For the second installment of 3 Questions 4, we sat down with London based artist Deft. He has been a fixture in London's bass music community and we were thrilled to get a chance to speak.
Your recent EP Bellyboy on Ivy Lab’s 20/20 LDN label features some remarkably open and lush soundscapes. Can you talk about the process of recording this record and some of the influences you drew on?
Thank you! With 'Bellyboy' I think I wanted to show how I've been trying to further refine my music as Deft through maximising on minimal elements (well, as minimal as I can go, ha). Working with Buchanan was also a great new challenge for the both of us.
Your music is equally suited for deep home listening and the dancefloor. Do you keep these listening contexts in mind while you’re in the studio or is this just something that happens naturally?
Probably a bit of both. I'm naturally more inclined to make music for headphones / home listening, so I try to inject the energy of club music into my tracks to give some elevation and variation. I can't go into the studio and think 'I'm going to make a dancefloor track' because it never works. I can go into the studio and think 'I'm going to make hours of drones and ambient music' though 
London is a perennial hotspot for electronic music innovation. Do you draw influence from the artists around you, and if so, who?
In all honesty, its the rate of change and the pace of how things move that influence me the most; not just in London, but everywhere around the world. You can take your time to soak it all in and make it a part of your music when as it comes. It's easy to get swept up in the moment from the hype.
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Deft's new record on Ivy Lab's 20/20 LDN label is out now:
