Last weekend, we sat down with house legend, UKG innovator and sampling wizard Todd Edwards for a wide-ranging conversation that surveyed his 34-year career, touching on his iconic first UK show, his multiple Daft Punk collaborations and his take on contemporary DJ culture.
During our chat with Edwards, he also gave us an insight into the gear and production techniques behind his signature style of house music, which collages deftly chopped samples over low-slung beats and deep, fluid basslines, influencing everyone from Burial to Disclosure.
As is so often the case with pioneering electronic artists, Edwards’ singular sound was shaped in large part by the limited technology that he had access to. In our conversation, he paraphrases Orson Welles, suggesting that limitations like these motivate artists to take their creativity to new heights.
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Looking back to his early days, Edwards tells us that his first piece of gear was an Ensoniq EPS sampling workstation, which lent his tracks a gritty 13-bit sound and his famous swing, born out of the ESP sequencer’s quantization. “It came out of me trying to imitate Masters at Work’s drums,” he recalls.
After getting paid $2000 for an early remix—a take on St Germain’s Alabama Blues that would ultimately catch the attention of Daft Punk—Edwards bought an Ensoniq ASR-10, loaded with effects and more sample time. (He had to borrow a friend’s Ensoniq EPS to double his sampling power in order to make the remix—the machine had a paltry maximum of 41 seconds at its lowest sampling rate, and less than 5 at 52.1 kHz.)
Throughout the ‘90s, Edwards upgraded through successive rackmount Akai samplers—the S2000, S3000 then S6000—which despite their increasing levels of sophistication, were still lightyears behind the convenience of modern software. “With the S6000, it took minutes to stretch small samples, and even then it might not sound good,” he says. “But now it’s just instantaneous, the way you can tweak things. You kids don’t know how good you have it! [laughs]”
Searching his studio for formative pieces of gear that shaped his sound, Edwards singles out the Roland Juno-106. “This was the first analogue synthesizer I ever got,” he recalls. “I worked at a music store called Rondo’s Music, I was a cashier. Someone was selling it used and I bought it for $200. You can get them for $1500 now!”
Working with such a stripped-back set-up at a time when gear was prohibitively expensive, Edwards was forced to find creative workarounds. “When I started out I didn’t have any effects units,” he remembers. “If I wanted a delay or an echo, I would have to loop the sample with a fade in it to emulate a delay. If I wanted to emulate a reverb, I’d have to put a very low release on the sample.”
Edwards famously collaged hundreds of short samples together to create the music and lyrics he wanted, resulting in a thrillingly fresh sound that he continues to expand on to this day. “I didn’t have keyboards—aside from the Juno, there was no keyboard, so I literally had to use samples as my musical instruments,” he says. “This whole cut-up sound came from a lack of keyboard equipment… I was treating records like paints, like raw materials.”
Given how Edwards incorporates hundreds of micro-samples in some of his songs, it would be a Herculean task to clear them. As AI makes it easier to identify samples and copyright lawsuits become increasingly commonplace, Edwards has been compelled to take a different approach.
“In the beginning of 2025, I felt like I was going through the motions. I was feeling down. I was trying to make samples without samples, but I missed going through records… I was making my own samples by playing synths or using Splice. It just got depressing,” he explains.
While he’s initially hesitant to discuss his excitement about the creative applications of AI, Edwards decides it’s time to lay his cards on the table, telling us that using AI music platform Suno Studio to generate material to safely sample has reinvigorated his joy in making music.
“There’s so much potential there, and it’s been able to reignite the idea of what you can do as a sample artist,” he says with enthusiasm. “I resent the way people talk about this technology as if it’s from the devil. I feel like the seasoned producer will see it as a potentially powerful tool, but the amateur or the person that doesn’t have the skillset will see it as a threat.”
“What ticks me off is that there’s so many negative things that get said,” Edwards continues. “They say ‘you’re taking money out of artists’ mouths’, but I’m sorry, I don’t remember every single artist on Beatport clearing samples! Is everyone clearing samples? Because if you’re not, it’s the same thing, just on a smaller scale.”
You can make amazingly beautiful shit if you actually put some musical ideas in there. It acts like a co-producer
In Edwards’ view, using AI to generate stems to sample is no less creative than combing through Splice for loops. “They say that it’s synthetic, but you’re using Splice packs,” he says. “You’re using other people’s sounds and you’re paying a credit to do that. If you build a whole track out of loops, that’s no different, in my mind. The hypocrisy in the industry is insane.”
“You can make amazingly beautiful shit if you actually put some musical ideas in there. It acts like a co-producer, I’ve seen what it can do. If you prompt alone, it’s gonna sound very generic. But I can put ideas in, make my own disco or soft rock songs, then take that out, cut them up and use them as samples, and never worry about another lawsuit again—because it’s mine, all of it.”
Electronic music was born from using technology in fresh and unexpected ways. While there’s plenty of uninventive new music made with and without AI, how will AI reshape the sound of dance music? Can it be a powerful tool in the hands of innovators?
“Do you think I need to use AI? I’ve been making music without AI forever. I’m using it because it’s an amazing adventure, I wouldn’t be doing it if it wasn’t. I know how to play chords. You could take away my sampler, and I’d still be able to make dance music and house music and garage,” he says. “It frustrates me to hear people bashing something that’s so amazing. I guess it’s all about how you use it.”
