Mark had a chance to catch up with Fin Dow-Smith, AKA Starsmith, for a quick lunch in Wates House. Starsmith is an up and coming Electro remixer, composer and performer whose also just finishing his final year of Music at Surrey. Oh, and the last 6 months have been pretty wild for him...

What are you working on at the moment?
Well, I Just finished a Little Boots remix about 2 days ago, and that got sent out to the states to be decided whether they like it or not, which is pretty exciting.

Do you find you're having to do a lot of stuff for free at the moment?
Well my managers trying to make it so that I get paid no matter what, just because I'm putting in so much effort for it. The Little Boots one is a massive deal for me, and if it gets approved that's big big stuff!

You're just finishing your degree in music, how do you feel its helped your writing and remixing, even though its routes are in 'traditional' techniques?
Well, yeah, even though I've been learning about classical theory for the last 3 years, I wouldn't have been able to do the remixing 3 years ago just coming out of school. It's also to do with the stuff you're immersed in at Uni, like the music you play whilst your there and the people you meet. Even with Classical stuff you use the harmony you hear; its all related. You don't need to blatantly draw from it like 'oh well, this is a nice cadence here...', but it's just like every bit of pop music is using it. It has definitely helped me, but it's kind of an unnatural turn. There's no one else recently whose done anything like this on the straight forward music degree from Surrey that I know of.

Your main instrument's Saxophone though isn't it?
Yeah when ever people find out about that that only really know me as Starsmith, they're like 'wow, you actually play the sax' its a bit weird...

You've recently worked with Ellie Goulding, whose also gaining popularity recently for her own work and also the tracks you've done with her, what's that been like?
It's been really really good. She basically contacted me on myspace in January, and said she had been linked up with loads of produces like Burial and Basement Jaxx but she was trying to find someone she was really happy with. Never met her before, but I was really excited for the opportunity, so she came down and we came up with Starry Eyed, which I produced on. On the more recent stuff I've co-written and produced on some of it. Hopefully we'll be writing together. Black and Gold was more of a collaboration. She's so good and to know she's working with all these top line producers as well, and still coming back to me is amazing. Crown Management are totally behind what she's doing, and its nice to see them actually pushing the artist. I've met so many people over the last few months that you won't see because their not getting enough press.

You're on B-Unique Management, how are they treating you?
My managers working her arse off, she's doing a lot for me. She also manages Ghost, and The Operators, but yeah I absolutely love them. I had an offer from Crown and Relentless Records for management, but I didn't want to get tied under the same roof as Ellie with Crown, so I can go and work on production elsewhere when I want. My managers worked in A&R and publishing, she signed the Stereophonics when they first came about, so she knows all the different parts of the industry, its nice to have that.

Do you prefer remixing or performing in a live band?
I dunno really, they're two completely different kettles of fish. With remixing you get to put all of yourself into it, and now that I've done probably 20+ remixes, there are different parts that I know are me, and people can hear it too. I can make the track sound how I want it to sound just using their vocals. To get the raw audio for these top names like Little Boots, and listening back to it is crazy.
The live part is so much fun though, but a lot can go wrong. The gig I did at Dingwalls for the Frankmusik single launch, second song in, the laptop just froze. Full house, 600 people waiting to see Frankmusik, A&R, Time Out, Radio 1. Literally anyone you can think of being at a single launch party was there. That was the worst moment for me over the last few years. That feeling of nothing you can do, and it was a good few minutes before it was up again. Luckily, Seye our frontman is a true frontman and kept it cool but I was like 'fuck I've really screwed this up'. But we pulled it back, and you can make people feel really good with this music and seeing people enjoy it is a great feeling for me.

Who have you been most inspired by when writing?
The thing that really inspired me was FrankMusik. His track 'In Step' which he released himself, I remember listening to it over and over. I'd never heard anything so gritty with someone who can sing so well. It was only really 6 months ago, and I thought 'fuck it, I'm going to send him some of my stuff', and he got back to me and has been really helpful. It's turned from him helping me to us being mates. I'm not riding on his coat tails, and people have put on blogs that I'm like his 'protege' which is a huge compliment. He's working his arse off, and I've seen that first-hand. Other than that, Imogen Heap, her stuff as Frou Frou is amazing. In a way, Calvin Harris as well, but not his music as such but his ability to produce and also be like 'Well I'm gonna sing on this track'. Traditionally he's a horrific singer. If you put him on X-Factor he would not get through, but he had a number 1 last week. If he can do it, so can I.

What are the plans for after Uni?
I think I have maybe 1 day off after I graduate, as after I finish I'm in the Premise studios in Hackney working with Marina and the Diamonds, working on their album. So Yeah! I've got a day to recover from the biggest hangover of my life. After hearing my remix I did for them they asked me to do production on their album. I'll work with the house engineer on it, and then after that I've got more work with Ellie, then more remixes. I was doing so much for free for the first couple of months, the money is now a real bonus for me. The fees started coming in way before I thought they would, and its really started to build up in the last few weeks. I need to do a lot of writing soon, and hopefully go on tour in August.

What has been you're favourite part of life here at Surrey?
Definitely the people. Guilford is a horrible place. Literally since my first day in first year, instantly met loads of awesome people. I've been so close to everyone, especially living on campus. But yeah, Guildford is a dreadful, dreadful place. It drags you down and you never want to leave. We're 40 minutes from London, you can stay out, get the first train home, but no one does it! Everyone's like 'oh yeah lets go to the union, see Blazin' Squad or whatever'. A lot of people don't even go into town to go out much, they just stay on campus. People don't want to leave the bubble of campus, and so many haven't even been to London, or they've just been for their 13th birthday or something!