Richard Fearless

Death in Vegas mastermind Richard Fearless has constantly shifted between the confines of rock, electronica, dance and industrial music. A DJ since the early ’90s, he learned his trade alongside the likes of Derrick May and Dave Angel, but soon found the club world’s drum machine-based rhythms and minimalist approach informing his own releases.

By 2002, Death in Vegas had merged its atypical electronic rock sound with a techno aesthetic on the album Scorpio Rising. However, at the peak of his success, Fearless released the instrumental album Satan’s Circus, which resulted in him being dropped by his label Concrete yet welcomed by the world of film/TV advertising.

After seven years in LA, Fearless returned to London to set up his Metal Box studio located on the peninsula of land between the River Lea and the Thames. A bizarre yet picturesque location, his debut solo album Deep Rave Memory pulsates with the mechanised rhythms sampled from the steel factory on the opposite bank.

Deep Rave Memory is your first album as a solo artist. Was taking this route purely down to circumstance or a long-held desire?

“Death in Vegas is just me, but they are different entities. When I release a Death in Vegas album I feel there’s a need to tour it and always put on quite a big show, so it’s hard to pick up where you left off. Since starting the Drone label, I put out these really raw tracks and released them as white labels. Off the back of those, I found I was getting booked at clubs like Berghain and thought, if I’m going to get that much attention in the DJ world, why not make an album where I can present a project in a different way? With the Richard Fearless stuff, everything feels a little fresher.”

You seem to be moving deeper into club territory and making increasingly darker and more atmospheric music…

“It feels quite reflective of everything that’s going on with me at the moment. I find that I’m channelling