EchoStorms are Ben Locke and Katya Fadeeva. Born out of their mutual love for electronic music and informed by their disparate but complementary musical backgrounds, Echostorms make full-blooded, emotionally-charged dance music that incorporates elements of melodic techno, indie dance and house, resulting in a highly distinctive and electrifying production aesthetic.
In 2021 EchoStorms performed electrifying, sold-out live shows at Cacao Beach, Hidden Festival and Solar Summer Festival, and with further releases and a tour planned for 2022, this essential duo is only just getting started.
We caught up with them for a chat before they go stratospheric.
Connect with EchoStorms on Soundcloud | Instagram
Hi guys – how are you doing?
We are doing well thanks, extremely busy but good!
You seem like you have the dream life, travelling the world and making music together… how did you make this dream become a reality?
Dreams usually become a reality through hard work, perseverance and sheer determination – and this is also the case with EchoStorms. We both love travelling and drawing inspiration from our experiences around the world, although sadly due to Brexit and the Coronavirus Pandemic this has become more complicated.
What do you miss most about your native countries when you’re on the road?
Ben: There are multiple things I miss about the UK. As an artist, I miss the community in the music industry. There’s always something going on in the UK, always someone interesting to meet and collaborate with in some way. Outside of the music industry, I miss the pubs in the UK and the supermarkets. Until you’ve lived outside of the UK you don’t really appreciate quite how amazing the supermarkets in the UK are!
Katya: I miss my friends, my family and my dogs.
What has been the most memorable experience for you this year so far?
There have been multiple very memorable experiences this year but I would have to say Tidal Wave being played by David Guetta and ending up in 1001 Tracklists Most Heard Charts Top 20 would be one of them. Another has to be our track Delirious with R3WIRE going to #1 in the Beatport Tech House Releases chart and #2 overall, across all the genres. That was a very proud moment. It was also a wonderful feeling to be back playing shows again – nothing beats that connection with a live crowd.
Your releases to this point have been quite varied, but always a strong focus on emotion – is this important to you?
Absolutely! We write what we feel and we aim to create records that people can relate to and that can inspire, comfort and bring joy to our listeners. We don’t want to make soulless records just for the sake of having something to release. That’s not what we’re about. We wear our hearts on our sleeves and want to release music that’s meaningful and has a timeless quality.
We wear our hearts on our sleeves and want to release music that’s meaningful and has a timeless quality.
You recently hooked up with R3WIRE for a collab on Stereohype – what do you think you each bring to the production on this one?
R3WIRE is a really talented producer, a brilliant DJ and a real champion of new music. He was one of the first DJs to play Tidal Wave and we reached out to him to thank him. We got into conversation and ended up sending him the latest track we were working on, which was Delirious. We went back and forth between us to really perfect it and once we were all happy with the final version we signed it to Stereohype – which we were very happy about as we have massive respect for this label and the way they strive to find the best up and coming talent and deliver a package to their audience that’s of the highest possible quality.
They were an absolute pleasure to work with from start to finish, they have their own community who are so supportive, positive and real music lovers. In our opinion, Stereohype is one of the best labels out there right now and they continue to grow and develop!
How do you have to adapt your approach in the studio when collaborating with another artist?
We love collaborating with other artists. It’s always really interesting to see how a new combination of musical minds can collaboratively come up with something really unique!
It’s always really interesting to see how a new combination of musical minds can collaboratively come up with something really unique! Collaborations come in all shapes and sizes and with different ways of working.
Our favourite way of collaborating with another artist would be for us to all be in the same room and to come up with something fresh at that moment, using the chemistry and energy created there and then.
Our favourite way of collaborating with another artist would be for us to all be in the same room and to come up with something fresh at that moment, using the chemistry and energy created there and then. However, due to the pandemic and travel restrictions, we have all had to adapt and I think that nowadays you can have a really positive and inspiring collaborative session over Zoom. Sure, it’s different to the feeling of physically being in the same room with your collaborator but awesome results can still be achieved remotely.
How do you make sure that your personality comes across in your productions?
Firstly, unlike a lot of other producers at the moment, we write all our own toplines – which is a crucial part of our sound and making sure what we release is authentically us. Our records are reflections of ourselves and all tell a story and capture a moment in our lives.
There is a growing trend at the moment in electronic music for sampling/covering/bootlegging/whatever you want to call it, and for us that just doesn’t sit right. How can it really be your track when you haven’t had a part in creating one of the key elements?
How can it really be your track when you haven’t had a part in creating one of the key elements?
A lot of producers don’t sing – which is absolutely fine – but to have something you can really call your own original record you should be involved in every stage of the creation – even if you’re not the primary writer of the top line you should at least be present and have some form of input, rather than rehashing old hits and putting some modern beats under them – you don’t even need a studio to do that, anyone with basic DJ skills could do that on a pair of CDJs!
What’s next for EchoStorms?
Our last 3 releases (Delirious W/R3WIRE, U Wish W/Chapter & Verse and Do It For Me) are still going strong – which we are very happy about!
We’ve just put the finishing touches to what will be our next three singles, which will be coming out in early 2022 – these are really special records that we love, so we are really excited about being able to soon share them with the world! We also have some really awesome collaborations coming in 2022, so watch this space!
To round off the year, we are doing a New Year special on our Electric Radio show on the 29th of December, mixing all the best Tech House tracks of 2021 into 2 hours of pure fire!
Thank you.