Virus Syndicate consist of Nika D, Goldfinger and JSD – all three of them are rappers, with MRK1 as the producer and DJ. Just this summer, they dropped the The Break Out Trilogy, which is a series of three separate EPs; The Mosquito EP, The Malaria EP and The Antedote EP.

They are fresh from representing Manchester on BBC Radio 1′s Dubstep Takeover Soundclash and Sam Moir caught up with them.

How did you get into making music?

Making music became a by product of doing shows, radio and just the live thing and it came from wanting to develop it to putting it down as something more permanent in a recording so that’s how we got into actually making it.

So when you set out to start making it, did you have any influences?

Not in sound wise, we didn’t want to sound like this person, or that person but we had ambitions of how successful we wanted to be. I think in sound, it was always a case of wanting to be different. Obviously, in our musical tastes, there were loads of different inspirations that you can hear in the songs but as far as our actual music goes, we wanted to always make our own sound and be different.

Coming from Manchester, were there anyone around who you aspired to be like?

As kids, we were massively into Trigga. He was the godfather of Manchester when we were kids. Seeing him get all the success outside of the city and to see him, probably, become the first big MC from Manchester was an inspiration for us definitely.

What do you make in difference between north and south?

It’s a weird question because I wouldn’t say there’s a difference in sound. Music’s music regardless of your location and good music is still good music whether you’re in Manchester or London.

The culture in Manchester is going to shape your music as is the culture in London even though they’re similar, they have differences. It obviously has an effect on the music.

But in terms of breaking through, do you think it would have been easier if you were based in London?

If you’re in London, you’ve got all the main establishments. You’ve got the BBC, record labels and the A&Rs. The majority of the music industry is in London so as a musician coming up, it makes a lot more sense to be at the heart of that.

The negative side of me would say, ‘Yeah, it would have been well easier to live in London,’ but the more positive side of me thinks no because we wouldn’t be who we are. It wouldn’t have been the struggle to get to the position we are in now.

That’s made us as people, and as artists and I think it sets us apart from everyone else.

So you’d say being outside of London has made you work harder to achieve your goals?

Definitely because it’s more difficult than being from London, you’ve not got everything on your doorstep. It’s been a motivation for us, when we first started out doing this, we did a show on Rinse FM and we used to go down every week and do our show. We knew we had to go break into the whole London scene in order for the rest of the UK to follow. That’s just the way it is.

We did our show on Rinse and off the back of doing Rinse FM, we did the Sidewinder thing and off the back of that we got our Planet Mu record deal. It just developed from that.

If you look at it, it does boil down to the fact we got on the whole Rinse FM thing and got on the London game.

You’ve seen grime artists like Skepta and Chipmunk not only break through the grime scene but go onto cross over into the mainstream, what are your thoughts on that?

Urban music in the UK has been huge for years and now it’s finally getting the recognition that it deserves. You’ve got guys from our scene who are competing amongst mega stars from America. Look at Tinie Tempah achieving number ones, look where his album charted and then Roll Deep, two consecutive number ones. Then there’s Example and Professor Green.

When people say they’re selling out, what do you make of those accusations?

There’s two ways of looking at it. You’ve got set man in the hood who’ll say, ‘You can’t sell out,’ but, realistically, how much money are you going to make on the underground? Are you going to buy yourself a big mansion one day and provide for your kids and grandkids? Are you going to set up a stream of wealth by being in underground clubs and doing that forever?

It’s not going to happen because the market isn’t there to support that. The only way, ultimately, you’re going to make it is by taking it to a mainstream audience.

In order to do that with the way radio and TV works is the music has to be universal so you can say it’s selling but then again, is it? Is it selling out, or is it widening the market? As long as you’re doing you and as long as you’re being yourself then I think that’s all good.

While on the subject of crossing over, what do you make of Dubstep’s explosion?

That’s been amazing, look at the Katy B and Benga track, top five, that’s a big look. That track was going to be big anyway regardless of the major label support it received. That’s what it’s about but I don’t know realistically how much daytime playlists will allow that kind of music to come through.

How did the Breakout Trilogy come about and then how did it evolve you as artists?

It was basically three EPs; The Mosquito EP, The Malaria EP and The Antedote EP put together with a couple of extra tracks. We released them three separately at the backend of 2009 and early 2010. We packaged them up together to drop them as an album and the Breakout Trilogy which came out in August. It was always going to be the Breakout Trilogy, it was just how we wanted to unleash it to the public was a different sort of plan.

It’s developed us artists because we want to be more for the rave and more for the dance. Our previous albums like the Work Related Illness and Sick Pay were much more conscious related and much more about the actual stories in the song.

But with these, we’ve tried to make it much more about the rave element and getting the audience involved. That’s come from doing live shows and touring constantly.

Would you say your music has developed massively since Breakout then?

Massively, the stuff we’re making now is nothing like Breakout, it’s really different. At the moment, we’re working on all kinds of stuff. We’ve got some stuff that’s more accessible and stuff that’s still really underground and dark. We’re doing both and it’s about keeping that balance in the studio of keeping us motivated and enjoying it. Making the same type of music constantly can get boring and I think you lose creativity by just doing that but we’re working with so many different producers at the moment and trying to create something different.

Who are you working with now?

We’ve been working with Stenchman, Jakwob, obviously MRK1 and we’re doing some work with people based in the states, B-Rich from Philadelphia who works under the alias Kastle.

We’re starting 2011 with a track called Your Life with a house producer called Mowgli. It’s not a house track, something completely different. Hopefully, we’ve got some massive remixes on there and it’s got quite a big backing so I’m hoping that’s going to be a really good start to the new year.

Free Download: Virus Syndicate  – Dunce Boi (Stenchman Remix)

Interview: Sam Moir