Known for their energetic sets and their Mixed On Mars show on Data Transmission Radio, fast-rising UK duo Lost On Mars debuted on Solardo’s Sola imprint back in July with their track ‘Jungle Flute’ on the Sola’s Summer Of Rave 2021 VA. DMCWORLD dive in for a world exclusive…
Hi James & Jason! Great to have you with us today. First off, how are you both doing and whereabouts are you currently based?
Hi first and foremost we just want to say thank you guys for having us on and we are doing great thanks! Especially now everywhere is opening back up and we are finally back playing in clubs again, it’s an amazing feeling to be back doing what we love. (Jason) I’m originally from a small town called Leighton Buzzard which is next to Milton Keynes. (James) I’m from Wythenshawe in south Manchester. We are mostly based in Manchester now with Jay travelling up & staying with James as we have just built our studio in Manchester next to the club Hidden where we are doing most of our shows & events.
What a year and a half it has been for the scene. How have you two been through it all and how are you feeling now with the return of UK clubs?
Wow it’s been a pretty mental time to say the least for the whole world and especially everyone involved in the music industry. Hopefully now we have turned the corner and things are getting back to normal, it’s a great feeling to see the clubs open again. Not only for the venues, promoters & artists, but mostly for the people! To see everyone together again on the dance floors is the best, the energy has been incredible and the atmosphere has been mined blowing! Everyone seems in good spirits and the vibes have been mint so that’s good to see. We think after such hard times the people are appreciating the music and the raves so much more because like they say “you don’t know what you got till it’s gone” Listening to music and socialising is very important so yea we are buzzing the UK is finally back alive again! For us as a duo we have evolved so much during lockdown and we used pretty much every single day making music and finding our sound. We aren’t going to lie though, sometimes it was hard to find the motivation to go to the studio every day without the parties and all the hype. We were lucky enough to get over to Tulum in Mexico at the start of the year and played at a couple of villa parties and also witnessed some of our new music been played by some top artists at the clubs which gave us a massive recharge. It was great to see the response of the crowds for the work we have put in! The amount of unreleased music we have stacked up there now is mad!! We are sat on about 120 unreleased tracks so that is one big positive we can take from these lockdowns.
So you have just made your first appearance on Solardo’s Sola imprint, with your huge track ‘Jungle Flute’ on ‘Sola’s Summer Of Rave’ compilation. We’re sure this one is going to go down well in the clubs. Can you tell us a bit about the track and how it found its home on Sola?
Yes, this one is huge for us and our biggest release yet. It’s a massive platform and we can’t wait for the world to hear it! We finished it just before we flew to Mexico and we sent it over to Solardo & they said they were feeling it & would take it for their VA album, we were buzzing! We have had so much hype around this one from everywhere we have played. It’s been great building up to the release seeing it being played by Solardo & Gorgon City on the big stages and Jansons also dropped it in his spot mix so big up for the support. The track itself has a lot of energy from the kick & driving bassline throughout with the tribal vocal and percussion with some really nice bongos to keep it grooving and of course the main element being those hypnotic flutes that definitely stick in your head after you hear them!
Track link: https://bit.ly/SOLA150
As a duo you launched in 2019, can you tell us the story behind you guys coming together to form Lost On Mars?
We were both doing the music but as separate artists until we decided to come together in mid 2019 and that’s when Lost On Mars was born! It just felt right as we have been good friends for about 8 years now and every time we played at after parties together the energy was sick, we just vibe off each other. We met at a hideout festival on a mad one in 2013 and just clicked and then following that we have attended multiple raves together worldwide gathering our musical knowledge from all corners and cultures from travelling South & central America together; we’ve been Las Vegas, New York, Mexico, Croatia, Ibiza to name a few! It’s been a real good rollercoaster building up to this and we are only just getting started!
What’s your creative process like when you get in the studio?
If it’s one thing we do not lack on Mars it’s creativity. If anything, we have to calm our ideas down a bit as we have too many! Lol we are very spontaneous. We call each other at the most random times of a night where one of us would get an idea for a track and have to tell the other. Often, we are at home and won’t be able to sleep so grab our phones and stick an idea in our notes or even grab the laptop and lay down the idea straight away. We are at our best though in the studio when we just go in there and freestyle. The best piece of advice we could give for any producer is to not think about the label or where the track is going and just do you as the creativity flows so much more naturally when you are not over thinking and just vibe to what you think sounds good as an artist, that’s how you find your true sound. Our best records have been created when we least expect it & just jam.
Alongside a strong run of releases over the last year on BOOST WEAPONS, Observatory Music, Sulko Records and more, you also have been delivering your ‘Mixed On Mars’ show on Data Transmission Radio. Can you tell us a bit more about the Mixed On Mars series?
We did a remix on boost & observatory and our first full release was on Sulko which went to Beatport number one across two genres which was crazy and since then things have been nonstop for us! We launched the Mixed On Mars mix series on Data Transmission Radio & G (DT head) has been helping us out so much with running it too, shout out to Papa G! With this mix series we wanted to showcase our style of music & to show everyone that we don’t just conform to one genre or style, we like to mix things up on Mars hence the name. Not only that, there are so many unsigned talented artists out there that do not get any recognition and as up and coming artists we know ourselves how hard it is to get noticed in this industry so it’s about us trying to elevate other talent as well as ourselves.
Can you tell us a bit about your ‘Lost On Mars Presents’ events? We’re excited for you that you’re now able to get these underway again.
We have just launched our new event ‘Vibrate’ at Hidden nightclub. It started out with the name ‘Spaced Out’ and then following that ‘Abducted’ but we are finally very happy with our new name because it fits into everything we are trying to create. It’s all about the good vibrations on Mars!! It was a huge success and the line up was massive. The music from all artists involved was ridiculous. The crowd was amazing and we just want to say thank you to each and every one of you that came and had it with us! We have got another 2 more Vibrate shows this summer at Hidden in Manchester and are excited to watch this party grow in the future, this is just the beginning. It’s going to be a lot of work but also a lot of fun making our vision for this party come to life!
Thanks a lot for chatting with us today guys. Big up on the Sola release and we wish you all the best with your events going forwards. To round off, is there anything else release-wise on the horizon that you can let us in on?
Thank you for having us, it’s been a pleasure! So, release wise we have just secured a residency with Sulko which will include 3 EPs a year with them. Also we have our Hype Control EP which is coming out mid August on So Lets Talk and a single in September called Praise The Drums on Onyx records. We are also launching our own label Wormhole Records where we have just signed the first four releases and two huge remixes as well as singing some real hot up & coming artists. The label has been sat ready for a while but we have been waiting until the clubs are fully popping again to launch, fingers crossed it looks like we are on the right path again so look out for that soon!
