“I’m More Confident When I Make Music Alone” – An MM Exclusive With Taiki Nulight

Taiki Nulight has cemented himself as one of the UK’s most talented producers. MixMag naming him one of the Top 25 Producers Who Defined 2024 is as deserved as an accolade gets. After exploring the bass house genre for a few years, he returned to his dubstep roots to link up with the likes of P Money, Hamdi, and Harry Stone for the stellar 2024 EP Stay in Your Lane. 

His and Nero’s 2025 rework of their classic tune ‘Innocence’ came out on 13^th March, and it goes even harder than the original. I caught up with him to talk about his compositional process, Whiplash, and J Dilla.

Nero were probably at their height in 2011 which is when Benga opened his set with your tune at that festival. Were Nero a big inspiration for you at that point? Is this a full circle moment for you?

100%. Nero was a huge influence. I’d gone to see them when I first started getting into music production. They were the ones to look out for – the ones who I was studying in the background. Innocence is a song that I’ve got so many great memories of and it’s a huge part of my life. I think 2010/2011 I would’ve been just coming out of college really.

When you’re listening to a tune, what makes you think “I might remix this”?

I think generally even if it’s scheduled, paid remixes, I try not to listen to the original. My process is normally just using the vocal, which is what I did with the ‘Innocence 2025’ rework. I like to treat it as my own original. I’ve also said before that I don’t like remixing songs that I like because I can’t really do them justice but, I think with the Innocence one I definitely felt confident enough to give it a go. But yeah, it just kind of all fell into place and all worked out really.

You opened your UKF15 DJ set with a remix of Caravan. I know that tune is from the 1930s, so what made you want to take it into that dubstep space?

I actually only know that song really from the film Whiplash. That, I would say, is arguably one of my favourite films within music. So yeah, it’s just one of those things where I had the idea for so long and I just wanted to get to a point where I could do it justice.

So, you’re in Jacksonville at the moment, but you’re also embarking on a UK mini tour later this year, is that right?

Yeah. I mean I can’t give out too much information yet, but I’ll be doing five or six dates around the UK in April. More or less one a week in some major cities: Bristol, London, Leeds, Brighton I think so far. That’ll be out on my socials soon.

Have you got a favourite UK city to play?

I’d have to be biased and say Brighton because I grew up there. I just have so many good memories of times in Brighton.

You’ve worked with some legendary grime MCs like Capo Lee, P Money, and Scrufizzer. When you’re collaborating, do you prefer being in the studio together, or do you like the convenience of being able to send stuff back and forth?

So, working in the studio with people is kind of a very new thing for me so I’m still kind of getting to grips with how I can deal with it and get the most productive session. I’ve always been a hermit. I think I’m more confident when I make music alone. I am sure lots of people feel that way, but I know I perform the best when I do everything myself. But saying that, from being in the studio with people I have definitely learned stuff. I think I’m just more used to being alone just because I’ve done that over the last ten years.

When you’re making a tune for a vocalist, are you consciously making space for them or is it more of an afterthought?

It changes year to year. With my process now, I’m definitely more aware. If I am writing a particular record for someone or with someone, I’ll keep them in mind but generally I like to get the song finished and then look at what it needs. I’ll ask myself whether it needs a vocal or not and then I’ll start hunting.  But over the last six months where I’ve been writing with people, I have had to think you know “this person might be jumping on it, or it could be for this person” so I definitely do keep that in mind.

Could you put a name on your favourite MC to work with?

I’d have to say P Money. Straight up. Just because he’s one of the OGs. He’s got every accolade under the sun for grime and is still going so strong. His success has just been linear and consistent. I thought the same about him when I was listening to him as a teenager as I do now. I think that was, again, another full circle moment where I’m getting to work with people that I listened to when I was growing up.

What about any MCs that you would want to work with in the future – any dream collaborations?

I have been listening to a guy called Jamba. He’s an Asian bredda from London. I think I’m trying to not go down the obvious routes and try and find some people that aren’t as well known in the scene. But Jamba is one to look out for. Capo obviously. I love working with him.

I know you’ve said before that J Dilla is a big inspiration of yours and that Pharcyde’s ‘Runnin’ is one of your favourite tunes. Why are his beats so special to you?

I think it’s just his approach to making music. He samples heavily. I have always been obsessed with sampling. The more you learn about something the deeper the knowledge gets, and with sampling I thought it was quite a simple thing at first. Then, just seeing how people can flip things, and their own interpretation brings a whole new breath of fresh air and life into the song.

I think with Dilla especially, just the way he played the MPC like an instrument, like, I don’t think he was programming anything he was genuinely just playing and feeling it out. I think they feel very organic, his beats, which is kind of the vibe I have been trying to do recently with like Whiplash, for example, I definitely had Dilla in mind when I was doing that remix.

How do you sample? Would I see you in the street recording car sounds or are you digging in crates or what?

I don’t think I’m quite there yet. I hope one day I’d be brave enough to go in the street and knock-on cars and glass and sample that. That would be dope. But you know, finding sounds and melodies and music that I haven’t heard before – that’s why sampling is so special because you’re essentially using their performance as an instrument.

I kind of, year to year, change my process with sampling and I think now I’m a bit more meticulous with it. I like finding sounds I’ve never heard before or records that don’t fit in a space and trying to make it fit into that space. Say, you know, taking an old jazz record and flipping it into a 140 beat – that sounds pretty interesting to me.

Last year’s EP Stay In Your Lane was very much a return to that 140 sound. Your releases before that were much closer to bass house stuff. So, what made you go back to your home style?

I think it’s breaking that writer’s block. I just found I had more and more block when I was trying to write bass house. I just wasn’t being productive. So, it was just to break that creative block and the more I made 140 the more natural it felt, and I was able to go back into that headspace. But it’s just switching it up and keeping it moving really.

So, UK bass, that umbrella term, I have always found quite hard to pin down and there’s a lot of variety within that. Does the phrase ‘UK bass’ mean anything to you in particular?

I think it’s mainly a feeling. For me it’s all the memories I have had raving and going out to all the people I used to listen to. But yeah, I think it’s just a feeling in the song. I do definitely notice a difference if I listen to an American artist versus an English artist. But I can’t pinpoint what that is. I can’t explain the feeling if that makes sense. But you can only really feel that experience if you live in the UK. I think for anyone living outside of the UK that it’s hard to grasp that feeling.

You have said before that your style of bass house is “house music mixed with the attitude of dubstep”. I thought that was a really cool way of putting it. So that attitude is something you can’t put into words – It’s that feeling you were talking about?

Yeah. When I first came on to the scene in 2011/2012, I was in a dubstep duo. We were trying to do dubstep, but I wasn’t really technically talented enough to portray what I was trying to get across. But with switching it up and doing house music – you’re right it always had that underlying UK 140 tone. I’m glad you said that because that’s what I was trying to do.

A few years ago, you said that you’d worked primarily in the box on DAWs, but you were branching out and using more hardware stuff. Is this a thing that you’ve carried on doing or have you gone back to just working on the laptop?

Oh yeah that addiction’s got out of control. Well, I wouldn’t say out of control, but I definitely am leaning more and more to mixing outside of the box. I have been working with Joker a lot recently. He does a lot of my mixing and mastering, and I have learned a ton, like he’s a savant. He’s just given me a load of tips on what gear to get and he understands my sound and understands the intention behind my sound. So yeah, I can definitely feel the addiction growing and growing. I can’t live without the hardware now.

I’ve heard you say when you make a tune, to test it out and see how its sounding, you play it in your car. Is that because you have some insane speakers or something?

I think with the car, because of the enclosed space, you can really play it loud and kind of get a similar feeling to what it’d be like in a club because of the sound pressure. But now I honestly try it on everything. I have got AirPods that I try my music on, my laptop speakers, I’ve got Focals in my studio, phone speakers, I even have little emulators on my laptop to emulate different TVs. So, I just try and get a gauge of what it sounds like on everything so I can get it to translate the best. Do you remember the X Mini speakers? Those little ball ones where you unhook it? That’s one of my favourite things to listen to my music on■

Words by Charlie Edmondson