Building Blocks is a series of features developed in partnership with Splice commissioning dance music artists to make a sample pack. Each artist develops a pack that reflects their voice as a producer—a suite of sounds they'd use in their own tracks and live sets. Apart from the sample pack itself, each feature includes video and text where the artists talk all things samples and sampling, the process of making the pack, and their own creative evolution from beginner to the present day. The packs will be available to purchase via Splice.

The fifth and final artist to feature in this series is FAUZIA, who first emerged on the scene with her NTS Radio show in 2017, later becoming a member of 6 Figure Gang. Since the collective disbanded in 2021, the London-born artist has enjoyed an interesting musical trajectory, sidestepping the typical DJ career path and instead delving into the world of classical composition. A desire to blur the lines between electronic and classical music has characterised her approach to both production and live performance in the period since, something she discussed with Resident Advisor from the comfort of her home studio last year.

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is FAUZIA and I'm a musician and DJ from London.

What are your earliest experiences of music production? Was it ever a struggle for you?

My earliest experience with music production came from studying it in college. I originally wanted to do music, but because I wasn't formally trained on an instrument I was told that I could go down the music production route. What's really sad about wanting to be a musician, especially if you're coming from a working-class background, is that access to that sort of thing is quite gate-kept. So I only started learning more traditional composition in the last two years. I was able to go to Guildhall [School of Music & Drama] and study orchestration and formally learn the piano for a year. This is a very recent pivot.

How has your sound evolved over time and how have your production methods changed in line with that?

In the beginning I was making dance music because I thought that's what I had to do, because I was DJing. I always felt very boxed in with it. It felt like there was a very set formula for how you had to make music. I was really grateful to be inside during the pandemic, and have time to focus on how I wanted to create. Now I'm just trying to find the sweet spot of integrating electronics with more classical composition.

Can you share some details about your sample pack? What can users expect to find and explore in it?

The sample pack starts off in club music because that's where I was at the time. Since then it's naturally progressed and evolved, and now has a lot of club sounds, a lot of contemporary classical sounds, ambient sounds, so I'm really happy with how it's all come together. It has a range of synths and drum loops that can be really great starting points.

What gear did you use to create the sounds in the pack, what was your workflow like?

I used the OB-6 a lot because you can easily make your own presets. It's quite straightforward to use, I find it to be a great machine because it's very intuitive. I used some of my Pulsar-23, which is a new addition but I really enjoy [it] because you really have freedom with the sort of drum sounds you want to make.

With my Lyra-8, there's a couple sounds in the pack that I actually ran my acoustic guitar into. And then a lot of the pack uses a combination of the Subharmonicon and DFAM, which is really great because Moog gives you patch books that you can use as a starting point, and then they interact well together. During this process I learned how to tune the Subharmonicon to certain scales and actually use it as a synthesiser, and got really nice chords and textures from it. You can tune all the oscillators in whatever notes you want.

Sometimes I'll use a MIDI controller and plug it in to produce chords, which you'll hear a lot of in the sample pack. But right now, I'm using the Pamela's NEW Workout module to trigger and use as a sequencer for the Subharmonicon. So I have all of that going into my LVX pedal first. I recently got it and I really like it, it's like a granular delay machine. And then that goes into the Microcosm, which I've had for a minute. I like the spacey granular things that you can do with [these pedals] and I often use them with my synths.

What are some key elements you focus on when designing sounds for your ambient/classical compositions, and how do they differ from your approach to club music?

I wouldn't really say that there's a difference between my approach to sound design for classical contemporary music and electronic music. I think my approach to music making as a whole is very much intuitive. A lot of this sample pack is based on that, it contains sounds that I feel reflect me, that I feel really connected to. What makes music unique is the fact that you can feel the person within it. And so that's what I've tried to do in the sample pack, through using cello, or my OB-6 or my Pulsar-23. The OB-6 is my dream synth and I'm really happy that I have it. And then I'm currently running it into my MOOD pedal by Chase Bliss, which is my [current] obsession.

Did you have a certain goal with the pack?

One thing that I'd really love to get across is the fact that I don't know what I'm doing most of the time. I don't really set out to make music thinking, "I need to make something and it's going to sound like this, and it's going to have this texture or this personality." Everything I do, genuinely, is from intuition. I think the only thing that was important to me when I was creating the pack was to have a range of sounds that reflected all of my interests.

Were there any unexpected challenges when making the pack?

I would say the biggest challenge I faced was actually finishing. When I was first asked to do this, it was during a time where I didn't yet believe in myself or my skill sets. I felt very overwhelmed, like I didn't know how to do the things that people were asking me to do. That goes back to my point of information and knowledge being gate-kept, and believing that because you don't know X, Y or Z that you're not talented enough. Or because you don't know how this machine works, then you shouldn't do this. The way I was able to finish was to become more confident in myself as a musician. I do know what I'm doing, and just because I don't have the language that some people do, that doesn't mean that I'm not as skilled. Just do what you like, [find the] sounds you love and hopefully that will shine through to everyone.

Revisit the previous editions of Building Blocks with FJAAK, Dasha Rush, KiNK and ANNA.