Massive EP on Drenched! The boys are back in town…
Interview by Dan Prince
Andrew, Dave a huge welcome back to DMCWORLD towers. Where on planet earth are you right now?
Thanks for having us! We are currently in our north London studio, drinking tea, eating biscuits and also working on new material.
The best piece of brand new music you have heard today since crawling out bed?
This was a track by Fat Men At The Disco, which is from their debut EP that we just signed to Drenched Records, it’s a monster!
And what a way to return with house music at it’s very finest! Under your Grandé & Preset guises and via your new Drenched Records label, last week saw the release of your ‘Back To The…EP’ – please talk us through the four tracks…
With this EP, we really wanted to capture our musical journey, going right back to our rave roots, but also encompassing our later influences of House, Garage and the new Future Bass sound that we love too.
Closer To All Your Dreams is our take on Rhythm Quests – Closer To All Your Dreams, with the Mariah Carey vocal sample and the classic Bizzare Inc stab. we reworked giving it a future house vibe with the bassline.
Feel Real Good is our interpretation of the 1991 original Manix – Feel Real Good. This was a giant rave track of it’s time and very influential for us, so we decided to give it our modern twist.
Edge1 is our rework of the 1992 classic, Edge 1 – Compnded. We kept the essential elements of this but totally remodelled to transform it into a modern floorfiller. We gave it our signature bassline as well as the original components being salvaged to keep that authentic rave vibe.
You Dream Of is a slightly purer house take of the 1993 Sunshine Productions – Above The Clouds. This was a Happy Hardcore classic to us, the vocals have been updated and the whole track given a simple but effective House feel, with tough sub bass and garage stabs and pads.
The label was started in late 2015. You two have decades of experience…what was the idea behind the label?
The idea is to take control of our music and the whole process for ourselves. It’s tougher much more now than ever to do this and the industry is a lot different compared to the old days of vinyl and physical product. We wanted to have our own home that was ours and build something really substantial and influential. We also want to have a label that is much more approachable to unsigned artists. There is so much great undiscovered music and talent out there and we appreciate how hard it is for them to get heard, so alongside our own releases we have some great ones from new artists that we want to be heard.
Will there be more artists joining the label in 2016?
Yes! We have some great new artists that we have signed, alongside some big names too! So much in fact we have setup an offshoot to Drenched, which is called DRNCD and this is specifically going to be for new and emerging artists. The first release on DRNCD is out on April 11th by Sam Dungate & Grant Collins and it’s called Jumpin’.
Under your Sol Brothers name you have been ruling Radio 1 of late thanks to your ‘Turn Me Out’ track with the legend Kathy Brown. Talk us through the history and production of the track…Annie Mac LOVES you guys!!!!!!
The track has so much history and is one of the most iconic house tracks of all time and it just seemed the perfect fit to bring it up to date and launch our new label with, We started discussing with Kathy mid 2015 and she was over in England so we hooked up in the studio to record fresh vocals and decided to keep the track as close to the original as possible and it has been extremely well received, we had remixes done by Vanilla Ace, Jason Chance, Dolly Rockers, Sam Dungate and Grandé & Preset too but it seems the original is the one being supported the most. Annie Mac’s support has overwhelmed us and we could not thank her enough! Idris Elba dropped it three times in his recent set at Egg London, which just left us speechless! We are currently in production of a video and it’s looking promising that we will have daytime support on mainstream radio, which we couldn’t be more happier about.
What are the 5 big tunes in your boxes this weekend, please give us a few words on each…
Do It Right (Blinkie Remix) by Anne-Marie, we’ve started a number of sets with this recently and it really sets the tone and get’s the crowd going!
Going Out (Grandé & Preset Remix) by Tempo Electric & PKay Ft. Martin Carr. We did this remix for OneFold Records and we’re pretty proud of it! The vocal is sick and one that all crowds remember when we drop it.
Pennies From Heaven (House Of Virus Remix) by Inner City, what can we say about this one?! Absolute classic and the House Of Virus boys have done a banging job of bring it right up to date.
Jumpin’ by Sam Dungate & Grant Collins, we recently signed this to our DRNCD offshoot to launch the label with, it’s an absolute solid tech house banger and we couldn’t be happier to have signed it. The reaction in clubs is immense!
Closer To All Your Dreams by Grandé & Preset, this is off our latest EP and it’s one of those iconic old skool tracks that everyone remembers in one way or another. The combination of uplifting vocals and tough bass drops just work and get’s great responses in our sets.
A big date for you next week with your appearance at Egg London. What are your thoughts on the state of clubbing in the UK at the moment, is it in a healthy place?
We think so! London is a little worrying with club closures and housing developments forcing these closures but overall we think it’s in a pretty healthy state. The one thing we get frustrated with is the whole selling tickets to play scenario and it really goes towards cheapening the art. We know the importance of new talent being given opportunity to breakthrough but the whole concept of playing just because you can sell a number of tickets is so wrong and promoters need to wake up and shouldn’t have DJs playing based on how many tickets they can sell but on their abilities!
And finally, what is coming out next from you guys?
We’re currently heavily in the studio working on new Sol Brothers material and a number of Grandé & Preset remixes and new material so it really is very full on but we’re loving every minute of it! We’re also working on the release schedule for Drenched, which is looking heavy, but the next release on Drenched is from Sol Brothers called Because I Get, which is a bit of a banger even if we do say so ourselves, so watch our for that one!
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