‘There’s a connection which is more than magic’
Dr Meaker spoke to us about the ‘Good Fight’ featuring Laurent John and about their notoriously great live shows.
Hey how’s things in the Meaker camp? How’s summer been?
Things are going great thanks. Summer has been filled playing with the live band at festivals and also DJing, whilst working hard in the studio getting the album together for release on Circus Records early 2016.
Got a highlight you can tell us about?
We played Glastonbury and Boomtown but the highlight was a smallish festival called Godney Gathering in Somerset, which was just amazing. The vibe was incredible.
Tell us about the recent single, ‘Good Fight’, what inspired?
Laurent is the singer and he wrote the song about the struggle and battles you have for the “greater good” in relationships.
How did this steer your production?
My production was geared towards letting the vocal shine through and for the beats and so forth to sit back a little.
The bass is live bass guitar too so it’s got a much more live vibe than any of our other songs.
And the lyrics? I love how this has meaning and resonance as a lot of ‘big’ tunes sound emotional but have not much substance. This feels like a passionate tune.
Yes definitely. Laurent write the song from a real place and not just as a commodity. The words are both literal and metaphorical, which I think connects on different levels with people.
Tell us about Laurent John and how you know each other.
We were playing at a live show in Bristol a couple years ago and Laurent was singing backing vocals as part of a choir and when I heard him solo I was really impressed, so I took his number and we’ve continued from there.
The arrangement on this must have taken time to craft… the strings/orchestral parts, backing vocals, it’s a big look.
Yes I think we approached the arrangement and production about four times until were were happy. It started with a guitar hook which we dropped and replaced with piano. The string arrangement is by an arranger, Sam Price.
Once the track was pretty much finished the record label asked if we’d like to record the string arrangement with a live string section and I jumped at the chance so we recorded the Kaleidoscope orchestra, conducted by Steve Pycroft.
It was an emotional and amazing experience and we also recorded live strings for three of the other forthcoming album tracks too.
Now you are in the quite enviable position of having a set which is now full of big songs! So many songs and the audience into it too, so it must feel good to roll out these tracks now?
Yeah I reckon we have the best live D&B band out there.
I just truly believe we do it best and the crowd are always so into us when we play. There’s a connection which is more than magic.
Our time to play the big stages is well overdue and I really hope we can start to smash those soon.
Does this mean the Meaker live show is developing too, getting into different territory live?
We are always fine tuning and refining what we have been doing for 10 years now. The vocalists sometimes change with certain guest joining us.
It will be really interesting putting together the set for when the album drops and starting to play those new songs. I can’t wait for that.
So what will we see next from you, what have you got in terms of output and dates?
We have a one off live set at Bristol Motion on the 5th November 2015 to try out new material and then we are not playing live until the album is finished. There are DJ sets here so check drmeaker.co.uk for those dates.
Thanks to everyone supporting!
