Welcome to Touching Bass, where I’ll be delving into the minds of DJs; marauders of the late night rave and soundtrackers for all the night time debauchery that we crave. While scantily clad females, buzzing off a conjoined bundle of oestrogen and overpriced Red Stripe wine their bodies, they work; piecing together low-end heaviness while your abstinence falls to pieces.

This time around I talked to Bradford beatsmith, TS7, about Jazz FM, West African rivalries and FIFA; naturally.

So bassline was the North’s EDM baby, why didn’t it ever reach puberty?

LOL, it was a Sheffield/Leeds type of thing so it took a while for the Londoners and people down south to catch onto the sound when it was at its peak. Sheffield was the place to be, one place called Niche was the heartbeat of the bassline scene.

What goes down in Bradford town then?

In a nutshell, I’d say that it’s very different from the south, unpredictable. I love it though because its home and it’s the fifth biggest city in the UK so there’s a lot of people starting to take music a lot more seriously. There’s a producer that I work with called Deckstar and Dean Anthony plus others that are really focusing on their music.

When you were younger and your parents jumped in the car what did you usually listen to?

My dad used to love putting a bit of Jazz FM and reggae on the radio when we were going places. There were always a couple of CDs in there too.

My parents used to love them pirate stations when the Jamaican uncle used to interrupt the song every three seconds…

My family are from Ghana, so I’m a West African boy, but they used to love a bit of reggae.

I imagine you get the Nigerian banter? Are you feeling a little bitter after they won the African Cup of Nations?

Yeah man, there’s always war between them two countries but don’t even get me started LOL! To be fair they deserved to win though, they had a good squad.

Onto the music though, how did “Heartlight” pop into existence?

It started off as an instrumental called ‘Polygon’ which I made around August last year. I sent it to DJ Target and he made it the equivalent of his ‘track of the week’. After that my Twitter just shut down, so I sent to a couple of other DJs and they were spinning the instrumental. Then I had a little chat with my manager and he wanted the track to have a top line so I linked up with a talented singer called Taylor Fowlis from Liverpool and went in the studio then it just went from there.

It’s pretty different from your bassline background and it’s stepping into four-to-the-floor territory…

To be fair I think it’s pretty similar to the stuff I did before, just a slower tempo to be honest. It’s got the same characteristics and its not like I’ve taken a massive jump from what I did before. I just like the soulful vocal element of it.

I’ve never been an avid participant but are you prone to the occasional shuffle?

When a tune gets you, you just have to shuffle a bit init. Sometimes you’ve got to cut some shapes LOL.

I’m gonna stick to my two-step. If you could choose any DJ (dead or alive) to join you for a back-to-back set for two hours, who would you choose?

I’ll say DJ EZ because he’s a legend. He’s a master on the decks so it would be good to learn from him.

I’d love to see DJ EZ dash the headphones to one side and skank with some shapes. When you’re not playing out with garage masters or in the studio, how do you chill out?

When I was younger I used to play football for Bradford City and Hull City, so I still like to play when I can. Other than that just chilling with my girlfriend, watching TV. I’m just your average guy that likes to make beats.

How about a bit of FIFA?

On the Xbox of course. I don’t play, I win!

We should set up a game after this…

Are you online?

Yeah.

We’ll get something sorted.

Follow Errol on Twitter @elzan1