here is the interview at dnbnation, in case you hadn't read it.
eric b
0. no one really knows a whole lot about you. care to shine a bit of light
on to what makes desimal tick?
My real name is graham march. mostly my sheer will to make music that scares
old people

i feel a lot of frustration and anger when listening to the radio or the trendy music that most people are subjected to in the mass media. pop music, a lot of the new rock and hip hop stuff is so formulated and devoid of all life and originality. i feel sorry that this is the only kind of music that reaches the minds of most people, especially younger people, and they really don’t know any better cuz they have never heard anything else. i think of drum and bass as an evolutionary kind of music that is going to take peoples minds to new places and bring in new ideas as to what forms music can take and a lot of people just aren’t geared for it mentally, and will hear it and be like "what’s this noise” cuz it’s so different. and then other people will hear it and start feeling it immediately. it’s like how certain people can see a UFO and they go "hey what’s that” and try to sort it out, and someone standing right beside them could see the same thing but their mind isn’t ready to process it, and it’s like they don’t even see it at all. but don’t get me started on that...
1. how would you describe your music?
i think one of the main things i’m trying to do with my music is reach
mediums, like have things be light and dark, or complex but simple at the
same time. usually ill lean towards one or the other but try to keep
elements of both, so the tunes aren’t just 1 dimensional. i struggle a lot
with complexity, back in the days of un-necessarily technical tracked demo
music where we would have say, 5 synths going at the same time and changing
up every 3 seconds, and then another 4 tracks for just strings, that’s
sort of where i started out and now i’ve been working my way back trying to
simplify things a bit so it’s not just totally mental. i try to make stuff
that is as danceable as possible; i really want to create tunes that people
LIKE to dance to, that give them energy. and i think at the very root of
this is just the simple, repetitive beat over time, kinda like how natives
would dance around the fire to a simple hand drum. for some reason this
beat has such an effect on us. so a lot of my beats i keep fairly repetitive
but ill say, change up the hats or percussion every few bars to keep things
flowing. if i wanted to i could do super technical breakdowns and beats
that fly all over the place but i think often this takes away from the
danceablilty. as for everything else, i try to always have evolving
elements throughout a tune so it’s never the same thing for too long, that
way i think it keeps your mind interested as well.
2. what dnb artist were and are your biggest influences?
i think when i really started getting interested in drum and bass was first
time i saw ed rush & optical do a show, i was like "yeah, ok this is it"
before that i was producing all kinds of styles, everything from trance,
breaks and hardcore. after that show i decided to focus strictly on dnb.
it had everything i loved about electronic music; it had so much energy to
it and just made you want to dance, but it was also highly creative and
original, it made you think and was mentally captivating. and i could
really tell there were a lot of places you could go with it. also at the time
i was really inspired by konflict, stakka & skynet and bad company stuff.
the dark, gritty, techy sounds
3. and other musical influences?
before i started going to a lot of raves i listened to mostly industrial,
like nine inch nails, KMFDM, pop will eat itself, i still like this
stuff a lot and think it still influences my tunes in a way. i also try to
take elements from all the styles i’ve been into in the past, like the more
technical stuff from mods and demo music, some melodic stuff from trance,
and try to fit it all in. i’ve had so many influences from all types of
music it’s hard to list just a few and say these were the main ones. it’s
interesting how we seem to put up walls around all these different genres of
electronic music to keep them independent from each other, but at the same
time they seem to borrow so much from each other, almost on a subconscious
level. another thing id like to get into eventually is mixing tempos and
genres and seeing what kind of variations on styles can be created that
way, but at the moment i’m highly focused on dnb and that takes most of my
energy
3. what do you listen to besides dnb?
it’s funny at the moment i don’t listen to all that much dnb outside of my own
production, i find after spending a night working at 175 bpm that when i go
to listen to other stuff it’s usually ambient or downtempo stuff like
shpongle or liquid morphine, it helps my mind relax a bit. although i do
try to keep up with what dnb is being put out there at the moment i love to
hear where people are taking things and get a lot of inspiration from other
artists work.
4. studio?
i don’t have much of a studio really it’s just my computer and monitors. but
if anyone asks that’s what i call it: P i’m really happy with software right
now and where it’s been going the last few years, i feel like i can do
everything i need with software at this time and i love it. i wouldn’t mind
having a few bits of gear to play around with but really i’d probably just end
up back in reaktor cuz there’s such a huge library and variety of sounds you
can make with it and the sound quality just keeps getting better. also for
mixing down i might get a desk to run my output though but for now i’m happy
with the plugins i use and the system i have going. i started using renoise
as a sequencer about a year ago, it has everything i love about trackers
and i've gotten familiar with over the last 10 years but it has a ton of new
features and sounds great.
5. describe your sound
i don’t really like using buzzwords to describe my sound, or i start
sounding like a commercial or something. i think when my sound starts to
fit into a set of terms then ill have lost my creativity and have moved onto
making music for ipod commercials or something.
6. what upcoming releases do you have slated?
I’m in the middle of a few projects right now its hard to say as nothing is
definite yet, but possibly some more stuff for armada, obsessions, and
maybe barcode. right now i’m trying to broaden my horizons a bit and reach a
wider audience, hopefully ill be able to find other quality labels that are
interested in my sound
7. how were you "discovered", so to speak?
the first person that really took an interest in my sound was cyanide, i
think he yelled at me on AIM one day and then i had a deal

i’ve never
been much for the business end of things, marketing yourself and all that.
i think i sent out a few demos a very long time ago, that was before i had
even started mixing things down and i realize now the tunes sounded pretty
shitty. cyanide was a huge support and was very motivated, i liked his
idea for a label and could tell he was putting a lot of energy into it.
8. how did it make you feel when you were approached to have your music?
released?
a bit relieved, i’d been producing for a long time and at that point was
pretty eager to start putting some things out there. also, i think it gave me the confidence to stay focused on production and try to take things to the
next level in terms of mixing down and quality control. getting the final
tunes sounding good is still my biggest challenge and i feel like i’ve
learned so much about mixdowns over the last year or two but i still have a
long way to go, and i don’t think its something you can ever fully master.
if i was to sum up the main thing i’ve found for myself about production its
to use quality samples, if you’re not using good samples from the start, no
matter how good your production skills are, you’re not gonna be able to polish
them into something great. what you should be trying to do is taking
something that sounds good and make it even better, not trying to make
something that’s crap sound reasonable.
9. whose work are you into these days?
all the guys pushing the new neuro sounds are a big inspiration to me,
noisia, corrupt souls, phace, etc... i always look to see what these
guys are up to and i’m always impressed with how their progressing with their
own unique sounds and styles
10. anyone you want to collaborate with?
i’ve been supposed to do a collab with noisia for like 2 years now, its
almost gotten started a couple times but, like most of my collabs that
didn’t happen, we run into compatibility issues. i work in trackers and the
guys i go to collab with are usually in cubase or logic, so it’s a bit of a
leap to get things going. really i have yet to collab with anyone (or remix
anyone for that matter) i’ve been really tied up with my own stuff but its
something i really want to do in the near future, we'll see.
11. you're stranded on a desert island with three movies, five tunes, and
one choice of food and drink. they are?
i'm not that big of a movie guy so ill just say "akira" for movie, every
time i watch it i realize a bit more about how deep the plot is and i love
this style of animation. for tune i would have to say konflict "gene
sequence" and food, i'd say hotdogs and beer, because i love camping and
trust me this combination alone can sustain you for months
12. shouts go out to...
doa grid krew, i’ve been neglecting my forum posting duties a lot lately and
i miss spending hours talking production with these cool like-minded people.
also the man e-dub and dnbnation for letting me speak my mind a bit.
peace!