The drum and bass scene always has something new to share, like surprising, different characters. Some of them are coming from other genres, like Telomic. Elliot Berger came from the colourful world of EDM with his chilled, minimalist, melodic style and already made a name for himself in the DnB scene. But who is he and what’s in his mind? Let’s get to know Telomic.
Your name seems to be appearing everywhere these days. Did you expect it to happen when you started getting into DnB production?
Honestly? A few years ago, I remember saying in a meeting that Telomic was just a side project and wasn’t going to be anything more than a bit of fun, so to have seen it grow like this has been awesome. Still feels like there’s a long way to go, but it’s leaps and bounds ahead of where I thought it would go.
What does Telomic mean? It’s a very unique alias. Does it reflect on something special to you maybe? How did you come up with it?
Funnily enough, it was made in a bit of a panic, I was originally putting my drum & bass under the name Half Light, and just as I was wrapping up my first original tunes someone else appeared under the same name. I messaged my friends in a panic, and a good friend of mine suggested Telomic, I’m not sure he even remembers where he got it from, but it was simple, and it wasn’t taken so it stuck, haha!
And it will stick with drum and bass now. Not in a bad way though. Tell us about your musical background. Have you played any instruments when you were younger? Music school? Anything that brought you close to electronic music…
I grew up surrounded by music which was awesome, went to a really musical primary school, so picked up violin at a really early age. I picked up guitar in my early teens, and then production when I was about 17, because I was sick of relying on other people to be creative. I did go to university for music production, but honestly if I was to do it over, I wouldn’t go. I got some valuable experience from it, but all in all it wasn’t really worth it for me, I learnt more working on music myself than I did in classes.
You have a little history with Electronic Dance Music. How did you end up making DnB after EDM? Do you ever think about going back to that style?
I always loved Drum & Bass, my early sets were mostly made up of DnB anyway, as were my early tunes, so it made sense to switch over. The main reason I got caught in EDM was due to some early success in the genre when I was younger, and I think I spent a long time chasing that thread. I met some great people through that scene, owe a lot to it, and have nothing but love for the artists I was surrounded by, but I became more and more disillusioned with it personally.
How would you describe your music to someone who never heard of you? Also, what are your goals as an artist?
The new EP has a slightly more dancefloor influenced tune on it, but usually it’s quite stripped back, chilled, deep drum & bass. I’ve been playing a bit more with a slightly more energetic sound, but still within that vein. I think my goals are just to keep pushing myself, speaking from experience, the worst thing you can do as an artist is get caught up in a creative rut, making the same stuff over and over again, so I want to avoid that as best I can.
You certainly found your own sound but, what exactly, or shall I ask who inspires your production?
I’m really into a broad range of drum & bass, from the deeper stuff labels like 1985 and Flexout are pushing, to the more dancefloor centric stuff from Liquicity. Outside of Drum & Bass though I love anything chill, from guys like Quickly Quickly, IHF & Tom Misch, to the more garage influenced stuff, guys like Burial, Sorrow, Vacant, that kind of thing.
When you work on new music, are you always able to make a track of how you imagined it? Does it always turn out how it was in your head before?
Almost never haha, when I’m working on a tune now I tend to save as a new version every time I make any major changes to the project, and so by the end it’s usually between 20 and 30 versions, and within those there are probably 3 or 4 complete 180 changes. Very rarely a tune will just come together without any drastic alterations, but quite often a song comes together after being completely stripped back and restarted multiple times.
Who would be your dream vocalist or producer to work with?
I’d love to try something with DRS, but I enjoy working with people who don’t work a lot in Drum & Bass, so someone like FKJ would be sick (a man can dream haha).
Can you tell us a few details about your new upcoming EP at Liquicity?
It’s been a long time coming, I played the title track for the first time at Liquicity Winterfestival 2018, but I’m really happy with where it’s at now. We’ve had a few delays getting it finalised, to a place we were both happy, we actually had a whole different tracklist several months ago, and I totally ditched it, with the exception of 2 tracks, and went back to the drawing board. The whole team over at Liquicity have been amazing to work with though, and I’m super grateful for their patience, and for believing in me from the get go!
The title track, Gravity Within, was written super quickly actually, and was a collaboration between myself and Beloved in Love, which is 2 guys from Perth, Australia, one of which, Sam, has been a close friend of mine for years. He approached me with a sketch, I added some bits to it, sent it back and we both got super hyped about it. We’re both great friends with Laura Brehm, so got her in to add some vocals to add a special something to his vocal, and it became what it is now!
You released on Galacy and Liquicity a few times already, when did you get signed and how is your journey with the label going on so far?
I sent Boudewijn (their A&R) Home and Horizon back in 2018 and he was super keen right away which was awesome, I’ve been following Liquicity since before the label was even started and it was just the Youtube channel so it was a really cool moment for me. He then sent over an email just before the release came out saying they wanted to work with me a lot more, and it went from there really. It really feels like a family there which is great, they’re super open to what I want to do, and I have complete respect for their input on what I do so it’s a really nice two- way street.
Tell us 5 of your favourite liquid drum and bass tracks of all time! I know it’s hard, I’m not even sure if I could choose myself.
Commix – Be True
Netsky – Memory Lane
Nu:Logic – Everlasting Days
LSB – Walking Blues
Alix Perez & Spectrasoul – Forsaken
Club, where you always wanted to play? And why?
Difficult question! Maybe Fabric in London? Critical used to do a sick Room 2 takeover there which really shaped the kind of music I listen to and make now so it would be a nice full circle type deal to play there.
Have you ever played in Hungary before? Would you want to?
I actually haven’t! I’m probably the least well-travelled person in the world haha, but it’s on the list of places to see for sure!
And just to add something silly to the end… What’s the funniest thing you could tell us about yourself?
Oh god, you’re probably best off asking my wife, she’s always got an embarrassing story about me!
Thank you for chatting to us. Really looking forward to listen to your EP soon and maybe I will interview your wife next!
Thanks for having me!
