Name: Tony Colman aka London Elektricity
Nationality: British
Occupation: Producer, DJ, label founder at Fast Soul
Current release: London Elektricity's new album Lunatics & Legends is out via Fast Soul.
Recommendations for London, UK: I really love Brockwell Park. There is a ring of ancient beach and Oak trees that is really magical.
Topic that I am passionate about but rarely get to talk about: I am passionate about Carl Jung. I am considering training as a psychotherapist. People laugh at me when I say that. Probably because we musicians have had such an easy life in many ways, albeit it unpredictable and unreliable. But I love the inner workings of people, their subconscious, their shadow worlds and I also love people who don’t do bullshit. I need to be around such people, to help me be less full of BS.

If you enjoyed this London Elektricity interview and would like to stay up to date with his music, visit him on Instagram, Facebook, bandcamp, and Soundcloud. 



The path to becoming a producer is a process - but from many interviews, I am under the impression that there are nonetheless one or a few defining moments. If this was the case for you – what were they and why were they so incisive?

For me it was in the 70s - I always had music in my head and heart, but no idea how to manifest it into real life. Then I got to listen to music by Mike Oldfield, Todd Rundgren and Stevie Wonder - all multi-instrumentalists who made records pretty much on their own.

They were a rarity in those days, but inspired me and I set out to find a way to do that myself. This was way before digital recording or even home studios.

[Go here for the Mike Oldfield Discography podcast with 15 Questions's Tobias Fischer]

Tell me about one or two of your early pieces that you're still proud of (or satisfied with) in terms of production – and why you're content with them.

“Song In The Key Of Knife” - I made it at the end of 1997, and it’s insanely long at over 11 minutes - in those days you could allow a tune as long as it needed to evolve - and I’m very happy with the composition, the imagination and the execution.



It carries a unique emotion. A kind of compassionate urgency.

“Billion Dollar Gravy” - this was my first experiment with Reason 1.0, I made it quickly on a blue iMac G3 and it still sounds unique, proving that the equipment you use for production is really not so important.



In how far, would you say, was your evolution as an artist connected to the evolution of your music set-up and studio? Were there shared stepping stones?

For me, my evolution as an artist is at times inversely related to the evolution of the available equipment.

By that I mean, what we have today has infinite options and possibilities. And I believe that it was the limitations of early equipment that gave rise to inspired solutions and workarounds.

So I find myself having to artificially impose limitations to overcome too much freedom.

There are artists who can realise their ideas best with a traditional – or modified – piano interface, others with a keyboard and a mouse, yet others by turning knobs or touching screens. What's your preferred and most intuitive/natural way of making music and why?

I still depend on my Wurlitzer EP200, it’s right next to my computer setup.

I always use it to work out harmonies, possible chord sequences and possible basslines. It has soul and it tells me if an idea is worth pursuing. Even if it isn’t used on the final production, it has been a part of the process and its DNA is in every track I release.

For synth parts, by favourite way to work is to fiddle, find a sound I like and then record it in, so there is no going back, no tweaking, no revisiting. I love that.

Tell me about the space of your current studio/workplace and how you've set it up to optimise creativity.

It’s in the attic of my house.

When we moved there, I got a friend in to measure the acoustics of the space, and he was there all day and became more and more depressed because the sound was so bad. Eventually he said he wanted to give up, and all he could tell me was to ‘bass-trap the f88k out of the room’ - so I did.

50% of the floor area is taken up with hardcore bass trapping. For D&B this is perfect, because the room sound is dead, and there are no peaks and troughs. I’m happy with the sound now.

Again, it proves that it’s foolish to chase perfection when you are creating. Just adapt and move forwards!

From the earliest sketches to the finished piece, tell me about the production process for Lunatics & Legends, please.

It varies from track to track:

“Always Golden:” I started with a Suzuki Omnichord harp doodle through a Roland space echo. Then added some real harp sounding ostinato, a real bass and some fairly light drums.



Catching Cairo came in and recorded a great live vocal. Then I got my son who was 14 to play the flugelhorn parts and we were done.

“Not A Machine:” I had just got the Phonoloops ‘Tape’ Vst instrument and was having a great time building complex lush harmonic textures - like a fantastic lounge orchestra. It’s a great user friendly granular synthesis engine with heart and soul.



I built a rhythm track around what I had done, added simple moog bass and then sent it to Elsa Esmeralda in Sweden, and she wrote the lyrics and recorded the vocals at her place.

“The Numbers Man:” This started with me, Jolliffe and Gentry jamming from scratch at Gentry’s studio. He is an incredible pianist, he is Dave Gilmour’s go to keyboard man, and he improvised to a simple idea I had for a bass line and a 2 chord progression.



Pete Jolliffe then sifted through the takes and sent them to me, and I started to shape a 4 part composition structure around the parts. It kind of wrote itself, all thanks to Gentry’s amazing performance.

I then wrote some contrasting horn parts, drafted my son in to play all the horns and we were there!

Late producer SOPHIE said: “You have the possibility with electronic music to generate any texture, and any sound. So why would any musician want to limit themselves?” What's your take on that?

Well, I keep hearing things that were produced 50 or 60 years ago and I can’t figure out how they got those sounds, so I don’t think this is anything new.

The pioneers of musique concrete would make incredibly alien sounding music with almost no processing power. I do believe that it’s in overcoming limitations that we can discover truly new ideas.

Tell me about your aesthetic preferences for picking effects like reverb, delay, compression, chorus etc … - what was the role of these effects in the production of your current release?

I use whatever works. I’m not a fetishist with effects, software or hardware. I do have a Roland Space Echo that I love, and a bunch of guitar pedals, but often I use the most uncool plugins if they work, if they are quick and if they don’t get in the way.

Soundtoys Spaceblender came out as a freebie while I was writing “Lovebombs,” and I used it a lot on the lead vocal and the jazz flute. It’s a lovely effect, unlike delay or reverb, yet it is both. it’s like a smeared gated reverb - quite spooky but lovely, and it doesn’t cloud the mix.



For chorus I love the Xils-lab Chor X which started as a Synthex emulation, and has expanded to cover Dimension D and 2 other units.

Producers work with sound in a very direct way for very long stretches of time. What are some of its qualities that you appreciate now more than before, and how do you try to bring these to the fore in your work?

I appreciate space a lot more than ever. I think I’m still growing up in the studio, in fact I hope I don’t stop maturing! When I was less confident, I’d put too much into one track. I can still catch myself doing that.

I don’t work in a clinical scientific way, I find that producers who do that tend to end up sounding the same - very good, but too much the same. I work organically and musically but I’m not a good sonic technician. For me it’s all about emotion.

That’s what music is to me - it’s the only art form that combines emotion with maths. Well maybe not the only, I guess architecture does that. And tessellation. OK I’m talking out of my arse now!

The current production process allows for fast and infinite variations. Can you tell me about how you deal with this potential for the infinite and what ultimately decides on how many iterations to create and which version to release?

Ah you are talking about the disease of endless versions! I’ve learned that after a few versions usually you, the producer, will be the only person who notices the difference between, say, version 5 and version 11.

I used to make so many versions - it was a manifestation of fear. Perfectionism comes from a place of fear. Fear is the opposite of love - the two cannot occupy the same space - so to be loving to my work, I have to abandon fear.

Tell me about the role collaboration played in your recent productions – and how you see the potential for machines as collaborators compared to humans.

At this stage of my career, having stepped away 3 years ago from running Hospital Records, I have been free to work with whomever I want, and I’ve loved collaborating with a range of producers and vocalists.

The happiest place for me is to be in the room with a brilliant singer, helping them to be the best version of themselves both in terms of performance and lyric writing.

Collab with machines? I mean a guitar or a piano, they are machines. Love collating with them!

Production, as opposed to live performance, can be a lonely process and feedback from listeners isn't always tangible. What is it about it that gives you satisfaction?

When I’m writing, I often don’t know if what I’m doing is any good. I do it anyway, and sometimes need a good length of time after making a sketch so I can forget about it, and then hear it with fresh ears - then I can appreciate or bin it.

It can be lonely, which I guess is why most of the tracks I’ve made and released in the last year have been collabs. I love people!

We can watch videos on production, take producer courses, and exchange deep insights on gear forums. Amidst these options to improve one's chops/ skills, how do you keep things playful?

I’m self taught, there were no courses for electronic music in the 80s or 90s. That said, everyday is a school day and I really benefited from doing a couple of courses with Josh Unglued. He taught me a lot in 2023 that I still apply now.

I’ve always felt though, that if I spend time on forums or watching YT vids, I may end up sounding too much the same as other producers. This may be stupid of me, but it’s how I think.

AI is already capable of making something most people would recognise as music. I am curious, though, and will keep this question somewhat broad on purpose: What do you think that means?

Well, seeing as AI is trained on historical material, it explains why AI is good at making things that sound familiar, but not good at making things that no one else has thought of before. That may come, but I haven't heard it yet.

There was one artist who performed at a festival in Asia in 2024, and his entire set was produced on Suno. It was awful. So derivative, a real failure as an experiment. AI can make music that pleases people with very low expectations, in the same way that generic artists do.

I’m excited and frightened that the day may come when AI can make leaps of faith and inspiration in the future.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though producing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

The phrase ‘inspiration is for amateurs’ comes to mind. All the great music artists I admire, people like Prince, Gil Evans, Miles Davis, Calibre - they were or are all prolific. You cannot be prolific if you are too precious about your work.

So music is all about taking action, and getting it out there. If a tune isn’t released, then it doesn’t exist. If you are disciplined and make yourself take action, make yourself finish tunes, then the ‘inspiration’ may become apparent to the listener.

Some music expresses some very deep emotions, I’m not sure coffee can do that. Although, first thing in the morning, Coffee is the only thing that will do for me what I cannot do for myself!