In Conversation with Paperclip: The Vision Behind ‘Sueta’ and ‘Neurofunk Forever’

Few producers in the neurofunk scene have as much history and dedication to the craft as Paperclip. From his early days experimenting with sound design to building Paperfunk Recordings into a platform for forward-thinking drum and bass, he’s always pushed for innovation, both in his own music and in the artists he nurtures.

While much of his work has been released through his own label, his latest project takes a different path. Teaming up with VTO Records, Paperclip is set to drop Sueta and Neurofunk Forever—two tracks that balance technical precision with raw energy. With the release set for 28th February 2025, we caught up with him to talk about the EP, the evolution of neurofunk, and his mission to support the next generation of producers.

A deep, intricate approach to sound design often marks your production style. How did you approach crafting Sueta and Neurofunk Forever, and what makes these tracks special to you?

Oh! Thanks for noting that detail - it's nice. Because I actually pay very close attention to details based on taste, but not only that. The thing is, I've been doing production, including drum and bass, since 2001 across a very wide spectrum of subgenres, and I simply get bored, lol. So I start digging deeper for truth and try to transform what I consider a boring texture (though it might be quite interesting to someone else) into something more interesting that doesn't irritate me. Basically, I work on a track until it doesn't annoy me anywhere. BUT! This doesn't mean there's no idea behind it. These two particular works were written under interesting circumstances.

SUETA was written in 2.5-3 hours during the final lecture of a production course for girls, with whom we released the XX Bass compilation (I helped them in various ways, including with content, and now they can do everything independently). The track was an example of how to quickly and clearly create a dance track when you understand what you're doing. NEUROFUNK FOREVER was also created during a course, but for everyone, regardless of gender - it was called NEUROFUNK COURSE, and it contained huge chunks of bass created during many lectures and long 9-10 hours of work. That's how these tracks were born, which I polished to a 2% irritation level and prepared for release.

This release sees you stepping outside your own label to work with VTO Records. What drew you to collaborate with them for this project?

Haha! Great question. I was just thinking about mentioning this in the interview, and here's such a convenient moment. Hi, by the way, Lee UHF - it's all him and his charm, actually. The man treated me so kindly and nicely because he's from the old school and old guard. He saw in me the same veteran fighter who's been digging for DnB truth for many years. He just invited me for an interview where we had a very pleasant conversation covering many topics like pprfnk crew, pprfnk label, neuropunk, neuropunk.app (our DnB Spotify app lol) and much more. Then we just kept in touch periodically, discussing music, and agreed that we would open a flow of musicians towards him, with whom he could freely build a release schedule. These musicians will "burst out" from the Neuropunk Academy, which I created and have been running for 2.5 years now. We've developed over 100 artists during this time. Our latest effort is a compilation on pprfnk called VA VOL.5 with 60 whole tracks, meaning literally 60 artists, of whom a huge number are beginners from initial courses. And, you know, LEE is such a cool guy and a very kind person that I couldn't help but give him access to such an opportunity and simply became his good friend. Also, we have an important person in our team, Anna (Dr.THC), and she's also frequently in contact with Lee, so we've developed a kind of synergy in working with each other. Our team respects what Lee does with his VTO and Dirtbox.

Neurofunk has always been about pushing sonic boundaries. How do you see the genre evolving in 2025, and where do these tracks fit into that progression?

Excellent question! Indeed, neurofunk has always had a connection with sound pioneering and achieving the most extreme values, whether in loudness, pitch variations, or all knobs at once in a second or its fraction, could be weak, could be strong. BUT! Neurofunk is always about diversity, and if everything is rolled into the framework of one direction - only fun, only dark, only sad, only this, only that... actually, you need to be very careful when analysing subgenres because they've long since mixed and, in fact, fractured into even smaller fractions with their own styles, which already go into the author's handwriting. And here's the time to ask yourself, maybe it's not about some subgenre trend, but about the approach of the entire Drum and Bass genre? If you look at absolutely all branches of DnB development worldwide today, it's impossible to deny the fact - all music has grown in all aspects, be it production level, content level, immersion, and other refinements for the joy of listeners and ravers. Therefore, I believe we should just stick to the main theses of drum and bass - futuristic, avant-garde, progressive, immersive. These four theses can deeply describe the entire genre and cover almost all of its aspects.

Only now can we approach the main point: What’s the trend, and how will my tracks from the release fit into this progression? Neurofunk as part of drum and bass will develop rapidly within the framework of the four theses I described above. My tracks fit primarily within the framework of Drum and bass in spirit, and regarding the concept of 4 theses, they are embodied, just the stylisation correlates more with something old school rather than modern, but with advanced production and clean sound (which old school recordings lacked).

Neurofunk has constantly evolved over the years, yet its core energy remains the same. With a title like Neurofunk Forever, were you aiming to capture a particular era of the genre, or is this track your statement on its future?

I really love Neurofunk from my own, as we Russians say, bell tower (perspective). From my perspective, Neurofunk is about bass texture triggers that have forever frozen in my memory. Essentially, this track reflects what I consider the eternal qualities of neurofunk - similarity to human vocabulary in sound, saturation of basslines with, lol, basses, and dense drum loops that reflect the 'funk' from the subgenre's name. And I captured these qualities and the best "achievements" of neurofunk for myself and for the public. (Students were quite happy with such a result, by the way)

Alongside this release, Paperfunk Recordings recently dropped Onlyfunks Vol. 3, showcasing a range of artists. How important is it for you to support up-and-coming producers through your label, and what makes this compilation series special?

As I mentioned above - I created Neuropunk Academy in Russia, but it's absolutely open to everyone. (We have an AI real-time translator on our online production streams). During its existence, more than 100 new artists have emerged. But we wouldn't, or rather, couldn't treat all students like chicks that fell out of the nest. Before that, their wings must strengthen, and they must have proper representation before the global DnB community, with which we have very good relations, as we're its integral part. We help students who completed courses with good or excellent grades to advance in understanding how releases work, label processes, and what proper management is. Then we select artists to participate in collab roulette, where participants rotate through a script, and we get random collab pairs who write bangers. Artists from different, let's say, layers of DnB society are added to this collab roulette chat. There are artists who've conquered almost all DnB peaks, and there are completely new guys. This is another level where we train more powerful fighters who will precisely and within set tasks create bangers for release as part of ONLYFUNKS VOL 3 compilation. Therefore, I can confidently say that ONLYFUNKS as a series is a showcase of the best of the best in our academy. It's with this series that we show that our best students are ready for high-level collaboration.

You’ve been in the game for a long time, shaping the sound of neurofunk over the years. Looking back, how has your production process evolved since you first started out?

Oh! This is a very interesting point. First of all, it's always about listening to new music, so my progress is very closely connected with both the latest releases and people who were kind to me or simply were my friends within the DnB community. For a very long time, I've only been communicating within my DnB crowd, and I'm almost not interested in anything except music in terms of expanding social connections - I'm a person of this scene. Therefore, sometimes my development is a reflection of internal experiences or digesting huge amounts of music, and sometimes it's just scene trends and a desire to try my hand at new manifestations of drum and bass. In principle, I've remained faithful to both experiments and old school to reflect the interpretation of good old vibes and grooves. It all depends on the case, mood, and point in time. Only technical execution has changed, my attitude towards music is eternal love.

Actually, I discovered not so long ago that I'm hard of hearing (2nd and 3rd degree on the Russian hearing loss scale), about 7 years ago. And I'd like to say that there's no problem with this; it’s just a degree of awareness and adjustment of your psyche and subconscious to it, as a result of which both my approach to production and focus on certain equipment changed. Musicians and especially experienced engineers always have enough data for analysis due to their vast experience to correlate data from different sources with "truth". Even with poor hearing, you can get a fairly solid idea of what's happening and then easily "hear" frequencies restored in your head. That's how it works. My path is kind of a struggle with internal equaliser settings to compensate for hearing loss. There's no regret in this answer - everything is quite good. I'm still successfully progressing in accumulating the best mastering skills, sound engineering, and so on. Equipment like Neuropunk M1 headphones (created by Neuropunk label + Links Audio) allows me to hear ABSOLUTELY everything. So I don't worry about it.

Drum and bass is seeing a surge in popularity across new markets and audiences. How do you feel about the current state of the scene, both in Russia and globally?

Perfect time to do big things and introduce the public to new artists, collectives, and launch cool events. Want to invest as much as possible and with more heart during such prosperity. We, as Paperfunk from our side, are an integral part of the DnB community, just like the Neuropunk label, and currently, we're releasing something every week. Besides our main labels, we have several more running, and we provide coverage for practically all scene needs. For us, it's really an excellent time to show ourselves and provide a great product for an excellent pastime, whether it's a favourite track for life or just a whole release that clicked for a certain season. We're happy to be part of this and believe that at this stage in Russia, things with DnB are going - beautifully.

Every producer has their own workflow when it comes to crafting tunes. What does a typical Paperclip studio session look like?

Hahaha. This is very funny. Essentially I explained the origin of tracks from the release, but actually didn't touch on a very amusing point. The thing is, the huge flow of tracks and packed release schedule of Paperfunk all the way to 2025 doesn't allow me as the label's mastering engineer to distract myself, let's say, voluntarily for creating bangers, since strict time management implies that I'll work strictly within schedule and not twitch right and left. Labels and mastering tracks are an integral duty for them. Well, considering work with the label + work with students (homework, streams with listening to their work and so on), there's no time left for music for personal pleasure. So I sneakily write what I'd like to convey to listeners either during a course or throw together 1.5 minutes of a track with needed groove in a 20-minute lunch break and set it aside for later. Then comes a moment when Anna comes to me, gives clear deadlines and a schedule of when to submit what, and I have legitimate instructions to send everything to hell and start working on my music. Because duties let go and I'm ready to immerse myself in the process. Recently, I've detached from myself and delegated multiple projects, soon, I'll have a bit more time and schedule lines titled "MAKE EP or URGENTLY SUBMIT LP" - which I'm only happy about.

VTO Records has been making waves with high-impact releases. How do you feel this EP aligns with the label’s vision and energy?

Oh, I really hope so. I fully rely on Lee's taste and approach in this regard. He's our partner and a good fellow, a very kind guy. We want our interaction to be based on trust. I completely trust his taste and won't praise my release within VTO, but I can say this: It's very cool that Lee took me on his label, since we constantly take his promo mailouts for live broadcasting in neurogon show, academy live and many others from our neurobunker in Saint Petersburg (it's musical, lol). Therefore, getting on the label means meeting quality standards, and I tried very hard to bring the tracks to a proper finale so they would sound consistent and, most importantly, danceable. Hope everything matches up!

For fans who may be discovering you for the first time through this release, how would you describe the essence of your sound?

Gears in oil and quartz sand that interfere with mechanisms, but they're all so powerful and well-thought-out that they work despite everything. Something like an AK-47, but in terms of music, that should bang even from the most trashy speakers. So I'd recommend preparing for the feeling of thick fuel oil in your ears, the knocking of mechanical half-Gundam robots mixed with Godzilla, and all this will be done with an absolutely serious face without causing any suffocation. Something like that.

What’s next for you in 2025? Are there any other exciting collaborations or projects on the horizon?

We opened DEEPNAS label - I have a direct relation to it as a musician too, but with a different alias Distant Future, which we'll be pumping up through releases. We also opened a techno label, but that's another story. Regarding Paperclip, I'm very closely collaborating with Andrey 3XIL3, he's my friend and very loyal companion, and we're ready to conquer horizons with him within our album dedicated to the Mortal Kombat game series and cases from our life. Yes, we're nerds. Also, I have two more stages of my parts of one album planned. They will be called Stage B and Stage C. And I would really like to delve into Technoid sound, since Paperfunk label announced that 2025 is the year of technoid. There will also be many musical projects appearing, both from our academy and just from the internet spaces. We're happy to collaborate with new artists, including worldwide. Well, we hope that our collaboration with Lee and, in general, the overall tendency to be friends with the world's DnB community - will materialise in the most pleasant way.

Thanks to Paperclip for taking the time to share his insights. With Sueta and Neurofunk Forever, he continues to push the boundaries of his signature sound while marking a rare appearance outside his own label. The EP lands on 28th February 2025 via VTO Records—don’t miss it!

Listen: https://on.soundcloud.com/aTosqdyG5CEwDKd56

Buy: https://cygnusmusic.link/3467vj