Mr Jonny Batch is the third in our series of SEM producers, and with him he brings a lot of bass, wobble and wub wub wub. 

After studying the Music Production Course with SEM in 2011, he has now gone on to study a degree in Music Production at the Leeds College of Music. When his track Leeroy dropped into our inbox we thought it was definitely time we caught up with him properly to find out what he’s up to. Here are his Soundcloud, Facebook, and Youtube channel links – all well worth checking out!

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Hi Jonny! Great to have you on this series. Could you give us a  bit of background on what made you decide to start the Music Production Course?

I first started out just putting other people’s songs to my gameplay [check out Jonny’s impressive Youtube Channel to see what he means] but after a while I realised that the videos started to get taken down because of the copyright on the songs, so I then started to make my own music. I knew it was what I wanted to do, but at the time I was in Sixth Form and not studying music there – so I couldn’t do much about it. Then one day my friend suggested going to the Midi School because it was close by, and the studio hours that it was open allowed me write music well into the evening. It was a great place to start out, that’s how I ended up studying Music Production with SEM.

So you studied the SEM Music Production Diploma alongside your A-levels (hard ones at that) and still managed to consistently make tunes – that’s pretty impressive! Are you super-human or just really good at getting the balance right? How did you manage?!

Haha I’m definitely not superhuman, just dedicated – I had to restrain from writing songs and playing with a synth until 3 in the morning and actually do my A-Level work too! When it got nearer my exams I did have to re-adjust the focus on my A-levels, but like I said I had the flexibility to do music around my work (even though I wanted to do it all the time!) The main thing I did was do all my A-level work in the day and do music at night.

And sleep never. It’s clear that you’ve been writing a lot of music since finishing the course which is awesome, Leeroy is a banger! Can you give us a quick producer’s cut on it?

The main part of Leeroy is clearly the bass. For the bass I used NI Massive with Ohmicide, which is an incredible distortion plugin – and then automated the filters, the feedback and the phaser and then sent off many busses to more distortion. Basically a lot of distortion haha. But a good thing to do, I think, is make one synth do a lot of things instead of making lots of synths do lots of things, if that makes sense. Yes I’ve been experimenting throughout different styles trying to gain an understanding on how the key features of each style is produced. Experimenting is very good, and weird sounds are good too.

Leeroy by MrJonnyBatch

Weird is always good! What can we expect from you in the future – are you DJing at all?

Well I’ve just joined Leeds College of Music so got a lot of collaborations with singers and rappers and my own work as well so there will be plenty more songs coming soon! I have started to learn how to DJ, I got a Numark Mixtrack Pro to start with, but I feel that with DJing I want to be more creative than just mixing in songs and would rather do something more like beat juggling and other things to make for a more interesting live performance. But that will be quite a challenge.

You should have a look at our Maschine Online Course, sounds like it could be right up your street.

And now for Jonny’s 5 influential tracks. Take it away Jonny! 

And now for Jonny’s 5 influential tracks. Take it away Jonny!

The Prodigy – Breathe

Breathe by the Prodigy is my first inspirational song, first off because it’s an incredible tune. It’s also one of the first songs for me that bridged the gap between rock and electronic because it has the heavy distorted guitars and the pounding electronic beats which at the time blew my mind (I was fairly young then). The heavy breaks-like drums, the big bass, distorted guitar riffs and vocals combined with the random Wu-tang samples made this the biggest inspirational song for me.

La Roux – In For The Kill (Skream Let’s Get Ravey Remix)

This second song was a big turning point in my music career. I first heard this at Wakestock (a festival in North Wales) when I was about 15 whilst watching Skream – once I had experienced him live it kickstarted me to start making music again, so I re-downloaded FL studio and started again.

Deadmau5 – ft. Rob Swire – Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff

My next song is Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff by Deadmau5. The reason I picked this song is because at the time when I heard this I was creating dubstep and only dubstep. This song broadened my horizons to what I could create and I realised that electro and other dance genres can sound powerful without it having to be at 140bpm and having a huge sub underneath everything. It also made me realise drums are a huge part of  dance tracks!

Noisia – Diplodocus

Diplodocus by Noisia is the first Noisia song I ever heard and from there on I have been in love with them. Big Basses, big drums, random sounds, what more could anyone want? This makes them one of the most inspirational groups for me and they got me more into drum’n’ bass, which is a big part of my production these days.

Feed Me – White Spirit

The last song is White Spirit by Feed Me, and it’s what inspired my song Leeroy. This song made me realise that automation and movement of synths in songs is key and keeps it interesting to listen to. The production is great, the drums are big punchy and simple and the bass is just incredible. Added to a little variety further in the song makes this a great tune.

Great song choices Jonny, thanks for stopping by. Looking forward to tracks from you in the future!