Yoooo! Strex here with another release, this week from Dirtbox Recordings. Featuring the hottest dynamic duo at the moment from the label, the head honcho LeeUHF and Noise Souls and this week we have a treat of an interview with the pair of them to talk about this exciting new single on Dirtbox.
The tune, called Guilty Verdict is a dark and sinister affair with lots of atmosphere and one big bad mood that trundles us through an epic voyage of production skills and deep meaning. So without further ado, lets get into the interview!
- So we’ve seen a fair bit from LeeUHF and Noise Souls lately, how did this collaboration happen?
Lee- Nic has been a producer releasing on my Dirtbox label since 2022 with his “Safari EP” and has been regularly releasing with us since – He is a machine when it comes to producing, I have never seen such a high work rate.
Mid 2025 the conversation came up about me making music, As my output has been next to nothing the past few years with my last solo effort actually landing in 2023, I passed Nic some clips of tracks I just could not finish due to time, confidence and motivation.
His response was “Send me all the stems” and over the span of 3 months Nic literally finished 15 tracks of mine off. This was a big moment for me actually hearing that much music finished and it drove me to start some more which again he finished and vice versa.
I think in the last year now I have produced 30 tracks with the majority of them being collaborations with Nic
Nic -As my friend, colleague, and now manager said, it all started with Safari EP, giving me a spot on his label.
Little by little, we built a bond, not just a professional one. But to get to the point, I heard some of his material and immediately asked him for the songs; they had so much potential. As I contributed to his songs, we started to develop this idea of working together! By then, our connection had grown tremendously; we understand each other perfectly, we know what we’re looking for, sometimes obsessively going over repeated versions of each song to make them sound perfect, but that’s what we do!
- How do your production styles vary?
Lee- I think we compliment each other massively. He loves doing stuff I hate, haha. And I love doing the stuff he doesn’t. I’m really good at building drops and finding the right sounds, Nic can mix a track and build up percussion so fast and so detailed too.
He definitely likes to add a lot of progressive elements to tracks whereas I just love filth and heavy drums. We meet in the middle though and what seems to come out is deep and dark tracks most of the time.
Nic- The difference isn’t that great, I think! We both absorbed the same influences. But specifically, our styles blend in a natural way! His experience with dirtier, more “extreme” sounds, combined with my dark, deep, and technical ideas and style, makes this duo create incredible things.
- How do you link up for production? I see Noise Souls is Argentinian, and you are based in the UK Lee, do you collaborate on video call or just send each other the bits you’ve been working on?
Lee- The power of social media, Nic sends me 100s of clips a week of things he’s changed on the tracks I do via facebook haha. We shoot over stems, samples, and vocals through our shared google drive and all the talking is done by text because as you say, Nic does not speak very good english, We’ve made it work though
Nic- We’re perfectly comfortable using social media. We’re in daily contact, without fail. Detailing, polishing, and suggesting ideas, sending them, reviewing, and tweaking them—”that’s for sure, let’s get this out there!” Sometimes we argue a bit, but that’s normal! haha
- You have a lot of tunes already made, what future direction can we expect to see from this collab and how many tunes can you envisage being released in the coming year?
Lee- The sound we are doing together I think is very fresh, Its popular too, I have always been a fan of the harder edged stuff when it comes to DNB, but the last 2 years I have chased a much more darker, deeper sound thanks to Nic and artists I take inspiration from at moment like
I personally have some solo efforts finished that are pretty banging, Not just Deep stuff. Nic has a solo album and EP for Dirtbox and collab wise we have promised that at least 1 release per month will be out. We’re doing well so far as I have music scheduled for August with September ready to be finalized. This is all on multiple labels also not just Dirtbox.
Nic- The direction we’re heading in this year is HUGE. We have enough songs to release all year without needing to keep creating, but we can’t stop creating. More and more doors are opening for us, and that’s fantastic! This is hard work every single day.
- So you must have your own individual inspirations, where do you draw inspiration from for the collab work?
Lee- Enei, Kasra, Wingz, VISLA, Buunshin, Calyx, Rockwell, Simula, Canis X Sirius, Varkid, Erotic Cafe. I could go on for ages, The legendary producers Noisia & Phace are top of the pile. I was not massively keen on their newer sound they moved to, away from Neurofunk but I love it now.
Nic- What happens to me is that I enter a constant state of flow, really… I don’t listen to much music these days; I’m in the studio all day creating, with endless ideas.
But several artists have influenced my life, such as Noisia, Kasra, Alix Perez, Breden, Wingz, and Mefjus.
- Have you toyed with creating a brand/name for this collaboration or have you always just decided to stick to your own monikers?
Lee- I have been tempted, and If this was pre-digital age like when I released music on vinyl, I 100% would have done this, but the main reason for not right now is I want to build my brand Lee UHF as a producer now in DNB, I did it in other genres but I have only really gotten round to doing in DNB. If we were to start a new name with Nic we’d have to basically start from scratch, Build social media pages, Get logos, create content, Have a spotify artist page from scratch with 0 followers. In this day and age to succeed you need to be getting streams and making content and I just dont have time to do it for another artist name. It just feels overall massively counter productive, I dont think there is an issue releasing multiple styles of DNB so long as you can tell its a track by me and/or Nic, then thats what matters.
Nic- If I may say so, we’ve considered it, but for other genres that might appear at some point, like Bass House…among others. But I agree with Lee about growing our names while continuing to work together.
- Lastly, without revealing too much, what future release of yours are you most excited about?
Lee- Sounds a bit corny, but for me this single out now “Guilty Verdict” is my favourite track so far we have released. Im a massive sucker for the Jungle vibes on tunes and I have a few more due too. Along with that I have my first solo Single on VTO Records coming this summer which Im very excited about as we hold the production standard on that label very, very high so I’m chuffed I managed to get something ready. And finally I have a collab with Varkid that has done the rounds at a few festivals getting played this year and its fully going off. Its a fucking monster. I can safely say aswell Nic Noise Souls album in August on Dirtbox is mind blowing.
Nic- Ugh! Tough question! There are so many releases I couldn’t choose just one, however, there’s something coming in June that I’m really excited about, as well as the motivation behind my first vinyl record! And a collaboration with FJ Robertson.
Wicked stuff, thank you to both Lee and Nic for joining me in answering a few questions for our readers! Really appreciate it and cannot wait to hear what else you guys have in store for us!
So as usual, you can grab yourself a copy of this release by clicking the artwork below or the banner above and there’s a clip down the bottom!
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