A groovy “We The People”
Here something groove we got to share. A fun colelctive creating a damn nice house roller that went straight into the Traxsource Top 100 house chart last week. We are talking about LongPlay’s “We The People”.
It’s a brilliantly old school house tune with big robust kicks and party starting kick drums. It has manic keys laid over the drums, hip swinging claps and vocals that are stirring and incendiary. T”We the people” will set the place on fire without a doubt. So get your groove on with the awesome & catchy rhythm, upbeat vocals and tons of energy!
We thought to catch up with the longtime London-based friends and RM Records label founders to have a chat about the release and look back upon their career. Enjoy the read!
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Hey guys, Hope you are all doing great? As the year is coming to an end, what are your plans for these last weeks?
We’ve spent the year mostly building for 2018, working on background infrastructure and making sure we’re in a great position to move forward. We haven’t been releasing too much this year as a result but we’ll be changing that in 2018 for sure. We also kick-start next year with our label “RM Records” hosting Ministry of Sound so we’re excited for that. As for the rest of this year, it’s eating turkey and put on a few pounds lol … .
You can tell our garage influences in the music we are, it’s often raw and at the core of the idea is something we grew up on.
You have one sublime release lined up. Want to tell us a bit about ‘We The People’?
We originally started making the track around the time Fabric was closing in London. The London nightlife has been taking a massive hit over the past few years with venues closing all over the place. So originally we wanted to make a track with a purpose. The Charlie Chaplin speech had done the rounds but when you break the vocal up into sections we found it got the message across perfectly for what we wanted to say. London is closing and “We the people have the power, let us use that power and unite” ie let’s not let our music scene disappear. Go to your local clubs, support your DJs and musicians – the scene will die if we allow it to die… drop the vocal over an old-school influenced piano track and there you go.
LongPlay’s “We The People” is out since 15th December on RM Records! Grab it here »
It’s awesome work. Even the remixes are fantastic. How did you approach these?
Even though the release is ours and we’re releasing on our own label we like to support the artists we have featured before. We don’t like to put a track out for an artist and never make contact again, we see this more as a family. So whilst putting our own music out we went back to some old friends from RM Records and asked if they would like to be involved to which they all said yes. Each track is completely different too so we feel the release as a whole has something for everyone.
You must have tried all of these tracks ahead of the release? How did the crowd react?
Each track is so different you have to be in the right setting. We’ve been smashing the original mix a lot, once the piano hits it just lifts the whole atmosphere. The same with the Timmy P remix, the bass rattles through everyone and it’s lovely to see how people interact with each other when the bass kicks in, ie pulling faces of bass appreciation.
As you are two, how do you work together when producing? No fights?
No fights, just split opinions. Take the time to listen to one another and all works well.
So have you got any advice on maintaining that successful working relationship in a crazy space like dance music?
The best piece of advice is to support one and other. And when people climb over you to get what they want don’t be bitter, it’s just their journey. Concentrate on your own and keep to the grind.
Let’s look back at 2017. What were the highlights of the year for you?
If I’m honest, the highlights for 2017 were hard to come by as we have spent a lot of time and energy preparing RM Records for 2018. I would have to say the highlight for 2017 would be putting out other artists work on our label. Making friends and pushing dance music on.
Looking ahead, what will the future bring?
Looking ahead, hopefully, many more releases for the new year and building on all the background work that goes unseen.
Was dance music always your main influence when you guys were younger, how did you ultimately end up in this scene?
Back in the late 90’s London was infused with Garage Music, the scene was massive here and it’s where we both began. Garage was life, record shops/tape packs/pirate radio, it overtook everything. Everywhere you went, garage music was the soundtrack. That got us both into mixing. But moving with the times as garage turned into funky house and even onto hip hop and rnb our journey eventually ended up with house music as our home. We say house music because we like all streams of the format. We are DJ’s, we are not deep house DJ’s or techno DJ’s, We are DJ’s. If it suits to play a true house stormer or go a little deeper then we play the tracks to suit because we like them, it’s about the party and making sure the crowd has a great time, not how cool we are or what image we have.
How has your music been influenced by other artists, musicians, or life in general?
You can tell our garage influences in the music we are, it’s often raw and at the core of the idea is something we grew up on. We also take a great influence from Kerri Chandler and Masters at Work (even though our productions are not similar in nature). Louie Vega is hands down our favourite DJ…. no contest.
What is the importance of the connections you make and how can you utilise them?
As with everything, it’s always who you know and not what you know. Around the globe there are DJ’s learning the trade in their bedrooms hoping for the break. The sad fact is if they don’t have a connection they may not ever make it to show their skills on stage. So making friends and staying friends is key to working your way through the business, shyness doesn’t pay unfortunately you have to put yourself out there.
Do you feel there was a “breakthrough” point after which suddenly things changed for the better and brought you to where you are now? If so, what was it and why do you think it happened?
The standout release for us was our remix of NY’s Finest “Do you feel me”, this sat in the charts for months and even earned us a spot in the Traxsource top 100 artists for 2016. We still have people comment to us about this track even now so I would have to say this was the point.
If you weren’t making music what would you be doing with your life?
TBH I don’t know. It all starts off as a hobby that gets a little out of hand. I can’t see the pair of us sitting on a freezing lake fishing at the weekend or painting etc.
You can change one thing in the world next year, what will it be?
There’s too much to change … . World peace???
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