We Need To Talk About Cheetah

In the midst of the jungle revival, one name that’s become impossible to ignore is Bristol-based DJ/producer Cheetah. Despite being relatively new to the scene, his relentless drive to create distinctive, high-energy, booty-shaking bangers never disappoints—whether it’s old-skool jungle, groundbreaking bass music, or a seamless blend of both. Self-released tracks like “X-rated” and “Freaks” are tearing up dancefloors across the UK and beyond. Describing himself as a “serial collaborator,” Cheetah isn’t exaggerating; he’s worked with heavyweights like Nia Archives, Tim Reaper, and Samurai Breaks, just to name a few. 

After a hectic summer with debut appearances at major festivals like Glastonbury, Outlook Croatia, and Boomtown, Cheetah has definitely been keeping busy. This year, he’s also showcased the latest in UK sounds across Europe, playing in France, Spain, Poland, The Netherlands, Germany, and Croatia—often joined by the Singularity UK crew. Thankfully, he took some time to catch up with us at UKF, sharing his summer highlights and teasing exciting projects for the upcoming club season, including an EP with Samurai Breaks on Super Sonic Booty Bangers (SSBB)—just in time to lift our post-summer blues. 

Lets kick off with this summer, You’ve been incredibly busy playing at many festivals. What were some of the highlights? 

It’s been sick, it was my first time playing at festivals! Glastonbury was a standout experience. I ended up spending most of my weekend at NYC Downlow, an infamous queer club in the heart of the festival, listening to a lot of hard-house & disco. 

Oh, sick! Did it end up impacting your set at all? 

Yeah actually, the club definitely left an impact on my set. I felt like I was marinating in the club’s energy. I had a bunch of fun, sexy, queer-influenced tracks on my USB, which were different from my usual ones. Since it was a mostly jungle takeover and everyone else had been playing jungle, I decided to drop some sexy, fruity, 160-shit. Everyone loved it and I think they could see I was loving it too, it just felt right. 

Sexy, Fruity, 160, I love that! You’ve been with the SSBB and Singularity UK crews this summer. What was that experience like? 

In general, the best opportunities on paper can become quite stressful and anxiety-inducing. For example, going to Glastonbury for the first time. If I hadn’t been able to go with the Singularity UK crew and do a takeover with them, it would have been a bit lonely and stressful. But I’ve known them for a few years now and we’ve become quite a close-knit family, so it made the experience much more enjoyable. 

I actually ended up lost one day, but luckily I bumped into Samurai Breaks and Jess (who’s the chief booty-bouncer at Super Sonic Booty Bangers). We went to see Skream & Benga and then ended up spending the whole day together, which was really nice. Essentially, that’s the human side of the labels. Knowing that the people behind the music are genuine is important to me.

You’ve got an EP out in collaboration with Samurai Breaks on SSBB… There are some absolute bangers on there! 

After finishing my Freaks EP, I wanted to try something new. I was inspired by vogue/ballroom music and 160 tracks, and the concept for the EP emerged from that. I reached out to Samurai Breaks, and we decided to collaborate on the EP back in March. From then I started making a ton of tunes -about 12 in total. Many didn’t make the cut… 

It was initially meant to be a four-track EP, then it expanded to five tracks, and then six. Finally, three days before the pre-masters were due I panicked as I realised I really wanted a tekky 170 jungle tune for the project. I spent the next three days on my laptop, trying to finish it on time. This ended up being the seventh track ‘Go Harder’, a track with a style of production I’ve never really attempted before. I’m quite proud of it. 

Wow… 

It was tricky because it was a new style for me – it was a very clinical production. It’s not old skool; it’s not drum and bass either. It’s fruity, fun, and a lot of experimentation for me. I wanted the EP to be a vibrant project with something for everyone. 

The artwork is amazing, the promotion is great, and Sam’s a fantastic collaborator. Anyone who knows him will tell you he’s incredibly driven, refreshingly blunt, and super focused. He’s a legend and has been an amazing mentor for me recently. 

The Freaks EP, which dropped in June, was also packed with bangers—definitely more jungle, ragga, and 160. How was it releasing this EP independently? 

The whole idea behind the Freaks EP was to take complete creative control over the production, promotion and artwork. I’d become a bit complacent, letting labels handle that for me. While labels are a huge part of the culture, I wanted to try doing it all myself this time. Musically, the goal was to create fun, light-hearted tracks without taking things too seriously. 

There’s a lot of dancehall and hip-hop infused… 

I listen to a lot of dancehall. I made ‘X-Rated’ during my first year of uni when I was really getting into it. I then mixed in an Erika Badu vocal, another artist who I was into at the time. For ‘Freaks,’ I wanted to maintain that playful, light-hearted vibe. ‘Freaks’ by Vicious was the main

sample. It’s another dancehall tune that I’ve loved for quite a while, specifically the cheeky, androgynous vocals. 

https://soundcloud.com/cheetahhhh/sets/freaks-ep?si=2c33a27a7a7b4297855d66cd46a1ce1f& utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing 

How did your journey into producing actually start? 

I get asked a lot about this since I’m relatively young. My mum bought me the most basic version of FL Studio when I was 14. I’m super grateful for that – seven years on I use the same version. I learnt how to use it from hundreds of hours of YouTube tutorials. I’m pretty sure I learnt from watching Martin Garrix tutorials. 

In 2017 I would make Brockhampton-type beats. I used to record vocals for the tracks with my mates and release them on my Soundcloud. The lyrics were all really stupid and were all a big joke between me and my mates. We all had a lot of fun. As I got older we started making garage, grime and some more experimental electronic music inspired by floating points etc. I’ve always had a pretty diverse music taste. 

When did you get into jungle then? 

In 2019 I started going to squat raves and was suddenly catapulted into dance music and rave culture. The music was mostly jump-up D&B which I somewhat enjoyed but never really got attached to. It was around this time that I met the Singularity UK crew. They really educated me on dance music. Jungle spoke to me way more than jump-up D&B did as I’ve always listened to hip-hop & R&B, and was already used to producing with breakbeats and soul samples from when I made beats. Whenever I did attempt to make D&B it always ended up sounding like jungle anyway as I was using my boombap drum packs. Eventually, after releasing some of my early jungle experiments like ‘Of Course’ on Da Demolition Squad, I was asked to perform as a DJ. I had to say no a couple of times at the start as I hadn’t yet learnt how to mix. 

Honestly, most of my early exposure to jungle then came from new school labels like Subcode Records, Globex Corp and Future Retro instead of stuff from the ’90s. I was deeply inspired by the new generation of jungle producers like Tim Reaper, Sully, Lavery, and Samurai Breaks. My taste was definitely shaped by new-school sounds, which is likely why my jungle has a different feel. 

Yeah, it’s interesting you say that. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve for sure produced old-school jungle tracks that echo the 94/95 era. I got deeply involved with the scene, connecting with some serious old-school heads, and their effort to preserve the culture is incredible. On top of that, the current jungle and hardcore scene is full of really amazing people and it’s such a lovely community. It was really a safe haven from hyper-masculine drum and bass raves.

After a while though, trying to perfectly replicate a specific sound from the past in production and in sets drove me a bit crazy. It’s a personal thing, some people love it but it wasn’t for me. My jungle really doesn’t sound very old skool anyway. I really look forward to creating all sorts of jungle hybrids in the future. I want to return to the variety of tunes I would make before I started DJing loads of jungle-only raves. 

Okay, let’s get real: which city is better, London or Bristol? 

That’s a tough one. I often find that when I’m talking to someone from another country who hasn’t been to either city, I recommend Bristol over London. I’ve lived in Bristol for a while now, and I feel that no other city really matches the jungle scene. Sound system culture doesn’t seem as strong in London. Bristol offers a great mix of student energy and long-time locals, creating a perfect balance. While London still hosts amazing raves and Singularity UK continues doing great work there, Bristol’s unmatched community and the endless list of raves wins out for me. 

You’ve worked with some amazing artists like Tim Reaper, Dj Sofa and Stekker, unreleased projects with Nia Archives. How did these collaborations come about? 

With Nia, she’d been releasing her music a bit before me. I followed her on Instagram and noticed she posted a story featuring one of my tunes and had downloaded my SubCode EP from a couple of years ago. 

Yeah! I remember her playing that on BBC Radio 6, the track “Spin Sugar”! 

It was cool, it was my first proper EP release so I was really surprised she heard it. We ended up getting in contact and I started sending her tunes. She continued to support me and eventually, we linked up in her studio in London. We made some edits for her tour and ended up getting on well, that’s how collaborations work for me -if we don’t get on, it can get a bit awkward and I can find it hard to be creative. I’ve got collab projects with Nia, Janaway, Samurai Breaks & Guido YZ all in the works… 

What have been the key takeaways from those collaborative experiences? 

When I first moved to Bristol I linked up to produce with Janaway – the only other guy my age who released jungle. Turns out we had the same vision and started to really get on as mates. Since then we’ve collaborated loads and performed internationally together he feels like a brother now. Whenever we link up it just feels like hanging out, sometimes we link up just to chat and end up making a banging tune. Occasionally we’ve linked up to produce but then just end up chatting. It’s all natural, there’s no pressure and for me, that’s the key. I have similar attitudes with anyone who I collaborate with a lot.

Another lesson I learnt was that not all tracks will have a 50/50 split in work – and that’s alright. It’s okay if the contributions aren’t equally divided. What matters is the collaborative environment in which the tunes are made. You might not physically touch any buttons at all, but if your ideas and energy helped shape the creation, you’ve still played a crucial role. A collaboration is about the collective creativity and energy you bring to the project. 

Speaking of future projects, what else can fans expect? 

I’ve got my ‘SSBB’ EP launch at Clock Factory on September 28—proper gassed for that. I like to keep things spontaneous, so after this EP it’s hard to predict exactly what’s next. 

Any last thoughts you want to share? 

I want to say a huge thank you to anyone who’s listened to my tracks or come to see me DJ. It’s everything to me. Check out my Super Sonic Booty Bangers EP and keep your eyes peeled for any future projects. Hopefully, there’s something for everyone, keep an open mind. 

Bang it out in the gym! 

Absolutely, that’s exactly what it was made for! Grab a dumbbell and swing it to ‘Go Harder’. Get ready for some serious personal bests!