Reset Robot has made an impeccable start to his career

RESET Robot is fresh on the scene, but he’s becoming increasingly familiar to fans of dubbed-out and moody tech house all over the world.

Having released a series of well-received tracks on labels like Excentric Muzik, 8 Sided Dice, Sound Of Acapulco and Noir already in 2009, he has recently made a debut on Dubfire?s Sci+Tec Digital Audio imprint, crowning what has been an impeccable start to his career.

Although you might not know the name Dave Robertson, you’ve more than likely come into contact with his music at some point. While he’s an established producer in his own right, he’s also well-known in the industry as a studio engineer, helping artists who don’t have the technical expertise to realise the ideas in their head. He’s got hundreds of production, remix and engineering credits to his name, across house, electro, hard dance and more – and now with his new Reset Robot alias, he’s becoming one of the most in-demand names in techno.

Dave first got into making music while undertaking a studio production course at college – but it wasn’t recording instruments and setting up mics that interested him. His turning point came when one of his lecturers handed him a copy of computer studio emulator Reason (the very first version that was released) and he started teaching himself how to make house music.

‘I took a copy and put it on my mum’s PC at home and then stayed up till the early hours most nights getting to know the software and trying to write stuff,’ he recalls.
‘Obviously when I produce my own stuff that’s just me in the studio doing what I do,’ he says on the difference between producing solo and engineering for other artists.

‘When I engineer for someone, it’s me and the other person in the studio writing music together. I generally do all the button pressing – beat programming and synthesis and so on – but we will bounce ideas off each other and they will have a strong idea of the style of track and how it should be sequenced.’

But when you’re working with other people, there’s no guarantee you’re going to see eye to eye – and evidently tempering your frustration as an engineer and learning to let the artist take the track where they want to is part of the required skill of the job.

‘I have worked with lots of people over the years and the hardest thing is when they think it sounds great and I think it sounds terrible,’ says Dave. ‘It’s a difficult thing to get around because if you say something then it’s like you are insulting their music in a way. This doesn’t happen so much anymore because I only work with a few very nice people!’

He’s helped countless individuals turn their ideas into tracks over the years, and helped them understand the process behind fitting it all together – but is it a problem if these aspiring types never learn how to do the whole thing themselves? There’s plenty of evidence to show that maybe it doesn’t matter – with many major dance music stars unable to produce in a literally hands on capacity, always working alongside engineers, or not possessing all the skills to make a track themselves. The likes of Loco Dice and Timo Maas both spring to mind, Tiësto and plenty of others – so maybe it’s not really as essential as it might seem?

‘I think everyone who uses an engineer should learn how to produce at some point at least to the stage when they can bring in some ideas they have been working on. It’s fine using an engineer but until you start producing your own stuff I don’t think you really know your true sound because it all has to flow through the engineer first who will always have certain ways of doing things.’

In terms of advice outside the studio, he places importance on artists developing and strengthening their sound before releasing anything. ‘I think people try and get stuff signed/released too early and I was completely guilty of that. I sometimes imagine if I had waited until now to start sending out my music. I think it would make a much bigger impact.’

But it’s not his engineering that’s making waves right now – it’s his own work under his new Reset Robot guise, dirty, minimal techno with a groovy edge that’s caught the attention of one of the scene’s biggest names: Dubfire. After signing two of his EPs to his acclaimed Sci + Tec label and featuring his track Do The Slot on his Cocoon Ten Years Ibiza mix, he’s been getting support from the likes of Luciano, Slam, Christian Smith, Laurent Garnier and Nic Fanciulli and bookings at the world’s coolest clubs.

‘I think my best moments have happened just recently. The Reset Robot name has really freshened things up for me and I’m very excited about the future. I felt that my sound was slightly changing, maybe you could say maturing a bit but I wanted to start the alias so I could work a bit more freely in the studio. I think it just allows me to be a bit more undergound with my sound.’ And, ironically, going underground has made him bigger than ever.

• Reset Robot headlines Subtech at Pure this Saturday with support from residents Carl Scott and Peter De Momme