‘We had to think hard when we started working on D&B again: it’s not a genre you can just step into’
Whatever style affected one’s path into D&B it’s certain that the genre-spanning Document One will be certainly familiar to many right now to many due to the recent jazzy, summery, cowbell-tastic pairing of ‘I Got A Fever’ and ‘Follow Me’ on Technique. We caught up with them over the weekend and amongst discussing how the tunes evolved, gear manifestations & more, they broke down the super-complicated story surrounding their name…
Hi Document One. What are you up to?
Matt: It’s going great thanks. Currently sat outside in the sun in our hometown of Oxford, about to head to the studio.
Joe: It’s a good time for us – both tunes from our new release hit top ten on Beatport this weekend.
How did you guys form?
M: We formed as a duo a few years back and started releasing dubstep. We have been firmly back on the D&B scene for the last two years.
J: Drum and Bass is what got us producing together in the first place. We were producing D&B together before we ventured into different styles, so everything has sort of gone full circle and it feels really good!
I really love ‘Follow Me’… what inspired? The keys layering with the vocals is superb and love the whole array of sound in this. The bass is acoustic yet warped, love it, must’ve been insane to hear in the studio when you did it.
M: Thanks for the kind words! We’re really happy with how the track ended up. Joe wrote the chords for the intro on piano, and the tune evolved from there. We had released ‘Jazz Club’ about a month before, and continued to experiment with that sound – jazz infused D&B with a little neuro spin on it.
J: We’ve always been into both the heavy and liquid sides of D&B, so I guess it’s just a progressive merge of styles with our own imprint on it.
So what’s your studio like as such?
J: We’re mostly in the box. It’s a case of Ableton Live and a big bunch VSTs, we wouldn’t get far without Native Instruments Komplete!
My Yamaha electric piano and Matt’s Fender play a big part in where our tunes start, as we usually write the music together before we begin producing a track.
M: We have a couple of analogue synths, but quite honestly it’s Massive, Serum and Harmor that are responsible for the vast majority of what you hear in our basslines.
Monitor-wise we have two different sets of Yamahas which we love, and a set of Dynaudios which are fantastic.
Can you take us through the wicked ‘I Got A Fever’? It makes me think of ‘Body Rock’ which I always heard was an ‘unintentional’ tune… so was the tempo and flex on this the original intention or did the tune just happen?
M: The tune was in a pile of half finished projects for ages, but we knew it had something special about it. We wanted to make something so obnoxious that ignoring it would be impossible! The track that solidified the direction we wanted to take with ‘I Got A Fever’ was ‘Druggy’ by Sub Focus.
The shuffle groove along with cowbells really got us inspired.
J: The fact it turned into a swing rhythm again was purely to make something that was different, so we changed the beat and retouched the bassline. The reaction from everyone we played it to has been amazing.
What’s your live experience like? Can imagine it’s a blast to hear you play, and that you draw a lot of surprises…
M: Our DJ set is constantly evolving along with our musical taste and the Drum and Bass scene itself. Currently we enjoy the deep and dirty stuff like Ivy Lab, Hybris, Break, Ed:it, and Kasra but thats not to say we don’t drop some more heavy stuff, and some jump up, we really love it all.
J: Our primary concern is always to get people moving!
What sort of things have been highlights of the past few months? Been on road much?
J: We’ve played some cool shows recently but we’d have to say highlights have been getting nods from some of our favourite producers.
The likes of Teebee and Noisia amongst others, have really flattered us with some of their feedback, it means a lot to hear producers we admire so much compliment our sound.
M: We had to think hard when we started working on D&B again… It’s not a genre you can just step into, I feel with every tune we make it’s more progress.
As you’re known for exploring other genres, what about other styles of music, like dubstep or downtempo, electronica… how do you keep informed?
M: We both experiment in our downtime with other genres – we both just love music, going to gigs and exploring different scenes.
Right now we’re really stuck into D&B and love where the scene is going, for us it’s without a doubt the most innovative genre within electronic music right now.
J: We’re lucky to have a lot of friends who make different styles of music, so that naturally keeps us informed. We’re both really interested in a lot of different genres of music, so we’re always discussing and sharing new tunes with each other from across the board.
What’s next from you release-wise?
M: We have two new tracks coming out soon on the Technique Summer Selection album: both tracks are pretty chilled but still have that subtle hint of Neuro in there. We’re working on our next EP at the moment which will be out later in the year, it’s coming together quite nicely.
J: We are excited, this year has really fuelled us to get some serious studio time in.
What inspired your name?
M: When you click save on the DAW we used to use, the default file name was ‘Document One’, one thing led to another and we started using it as a name for our project.
It’s a thrilling story really…
Any shouts DC1?
All the Technique fam, especially Bassline Smith, he’s been a great help to us. Also a big shout to Friction, Hype, Teebee, DC Breaks, Roni Size, and TC.
