In anticipation of his set at Eat My Beat on Saturday, LS Clubs’ Will Gadsby Peet caught up with drum & bass/dubstep artist Doctor P…

Your bio on Circus records says that the PlayStation game Music 2000 was highly responsible for your interest in electronic music. Is your successful career in fact proof that video games are good for children?
Video games are definitely good for children… They certainly did me no harm, except that I am socially inept.

Other than Music 2000 what sparked your interest in electronic music?
I remember searching Napster for ‘Remix’ and a few drum & bass remixes came up. That was the moment I discovered drum & bass, and from there I got heavily into all electronic music. I have always like the creative freedom in electronic music as opposed to just using guitars etc.

Which artists would you say have been most influential on your own style as a DJ?
I’m not sure about my DJing style, but my production has been influenced by a lot of things; not just electronic music, but bands like Rage Against the Machine, Korn, System of a Down, and acts like Wu-Tang Clan and OutKast.

What’s been the best moment of your career so far?
It’s impossible to pick a single moment, but touring America over the last couple of years has been a pretty crazy experience.

In the past decade the evolution of dubstep has been insane. It was only in 2001 that FWD>>, the first mainly dubstep oriented night was founded. 11 years later DJ Fresh was blowing up the UK singles chart with ‘Louder’. What do you think it is about dubstep that has managed to drag it from sweaty basements to mainstream commercial success in such a short period of time?
I think there is something about the tempo and feel of dubstep that makes it really appealing; it just seems impossible to make a dubstep track cheesy. I actually only heard of dubstep for the first time in 2009, so it’s even more amazing to me how fast it’s grown, even back in 2009 it was still very underground.

What do you think of all the hate that Skrillex catches? Is it just the usual anger small-minded people feel when their cool, trendy underground genre becomes mainstream and successful, or is he in fact ‘bare shit like bruv emo f*****’ as one exceptionally well-educated YouTube troll claims on one of his videos?
It may be a controversial opinion, but I actually think Skrillex is one of the best producers of our generation. People are allowed to dislike his music, but they can’t deny the massive impact he has had on the music industry! He is also one of the nicest people I’ve ever met… For every person that hates him there are a million people that love him, just like it is with every musician (NIckelback not included).

What would be your dream lineup for a Circus Records club night?
We just did our first full Circus showcase in London. Every single act was there, for the first time ever! Hopefully we can do more of those events together, as it was a really good atmosphere the whole night.

Your biggest successes have come from your dubstep production but you have also produced drum & bass under a number of aliases. What are the differences in producing and mixing the two genres and which one do you enjoy the most?
I like the drum & bass tempo – it just seems to feel natural to me, but nowadays the lines between the genres have been blurred so much. I just think of it all as bass music, without putting too much emphasis on tempo or genre.

My mate is a DJ and says that dropping a tune and seeing people go mental is better than sex. Would you agree or should I buy my friend a book on how to have better sex?
Maybe somebody should combine both and write the dubstep Kama Sutra…

You’re playing with Bar 9 on the 20th October at The Warehouse. What can we expect from your set to compete with one of your main rivals in ludicrous bass heavy dance-floor shattering drops?
I just try and make my sets as interesting and energetic as possible, I don’t usually play a track for more than 90 seconds. When I have seen other DJs in the past I sometimes get a bit bored, so I just try and watch the crowd and hold everybody’s attention for the whole set. I always try and throw in a few tracks that people might not be expecting too! It’s been ages since I’ve done a gig with Bar 9, so it’ll be cool to catch up with them.

Doctor P is set to play alongside Ms. Dynamite and Bar 9 at Eat My Beat, this Saturday 20th October at The Warehouse. Tickets are £10.

words: Will Gadsby Peet