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. Among promoting and ongoing teaching work, I also worked 5 years as the Features Editor for MusicTech Magazine, where I finally learned to spell correctly. This experience allowed me to interact with so many key people in the DJ and music production scene. Interviewing icons like Paul Epworth (Adele), Trevor Horn (80s digital studio pioneer) and many more key players in the culture of music making. This was such a precious and insightful experience that confirmed the simplicity of success: learn your trade, do ‘the hours’ of work, find your voice and always ensure you have a ‘yes’ attitude so people enjoy your company to work with.

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Why did you first get into electronic music production?

I heard Kenny Ken and MC GQ on BBC’s Radio 1’s ‘One In the Jungle’ show in 1995. I had recorded demos with my band on cassette multitrack recorders before, so I had already explored using mics and recording, but the drum work in Jungle had me hooked. So, I then had to learn what sequencing and sampling was, then work and save to buy an Atari ST and Roland S-750 sampler, Alesis Drum Machine and DAT recorder for my first set-up. Cue dust settling down on my instruments for at least a decade at this point.

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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 using only Ableton Live devices’ era. But this has now become the start of a new techno artist moniker I’m developing called ‘Lima Milan’.

Actually, hang on! The synthesis only element first manifested itself with the first library I did for bandlab.com. All sounds, including drums, were synthesized for this Deep Hardstep pack. Now, this is my regular freelancing work outside of teaching, as I’m working on my next stint of library content. I recently released an authentic chip-tune library, which is now to be followed by a speech, chip-tune PT II and then an Amiga tracker project. I have collected various game consoles and computers from the 80s/90s and modified them to use as instruments and sequencers. A real deep dive in terms of collecting, restoring and modifying these machines. Now, I’m using this long-form project in library content and will do so for a good while.

I work in parallel a lot, so I’m also wiring up a wall’s worth (not kidding) of 90s rackmount equipment and patchbays, etc. I teach modular synthesis here at dBs, and I want to take that approach to hardware effects processing and automation via MIDI routing etc. I just have to ensure that the electricity it will take to run this behemoth rig doesn’t deplete the income from other forthcoming audio projects.

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

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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.

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Tell us about your proudest career moment.

You’re making me think here… When I became endorsed by Serato & Vestax in the mid 00s and joined the same roster of Vestax artists as the mighty Q-Bert, it was 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.

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What do you get up to outside of teaching?

My leisure time is divided up across my Youtube channel fads of the month (currently deep cave exploration and mining alongside comedy podcasts), exercise and playing Fortnite while exploring a fun generative audio set-up that takes game play audio and converts it either calm serene soundscapes, or intense gabber experiences.

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Tell us something our students may not know about you.

I produced and co-wrote a song about Hull City FC, for which I also performed guitar and sang the lead vocals. 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 the team, so it was created from an authentic place.