EchoStorms

EchoStorms are Ben Locke and Katya Fadeeva. Born out of their mutual love for electronic music and informed by their disparate but complimentary musical backgrounds, Echostorms make full-blooded, emotionally-charged dance music that incorporates elements of melodic techno, indie dance and house, resulting in a highly distinctive and electrifying production aesthetic. With a sound coined as cinematic tech house, EchoStorms inspired by Ben and Katya constantly travelling the world and absorbing cultural markers on their way, with debut single Tidal Wave announcing the project in highly impactful fashion. Creating an atmosphere that’s both reflectively melancholic and incredibly uplifting, Tidal Wave is dance anthem for the ages, with punchy bass and sidewinding synth lines providing the bed for Ben and Katya’s rich, evocative vocals.

 

Welcome to DMC guys – how’s your year been so far?

Hey DMC, thanks for having us! Our year so far has been extremely busy – most of it spent in our studio which is where we love to spend our time doing what we love the most – creating new records! Outside of the studio we have found time to do some other things we love such as snowboarding and parasailing!

Tell us about forming EchoStorms… is this a project you’ve been working on for a while?

We met through a mutual friend online in 2019 and decided to meet each other half way (Ben was in the UK and Katya in Russia) in Munich, Germany. As soon as we saw each other at the airport it was like being reunited with a long lost best friend and the chemistry was instant. We ended up travelling to Paris together in a van and it was during that journey that EchoStorms was born. After that we went to St Petersburg and lived there for a month working on new material and absorbing the local culture before flying to the UK and spending six months there, continuing developing our sound and building our repertoire.

Katya – you first got involved in the scene arranging raves. What were some of the experiences from those times that have really stayed with you?

I have so many funny and crazy stories from those days I don’t know where to start ha ha. But one of them has to be when we did a costume rave in an old Palace just outside St Petersburg and I was painting meter and a half tall fly agarics – that was a trippy rave! We always created something unique and memorable for each event, it had to feel special. And that something I’ve brought with me into EchoStorms – The fact that everything from the music to the visuals and everything in between has to be unique and special.

Ben – you’ve been involved with writing and producing for some pretty heavyweight artists, how did you end up working with the likes of Timbaland and Snoop?

Yeah those were interesting times! My manager at the time knew Tim’s manager and knew that Tim was looking for new blood in his camp. He sent Tim’s manager some of the stuff I’d done so far in my career at that point and before I knew it I was being flown over to America! It was very surreal at the start because it was a completely different world for me – I suddenly found myself in the studio with legends such as Jaime Fox, CeeLo Green, TI and many more. I even ended up doing a session for P. Diddy at his own studio! It was a crazy and wonderful experience and one I will never forget!

Working with Snoop came about because the band which I was the lead singer of at the time, many years ago back in 2013, did a track for a movie and once we had completed the track the producers of the movie thought it would be a great idea to get Snoop involved, he recorded his verse –  which was as per usual pure fire – and the rest is history!

What different talents do you feel like you both bring to the table in EchoStorms?

Ben: well I guess I bring the experience from writing and producing for many years in multiple different genres and also a lot of live experience as a DJ. Katya brings super fresh new ideas production and writing wise, and the visuals are completely her concept – she is incredible with all of that. She also has a really unique voice and I love writing knowing that it’s her going to be singing it. On a live side she is the perfect partner behind the decks, it’s like we both know what each other has in our heads, we’re always completely in sync. We were joking that it’s like we’ve got pro DJ link but for humans rather than gear – you just can’t see the Ethernet cables haha!

We’re loving Tidal Wave! Super uplifting vibes on this one – was there any specific inspiration behind the record?

This song has a long and interesting story – Ben originally started work on this song when he was working with Timbaland and was asked to come up with some tracks to pitch for the new Birdy album – which was being executive produced by Ryan Tedder who was Timbaland’s protege and at the time signed to Timbaland’s label. Years later in 2020 Katya was going through loads of old demos,  stumbled across the demo for Tidal Wave and fell in love with the song. We then finished off the writing together and turned it into the banger that it is today!

https://snd.click/Tidal_Wave

How do you feel your sense of identity influences your creativity?

We both have very strong identities and our singles reflect that. Also in our sets, we only play the tracks that speak to us on an artistic leval that that we identify with as artists – we won’t just play something just because it’s popular or because someone has told us to play it, it’s got to fit with us artistically.

That’s you guys singing on the record right. You don’t get many duets on dance records these days… is that one of the things you really wanted to bring to the table when you formed EchoStorms?

It wasn’t really an intentional decision to make it a duet. We recorded the vocals just with an acoustic piano at the start and then produced everything around the vocals. So I guess the fact that it’s turned out to be a duet was just a natural evolution from the acoustic demo. All our records are very unique and have their own identity, I’m sure there will be some more duets in the future but we have many more musical ideas to explore in the forthcoming singles!

One of the criticisms people sometimes throw at dance music is that it’s cold and mechanical, but records like this blow that away. Have you drawn on personal experiences with the records you’re writing at the moment?

Yes all of our lyrics are very much from real life experiences and deal with many different subjects that have affected our lives or issues and topics that we feel passionate and have strong opinions about.

What else should we be looking out for from you guys this year?

We have multiple releases lined up – up next is our collaboration with the incredible Chapter & Verse. The track is called U Wish and it’s insane!

Anything else you’d like to tell us…?

We are playing our first show of 2021 at the fabulous Cacao Beach in Bulgaria and after that it’s looking likely we will be heading to the US for more dates!

www.instagram.com/echostorms/