This week marks the return of Loew to Renaissance with the Strange Loop EP. Loew’s 2 Doves 1 Snowball has been Renaissance Record’s biggest sleeper hit of 2021 so far. With the best part of three months in the Beatport Electronica chart under its belt, the Northern Irishman’s debut EP with the eponymous brand firmly established his fast-rising credentials as one of the most exciting prospects in electronica. Argy soon swooped in, hand-picking him to remix Damanhur alongside Rodriguez Jr. and Magit Cacoon on his recent Interior Journey remix project. DMCWORLD grabs a world exclusive…
Hello Loew, great to have you with us today! How are you? Whereabouts are you chatting to us from right now?
Hi I’m doing great.I’m at my newly built studio just outside Belfast today working on upcoming Loew material.
We’re pleased to be speaking with you around your latest release on Renaissance, the ‘Strange Loop’ EP. Congrats on this one, it’s another standout release from you. What can you tell us about this one?
I’m going to give away my age on this one. Strange Loop was conceived from a chant on the first sample CD that I owned back in the early 90’s. I’m not going to say which one as there’s another few gems on it waiting for the Loew treatment. I have a real affinity with early house and the original progressive sound which I was part of. I always try to make tracks that’ll stand the test of time and I hope this will be one of them.
It seems you are definitely building a strong bond with the Renaissance family as well their following, your ‘2 Doves 1 Snowball’ EP earlier this year was very well received and led to Argy calling you up to remix for his Interior Journey LP remixes. What’s your relationship with the label like and what’s it like working with them?
I have a bit of history with the guys at Renaissance.I was originally signed to them as one half of Montero with Dee McCauley better known these days as Dee Montero.We had quite a bit of success around that time and it was Dee that mentioned Geoff and Marcus were up and running the label and club nights again which resulting in us reconnecting and them signing the 2 doves EP.
Touching on the Argy remix, what was it like working on your remix of his track ‘Damanhur’?
Getting the chance to rework something off Argy’s album was amazing. I instantly loved the original version of Damanhur and although my mix has a totally different vibe which I think a remix should have, I know Argy was very happy it.
It’s fair to say the Loew remains somewhat of an enigma, but we hear you have been in the scene for a number of years under various aliases. What can you tell us about the Loew project?
I’ve been part of the scene since the mid 90’s. I’ve released under different aliases including Graeme L, Montero, Brass Monkey and Midtone. The Loew project came about during lockdown. Like a lot of people I had free time in-between home schooling which I used to get back into writing my own music. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever release any of it accept on my Bandcamp page, but here we are with second release on Renaissance and more material in the pipeline.
Can you tell us a bit about your creative process as Loew?
With the Loew sound I always try to start with an inspiring sound like the chants on Strange Loop or the pad sounds and gated vocals on 2 doves. When I’m working with a DJ we usually start on drums and bass but I’m trying to stay away from that approach as a way to keep it fresh for myself. I’m finding it sends me in different directions if I’m not initially tied to a particular groove or drum loop. I’ve also started going through my old sample cd’s and finding sounds that move me now that never appealed to me years ago.
We hear you also have a background engineering for many artists in the scene. Can you tell us a bit about that?
Yeah I’ve been engineering for others since the mid to late 90’s. I suppose you could say it’s more like my day job. I find it’s always kept me on top of things as far as knowing what’s happening in any scene working with up and coming DJ’s. I’ve worked on every genre of electronic music from deep minimal house to big euphoric Trance. It helps keep my skills on point. I’ve worked on tracks for Anjuna, Black Hole, Last Night On Earth, Bedrock and just recently mixed and mastered Richie Blacker & Crystal Waters track Never Enough which is about to drop on Atlantic records. Have a feeling that’s going to be a big one.
A pleasure chatting with you today Loew! Congrats on another great release and we look forward to hearing more from you soon. To round off, is there anything else upcoming from yourself that you’d like to share with us?
Hopefully early next year we’ll put together a remix package of 2 doves and Strange Loop on Renaissance. I’ll be handling a four to the floor mix of Strange Loop. With a very special guest and friend of mine doing a remix of 2 doves, can’t say to much at the minute. I’ve also got plans to put out an EP exclusively on my band camp page https://loewmusic.bandcamp.com
Loew – Strange Loop EP is out now on Renaissance Records buy link
