Fresh off a whirlwind gig in Croatia for the Defected Party and hot on the heels of their chart topping release entitled All My Love – Studioheist is on the verge of a huge breakout. We sat down with the boys and got their take on a few current topics:
1) So glad to have you guys on board again with your second full release on Large. Congratulations on all of the fantastic response! Can you tell us a little bit about this ep? Did you build all three tracks from scratch or did you already have them in mind for your follow up?
Thanks for having us back, we are really happy to be on board!
We were mindful that we were making music to follow up from our Eden ep so were keen to ensure it was the right sound for Large.
All My Love is a track we started together and basically got it down over a few evenings . The keys and bassline were the first elements to go in and as soon as we got the LFO modulating as you can hear we knew it sounded quite unique and could turn into an A-Side. This was a great track to work on with all the musical elements coming together really easily.
Negroni has been a slow burner and is something we started together late last year. We actually started this track before the release of Eden EP but even then we always knew this one was destined for Large!
Roller started life as a bit more of a funky idea which we ended up looping to give it more of a groove. You can actually hear all the original elements in the breakdown filtered down which break the track up nicely.
2) Tell us about your process of production. Do you use any analog gear at all or all digital?
We usually start off by getting a basic groove down using NI Maschine to create the different drum elements. Once we have that in place we then play in some keys to give the track some musical direction and just go from there. We try and avoid using obvious samples such as 909 drums to make our material sound different from a lot of the stuff out there. One exception to that being the grooving rides which I think have become a bit of a trademark of our sound.
We are currently all digital having toyed with the analog vibe but have found that it slowed our workflow down too much so reluctantly sold our Waldorf Pulse 2 earlier this year. As you can hear from our music we love big synth keys/pads so I think the Korg Minilogue might be purchased soon!
3) Can you tell us about how you guys met? Were you both djs before your began producing together?
Andy – We met through my ex-girlfriend about 10 years ago when we were both DJing on the Manchester scene at clubs such as Sankeys and North. We were playing a lot more gigs and partying back then so producing was just something we did on the side. As we had quite diverse music tastes we used to make all sorts of genres such as progressive, techno and house so we never had a consistent sound. It was only about 4 years ago we started focusing on our house sound and so Studioheist was born!
4) What are your thoughts on the current scene in Manchester, especially for quality, authentic deep house vibes?
Manchester is a fantastic place to go out for music as not only do you have the big venues like Warehouse Project and Sankeys, but there are some more intimate venues such as Joshua Brooks and Gorilla which are also great. I wouldn’t say there are any authentic deep house nights anymore as Manchester has always been a more about techno or vocal house, that’s not to say we haven’t seen some awesome house DJs there over the years.
5) How do you guys feel about the current debate on vinyl vs. digital? Do you have a preference when playing live?
It’s a bit of a silly debate, some people like vinyl some people prefer digital. To us it doesn’t mean you aren’t a “proper” dj if you use CDJ’s as long as you are playing great music.
We have mixed on vinyl for years but are quite happy to move along with technology. Due to practicality and availability of vinyl music we now play pretty much exclusively with digital these days. That said, we still buy vinyl as there are plenty of releases out there that are non-digital. We do miss it though as you can’t beat the experience of DJing with wax and also the lost Saturday afternoons crate digging!
The Wax Weapons release was a massive milestone for us as our first vinyl release. It was a great feeling to finally listen one of our tracks on wax after years of releasing digitally so we feel honoured and excited to be included on the second Wax Weapons release. Thanks!
6) So you recently had a fantastic gig in Croatia. Can you tell us a little bit about how it all went down?
It was an amazing experience. When Simon Dunmore contacted us we couldn’t believe it; he said he loved our productions and got booked because of that. We played on the beach stage during the late afternoon so got to play a few classics and some great house music with soul.
We would just like to big up all the Defected team who went above and beyond whilst we were there. It was a fantastic festival and we even met some fans out there which is nice.
7) Finally, we ask this question of all our featured artists. If you could pick one record from the Large Music catalog as a favorite what would it be?
This is a bit of a no-brainer as we both absolutely love the track – Roy Davis JR feat Peven Everett – Gabrielle. We actually played it as our last track at Defected Croatia!
You can listen or buy the All My Love EP by CLICKING HERE.