BASS QUEEN: HANNAH HOLLAND

Following the growth of her Batty Bass club nights, London’s own Hannah Holland has branched out into running her own label, clothing range, mental artwork-come-website and a whole load more.

With a headlining performance at this weekend’s Eastern Electrics just around the corner, and Batty Bass’s first Warehouse party taking place next month, we caught up with the capital’s leading bass-head to see what to expect next from the crew…

Hyponik.com: Hi Hannah, hope all’s good with you?
Hannah Holland: Hello! yes all is well thank you!!

H.com: What have you been up to recently?
HH: Recently I’ve been preparing for the third release of Batty Bass Records. Namedropper by Jahcoozi, promoting the Batty Bass All Nighter party and playing some wicked festival gigs in Berlin, Exit Festival, London, Paris and Copenhagen.

H.com: You’re holding the final Bastard Batty Bass party at the Star of Bethnal Green next month before upping sticks for a more warehouse-oriented vibe. What prompted the move, and can you give us any more details on the next installment?
HH: We’ve had an amazing year at The Star and really built up a great crowd there, so the natural step was to take it into the some proper late night danceoff bizness, with a bigger sound system and a little more space. There is only so much you can do on a Thursday night, and i think we pretty much did it all!! We wanted to be able to invite some big guests down to play, and for the first All Nighter we have The Martinez Brothers! Batty Bass goes through many different genres throughout the night, and we just love TMB vibe, pure energy and mixing up house, soul and techno with original NYC flavour. The last outing from the Star was when we hosted Room 3 at Fabric, N-Type , Jahcoozi and Solo played with us - it was off the wall. It’s been great to get other artists involved and develop the night further.

H.com: Your Batty Bass record label’s been putting out some seriously heavyweight stuff, how’s it been going? Anything coming up we should be getting excited about?
HH: Thanks, it’s been going really well, I’m finding it all very exciting and learning about the business has been an eye opener! The next release is Namedropper by Jahcoozi - the band are proper out on their own sphere, musically, sonically and stylistically and I’m very proud to have them part of the label. Solo has also done an absolute killer remix too, a dancehall meets Brazil at 4AM rhythm, and I’ve got my oar in there with a dubbed out amen affair.

H.com: You’re well known for pushing and playing an eclectic mix of bass rooted music, but what are you caning on your iPod?
HH: I mainly listen to podcasts; the Fabric podcasts are wicked, where music legends play tracks they were listening to while they were growing up. Mad Professor, Kid Batchelor and Greg Wilson are my favorites. And I’ve been caning the Blaxploitation compilations recently, which has artists on it like Curtis Mayfield, Sly Stone, Marlena Shaw - I love 70s funk and soul.

H.com: New music wise, which artists out there are doing it for you at the moment?
HH: My favourite artist right now is probably Benga. His album is just amazing and I love his approach to making music. Jamie Jones is another favourite. Oliver Huntemann, Roska, Caspa, Mihalis Safras, Makossa & Megablast, Deepchild are in there too.

H.com: Is there anyone you really want to work with but haven’t had the chance yet?
HH: My dream people to work with would be Benga, Missy Elliot and Green Velvet!

H.com: You’ve gone from tearing it up all over London to seeming global domination in the last few years, but where’s your favourite place to play?
HH: Seriously my favourite place to play is at Batty Bass with my girls MC Chickaboo and Mama, and the amazing crowd. It’s spiritual!!!

H.com: Batty Bass has branched out into a multi-tentacled culture kraken, incorporating the record label, artwork, your night and a sick clothing label. You don’t seem to be slowing down, so what’s next, and where do you want to end up?
HH: We are just going to keep on doing what we are doing - the foundations of the Batty Bass empire have been laid!!! Eventually we want to take it on tour, with a show that incorporates it all.

H.com: You’ve been heavily involved in the the fairly recent resurgence of everything bassline, why do you think London’s such a fertile ground for this stuff?
HH: London is fortunate to have a huge, long standing, Caribbean influence, which is deep rooted in bass. It’s influenced everything , from acid house, to drum and bass, to dubstep, and so on. Our dance music culture is built on it, so it’s a completely natural environment for it.

H.com: Can you tell us a bit about your musical influences?
HH: As a teenager, pirate radio stations were on constantly blaring out jungle, I had a strict diet of it! The energy, the bass and the excitment influenced me hugely. Then i discovered the club Body Rockers and Nag Nag Nag, when I was about 20 and it completly changed my life!! Hearing the new sound of electro from artists like Felix Da Housecat, Miss Kitten, Damian Lazarus, Jojo De Freq really changed the face of clubbing again. I loved what Diplo did, bringing together Brazilian sounds, that whole wave was really inspiring. And nowdays dubstep really influences me, as well as Berlin techno and its insane parties.

H.com: What about your approach in the studio? Talk us through the processes that result in bombs like Shake It Up.
HH: My approach in the studio is pretty instinctual. As in my DJ sets i like to mix genres together, I also take that approach into the studio.

H.com: Which do you prefer, working in the studio or behind the decks?
HH: For me nothing beats the decks, I crave it if I haven’t played, even for a week.

H.com: What do you get up to on your days off?
HH: Days off?! Haha - I catch up with my family and friends, try go swimming and keep myself fit, I love reading and obsessing over artists, right now I’m all about Bob Dylan and WIlliam Blake. I try to take in as much culture as possible from the amazing selection London has to offer. My favourite thing to go to is Gay Bingo and the fantastical world of Jonny Woo.

H.com: What are the secret weapons in your record box? Can you give us your top five surefire dancefloor killers?
HH: Rubin ft Stephan Bodzin- Oliver Huntemann, Stop The Revolution - Bassbin Twins remix, The Big Stef - Solo, Deep Inside - Hardrive, Swallowed Too Much Bass feat. Paris The Black Fu - Original Mix - Steve Bug

Check the awesome new Batty Bass site HERE, and catch Hannah DJing at the 2 day Eastern Electrics extravagnza with Claude Von Stroke, Riton, Drums of Death, Riva Starr and much more. Grab any remaining tickets HERE.