Pariah Beats

Arthur Cayzer may have chosen the moniker of an outsider but he's unlikely to end up a music exile. With comparisons to J Dilla and Flying Lotus, Radio 1 airplay, remixes for the likes of The XX and a Myspace as frequented as a vuvuzela horn shop at the World Cup, there's an exciting vibe about the twenty two year old student at the moment.

His output is a Frankenstein of haunting, hanging dubbeats, meets Detroit, meets smart two-step, meets a cloud of cut up samples. It's good, very good, and rather refreshingly it avoids the clichés and pitfalls of copycat production. Cayzer is signed to the recently reinvigorated R & S Records whose current roster also includes James Blake and Delphic. The label released the Pariah tracks 'Orpheus/Detroit Falls' in March of this year, the former a melodically haunting slice of smartly formed beats and the latter big listening dubstep with original detailing and a vintage vocal. Then there's the gentle, synthed up remix Cayzer produced of 'Basic Space' by The XX, one of the biggest success stories of the last two years. Not a bad start then.

Who's Pariah and where did he come from?

I'm Arthur, I'm 22 and originally from Scotland but I moved down to London about four years ago.

What is the Pariah Sound?

I'm not really sure to be honest. I guess pretty much all my tunes have an emphasis on melody and use a lot of sampled vocals. Recently, because I've been DJ'ing a lot more, my productions have been far more percussive and geared towards the dance floor but they do still have extended melodic sections.

What's been the story so far with the tracks? [I especially love 'Don't Go' - it's gorgeous, haunting like the best of Burial] How do you start a tune and where's the inspiration?

Thanks very much! That was actually the first tune that I ever made and I never got round to finishing it properly. I'm glad you like it.

I usually start a tune by sitting in front of my keyboard and finding a good chord progression. I always have to get the melody first and I've never actually finished a tune that I started with just a rhythm.

You've been compared to Flying Lotus, Joy Orbison and Bullion. Which producers do you rate right now?

I find that very flattering and I guess some of my tunes have similarities to those artists because they certainly influence me. At the moment, I can't get enough of the Hessle and Hemlock outputs. The new Joe 12" on Hessle is ridiculous.

What kind of set up do you have?

I make my tunes on a Macbook Pro with Logic 8 Express and use Genelec 8020a monitors. I also use an Alesis Micron. It’s pretty basic.

You've been mentioned in the same breath as J Dilla and Burial - were they an influence? Who are your musical heroes?

Both those artists influence me hugely! I'm indebted to them. My musical heroes are people and bands like Brian Eno, Godspeed! You Black Emperor (and anyone/anything affiliated with them), Burial, Boards of Canada, The Smiths, and Jacob Bannon.

What's been your highlight so far? (pretty early to ask but still..)

Having my debut single come out and having my tunes played on Radio 1.

Whose the best DJ around - is it you? What's your DJ style?

Haha... definitely definitely not me. In my opinion people like Ben UFO and Oneman are the best DJ's around. I like to have as wide a range of genres as possible. I play a blend of house, techno, UK garage and general UK bass music. I like to start at 120bpm and work my way up to 140bpm.

Pint of Stella or something sweet and fruity?

I get ripped on by all my mates because I don't drink beer. I've never really liked it. Give me a glass of wine anyday!

What have you got in the pipeline for this year?

I've got a 6 track 2x12" EP called "Safehouses" which is forthcoming on R&S. After that I've got another 12" on R&S which feature a Berlin meets Detroit influenced techno tune and then a 3 track EP for Black Acre.

What sound do you think is running music at the moment?

I think that, right now, there is so much interesting music coming out across all genres and especially so with electronic music. What's great is that there is no single sound running dance music at the moment. When you go out to a night now, you hear so much music that takes its influences from so many different places that it becomes unclassifiable which is a truly great thing.

www.myspace.com/pariahbeats