Flava D: The Evolution of a Producer

Danielle Gooding, known to the world as Flava D, has earned her place as a defining figure in UK dance music – a producer celebrated for her versatility, innovation and relentless work ethic. With over a decade at the cutting edge of UK bass culture, she’s effortlessly navigated grime, bassline, UK garage and drum & bass, both as a solo artist and one-third of TQD, alongside Royal-T and DJ Q.

Raised between Bournemouth and Birmingham, Gooding’s musical journey began in a local record store where she first got her hands on Ableton and began crafting bass-heavy instrumentals that would eventually catch the attention of “Godfather of Grime” Wiley. While early Flava D collaborations cemented her presence in the underground, it was the 2011 release of the garage anthem "Hold On" that marked her true breakout moment.

Now signed to the revered Hospital Records – a label she idolised as a teen – Gooding unveils her debut drum & bass album, Here & Now. True to form, the project sees her rely on her curatorial ear to bend genre lines and deliver a rich collection of soulful rollers, heavyweight steppers and euphoric rave cuts. Backed by a stellar cast of vocal collaborators, the album is a bold, bass-charged statement from an artist who insists on evolution.

You worked in a record shop as a teenager. Was that your introduction to dance music?

It played a big part, but I was first exposed to garage on my auntie's side. Back in the day, she always had the DJ EZ compilations, whilst mum had the Ferry Corsten trance/euphoria CDs. At 16, I got a deeper look into dance music from working in a record shop in Bournemouth called Strictly Beats. It was actually run by ex-DMC turntablist DJ X-rated. I was practicing breakdancing in the back of the shop so he asked if I wanted some shifts, but working there was a really good discovery into all the different types of dance music that were out there.

Even as a kid you seemed to have an interest in music creation. Didn’t you own a Casio keyboard?

That was a spontaneous gift that my mum or nan got me for my eighth birthday. It was one of those tiny little battery-operated Casios, but it was probably the best gift I ever got because it was my way of escaping and a gateway into music. I got more into the process of how songs were made when I was 15 because one of my friends at the vinyl shop was using Fruity Loops and he’d play me tunes when we were out driving. I'd always ask him, “How do you make a song?” I couldn't get my head around it until my boss gave me a version of Ableton to take home. Thankfully, I had a PC and was able to start layering up and structuring sounds. I've used Ableton my whole career - it's the only thing that works for me!

Was it a steep learning curve or did you find Ableton fairly intuitive to use?

I’d say both. Obviously, the internet back then wasn’t like it is now - we didn't even have it at home, so I was definitely thrown in at the deep end. Thankfully, I had a lot of free time and a really patient mum. For about three or four years I was a recluse in my bedroom learning and having fun with Ableton, trying to recreate the songs I was hearing on Channel U. I was really into grime and would almost try to replicate or dissect how certain tracks were made. Then one day I plucked up the courage to export one of my garage tracks and gave a CD to a DJ friend at a local bar in Bournemouth. There were probably only four people there, but it sounded quite good and that's when I thought, wow, I can actually make music and get it played somewhere. From there, I had the confidence to send tunes out to MCs and try to become a bit more established on the grime scene, but I was literally just a bedroom producer sending files from McDonald's, which seems so funny looking back.

You signed to Hospital Records in 2020. Considering the reputation of the label, that must have been a pivotal moment for you?

Hospital was my introduction to drum & bass through a Danny Byrd CD I found in a charity shop in 2003. When I signed for the label, my childhood me was screaming ‘Oh my God!’ and my productions were changing at the time as I’d begun to pivot towards different genres. I don't know if it's my autistic side, but I felt satisfied with what I'd achieved in garage and was itching to try something new. I love all dance music, so I saw making drum & bass as a challenge.

You’re referring to your latest LP, Here & Now, which is your first step into drum & bass. Was the challenge to modernise a genre that has very familiar tropes?

For a while, I struggled to figure out how the album would need to sound. I was overthinking and procrastinating too much, so I went back to the drawing board and thought, just make it ‘Flava D’, which has always been about getting sounds from all different corners and trying to make them work. Once I decided to take that approach, everything flowed effortlessly and felt authentic. I was curious about structure and flow, so I listened to a couple of drum & bass albums just to see how they start and finish. I also wanted to see the current standard and use that as a bar, but it was such a big learning curve going from garage to drum & bass because the mix techniques and frequencies are completely different. I had to sort of rewire my brain on how to make drums and basslines, but I feel that the process has allowed me to level up and Here & Now feels like a good representation of what I'm about as a producer.

How would you typically organise your Ableton sessions when starting a new project?

I tend to start from scratch with some sort of background noise, drag that in as audio and add a melody or some sort of chord. Then I‘ll open my MIDI track and get a groove or loop going until I hear something in my mind. I only upgraded to Ableton 12 three months ago because I'm a creature of habit and my brain had adapted to the software, but it got to a point where I couldn't open certain plugins from collaborators because I didn’t have the latest version. For me, the main selling points of Ableton 12 are the fact that I can flatten an audio patch and export it, create groups within groups, and hashtag things to find certain sounds without having to spend five minutes scrolling through my libraries. I also like the Convolution Reverb and other nerdy features, but the workflow aspect is so much nicer now.

Did you rely on a pre-existing sound library or have to create a new folder of drum & bass-related sounds?

I’ve been using the same drum sample pack for over 10 years and there’s thousands in there, so I probably have every generic “Amen” break, “Think” break or shaker that you can think of. When I’m trying to keep a track going, I’ll often drag in an existing break and start building my drums around that. In terms of Ableton stock plugins, Saturator is probably my number one go-to for wave shaping bass sounds, drums and hi-hats and I use Erosion for creating distortion on basslines. For textures and pads, I think Omnisphere is an amazing piece of software although I don’t feel like I’m anywhere close to exploring everything that’s in there. I also know Serum like the back of my hand and tend to use that for pads and bass design.

What's your approach to drum programming?

I use Ableton’s Drum Rack quite a lot, so if I'm using a break of some sort I’ll add my own kicks and layer up the snares so they’re aligned to the main transient or a mid-frequency of some sort. I'm really into a plugin called Noize 2 from Denise Audio, which allows you to put the plugin on top of your drums, emulate the pattern and add white noise. It’s such a nice, quick tool to use, and it adds a real crunchiness - you can literally make your own hi-hats with it! Trackspacer is also a really good sidechaining ducking tool that allows you to dip the break so that certain frequencies aren't clashing too much.

Is sidechaining a relatively new technique for you due to it being somewhat synonymous with drum & bass?

I was already familiar with it, but realised that I was doing it all wrong in relation to garage. For many years, I didn't know what I was doing in terms of mixing – I didn't even know what compression was until 2016. A producer called Champion really took me under his wing, taught me about the low end, the importance of the sub hitting where it should and the principles of sidechaining to make sure your bass doesn't clash with the kick. Up to then, I was doing it at beginner level, now I use Cableguys’ ShaperBox where you trigger a certain sound to dip when another one is playing and manually control how much of the frequency is ducking. Since learning these techniques, I feel like my drum & bass game has improved so much sonically and the tracks hit better in a club.

Producers often start with software and then embellish their studio with physical gear once they can afford to. Is that a route you’ve taken?

The one thing I do love is my Novation Bass Station II, because it’s really fun to use your hands sometimes to manually twist knobs and sculpt a sound. I do love keyboards, but my laptop is so useful for making tunes when traveling on trains or planes. In that sense, I’m used to using software to work quickly and efficiently. For some people, hardware is like collector’s items - little trophies that are lovely to look at and have fun with, but they’re not always necessary when it comes to making music.

Download the Live Set of Flava D’s "Blackwall Tunnel"

Please note that this Live Set and all included samples are intended solely for educational and exploration purposes and are not to be used for commercial endeavors. Requires Live 12 Suite.

Tell us about the album track "Blackwall Tunnel". Can you remember what you were initially aiming for and how it may have evolved?

It’s a sort of jungle-influenced, club-heavy track that I was using in my live sets, but it lacked a gritty, dark roller tune and I wanted to make sure that it served a purpose for the style of the album. I was on the train coming back from a gig somewhere and had an idea to progress it by paying homage to a gritty late ‘90s sound – think Goldie’s Metalheadz, or one of my favourite drum & bass producers, S.P.Y. There are lots of tracks on the album that you can listen to in the car or at a barbecue, but "Blackwall Tunnel" works really well for a double drop and was definitely made to be enjoyed at a sweaty rave with a low-ceiling dark vibe.

Your sense of playfulness really comes through on tracks like "Do You Want Me". Can that sound design approach be intuitive or is it a technical process?

Most of the things I do are intuitive, and that track was actually really fun to make because it’s the first time I used my own vocal alongside AI. Within the track, there is a lot of bass design and new techniques that I hadn't used before and it was really fun programming the LFOs and some of the bass sounds and chords, which still have a garage influence from back in the day.

Most AI vocal tools are still in their infancy. What software have you found to be natural-sounding?

I’m using one called Audimee, but I'm very mindful about using AI. I’d never want to stop working with vocalists and would never use AI for anything more than just a phrase here or there, but I’m not a singer. I can sing a decent harmony, but I’ve found that if you can sing something okayish then you can use AI to customize your voice, tone, vibratos or how long you can hold a note. I think that’s better than taking the same Splice sample that everybody else is using because it’s still purely me and no one else can replicate it. I'm aware that AI is replacing all types of things in life, but it can't replace actual human emotion and you'll always have artists who want to maintain that sense of authenticity.

Follow Flava D on Bandcamp and Instagram

Text and interview: Danny Turner
Photos courtesy of the artist and Khaliphotography