By Sam Moir

Having burst onto the scene in 2003, Caspa has established himself as one of the hottest dubstep producers. Since then, he’s released his debut album Everybody’s Talking, Nobody’s Listening, remixed for a whole host of names from a variety of genres and nurtured Dub Police into a cutting edge music label.

Speaking about his career to date, Caspa says, “I’ve really enjoyed my career so far, I feel like it’s been a really healthy progression. It hasn’t peaked too quickly. I’ve built myself as an artist, put out the right releases and been quite careful in what I do and choose to remix.”

Last year was as busy as ever for Caspa. On top of playing out all over the world, including a host of festival dates in the summer which saw him play the main stage at Sonar and the legendary Lollapalooza in America, he released his Geordie Racer collaboration with Subscape and saw his instrumental Back For The First Time reach BBC Radio 1 A-List.

It was a year in which his usual high profile remixes continued, confirming him as one of the most in demand producers in the business. He reveals, “I’ve done a few remixes but if I could give you a list of the ones I’ve turned down you’d be shocked at some of the names. I get offered a lot of stuff but I’m really picky in what I do.”

Looking at some of the remixes he done in 2010, most notably Ludacris’ How Low which was the first official dubstep remix of a major US rap-star and Swedish House Mafia’s summer anthem One, it is easy to imagine the calibre of names he now attracts for a dubstep remix on a release.

He says, “It’s all about the sound. I love doing stuff that I enjoy. When I stop enjoying it or it feels like a job or chore, I’ll stop doing it. With me, it’s all about passion and music’s my passion.”

With dubstep’s massive progression during the previous year, every release looks for a dubstep remix. “When a genre really explodes, everyone wants a part of it to help them sell records. The way the music industry is nowadays, people need different genres like dubstep to help push their single which is fine, it’s just business,” says Caspa.

When I ask if he’s ever remixed anything he wasn’t feeling, he replies, “I only remix it if I’m willing to buy it myself. If I’m not willing to buy it then I’m definitely not doing it.”

In recent years it is his remixes for the likes of TC, Kid Sister and Deadmau5 that have put him in an international spotlight but back in 2009 he released his debut album Everybody’s Talking, Nobody’s Listening. He says, “My first album was a collection of tunes I’d made over the previous two years from when I released it. I just wanted to put something out with a bunch of tracks on. People wanted to know when I was going to do an album.”

He adds, “So I just put something out, quite underground, not too much publicity even though it picked up quite big.”

Following his album, he’s had a string of further releases and in 2010 his instrumental Back For The First Time achieved Radio 1 A-List during the summer and was a respectable feat for an instrumental track. Such was the popularity of the track, Mr Hudson soon vocalled it to produce Love Never Dies which also went on to receive even further praise, especially in America. “It’s really catching on over there where you had Kanye West put Back For The First Time on his blog and was hyping it up,” says Caspa.

He adds, “The great thing is, I’ve never changed what I do, and I put out what I like.”

His label, Dub Police, went from strength to strength last year with releases from Emalkay, Subscape and Trolley Snatcha. He says, “With Dub Police, I feel like the artists are offering something I can push and they’re talented so I’m going to push it. It’s all about bringing through the next generation.”

Caspa has the first few months of 2011 on studio lockdown to work on new material. “I’m in the studio and I’ve got loads and loads of ideas. I’m working with a few vocalists as well and there have been a few people really interested in doing stuff,” he reveals.

“I don’t want to rush the next album, I want to do it and when I feel like it’s ready, I’ll release it.”

If his past success is anything to go by then the forthcoming Caspa productions will be just as big and it is to the future that Caspa looks, “It’s not about what you’ve done; it’s about what you’re doing. You can’t live on the past.”

“For me, it’s always about pushing things forward and keeping ahead of the game.”

Sam Moir on Twitter

Recommended by Jakes: Lost

Guest Mix Tracklisting:
Lost – Hydrone
Jakes – Rhythm (Lost Special)
Lost – Ironhide
Lost – Boogaloo
Lost – Disgusting Justin
Lost vs Hatcha – Stress
Jakes – I Machine
Unknown – Never Over
Lost – Metal Foot

Recommended by Caspa & Chase N Status: Emalkay

Guest Mix Tracklisting:
Emalkay – When I Look At You
Emalkay – Battlesuit
Emalkay – Solid State
Emalkay – Explicit
Chase N Status – Bits
Skream – Metalick
Caspa – Are You Ready
Trolley Snatcha – The Future
Emalkay – Ags
BBE – 7 Days & 1 Week (Emalkay Remix)

Recommended by Rusko: 16 Bit

Guest Mix Tracklisting:
Zarif – Over (Breakage Remix)
16 Bit – Jump
Giant – Drumstick
16 Bit – Drumhouse
16 Bit – Panic
Propa Tingz – Babylons Properly Scare (16 Bit Remix)
Skizm – The Blank (16 Bit Remix)
Merchmellow – It’s Reeel Simple VIP
Ghetto – Commandments (16 Bit Remix)
16 Bit – Swine Flu
16 Bit – Chain Saw
16 Bit – The Tale Of The Exploding Fist

Big shouts to all for coming down and representing the future sound of Dubstep. Tomorrow night, pure highlights. 3 hours of Dubstep on 1Xtra… Plus I’ve got a HUGE announcement.

The Birmingham Dub Police representer passed through the 1Xtra studio tonight and killed it in his mix for our “Future Of Dubstep” night – we had him, 16 Bit and Lost in all spinning rather sick guest mixes. Will post the iPlayer link soon as its up. Until then, get ready to loop the above & fall in love!

Listen to the full Allstar Guest Mix for the next 7 days here or you can listen to the Chase n Status Mix right here:

Plastician spoke about it on my show last night… here it is in it’s full glory:

Download all 28 tracks in a nice updated link here

**UPDATE – Some people are finding that a password is being asked for when trying to unpack the zip. There is no password, if you use WINRAR on a PC or Stuffit on a mac, you should be cool. Either way, I have upped a brand new zip of the mixtape with definitely NO PASSWORDS. Thank me later…**