For our latest exclusive, we team up with Tipperary native Josh Neville aka ‘Stitch’ to release his most recent project ‘777’. The two-track EP brings a fresh new sound for Irish producers, as he incorporates jungle, break, and DnB genres together for a wild and exotic sound. As he studies in Waterford, Stitch continues to grow his audience with over 30k+ plays on Soundcloud and over 1.5 million on Spotify between his rebranded account and formerly as ‘HUA’.

Listen to the project below and read all about it.

XYZ Official · XYZ Exclusive: Stitch '777' EP

Tell us about your musical background. How did you get into production and at what have you been experimenting with lately?

Growing up, I was always interested in music. I was thought how to play the piano and the drums throughout my secondary school years, while also playing traditional music from a young age, however, once I got into second year I had begun DJ’ing school discos and events and after that the seed was planted. I was fascinated by crowds reactions to tracks, which created a drive to begin my own productions.

Easier said than done of course, for years after this I found it hard to grasp having a certain “sound” to which I feel in the past year or so has only been finally created naturally. To which brings me to now, experimenting with slicing drum breaks, chopping classic pads and adding my own as I would call it “weird” elements to it, such as strange frequencies that may have been processed through my amps, sampling feedback from my vinyl as you could hear in my track “it gets weird though?”. All of these elements I feel add to my music as I’m constantly trying to curate noises that entice listeners and make them think!

How is the electronic music scene holding up in Waterford? What’s got the buzz going at the minute?

Down in Waterford it’s getting better and better and I have to say it’s solely down to the Enigma crew doing absolute bits for the scene there! B.R.E.D & Fenska/Symone are talented selectors and organisers when it comes to it and it shows!

What was the first piece of equipment you purchased for mixing and production? Do you still have them?

For mixing, the first piece of kit I bought was a Traktor Z1, such a small piece of equipment helped me start, slowly ended up hating it though as I wanted to expand of course and so then I invested in a Traktor S8. I was naturally drawn to the stem separation function which baffled me, came in handy but now I’m onto CDJ’s and it feels good!

In terms of Production, my first piece of equipment was an OP-1; growing up I was obsessed with Swedish House Mafia, seeing the capabilities of that machine in their track and video of “ONE” and then to have a YouTube video running through the process of creating that track was something else for me. It blew my mind and I sampled so much content with that and it added to so many of my tracks under the alias of “HUA”.

How would you describe your own style of music? How do you differentiate yourself from the current selection of artists in the industry?

Experimental but energy driven with the intention of playing in a club, so I structure my tracks with this in mind! I’m heavily influenced by the sounds of the UK and all things garage/jungle/breaks electro and techno and I try find a balance between all of these to curate my own sound.

When it comes to production software, what would be your program of choice? Where do you source your samples from?

Ableton! A dedicated user to it for the last 5/6 years maybe even more! But I do know I began with GarageBand, then to FL studio, then to Logic and finally found my love for Ableton years ago and haven’t looked back!

Tell us about your latest project 777. It’s refreshing to hear jungle and break beats from an Irish producer.

777 is my push towards spreading these elements, in “whatyacallthis” I’ve intended to mould a techno sound along with the breaks to do so! I love tracks with such high energy along with crazy drums/percussions and FX that’s almost a blend of sci-fi one shots or cinematic brass and yet you can still imagine it being played in a club!

Who are your favourite producers? What inspires your sound the most?

Some producers that are in constant rotation for me would be the likes of Sully, Breaka, Sha Ru, PTU, Shadowax, Interplanetary Criminal, Aloka, Pete Canon, Blawan, Volruptus, Bakey, Hugo Massien, François X, and so many more I could name! To be able to make a track that can change the dynamic of a room or contains an emotion that’s clearly felt throughout is a big drive for me, and heavily influences my music as I’m interested in so many genres, I try take elements from a lot to blend in with my creations.

What would be your dream goal as a DJ / producer? Would it be to collaborate with one of your inspirations? Or play at a certain venue?

My goal rather than a dream is to be consistently performing in a club, I feel this is more so a goal than a dream because with work it’s most definitely possible, in terms of collaboration, a collab alongside someone like Samurai Breaks or to have a track featuring Flowdan would be a dream for me for sure! A boiler room set is definitely in the aspirations, I even have an intro track created ready for whenever that is! (It’s a banger).

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