Few vocalists have such a distinctive tone as Donae’O. Having nailed the perfect balance between soul, grime and hip-hop, it’s a little known fact that he’s never more than two metres away from a bare bass-fuelled nugget, waiting for his dulcet delivery to polish it off.
Right now he’s gearing up for his forthcoming album. Entitled Forest Of Zephron, it’s due out in August. He tells us it’s his most aggressive, club-focussed album to date. And the hype starts right here with Fire. A chop-slapping dubstep dustup, he’s arranged a clutch of sizzling remixes to complement it. Including a firing (pun intended) rub from The Prototypes.
“They’ve killed it!” he tells us. “It’s hard to work out which remix is my favourite but on a D&B tip that definitely bangs.”
Let’s check it out and grab it now eh?
It’s clear the crazy worlds of Donae’O and D&B make good bedfellows. In the past he’s worked with Digital Soundboy and last year saw Flying To Mars, a killer co-lab with the mighty Foreign Beggars it was produced by the currently unavoidable Alix Perez…
“I loved that whole process. We went in hard in the studio and wrote as much as we could. We came up with five different songs. I don’t believe in just going in the studio and doing one tune. Make the most of your time! Foreign Beggars were very open to that way of working so we got a whole bunch of ideas down, worked out what was best and made sure it was perfect.”
Reckon you’ll release the other tracks?
“No. We picked the very best so the rest didn’t cut it. I won’t put out stuff I’m not 100 per cent into. The other ideas were good but Flying To Mars was the best thing we did so why put out the other tracks that we weren’t quite as happy with? I’d love to work with the guys again. When we do another collaboration then we’ll only give out the very best. It’s how everyone should work.
From a production point of view, how did you find working with Alix?
“Alix is amazing. He’s so technical. I love his style. It’s quintessentially British. Dark, muddy, penged out. There’s so much to learn from his approach to low frequencies. We’ve talked about working on other stuff, it’s just a case of finding the time.”