Meet Stephen Luya and Henry McEndoo, two dBs Plymouth graduates leaving uni as co-owners of an exciting new record label based in the South West.
At dBs Institute, we integrate natural collaboration between our students - as well as between our students and our staff - in an environment that reflects life in the music or gaming industries. That collaboration and industry focus directs the Product Delivery module for BA (Hons) Electronic Music Production, where students deliver a physical or digital product - like an album or EP - in the final phase of their degree.
Stephen Luya - aka LUYAH - and Henry McEndoo - aka Deft Design - two recent graduates from our Plymouth campus, leaned into the spirit of collaboration we’ve cultivated over 25 years at dBs to start their label, SEMBLANCE. Records, and release FORM EP.
Find out more about them, how they started the label and how studying at dBs has helped them get to where they are today!
Hey guys! Introduce yourself and your background in music production.
Stephen Luya: I'm Stephen. I started at dBs in 2019. I've spent about five years there and have just finished my third year and graduated! I've been producing for six or seven years and DJing for about four years. I mainly make drum and bass, I've dabbled in some other genres, but I’ve never commercially released stuff like that. I'm fresh out of uni and excited to see what comes now!
Henry McEndoo: I’m Henry. I grew up in North Devon and started getting into the rave and free party scene when I was about 16 or 17. I started mixing not long after and then started playing live shows while I was away travelling from 2013 onwards. I’ve always wanted to get into music production, but constant travels got in the way. Along came COVID and I decided to get back in education and ended up choosing dBs after DJing with a few guys that had studied there previously! This course was my first proper experience with music production, apart from some limited time using Reason and Ableton.
How did you get into music and was there a specific moment when you knew you wanted to be a music producer?
SL: I must have been 17 when I started dabbling. I don't know why I thought this, but initially, I was like, "Yeah, I'm going to try my hand at rapping. I'm going to see how I am at being a rapper.” I was finding all these beats on YouTube and eventually, I was just like, "Well, can I make a beat? How do I make a beat? Maybe I could rap to my beats. That'd be pretty cool." I found a tutorial on how to make that kind of classic Snoop Dogg melody and that's how I started using Fruity Loops. Eventually, I started going out a bit more meeting other people and they were playing drum and bass out. Then I thought, "Well, it'd be cool to make a song I could play for these guys to hear." Eventually, I could play on the speakers and, hopefully, they won't be able to tell the difference. So I started moving from the rap stuff to drum and bass and that was it!
HM: I distinctly remember getting The Prodigy’s ‘Breath’ single on CD for Christmas from my parents when I was 6. I was obsessed with them, so that was my first introduction to electronic music. There was always music on in the house growing up!
So you guys co-own SEMBLANCE. Records! How would you describe the label?
SL: The whole idea around SEMBLANCE. is to create a label that would allow me and Henry to have a platform to release the music we want, without having to send demos and wait weeks and weeks and weeks to get stuff sorted. The label allows us to have full control of the releases as well as the commercial side. It’s a platform for any music that is bass-related, not just drum and bass because Henry predominantly makes 140 dubstep and I dabble in the 140 stuff as well, but it has an emphasis on the minimal, techy, atmospheric side of bass music. That's the umbrella of the label.
HM: I would say SEMBLANCE. is a place for deep and dark, minimal underground music. Though predominantly it’s drum and bass or dubstep, we plan to include anything deep, dark and minimal and intend to get people dancing!
When did you start it and what has the process been like?
SL: We started Semblance out as our third-year uni project. Henry and I knew we wanted to work together on something for a while because we spent a lot of our second year working together. We eventually decided it would be a good idea to collaborate on a project because we just got on well and wanted to deliver a good product. Creating a label has been tricky at times. The legal side has been challenging because we're two underground producers. This is not our forte. Learning about legalities, contracts, keeping everything above board, registering the label as a business, that kind of thing. It's daunting, but we're working through it!
HM: The collaboration with Stephen evolved naturally. We worked together a lot during the second and third years of the course and when we started the product design module for the final year, it felt like a good chance to make an EP together and set up the label.
How do you guys divide the labour between yourselves?
SL: So the way we've run the label is that I've been on more of the creative side and Henry's done more of the legal side. I used to be a graphics designer for a label, so I've done all the graphics, logos and artwork so far. That was more my side. It’s still been a useful experience to learn about the legalities, though, for sure. It’s something that you need to know for the future if you're going to pursue commercial releases and that kind of thing.
HM: So Stephen is excellent with the graphic design side of things as he has a lot of previous experience, so it made sense for him to focus more on that side of things while I deal with the legal side, behind-the-scenes bits. We keep each other updated with everything pretty constantly throughout the setup and release of the EP and label.
What has the experience been like working together and releasing your first EP via the label?
SL: Yeah, it’s been an interesting process. We both have a pool of tunes, but we're also trying to progress as solo artists. So finding the balance between having a new label, which we’re both keen to release on, but has no audience and no following, was challenging. For example, one of the tunes on FORM that I did, I've been sat on it for four years. I hadn’t released it, I’d sent it to several labels but ultimately decided to put that on this. There is a selection of four tunes, but we were always swapping them out. We’re both sending demos to labels, so Henry would be waiting for one to get back to him and I'm waiting for a label to get back to me, so neither of us knew which tunes we had available. It was a long process, but we are really happy with the content because, eventually, what we ended up with was something that directly represented the label and the vision that we had. We've got drum and bass, we've got a halftime drum and bass, 140, dubstep on there. It's four tunes, but they're very varied.
HM: Considering it was all during our final hand-in submissions for the end of the third year - as well as Sol, the visual artist we collaborated with who was also finishing a degree at dBs in Bristol - it was mostly stress-free and an enjoyable experience!
Are you looking to work with other artists as well?
SL: Coming off the first release, we've been lucky enough to have some demos sent to the label. It was a lot faster than we expected as well! We both have contacts - Henry more on the 140 side and me more on the drum and bass side - and they're often looking for labels. We can bring a lot of people together and the plans in the future are that we're talking about doing a VA with five or six quality artists who can represent SEMBLANCE.
What have you enjoyed most about running the label?
SL: There are a couple of things. I love it when people send in their demos, and I get to hear the tracks and then work with the artists. Sometimes we're keen to sign what they're working on, but it might not be 100% ready. So to be able to be like look, “I love the idea. If you do X, Y and Z, we'd love to work with you on this, build it up and then release it.” It’s cool to help other people move along and get the absolute highest quality possible. Having artistic control is nice as well because I can visually create a look that we're in full control of, make it look exactly how I want and make sure it's all consistent across the board.
How important has dBs Institute been in this process of setting up SEMBLANCE.?
SL: It's been amazing being at dBs, to be honest with you. It's, by far, been my favourite time in education. It's excelled my development as a producer, but not just as a producer, my general knowledge of the industry has improved massively. I could say so much about dBs. Using all of the studio spaces and the hardware and meeting all the lecturers has been great. They've each got their expertise and they’re happy for you to pick their brains. Everyone, including the other students, has their niche. Collaboration is built into the course because you can go to a student to ask about one thing you need help with and there will be someone else to deal with a different issue. That collaboration also generates ideas, so the networking opportunities are great. For me specifically, having Matt Ward for my whole degree was great. He's got a proper DJ background, so he was able to guide me naturally in a lot of ways. All of the lectures have been fantastic. It's an amazing place to be and it's wild that it's over so quickly!
HM: I am so grateful for my experience at dBs. Matt Ward, in particular for this module, helped tremendously with his experience running his label. Everything I know about setting up and running a record label, I owe to him. I feel the same way for every lecturer I had, each offering their unique expertise. I’ll miss them all and their influence. They have probably been the biggest highlight of my experience at dBs, but you’ve gotta leave the nest at some point!
Want to join Stephen and Henry and continue your journey towards a career in the music industry? Check out our courses and apply through Clearing to join us this September!