Touching Bass: Trevino

You may know Trevino as Marcus Intalex, one of drum and bass’ loyal ambient/liquid devotees. But we all look for new challenges, whether it be finding new ways to eat a Bourbon biscuit or switching genres in search of new inspiration. Trevino functions as an outlet for Marcus’ 120-130bpm techno house-making desires resulting in releases on 3024 and Applepips. Heavy influence came from the US in the form of the late eighties Detroit sound of the Belleville Three, Carl Craig, Underground Resistance and Drexiya. This year’s been quite action packed, so when me and Marcus spoke for Touching Bass this week, he was looking forward to a quiet January more than anything. Before diving into a half hour’s worth of techno house jams, peep our chat about golf, skipping genres and Seinfeld.

YNTHT: How’ve you been? Got the Christmas spirit?

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Trevino: Yeah, pretty good. It’s pretty full on here and I’ve not had much of a chance to switch off these past 12 months. Actually looking forward to a quieter January where there’s far less gigs and I get a chance to live a slightly more normal life.

You deserve to put your feet up. Now, as many will know you’ve been producing music under a couple of different guises. But, how has the Trevino pseudonym affected the way you work on Intalex stuff if at all?

It’s given me a lot more freedom, and taken away the pressure of just being Intalex. I no longer care/worry about how Intalex is perceived. I’m just writing music for myself and playing music that I feel, which has in turn made me enjoy what I do as Intalex far more than previous years.

It must be satisfying to be able to attack music from a different angle.

Both techno and house equally excite me. I like to dig deeper and not go for the obvious tracks. The exciting thing about it all is that there is such a wealth of great music out there. I seem to find new artists weekly that prick my ears; something that hasn’t happened in drum and bass for a long time.

Cool. So as a producer, what challenges have you faced jumping between techno and drum and bass?

Firstly, the hard bit was making the music sound as professional as the stuff that was already out there. It’s a slightly different sonic approach and although I’m still learning I feel like I’m getting closer to achieving the level of production that I’m proud of. Behind the decks there’s also a slightly different challenge, the biggest one is finding time to really know the music. There’s such a greater wealth of tracks to choose from so it’s much harder to keep on top of what I want to play.

What have you found easiest?

I find the studio side of it to just be really good fun. Creatively I’m having a whale of a time playing around and experimenting. I seem to easily be able to write 2 or 3 tracks a week, and I’m always looking forward to working in the studio.

Your passport must be quite cultured because of your constant travelling. Where’s been your favourite place to play recently?

I do really enjoy playing in Berlin; in fact the whole of Germany is pretty much on point. I also had a really good time playing at Dimensions festival this year.

I was out in Croatia for Outlook and need some Mediterranean sun on my skin. There was such an amazing array of talent out there, some old and some progressing up the ranks. Which artists are particularly exciting you across drum and bass/techno?

In drum and bass I’m really feeling what Skeptical is doing, Luke LSB and Anile has made a couple of killers recently. In techno, like I said before, there is so much great music. I’ve always been a massive Shed fan, Marcel Dettman pretty much hits the mark every time, and the same can be said about Mike Dehnert. On a more house tip I like Fred P, Omar S, Endian and Leon Vinehall to name but a few.

Now, I imagine your life is engulfed by musical endeavours. But when you get a chance to unwind, how do you like to chill out?

I’m a massive golfer. In fact I enjoy most sports, mainly watching these days. I’m also a fan of the odd TV series and at the minute I’m really enjoying going back through all the episodes of Seinfeld.

What would you say is your worst habit?

Watching too much sport and not playing enough.

Guilty. Finally, could you explain what drove your track selection for the mix and what bits do we have to look forward to?

Considering it was such a short mix, I wanted to go against the grain and not machine gun loads of tracks in there. I wanted to play some nice deep tracks and let them breathe. Hence it only being about 6 or 7 tracks long but containing some real favourites of mine at the moment.