Artist Focus | Mat Davies AKA Pablo Hate – Acid Goth Minimalism Lands in Derby

Derby creative circles will already know Mat Davies as the driving force behind Kumite Wrestling, a relentless DIY engine of chaos, community and catharsis that we previously explored in a TRENDИG PROFILE. But beyond the ring ropes and piledrivers, there has always been another current running beneath the surface.

Now, that current has a name.

PABLO HATE.

On Thursday 5th March 2026, Mat steps into a different kind of arena for his first headline live set at Suds & Soda on Friar Gate. It will be intimate. It will be loud. It will be minimal. And it will be unapologetically industrial.

From Hardcore Bands to Hardware Machines

Mat has been making noise since he was a kid. Hardcore bands. Punk circuits. BBC sessions. Even a legendary John Peel session at Maida Vale. But after years of collaboration, chaos and collective energy, he found himself drawn towards something more solitary.

“I’d rather do stuff on my own than do stuff with other people,” he explains. “It’s just easier for me to do stuff like this.”

That independence has defined PABLO HATE from the outset. No laptops. No sprawling digital audio workstations. No endless plug-ins. Just hardware. Physical machines. Limitations.

At the centre of it all is a Roland MC-101 groovebox, paired with a looper, a basic delay pedal and a Russian Big Muff for boosted high signals. That is the entire universe.

“I make minimalist electronic music with one machine and three pedals,” he says. “By limiting myself to four tracks, four sounds and sources, it means I have to be a lot more creative.”

Where modern production offers infinite layers and infinite tweaking, Mat deliberately shuts doors.

“With things like Ableton… the possibilities are endless. That’s amazing. But it gets to the point where it gets so diluted and you’ve lost track of what you were supposed to be doing in the first place.”

Instead, he treats his machine like a stripped-back band. Two drum machines. Two synths. Drums, bass, lead, and something else. Nothing more. Nothing less.

The result is raw, disciplined and deliberately constrained.

Acid Goth in the East Midlands

Despite being based in Derby, Mat’s sound is not geographically tethered.

“The equipment that I use is deliberately very, very mobile. I can literally pop it in a bag… I can do it anywhere. So the locale doesn’t really make a difference.”

That portability is intentional. PABLO HATE was designed for early mornings, spare moments, stolen time.

After getting sober a year and a half ago, Mat wanted something that would keep his hands and mind occupied. Something constructive. Something creative.

“I knew I’d get to a point where I would have a bit of spare time and I wanted something to do… I can wake up dead early in the morning, get it out of my bag and just sit… I’m not bothering anybody.”

Sobriety, family life, wrestling promotion, fatherhood and grandfatherhood all orbit this project. Finding time has been the biggest challenge. But the intent has never shifted.

His influences are clear and cinematic.

“My stuff sounds like old VHS soundtracks. John Carpenter. I love John Carpenter.”

Imagine the tension of a Carpenter horror score colliding with late 80s acid house tapes and early jungle echoes. Add a wash of industrial abrasion. One friend labelled it “acid goth”. Mat shrugs at the genre tag, but it sticks.

It feels dystopian. It feels analogue. It feels like a forgotten rave broadcast from a haunted warehouse.

The First Headline: Suds & Soda

Thursday 5th March 2026 marks the first official live outing under the PABLO HATE banner.

AN EVENING OF
ACID GOTH // INDUSTRIAL // UNHAPPY HARDCORE

PABLO HATE (Live Set)

• DJ sets from:
  PRIMARK SCREAM
  SYLVANIAN SOUND SYSTEM
  w/ REHINDLE

Free Entry
Doors 8PM
Suds & Soda
Friary Works, 119 Friar Gate, Derby DE1 1EX

The venue holds roughly 30 people. That is not a marketing tactic. That is reality. If you want in, you will need to get down early.

For Mat, this show is less about spectacle and more about statement.

“I’m doing it live now for the first time. On my own. For my own gig.”

There is something powerful about that simplicity. No safety net. No bandmates. Just hardware, distortion and intent.

Evolution Through Limitation

Interestingly, when asked how his style has evolved, Mat is blunt.

“It hasn’t.”

The minimalism was intentional from day one and remains the core philosophy. In an era where most artists expand their setup over time, he is refining within boundaries instead.

It is a discipline that mirrors wrestling in many ways. Structure. Rules. Constraint. And then expression inside those limits.

What To Expect From PABLO HATE

Expect industrial textures.
Expect acid-tinged drum patterns.
Expect cinematic dread.
Expect discipline rather than chaos.

This is not nostalgia cosplay. It is not revivalism. It is a focused, modern take on hardware-driven electronic music shaped by decades of subculture, sobriety and self-reliance.

And this is only the beginning.

“There aren’t really any highlights yet,” he laughs. “Ask me next week.”

Where To Follow

You can follow Mat’s new project on Instagram at @pablohate.

And if you are serious about experiencing Derby’s evolving underground electronic scene in its rawest form, Suds & Soda on 5th March is where it starts.

From hardcore stages and John Peel sessions to acid goth minimalism in a 30-cap room, Mat Davies continues to build on his own terms.

Different arena. Same intensity.

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