Roska eats up influences from grime, dubstep, bashment, and his first love: UK funky, and spits them out again through his own unique filter in his genre-melting DJ sets, productions and Rinse FM show.

As his new Crossed Wires EP drops, Roska shares his influences and inspirations with Huck.

Things That Inspire Me

Phoebe

My daughter Phoebe is 18 months and ever since she’s been born I always randomly test music with her to see if it make her ears pop up. Plus she loves coming in to my studio to ‘observe’ what goodies she can find and hit the keyboard with a bit of power to get a response. I think I subconsciously make music for her enjoyment now and one day she can look back and be proud of what I have done in my field of work.

A Fake Pile of Faeces

I picked it up from Chessington theme park way before I decided to pack in my 9-5 to take on music full time. It’s been in every place I’ve called a studio ever since. Kinda reminds me of where I started and what I was creating then. Plus it’s always a good prank to play when you have an artist in for a session ha.

Stuart, Give Up Art

He does a lot of the designs for Rinse and all of my Roska artwork. Always amazing pieces of work. Stuart’s designs are a kind of interpretation of what my music would look like if you were to make it into a picture. Weirdly I always envision what my music would look like or work out if this fits in with what has been done already via Give Up Art.

The Nest

This nightclub in East London gave me a little inspiration earlier this year when I played along with Jamie George, Mele + Slick Don. Such a small venue but the vibes are immense once it gets going. One of the tracks I dropped in my set took me back to my UK Garage roots growing up as a teen which was Jeremy Sylvester – Making Love, It made me want to dig deeper into my garage influence sounds and bring that out a bit more. The track shows how timeless it is to fit right into my set that night. Amazing tune.

Family Guy/My Living Room

As much as that programme is vulgar at times. It’s got me through most of last year and this year as my background interference whilst finishing off music. Most ideas start in my living room and then I go to my studio to elaborate on what I have got so far. Most times I have got just a loop or there’s a few times I have completed something which just needs mixing down on the iMac. This track with Jamie George was definitely a product of my living room.

The Gym

Most sessions in the week I’ll buy a new album or grab a Rinse podcast and listen through a few times before moving on to the next session and album. Most of the time I try and buy music that is far off what I’m creating for my projects. I find it nice and refreshing than listening to sounds I use and listen to week in week out. I think the most inspiring album I have come across was Joker’s The Vision which came out 2011. One of the best modern albums I’ve heard that relates to me more as a music producer in the way he composes melodies and the changes in key work so smoothly in a dubstep based template. Very well worked on. Most times I’ll post a new album on my Instagram as #GymSoundtrack.

Holidays

I think my most recent holiday was nearly a year ago which me and my family went away to the Algarve for a week. I usually leave my Mac and only carry my iPad and iPhone with me so it’s mainly important emails that need a response and access to my iCloud for movies etc. It just gives me that essential break from ‘work’ in my case. During the course of the holiday I’ll always end up thinking about music I haven’t finished or humming a melody for a new idea and wanting to write something down. I think it’s more being in the sunshine – I finished this when I got back.

Roska’s new Crossed Wires EP is out Monday, August 18 on Rinse.