Bad Colours is back with his sophomore album, ‘Always With U’, out on Bastard Jazz Recordings. The London-born, Maryland-raised, Brooklyn-based DJ, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist – aka Ibe Soliman – continues to build on the well-deserved acclaim from his 2021 debut LP, ‘PINK’, as well as a slew of standalone singles and collaborations with the likes of Shabazz Palaces, Jarv Dee, and Stas THEE Boss. ‘Always With U’ sees Ibe further develop his talents as a songwriter and producer, while maintaining the signature balance of banging dance music and dense bars that he’s quickly becoming known for. The album expands Ibe’s role to a collaborator, band leader, and all-around star-of-the-show; it’s certainly still a dance record, but there’s also so much more.
To celebrate the release of his sophomore album ‘Always With U’, Bad Colours invites EG into the studio for 5 basic production tips:
1. Templates
I can’t stress this enough, so it’s my first tip. As someone who works really fast, taking time to set up another track or scrolling endlessly for sounds is wasted time. You have to keep the vibe going. I usually work with the same sounds then I go back and swap sounds once the idea is around 75% complete.
2. The grid
I find it useful for kicks on the downbeat and maybe a clap on the 2/4 if that’s what’s called for but I usually try to have everything else off the grid. Everyone plays instruments differently so this is a great way to stick out from the crowd. If you use loops, chop them up. Shift the timing. Develop your own feel.
3. Don’t create on big speakers
They will lie to you. Everything sounds good on big speakers. My reference speakers at home are Mackie CR3s. If it sounds good on those, it’ll usually sound great out.
4. Less is more
When I send stuff out to artists, I try to keep it really minimal at the start. My stuff is pretty minimal anyway, but I’ve found over the years that most artists have more difficulty adding things to projects with lots of things going on.
5. The song always comes first
There are more production tricks (and videos) out there now than ever, but if it’s not a good song, it’s not a good song. I try to imagine how my songs would translate as an acoustic song, a reggae song, etc.
Bad Colours’ ‘Always With U’ is out now via Bastard Jazz Recordings.
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