Between the basslines

Mt Eden Dubstep have gained a following, thanks to YouTube. Photo / Supplied

In the past 18 months, mates Jesse Cooper and Harley Rayner's music has won them thousands of fans around the world - and they've been courting a few enemies too. Or perhaps haters is a more appropriate word considering they move in the dark and sometimes sinister-sounding world of dubstep.

Under the name Mt Eden Dubstep they have clocked up millions of views on YouTube with tracks like Sierra Leone, and remixes of Silence by Sarah McLachlan and Delirium, and the Prodigy's searing siren song Omen - and they have been selling out 800-1000 capacity shows around New Zealand.

Cooper started realising something big was happening about six months ago when the anthemic Sierra Leone notched up 500,000 views on YouTube. It soon reached one million and now clocks in at more than five million views.

"I was like, 'What the ..?'," beams Cooper over a beer at a Mt Eden pub.

That song is a remix of sorts: not of Kiwi band Coconut Rough's early 80s hit, but of a song called I'd Like by South African group Freshly Ground, whose latest song with pop star Shakira, Waka Waka (Time For Africa), just happens to be the official anthem of the World Cup.

It's pair's penchant for reworking and remixing songs that polarises opinion about their music - and in some cases the flak they cop is venomous.

"He's just a massive shit stain on the [dubstep] scene," scorned one punter on British music website Last.fm.

"Mt Eden ain't a producer, he just remixes songs, put's a dubstep beat and a semi dubstep bass underneath it," said another dismissively.

"People hated on me for doing remixes.

"At first I was hurt and I remember my first bad comment was a stab in the heart kind of thing," says Cooper of the criticism.

"But if it hadn't've happened I wouldn't have been as strong as I am now. Now I just let it go by, don't let it affect me and make my music."

It's perhaps not surprising Cooper has made a name as a remixer of tracks since he grew up listening to hip-hop which has sampled other peoples' songs for decades.

"That's why I've always done a lot of remixes and interpreted songs my own way," he offers.

But now, he is quick to point out, the pair are turning their hand to writing and producing their own songs.

"We've stopped that whole remixing thing now. I want to move on."

Cooper, a builder by trade, initially took the name Mt Eden Dubstep because he's lived in the inner city Auckland suburb most of his life.

In late 2008 his ex-girlfriend's little brother set up a YouTube account for him so he could get his songs out to the world.

And Rayner, who currently lives in Denmark studying architecture, and is the son of former Split Enz keyboardist and now composer and producer Eddie Rayner, has also jumped on board as part of the two-man MED crew.

Cooper started off with 23 subscribers on YouTube, and now MED is up to more than 35,000 making them the most subscribed New Zealand act on the website.

"It's just a powerful way of promoting yourself. And this massive following has been quite a shock really," he says.

"It just happened. But it hasn't gone to my head or anything. I never expected any of this to happen. It was just an after-work hobby."

Cooper especially has an ear for an anthem, and even though he cloaks his songs in the rupturing bass and staunch soundscapes of dubstep, there is a catchiness and tunefulness to them which comes from his love of melody and female artists like Bjork, Bat For Lashes and Imogen Heap.

Put simply, he's making dark and anthemic pop music. And along with fellow Kiwi dubstepper Optimus Gryme, Mt Eden have helped take dubstep from its dark and reclusive underground roots to a wider and more mainstream crowd.

"I know my sound is unique to other dubsteppers out there.

" It's trancey, melodic, dubstep - that's what I like, something with a riff, a nice melody, that's vocal-driven, and when you dance to it you dance because you feel good. It's soul music."

The 21-year-old moved to Mt Eden from Papatoetoe when he was 3-years-old.

Though he's always been into hip-hop, his neighbourhood has had a big influence on his musical direction and conversion to "filthy dubstep".

"I was a white boy in a brown body," he says with a smile.

"I hung out with white boys who all listened to drum'n'bass and dubstep but I can just imagine if I was living in Papatoetoe I'd just be listening to hip-hop or R&B."

Mt Eden's plan is to take live dubstep on the road with a band and vocalist, they are also teaming up with up and coming singer Ruby Frost to record, and head to Europe and the US for two months later in the year.

"I'm making music, DJing, and drinking full time. It's rock'n'roll," laughs Cooper.

Although, he jokes, he was only three years into his building apprenticeship when he put it on hold to take up music, and while his new job is going well, he won't be selling his tools just yet.


LOWDOWN

Who: Mt Eden Dubstep
What: Mini YouTube phenomenon making poppy dubstep
Where & when: We Love Sounds, The Studio, Ink/Coherent, Friday, 4 June
Listen: www.youtube.com/user/MtEdenDnB08