Longstanding house duo Prok | Fitch have just made a much-anticipated debut on Hot Creations with their release ‘Tease’. The two-track EP sees them collaborate with London vocalist Kyozo and continues a stunning 2020 that has seen them release on Repopulate Mars and Solid Grooves already this year. In light of the release, we’re pleased to be speaking with them today to catch up on all things Prok | Fitch!
Ben, James, it’s a pleasure to have you with us today! How are you guys doing? How has the year been for you so far?
Hello, we’re doing well thanks, we’re at home in our Brighton studio where we’ve been most days since mid-March. Like for many of us, it’s been a strange one, we kicked off the year with a crazy touring schedule, from South America, Asia, to Australia and New Zealand. Luckily, we played some amazing parties and finished off with a special one in Digital Newcastle. Since the whole Covid mess, we’ve been hammering it out in the studio, being more productive than ever.
So congrats on the Hot Creations release! It feels like this one has been something we’ve been expecting to happen for a while now and it doesn’t disappoint! Can you tell us a bit about this release and the story of how it found its home on Hot Creations?
Thanks, yes it’s been something we’ve been working towards for a long time, we were patiently waiting until we had the right music to send to Jamie. We’d been working on Tease for some time, trying out different versions in the clubs and constantly tweaking till we were 100 % happy with it, that was the point we sent it to Jamie with a few other tracks, he jumped on it straight away and then we quickly started working on a b-side. Signing a record to Hot Creations has been our aim for the past two years, we’re buzzing we achieved it, just now we need to write a better follow up record (HaHa).
Buy link here – https://lnk.to/HOTC161
What was it like working with Kyozo on the lead trackTease?
Amazing, we’ve been itching to find a great original vocalist since we started, while we’ve worked with some amazing vocalist’s over the years, Kyozo is something special we instantly clicked with him in the studio and vibed of each other. The variety and quality of the output together is something we’re extremely happy with, can’t wait for you to hear what we’ve got coming up.
It’s always interesting to hear how duos work in the studio, what’s the creative process like for you guys?
Being two of us and both having slightly different music preferences there’s always going to be variety in our productions. We’d get extremely bored making the same sound 100% of the time so versatility is key for us. As far as genres we’ve never been bothered about that, two kinds of music good and bad and all genres have both. We always work in the same studio together; immediate interaction is imperative for us. We always start each record with a hook/ some inspiration, listening to a wide variety of music definitely makes this an easy process for us, whether it’s reworking an old funk bassline, sampling a cool vocal hook or a lead that we have lying around on our hard drive.
So obviously this year the music industry is experiencing many restrictions in the face of Covid. With touring not an option right now, what have you guys been filling the extra spare time with?
Studio time is always an issue when touring, so it’s been great to have so much time to be as creative as possible, without the jet lag! We’ve been developing loads of ideas that we wouldn’t usually get a chance to work on, and not surprising they turn out to be the stronger tracks.
Outside of the studio we’ve been giving our spin on some cool location-based Live streams, we live in Brighton so we’re surrounded by some extremely scenic locations. We selected some of our favourite local spots, pulled together a great team of people and had a lot of fun doing them. So far we’ve streamed from a Windfarm 8 miles of the coast of Brighton, with Fat Boy Slim, Archie Hamiton Josh Butler& Rich Nxt, the British Airways I360, Ridgeview vineyard in the South Downs National Park and a floating pontoon on an idyllic river just outside of the city.
What do you guys like listening to in your downtime?
Spending as much time outside as possible, as you can imagine usually, we’re either in the studio, travelling or in a club so anything that involves being active outside is a winner. James is particularly keen on fitness and loves sweating it out in the gym, Ben’s passion is food and cooking as much as possible in a wood oven.
With the scene under a lot of pressure right now, we’ve been trying to draw some attention to why this sector is so important to look after. As a duo who have been relentlessly dedicated to the scene for way beyond a decade now; what does nightlife culture and music mean to you both?
It means absolutely everything to us, we were both ravers well before we got a set of decks ourselves, since our teenage years everything has revolved around nightlife culture for us, from meeting life long friends, our partners and countless fond memories. We’ve been lucky enough to turn our passion into a career, travelling the world meeting so many amazing people and experiencing diverse cultures. At the moment it’s heartbreaking but at the same time difficult to imagine the scene returning to what we all knew it as for some time.
Thanks again guys for chatting with us today! To round things off, is there anything else lined up from you guys that you can let us in on?
A pleasure as always and thanks for your continued support, we’ve produced without doubt our finest music whilst in lockdown, so keep an ear out for our forthcoming music, in the meantime, we’re itching to test them out on a real crowd, how long that may be is your guess.
