Nardene Scott caught up with one of Manchester’s finest this weekend JSD from Virus Syndicate to chat vodka coma’s in Miami, falling off stages, non stop touring, appearing on albums alongside Snoop and Exhibit and the rising popularity of the dubstep scene worldwide…

So how’s it been going seems like ages since we last spoke, you’re always on tour! Where have you been?

I know! We’ve been doing loads of stuff actually this year already but also for the past four/ five years it’s been quite constant for us we’re lucky because we get to go abroad a lot. We still do a lot of shows in the UK but also get to go further afield which is amazing to go and spread UK music.

We hear you got yourself a spot of sunburn in Miami when you guys went over there for the Winter Music Conference?

Yeah I didn’t get any sympathy of the lads though! Basically I was left on the beach in Miami for seven hours after a few vodkas passed out with no sun tan lotion on so ended up with these massive burns on my face and couldn’t perform at one of the shows that night. It wasn’t that bad I’m alright now but our agent out there was treating it like an episode of ER or something.

Wow glad to see you’re alright now, What do you think about the rise of the dubstep scene both here in the UK and abroad?

We did about seven shows out in Miami and caught up with loads of Brits out there, Annie Mac, Calvin Harris, Skream and Benga; people we’ve known for a long time you know it’s crazy, Magnetic Men have just signed a massive deal; I remember them back in Sidewinder days so it’s good to see people embracing the scene. I just love the fact that the scene is developing like we used to get lifts sometimes with Chase & Status when they lived in Manchester and we would do shows down south, I was sitting there the other day listening to Rihanna’s album and hearing their tracks, and it’s not watered down either it was like proper hardcore dubstep.

The scene in US right now is really taking off, we’ve got a new booking agent over there and have some shows lined up in LA; people are really into the music we had our track Talk To Frank on the Dubstep LA compilation alongside artists like Eve, Snoop Dogg and Exhibit as well as Benga, Chase & Status and Starkey.

Are you guys working on a new album or working with anyone in particular at the moment and who are you feeling UK wise?

We just put out Breakout Trilogy last year and now we’ve decided we’re going to make a load of tunes for the dubstep clubs because we’ve done two albums now and it’s all quite subjecty and deep and we just thought we need to make some party music for ourselves because that’s the stage we’re in at the moment.

We’re working with different producers and singers, Mowgli, an Italian house producer, Krafty Cuts, Starkey, Kastle and Jakwob (click here to read our interview with Jakwob). The music is a lot more dance based since we’re doing a lot of shows and have totally developed our performances into full live shows with quirky sections to keep the crowd entertained, we’ve just introduced a whole Snoop Dogg section too. We go crazy on stage we’ve been performing together for years so we know each other inside out.

We performed last night at L’original Festival in France (where I managed to somehow fall off the stage I told you our shows are mad, right? I’ve literally had 2 hours sleep!)  we were alongside Mos Def, Q Tip, De La Soul, Jay Electronica and The Beatnuts but people were coming up to us and saying how much they enjoyed our show and they’ve never seen anything like it before which was cool considering it was a more hip hop based event.

I don’t tend to listen to a lot of dubstep music at home I’m more into soul but I’m really feeling Wrigley he’s doing his thing right now as well as R.I.O and Wretch 32 they’re definitely talented guys. It’s like all UK artists are pushing each other to do better and climb higher.

The Breakout Trilogy is out now for more information go to MySpace.com/virus_syndicate and follow them on twitter @Virus_Syndicate

Tags: Dubstep, Grime, Hip Hop, Interviews, Virus Syndicate, Winter Music Conference