Ben Coda is a fresh house artist who lays down energetic live shows and killer DJ sets. He has been doing so for over a decade and is a core member of the Lowering the Tone crew with Meat Katie.
He is a master of reading the crowd and taking them on a real trip with his progressive and tech house sounds and is sure to do that at this year’s Noisily festival from 7th – 10th July 2022 next to the likes of John Digweed, Eats Everything, Frida Darko and many more.
Here we speak to him ahead of the event.
How are you, what’s good and bad in your world?
I’m good thanks, looking forward to a very different year to the past couple, the gigs are picking up again, after a very quiet spell due to Covid, so it’ll be great to get back out there and play all the music I’ve been writing over the past couple of years.
You have a new album coming soon – tell us what inspired and influenced it?
Yes, my second full Ben Coda album, called Hidden Blue Highways, it was all written during lockdown but vibe-wise I had one eye on the eventual lifting of restrictions and wanted it to have a really uplifting progressive vibe, while still keeping my usual low slung basslines and beats. I also wanted to experiment with some different bpms and sounds, so there are slower tracks than usual on there and some weird new sounds.
How different did you approach it than a 12″?
I’ve written 5 albums now between my Ben Coda and Nanoplex projects, and an album is a very different process to a single, albums give me a lot more freedom to experiment, but there has to be a strand linking all the tunes as people listen to albums as a whole, so it’s quite a complicated process, whereas with a single you can just write it and release it and it’s a standalone sound. I tried to create a progression through the sounds and vibe of the tunes with the album, with each track standing on its own but also linking in to the whole package, in case someone is listening from start to finish.
Did you have an idea and where it might be listened to in mind when you wrote it?
I’ve always got an ear for the dancefloor when writing music, so first and foremost the tunes are all DJ-friendly dancefloor rockers. It’s good driving music as well, I can confirm that!
What gear did you use to make it, does that matter?
Gear does matter, and what you do with it matters the most. The latest addition to my studio is a Sequential Pro 3, and these tunes were the first ones I used on it, its got that proper analogue sound, and you can hear it in the warmth and depth of some of the sounds in the tunes. Apart from the Pro 3, it’s mainly soft-synths, Xfer Serum and Synapse Audio Obsession were the two I used the most, and high quality samples from my ever-growing sample bank that I’ve been building for years now.
What should people expect from you at noisily festival?
It’ll be the third time I’ve played on the main Noisily stage as Ben Coda, and we’ve done pretty much every Noisily as Nanoplex, so I know the crowd and the vibe really well, it’s the best underground dance music festival in the UK in my opinion. I’ll be delivering a rolling set of progressive techno, with loads of brand new tunes that I’ve been working on over the past couple of years (not just album tracks).
Do you play differently at a festival than in a club, does the setting, time of day etc impact your selections?
Definitely time of day and set and setting play a big difference, I’m generalising as it depends on the mood of the crowd, but daytime gigs tend to be more progressive, night time darker and more techno-focused. Clubs vs festivals again, clubs I tend to go down a more techno/tech house-based sound, but it all depends on what time I’m on, what the vibe of the crowd is like and who’s playing before and after, there’s a lot to take into consideration.
What is your best, worst or wildest festival memory?
Ill go with best and that has to be playing on ‘Mad Monday’ at Rainbow Serpent Festival in Australia, the vibe there was electric, a really special gig.
What else have you got coming up?
Gig-wise working on a couple of tours at the moment, but can’t share the details just yet, and later in the year I’ll be playing at Ozora Festival – really looking forward to that one. Music-wise I’m on good form in the studio and will have another few EPs worth of tunes ready by the time this one comes out… great to have a solid body of work to follow Hidden Blue Highways release, so keep your ears open for all the new music.
