Artists

Vital Elements

For those who aren’t aware, Graham Warnock, otherwise known as Vital Elements, has been smashing up the Drum & Bass scene with a succession of hot releases on labels as highly regarded as Grid, Liquid V, Formation and, of course, his own V2E imprint. Not only that, but Graham is one half of infamous production outfit Serial Killaz, who have made their name reworking some of jungle’s biggest classic tracks.

With such accolades under his belt, it’s no surprise that Vital Elements can walk tall, but his career started off, like so many others in the scene, with humble beginnings. Initially jeered at by his peers for a love of Acid House, Graham’s path through dance music was nonetheless clear to him. Stealing his older brother’s A.W.O.L. tapes and nurturing a burning desire to get involved with the music, it wasn’t long before Vital Elements was giving himself a first-hand education of jungle music.

Convincing his good friend Ben to take out credit on his behalf, Graham bought his first pair of Technics and spent hour after hour practicing his mixing abilities, spurred on by the performances he witnessed at the weekends, attending huge events such as 1Nation and Helter Skelter. Before long he was building up a reputation locally as a DJ, and naturally the urge to produce his own tracks began to grow.

Graham had some early experiences playing around with sounds and production, but in 2000 he decided it was time to take things more seriously, and took out a joint £8,000 loan to set up a private studio with his close friend Matt (otherwise known as Rkive). Learning his craft was steep, but within a few short years Graham was offered a pressing and distribution deal by Andy at Exodus Distribution.

Snatching up the opportunity, Graham agreed and his first release was sent off for mastering. Obsessed with how to get the best from his studio equipment, Graham attended the mastering sessions of all his early work to learn directly from the engineers exactly what was required to get a loud and heavy sounding cut on vinyl; a practice which has served him well over the years. Also picking up tips along the way from Cause4Concern’s DJ Optiv, it wasn’t long before the major players started picking up on Vital Elements’ tunes.

With his tracks getting plenty of attention from a host of big names, Graham signed some early tracks to legendary label Formation, and before long had a fine selection of releases under his belt. Then, in 2006, Graham received an offer from Twisted Individual that he couldn’t refuse, and moved the bulk of his releases to the Grid camp. Meanwhile, Vital Elements had met up with head of A&R at Nu Urban Music, Tobie Scopes. Initially looking for an engineer to help him with a remix of the Congo Natty classic ‘Junglist’, Tobie soon saw the potential in working closer with Graham, and the boys decided to carry on their partnership under the alias Serial Killaz, a name which has become synonymous with quality, modern-day dancefloor jungle. Graham now owns V2E Studios outright, offering mastering, production and tuition services, together with his own releases.

Alongside the production, Graham’s DJing has also gone from strength to strength in the last few years. From running a regular show on Origin FM to touring across the globe, including recent dates in Canada, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy and many more worldwide D&B hotspots, Vital Elements can be found smacking down the dance with his own blend of huge dancefloor dubplates on a regular basis.