empire Strikes Black, held at the Science Club. Ill Effect and I will be tag teaming in the non-drum’n'bass room, playing a whole lot of random stuff that we think is fun.
~ April 10th: Expansion Broadcast at LODA, held at Gallery. We’ll be participating in the Upfront DnB Showcase.