FEATURE: Spotlight: Flava D — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Flava D

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I am spending…

some time with the amazing Flava D. This is one of our best D.J.s. Hailing from Bournemouth, this incredible D.J. has been making music and performing sets for many years. She has a busy next couple of months ahead. However, there was a lot of interest around her last year, as she released the album, Here & Now. I want to get to some 2026 interviews with Flava D. I am starting out with Asbo Magazine, who caught her at Gemfest:

“Okay, so you can start by introducing yourself.

Uh, hey, I'm Flava D. I'm a DJ producer that’s been making music for about 15 years, kind of specialising in electronic dance music, like garage, drum and bass. Most recently, kind of dubstep stuff; done grime back in the day, so I'm quite across the board.

Nice, so how did you first get into performing, and what got you into the scene and inspired you?

It was about 2011. So, yeah, about 15 years ago, I kind of had my break with my 1st grime song. That got some circulation, and then as the years went on, I started making garage, and that's when my 1st DJ sets came about, and like my 1st ever booking, and then it just kind of went from there.

What tracks are you most excited to play tonight, and will we be hearing any new music?

Yeah. I've got a lot. So I'm starting my set tonight with a collab with me and Hamdi. So, yeah, it's a song we actually finished about 2 weeks ago, but yeah, I'm pretty stoked to play that. I've got a lot of music with me, Peekaboo. Yeah, there's like at least 5 new tracks. I'm testing, so it's quite a lot.

Do you have any new music coming out?

Yeah, lots. A lot. Every month, I think, I've got a song coming out this year, so... Yeah, so I'm going to be playing; I've got a single dropping in 2 weeks. I'm actually playing it today 1st time as well. So I’m like, GemFest is really getting the exclusives.

And then lastly, where can we expect to see you performing this summer?

The summer is quite a lot. I'm in America quite a lot at the end of the year, but I'm at quite a few festivals in England. Croatia's coming up next month with Hospitality on the Beach. So that should be good. Uh, God, I kind of have to think on the top of my head. But yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot. I'm about”.

I am getting to an interview with UKF. They spoke at “UKF Invites at London’s Colour Factory where Flava D’s is joint headliner”. I do think that it is important to spotlight D.J.s in addition to artists. D.J.s never really get the exposure that they deserve. Flava D is a global sensation:

“I’m ten years into my career and it was never really a thing I wanted to do. Until just before COVID, when I was about to start it. But then I put it on pause for a bit because of the way the world was. It just didn’t feel like album time.

I only feel like it was last year that I really got the tracks, and I really found myself. I found my confidence, I was happy with the tunes I was making, I was happy with my mixing down. I felt satisfied and I felt like I had something that I was satisfied with.”

Growing up on the UK’s south coast was very different to Flava D’s time in London’s dirty South. However both areas have strong underground music scenes. Spending her formative years across the two areas it is easy to see how her diverse range of influences had contributed to the breadth of her soundscapes today.

“ I was born in Bournemouth, but I lived around South London for about 10 years, and then last summer I moved back to Bournemouth. It’s quite a change. I miss London- certain things, the environment, the energy, the nightlife, things like that. But then you’ve got the seaside. I love the seaside, and my family are around me. It’s a nice change that I think I needed.

My raving years were a bit in Bournemouth and a bit in London. When I originally moved out of Bournemouth I moved to Maidstone in Kent and when eventually I could afford it, I headed to South London, in Lewisham, Catford and then Bromley.

There used to be a lively drum and bass scene in Bournemouth- it’s not quite the same. About 10 years ago, Bournemouth was known as ‘that party town’

As I was growing up everyone around me was into different things, but dance music was a big thing. My auntie was into old school garage, my mum was very much into trance and euphoria- she had all the Ferry Corsten CDs. My dad was very into acoustic rock and my cousins were into Cyprus Hill, Nas and Lauren Hill. So I had such a complex musical palette at a very young age. When I was ten I was listening to J Dilla, and everyone in my class was listening to the Spice Girls.

Being musically different from my peers didn’t bother me at the time. I was just very into what I was into. I was a bit of an introvert anyway so I would buried myself in my music and passions at school.”

Those of us with enough fine lines to remember Channel U and SBTV will have fond memories of the many, many hours sacrificed to watching our favourite MCs spitting over the intriguing, frenetic new genre- grime. The explosion of music television meant that swaths of young people now had access to underground genres that had previously only been easily available if you lived within the reach of a pirate radio tower. Flava D had found her sound, even though she didn’t know what it was yet.

“My first break though music I’d say was with grime. When my mum got us Sky, we had this whole new array of channels and I was like, “Oh My God”, and I eventually found channel U. Living in Bournemouth you didn’t have Pirate FM, you didn’t have local radio stations playing things, so that was my gateway into grime.

“More Fire Crew, So Solid Crew, all the early garage. I was obsessed with Ms Dynamite. I was captivated by what this really raw sound was that I hadn’t heard before. Dizzee Rascal ‘Boy In The Corner’ I had that album on repeat- I think we all did. Those were the days that I was learning to produce music. I was like ‘I don’t know what this is, but I’m gonna try to make some. And that’s how I started my catalogue of grime.”

Although self-taught, Flava D surrounded herself with a support network of friends and colleagues who filled an almost mentor-like space without ever needing the title. She attributes the nuance of her unique sonic style to the underrated beauty in making mistakes.

“I was about 17, 18 when I started to produce grime. I was self-taught. I was working at a record shop in Bournemouth when I was 16. My boss was a top-three DMC turntableist champion. He was very into his hip-hop and he had a copy of Ableton and he gave it to me on a disc. I took it home, there was no youtube then, no tutorials, no nothing. So I really had to find my feet in it, but I’m so glad I did because I feel like I wouldn’t be me, if I had learnt today with so much information around me.

“If everyone’s learning from the same youtube videos, everyone will have the same sound- the same formula. It’s not cheating, but you are fast tracking a little bit and I feel like sometimes the beauty can come from experimenting, just, you, yourself. Trial and error. I think that’s how you really develop your own style as well.”

Ten years ago social media was in its infancy artists didn’t have the access to the copious amounts of online resources and support that we are blessed with today. If you wanted to make it in the industry you had to get out there and make friends and mentors and do a lot of learning on the job.

Often referred to by Wiley as “Eskibeats one and only female producer”, it’s no secret that gender imbalance is prevalent across the entire music industry, and while underground and dance music are some of the more progressive and inclusive genres, UK bass music is still heavily dominated by male identifying individuals. Today we’re seeing a slow and steady shift in this ideology but ten years ago, while Flava D was coming through and making a name for herself, it was almost impossible to see women in the bass music sphere, especially within the ruff, raucous and “masculine” energy of grime. Although the imbalance was very noticeable Flava D wasn’t particularly bothered by it, and it certainly didn’t affect her work ethic or determination.

“If I’m totally honest I wouldn’t say that I was bothered by how male dominated the industry was. I’ve always been a very tunnel vision person. I think what helped me was that I was surrounded by this very boisterous masculine crew. The grime lot took me under their wing a bit. I was always very protected and I think they respected me because I was this very niche female in this particularly masculine group. This little blond, white female who’s too shy to speak – but they just liked my beats. They were almost like older brother figures in a way. I made a lot of connections with a lot of friends and the respect level just always remained from then on.”

We reflect on the very obvious juxtaposition of Flava D and her comrades. A blond, white, incredibly quiet female from a typical British seaside town against her group of predominantly black men, raised on the rough and ready roads of London. We wonder if this added to Flava D’s je ne sais quoi.

“Up until I signed with Butterz a lot of people didn’t even know Flava D was a female. People would be like “What you’re Flava D? You made that?” I’d never had a manager, I’d never thought about branding. I liked to stay behind the scenes. When I signed to Butterz I finally had this really solid branding. They knew how to do marketing and releasing officially and my first ever press shot I got was after meeting Elijah and Skilliam and that’s when people actually started to know that Flava D is a girl. There was no difference in reaction, but I think people were just surprised.

“If anything, I think it was probably more refreshing to the female audience that were just discovering me, back then a female produced in the underground scene was quite rare.

“It’s a massively different landscape for women today, there’s still a lot more to be done, with the attitude and the energy towards tokenism and stuff like that. But it’s a completely different way to what it was then, and it’s so good to see. In lockdown, because we all had so much time a lot of women learned to produce, they learned to DJ. Getting in touch with their hobbies and we’re really seeing the results of that coming into fruition now”.

I actually want to end with an interview from last September. This one is from Beat Portal who spent some time with the incredible Flava D. “She rose from the garage scene, but Flava D has just released her debut album 'Here & Now' – a 15-track masterclass in drum & bass production. Beatportal uncovers the story behind the milestone”:

“As an artist who’s been active in the bass music scene since 2013, it may come as a surprise that Flava D is only now releasing her debut album. After originally making a name for herself in the garage scene through anthems like “Soul Shake” with My Nu Leng and “Vibsing Ting” as part of TQD, when she joined the Hospital Records roster, it was a significant career switch-up. Not only was she joining a new label, she was stepping into a genre she’d never worked in before – one she had looked up to since she started following the label’s music when she was just 14.

“If you’d told me 10 years ago I’d be releasing a d&b album, I’d say you were lying!” She jokes. “...It's been a massive learning curve moving into d&b from garage. I thought I was a good producer until I started making d&b…I would be playing my sketch ideas next to a break tune, and it would make me want to quit.”

But it’s a challenge she’s thankful for: “Moving across to d&b has levelled me up in a way that is crucial if you want to have your tune stand up,” she adds.

This level up is audible on Here & Now. The most detailed Flava D work to date, the album showcases her ability to work between d&b’s lines. From the soulful tones of “Can’t Get It Back” with SOLAH, to the dance floor energy of “Reesey Thing,” to the jungle breaks of “The Function" with Logan_olm, Here & Now is a vibrant picture of a genre that has captured Flava D’s heart.

“I wanted to have a bit of everything on there,” she says. “I've always been eclectic with my music and my sets. My album is like that too.”

While connecting with the genre on a deeper level has been a motivation for Flava D, this drive has also been her downfall in getting the album finished sooner: a project she has been working towards since putting out her first d&b single “Return To Me” in 2019. “It’s taken a while to get here because I was over-scrutinizing how I wanted it to be,” she admits. “With it being my first album, and fully d&b, I felt the pressure to match the high-bar of the genre.” It was only a year ago Flava D “got to a place where I felt satisfied with my music. Once I achieved that, ideas started flowing.”

The album – a project she describes as “my musical diary for the last year and a half” – is some of her “most expressive work yet.”

“I wanted the album to be more personal with more vocal-based songs, rather than just club bangers,” Flava D says. “I love the track with Lauren Archer, ‘The Cycle’. It was an emotional tune from the soul I made to help me get through something.”

As we talk, it’s clear Here & Now is not just a representation of where she is at musically, but also personally. From getting married earlier this year to embracing sobriety at shows over summer, there’s a refreshing sense of being present that radiates from her, something she admits hasn’t always been the case.

“Last year, there were lots of changes going on in my personal life, being a workaholic for so many years caught up with me. I took a break to figure things out while focusing on getting the album right. I'm in a good space now, but last year was like a therapy for myself. With the title of the album being Here & Now, it felt right to portray exactly what I am and what I'm feeling.”

While the album’s primary focus is showcasing where Flava D is in the present, sonically, it also nods to her roots, namely in songs like “Do You Want Me.”

“I intentionally used some of my garage basslines and melodies from the past and reworked them on that track,” she says. “It's very old-school me, but today in d&b. I even use my voice for the vocal.”

Flava D’s experimentation won’t stop with Here & Now. With her debut album now out in the world, Flava D is keen to continue honing her “UK sound” by paying homage to the corners of bass music that have defined her journey: “Even though I’m constantly trying to do things differently, I’m always mindful to revisit sounds I've used in the past or create melodies in a patch I’ve used for a TQD track. That helps me to keep my sound more recognisable.”

Having fun with her music and not putting pressure on herself to stay in one lane is something listeners can expect to see more of from Flava D on the road ahead, across 140 BPM sets like she did at UKF Invites London earlier this year, and more productions outside of a d&b tempo, such as “Dutty” with P Money. It all comes back to the UK sound she’s representing.

"I’m looking to come back to my roots again over the next year, releasing more garage and 140,” she says. “I’m having fun experimenting with my music and not overthinking it. I’m trying to avoid putting pressure on myself to make music that sounds a certain way. I’m enjoying having that freedom and I’m excited to see what next year holds”.

Go and follow Fava D. I am not sure what her diary is like in terms of touring and gigs, but I would love to see her D.J. The music she has produced and the sets I have heard are absolute amazing. She is such a prodigiously talented D.J. A queen that deserves your love and attention, it was a no-brainer including her…