Liam O'Mullane

What did you do before joining dBs?

"I worked as a drum and bass turntablist (1995 - 2008) with regular gigs all over the UK, including the V Recordings monthly event Movement, and various DJ sets on BBC 1Xtra. I worked as Features Editor for MusicTech Magazine where I finally learned to spell correctly. As an electronic producer, I’ve worked in various genres including drum and bass, hardcore and other bass-orientated styles."

Why did you first get into electronic music production?

"I heard Kenny Ken and MC GQ on BBC’s Radio One ‘In the Jungle’ show in 1995. I had recorded demos with my band on cassette multitrack recorders before this but hearing the drums turned my head onto sequencing and sampling. Cue my pocket-money then going towards an Atari ST and Roland S-750 sampler and dust settling down on my instruments for at least a decade."

Any special areas of interest?

"Yes, many! I ‘rabbit-hole’ quite a bit due to my curiosity-driven fixations and nerdiness. I’ve just come out of the other side of a mental occupation I’ll refer to as the ‘must be able to synthesize everything’ era. But this has now become the start of a new artist moniker Lima Milan creating techno, so it paid off.

"My current, or slowly growing, fixation is now towards a ‘me when I was 16’ concept. I have recently accumulated a respectable amount of outboard from the 1990s, the type of gear I drooled over in magazines. I am creating a sound-design workstation separate from software based around tone generators, patchbays and all this retro gear for a forthcoming sample library series.

"I feel either lucky or crafty that I can justify my obsessions by getting an income from it!"

What do you love most about what you do?

"I am immensely into making music and how music can be made. To have a weekly reason to shape interesting lessons on these topics and share my enthusiasm and receive it back, is something that never gets old. The ability to apply my fixations of the year to something tangible i.e. library releases, music releases, performance videos, and ‘other things’, gives me a great balance of abstract thinking, exploration, deep concentration, focus and reward."

Tell us about your proudest career moment.

"You’re making me think here… When I became endorsed by Vestax in the mid 00s and joined the same roster of Vestax artists as the mighty Q-Bert is probably one of my biggest ‘oh my’ moments. Also, maybe when I got my Master's as well. It helped me create my live show and I passed with distinction, maybe it’s one more for my mum than for me, but still, a true sense of pride."

What do you get up to outside of teaching?

"YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime and exercise - in that order or in reverse!"

Tell us something our students may not know about you.

"I produced and co-wrote a song about Hull City FC which I also performed on. The song was picked up by BBC’s 5 Live and I sang it live on Wembley Way before their premier league match in 2014. It was the most challenging live performance I’ve ever had to stay on top of in terms of pre-performance nerves. It was also quite surreal as I really don’t ‘do football’ but luckily, the main songwriter used to play for them."

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