‘Functions on the Low’ is one of grime’s greatest instrumentals.

A symphony of snow-capped square waves, the track might be celebrated but little is known about its producer, XTC.

Affiliated with Ruff Sqwad (the crew’s Fuda Guy is XTC’s brother), he appears in a Ruff Sqwad freestyle clip from Risky Roadz 2, and produced a couple of tracks from Tinchy Stryder and Fuda Guy’s full-lengths, but that – ‘Functions’, aside – is about it.

This week, XTC posted a new track to Soundcloud, ‘Reasons I Wonder’ [above]. Intrigued by the first piece of music we’d heard from him for some time, FACT got in contact and found out that he’s got both a retrospective mixtape title Welcome To The Vault on the way (similar, we guess, to Treble’s Diary) and is working on a mixtape of all fresh material. Read the interview below.

What have you been up to since ‘Functions on the Low’? 

Since ‘Functions’ I’ve continued producing. I produced the track ‘Working for Days’ from Tinchy Stryder’s Star In The Hood album and a few tracks on Fuda Guy’s Headgone mixtape.

Did you mostly stop building beats and then get back to it recently?

No I didn’t stop making beats, I was and am still at it. But I got a bit caught up in every day life. Things happen and you have to prioritise so I kinda put making my stuff public on a back burner. But now I’m back fully focused on the music.

Are you still tight with Ruff Sqwad? We presume you are with Fuda, obviously.

Me and Fuda are blood that’s an unbreakable bond but Ruff Sqwad is family – we’re more than just friend we’ve all grown together like brothers.

When did you make ‘Reasons I Wonder’? 

I made ‘Reasons I Wonder’ just before Christmas last year I wanted to upload it on New Year’s Eve but my laptop crashed so that delayed things.

What else is in the pipeline? 

I will soon be uploading my Welcome To The Vault mixtape, which will consist of years’ worth of unreleased instrumentals. And I’m also working on a mixtape of all fresh material.

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