Western Technique

Pendulum may be the poster boys of Perth drum & bass, but the wealth of talent the city has to offer runs much deeper.

After signing to the legendary Technique Recordings imprint in 2005, Phetsta has been showing the world that Australian drum & bass can match or exceed anything coming out of Europe. Having played Brisbane a handful of times in recent years, Phetsta is clearly looking forward to visiting again.

"Brisbane has always been good to me. This is the fourth time Gareth 'Illicit' and the Praxis crew have flown me out. They always turn out for the parties, the last one with ShockOne was off the hook."

It's no secret that the most isolated capital city in Australia has the most vibrant drum & bass scene, churning out artists that (Pendulum as the obvious example) go onto world domination. The reasons behind this, as Phetsta explains, are to do with many years of drilling it into the city’s clubbing consciousness.

"We had guys like Greg Packer pushing drum & bass before it was even called drum & bass. That was in the early nineties. Flash forward to around 2000 when I first started going out and it was already burned in people's minds. It's that history that's built the foundation for the scene today. When I started producing I never even considered other genres because of this."

While drum & bass has always been closest to Phetsta's heart, a couple of other styles have recently been grabbing his attention.

"Drum & bass is my bread and butter, dubstep and house are two very tasty condiments," he says. "With dubstep you can leave things a little rough around the edges and experiment more at the slower tempo ... I'm always interested in branching out into other genres. I like to pull influences from one genre and see how they roll with another. That's part of what gives my drum & bass its unique sound, hopefully that shows in my dubstep as well."

Taking his sound out of the clubs and into the bush for the upcoming Manifest outdoor festival is something that Phetsta is keen on, but he’s understandably wary considering his festival history. "I've only ever gone bush once before in New Zealand. I almost blew myself up refilling a generator. It was really loose so I'm looking forward to doing it again. The music part, not the blowing up part, unless it's in slow motion."

PHETSTA IS PLAYING MANIFEST AT BESTBROOK MOUNTAIN RESORT SEPTEMBER 24 - 26.