Brand new soulful-techno outing from some of the most prominent brothers in the world of EDM
Welcome to DMCWORLD Magazine. Let’s go back to where it all began. Brothers raised in what was soon to become one of the most important musical cities the world has ever seen. Life was all about the factories, steel and the smog…until one day when you first heard the kick of the 909 drum. What was that moment like?
“Hey Dan. Yeah, we remember back when we first heard the 9 as its affectionally referred to by us! Thinking back to that time still makes us smile and gives us goosebumps to say the least. We had purchased some other drum machines (kawai and Korg) prior to hearing the 9 and when we finally got a chance to hear one we totally went bananas. It had that thick deep funky sound that we had been longing for which we had been hearing it in the KMS and Transmat records, but to be honest it wasn’t the kick that drew us in but was the snares. We had been listening to some Derrick May mixes and we kept hearing these snares that were at the time edited on tape and played in reverse. So we went running to all of these different music stores looking for this drum machine that could play snare backwards, which drove all the salesman crazy since they had not a clue as to what we were talking about. At that time there wasn’t a drum machine that had this function on it. But it was if we remember correctly Jay “Vice” Denham that was playing us his 909 and when we heard those snares we knew it was the drum machine for us, the kick was the icing on the cake!”
What we love about your production philosophy here at DMC, is that you aren’t out to change the world with your music. It’s simple. Your music is all about giving people a way of escape. Discuss…
“It goes back to why we love to listen personally to music. Growing up in a household of 5 boys sometimes when you needed to have some space of your own you weren’t able to get it physically, but you could always grab a bunch of tunes that you loved to listen to and zone out into your own mental space. And once we started creating songs ourselves, that was the approach we also adopted in why we were creating. That’s why its so important for us to create music that allows you to feel something, no matter what that feeling might be the importance is to feel.”
You are back on the dancefloor yet again with a stunning new single ‘New Life’ coming our way with another infectious bassline and as always, those dramatic strings. Tell us about the history of the track….
“Well as we have been doing lots of tour dates playing live, we’re constantly looking for new material that we can share with our fans. And during that creative process to make new tracks for the show we started developing a rough track that we thought was kind of interesting to us and we wanted to share it with our audience to see how it moved the dancefloor. One of the most things that we appreciate by playing live is that we get to instantaneously get live feedback as to whether something is going to work or not by watching the floor while we play. And the dancefloor showed us that initially it needed more work but that there was also something interesting there that could be developed into a song. So every show we took new things that we developed for the track from the studio to the floor until we saw the floor was consistently happy with it around the world. So each and every fan helped with the development of this song which was a bit different for us but very fun nonetheless to do.”
You once said that “we only produce when we feel we have something to say musically”. So what was the message this time?
“Even though the process in which we developed this particular track is a bit different than the way we usually create, the need for us to say something musically at this time was there. We don’t want to just say what the message is because we really want the message to be at the discretion of the listener and not wanting them to be locked into what we feel.”
The release also comes with two superb remixes courtesy of Unsubscribe and Different World – talk us through these excellent reworks, why did you choose these guys?
“Well both remixers did give us some superb remixes of the song. We feel so fortunate to have the caliber of remixes that we got to be associated with our track, but both Dave Clarke (Unsubscribe) and Claude Young (Different World) are both true professionals and we wouldn’t expect nothing less. Different World gave us an extension of the original track with additional production on the housey type of vibe, deep and more laid back. Unsubscribe really nailed a very progressive and edgy techno remixes, strong futuristic and powerful fun. And we can’t wait for both of them to hit the scene!”
The video is brilliant, a real breath of fresh air for techno. Directed by STEEL5000 and Martin Garcia Blaya of WORKT34M – what did you think of their idea of synchronized swimmers and diving down in Madrid?
“To be painfully honest, if they would have just verbally told us the idea to what they wanted to do, we probably would have definitely said we don’t get it and declined it. But it was the fact that they delivered it with rough graphics of what they wanted to do and it at least sold us (well one of us) to give them the green light to see how there idea develops. Being artist ourselves although it may be difficult for us at times, we kind of like to let other artist create without interference from us, unless we see something that we feel we just can’t get with under any conditions. So as there work developed more and more we let our guards down and totally feel in love with there vision for the track.”
VIDEO : http://vimeo.com/47859264
You are renowned for keeping people on their toes with your sporadic release schedule. You will release a record, send everyone bananas with it and then explain that the track has actually been sitting on a shelf gathering disco dust for 9 years! How many tracks do you think you have in the vault that will one day see the light ofday?
“Too funny you just asked this question, because we literally just grabbed a couple of new tunes from the vaults that we loved creating and listening to back in the day but felt we didn’t see an audience for at that time. Played them live at four shows recently and they will definitely be coming to a release schedule near you, because the response was overwhelming! But the funny thing is that we have tonnes and tonnes of material sitting in the vault. You have to remember that there are a total of 5 Burden brothers who all produce together and even some solo material of our own and we all love to make tracks for our own relaxation. Our house growing up and even our studio on 430 West Eight Mile Road was music, music, music no stop. Literally!!! We have the electric bills to prove it! So we’ll always be be diving from time to time for tracks that we now feel might be time to release. Can’t tell you how many but there’s a stack of tracks waiting in the wings.”
What is the longest you have ever sat on a tune?
“It was about 9 or 10 years, but we think for sure this new material we’re gonna release has shattered that record!”
How do you keep your motivation for sounds after so many years in the business?
“For us, it’s just that we love to play with hardware. Hardware keeps things interesting for us because when you get bored with this keyboard you can grab another or drum machine as well. When you get tired with both of them you can experiment with adding guitar pedals or freaking them out with an assortment of effects. It literally can be endless, to the point now we’re recycling equipment that we had either put in the closet or that we sold years ago we’re repurchasing them all over again just to relive them again.”
It must be kinda strange being in America now that billions of pounds is being poured into EDM? What do you make of it all?
“It’s not so strange to us that there doing it, because the US has been trying to capture this market for some time. But they had been unsuccessful up to this point. America’s music industry is always searching for what can bring in the big bucks and what better genre was there for them where they can exploit artist for virtually a fraction of what they would usually pay artist, it’s a cheaper genre to promote and it wields the same amount of sales if not more than commercial artist. Coupled with the fact that there probably hasn’t been on a whole, the amount of commercial artist jumping on the same trend since the days of Disco. It’s a win for them, but what concerns us is where will it leave our scene after they finish there musical mining operations? Again, remember the days of Disco…”
You made your Ibiza debut in 2011 playing the CR2 party at Space. What did you make of our special little white island?
“We thought it was quite interesting! For us it was like being in South Beach Miami during the Winter Music Conference but on some major, major powerful steroids. We haven’t had the opportunity to explore much of the island yet but we’re sure we’ll enjoy it all the same.”
Tell us a bit about your live show in 2012…
“We’ve been touring quite a lot this year. It’s a two man gig, with a all hardware set up. Analog and Digital synths, drum machines, samplers, effects, and 24 channel Allen & Heath mixer make up our kit. We travel now with a little over 100kg in equipment. We still love playing classic tracks, but we have many unreleased tracks and mixes that we add in and out of the set. The key for us is to flexible and interactive with the music because we never know how we’re going to feel when we hit the stage.”
What would you say are each other’s finest qualities in the studio – who excels where?
“Lance and Lynell are probably the most fluent keyboard players among us and are strongest on Jazzy and R&B, Lorne’s strongest points are Hip Hop related styles, Lenny leans toward aggressive rhythms and Lawrence more on the House vibe.”
The market is so saturated right now with producers and what makes it even more frustrating is all the young kids coming through tend to copy their favourite artist. What advice can you offer to the thousands of aspiring musicians out there reading this wanting to follow in your footsteps…
“Really, really, really take time and learn your craft in and out. Its so very important that you develop a particular style that people can know you by, so that when people hear they know its you even without announcement of who it is. That doesn’t mean that you need to be making the same track over and over again but you need to have a style that belongs to you. If you look at the most influential artist with longevity you’ll notice that they pretty much all have a particular sound that you can identify them by, that’s there’s…get yours!”
Who though are some of the producers that have excited you in 2012?
“Wow, there a quite a few actually. Luke Hess, Claude Young, Robert Hood, Orlando Voorn, Dave Clarke, Sandwell District, Loud Neighbor, Jeff Mills all had or will have some great things coming out this year.”
And who were your early production heroes?
“Don Was, Steve “Silk” Hurley, Barry White, Juan Atkins, Mike “Hitman” Wilson, Mark Kinchen, Foster & McElroy, the list is endless!”
2011 saw the release of ‘Revisited : Here, There and Beyond’ marking 20 years of living the techno life with 01 classics reworked by some of your favourite producers. What remixes on there really surprised you?
“Really, they all did. It was really hard to imagine our classic work in any other form than the originals. When the remixes started to come in, we were blown away. We were very fortunate to have such great producers lend their talents to our work.”
And finally, what is coming next from you studio wise?
“We are happy to be working on a new album. For the first time in over 10 years all 5 Burden brothers have gotten together to work on new material. We’re all very excited on how well things are coming developing and we hope to have something interesting and funky completed by early 2013.”
‘New Life’ will be released worldwide on October 8th 2012 on 430 West Records.
TRACKLISTING
1 New Life (Original)
2 New Life (Instrumental)
3 New Life (Radio Edit)
4 New Life (Unsubscribe Remix)
5 New Life (Unsubscribe Instrumental)
6 New Life (Different World Remix)
7 New Life (Different World Instrumental)
8 New Life (Video Edit)
OCTAVE ONE TOUR DATES
Sep 28 Decibel Festival w/ Carl Craig, Seattle, WA USA
Sep 29 The Works w/ Carl Craig San Francisco, CA USA
Oct 06 Disorder @ Tattingers Rabat, Malta
Oct 19 Amsterdam Dance Event w/ Green Velvet, Dave Clarke Amsterdam, Netherlands
Oct 31 Venue TBC Turin To, Italy
Nov 02 Hidden London, United Kingdom
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