Meet Mischief & Reason | Drum & Bass Artist / Audio Engineer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mischief & Reason and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mischief &, any advice for those thinking about whether to keep going or to give up?
I think the only answer is to keep going. If it’s something you believe in, if it’s something you feel in your bones, it’s truly the only option. Like this music– it’s weird, it’s not mainstream, and it’s not even like normal for the small niche of electronic music that it’s supposed to be. I keep making Drum and Bass and Jungle Music because it lives inside of me, and my take on it has grown out of all of the influences that formed my musical taste and musical experience – Hip hop, Funk, Jazz, early Dance and Rave/ Hardcore, Heavy Metal– All of these varied influences get put into the washbin and mixed up, and out of that you get this incredible melting pot of rich musical sounds. It’s future music, really– and it can’t be stopped. As an artist, we have to keep moving, keep creating, keep doing.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I started making electronic and sampled music in the late 90’s. Before that, I started out playing punk rock in bands in high school, and that’s when the DIY bug really hit me, with the punk ethos being a key driving factor- the idea was to do everything autonomously, from writing the songs, recording, and duplicating the tapes ourselves, distributing them to friends in real life at shows or events, and online in the infancy of the World Wide Web. Our band was featured in one of the biggest zines in the world as one of the first punk bands to actually have a website (this was in 1996). This do it yourself attitude and by any means mindset has followed me since and informed my career. In fact, to this day my day job currently still builds on core knowledge I gained from teaching myself how to build that website.

Fast forward to 1999, I had began DJ’ing and built somewhat of a production studio, and got my first sampler. The first songs I wrote with this setup were hip-hop / jungle mashups and I haven’t stopped since! Following on those DIY roots, Mischief & Reason released their first music as a self-released set of 12″ vinyl singles in 2000. Shortly after that, we moved to Atlanta and I was struck by the vibrant recording studio scene in town and turned that DIY spirit to the recording engineer side. After a short stint interning at a big Atlanta studio, I set out on my own to build a recording studio and working as a freelance engineer. While I spent the next 10-15 years building studios and recording and mixing everything from Rap and Reggae, to Jazz, Rock, and Metal, I never stopped producing Drum and Bass and Jungle.

I think my sound is unique in Drum and Bass and Jungle as I’ve always had a different sound in my head from more mainstream artists in the genre. I try to make my tunes sound grimy like Bomb Squad productions on old Public Enemy records or DJ Muggz productions on Cypress Hill’s first records, and lean heavily on old school drum breaks and samples, obscure movie soundtracks (vintage Kung-Fu flicks are a favorite), and found atmospherics to create somewhat of a signature sound palette. This has led to building a huge bank of samples and sounds that I pull from when starting new tunes that give a kind of coherent reference point, even though the tunes cross sub-genres and styles, sometimes within the same song.

The new Mischief & Reason record coming out on April 4, the Turbulence EP, combines the throughlines above with a rush of current, forward thinking sound design and with production elevated to new levels. The tunes include vocals and instruments recorded in my old recording studios from my time as a freelance engineer, and all of the tracks were recorded through the analog mixing board that I used in the studio as well, which remains a sonic fingerprint of sorts. It hopefully stands to connect the dots from my past musical output to the future, which I am very excited about bringing to life. I have a lot of new releases coming up in the next year that I am super excited about and really excited to get out into the world!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If one of my favorite artists was coming to town and I was entertaining, we would 100% have to start at buford highway. LanZhou Ramen or North China Eatery for Ramen and Soup Dumplings, El Tacos Veloz for late night Tacos, and Chicago Supermarket, H-Mart and Buford Highway Farmers Market for any grocery staples or other needs. When it comes to late night food, Gaja Korean in East Atlanta is great, and for show nights, Altar at The Masquerade has some delicious bites. For going out these days, Underground Atlanta is really reinventing the city’s nightlife scene now, with now long-established Masquerade (which is basically four world-class venues in one) being joined by Atlanta stalwarts MJQ and newcomers like Lunchbox (which is run by the former Music Room team and has the best sounding VOID sound system in town!!).

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
First, I would like to give the biggest of shouts out to my incredible partner and best friend in this world, Ash. Who is not only the most supportive of all of my creative endeavors and mishaps but is also, and more importantly an incredible DJ, artist, curator and promoter in her own right. Her support makes everything I do possible, and she brings so much joy, love, and music into the lives of everyone she comes in contact with.

I’d also like to give a big proper shout out to the Atlanta Drum and Bass and Music community as a whole. The electronic music scene here is so tight knit, with so many incredibly talented producers and DJ’s supporting each other and building up momentum and creative energy. This really builds off of the overall music scene in Atlanta, which is so fantastic, with options from traditional Jazz and Bebop to Heavy Metal to cutting edge Bass music events happening weekly, it is really a music fan’s dream come true.

Other local Atlanta based Drum and Bass and Jungle producers I’d love to give props to include: WilSun, Tormund, Charlie P, Cub, Subconcious BSC, Lorme & Pedrumz, the OG legends Evol Intent, Mayhem and Armanni Reign, and on and on. Let’s keep moving forward and pushing the sounds!

Website: https://mischiefandreason.com

Instagram: @m_r_dnb

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556630647548

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@m_r_dnb

Other: https://mischiefandreason.bandcamp.com/album/turbulence-ep