With new EP Kirkstone out now, Henry Greenleaf shares his production tips and tricks

Sometimes applying our skills as musicians and producers to unfamiliar ends can influence us in ways we never imagined. For Henry Greenleaf, an opportunity to work as a sound designer for children’s cartoons opened the door to new techniques, repurposed for use in his bass-heavy, experimental club music.

Inspired by the concept of hyper-reality – where sound designers produce radically overexaggerated versions of real-world sounds that can end up sounding more ‘real’ than reality – Greenleaf applied this same philosophy to crafting his drum sounds, resulting in the kind of mind-bending percussive constructions found on his latest EP, Kirkstone.

Since his 2018 debut, Henry Greenleaf’s intricate and immersive club tracks have found a home across ARTS, Version and the label he runs alongside Agrippa, Par Avion. Released this month through Edinburgh-based Redstone Press, Kirkstone redeploys the hyperdetailed approach required of commercial sound design to more hedonistic ends, resulting in four meticulously produced, unruly shellers that careen through techno, dubstep, garage and IDM with reckless abandon.

When did you start making music, and how did you first get started?

“I started making music at 11. My family got a new computer in 2006 that had GarageBand pre-installed. I made a track from the stock loops with my dad and sister the day we got it, then again on my own the next day, and the day after that – and I never stopped. My parents are really into music, and would take my sister and I to The Big Chill each year from when I was five through to 16.

We saw all sorts there, but I got especially into dubstep after seeing Benga and Joker play in 2006 and 2007. I had no idea what their names were, what the music was called or where to find it outside of those club tents at the festival. Still, I spent all my time trying to copy what I’d heard from memory.