Power duo Fred V & Grafix took some time out from the studio regime – replete with random vocalists, as you’ll read – to talk through their contribution to Hospital’s mighty We Are 18 compilation which drops today. The tune is ‘Catch My Breath’, somehow perfectly apt, considering the breathless output and diversity of Hospital over time…
Hospital arose from the 90s – quite a difficult decade in some ways – found it’s feet in the 00s and beyond: was it the case where you guys were original fans back then, those early releases?
I don’t think either of us knew about Hospital Records in the 90s really. But since we have known them it’s always been our favourite Drum & Bass stable for sure. So much great music has come from them over the years.
What about the live front? It’s a label perfectly synchronised with the live arena in mind, totally like no other, in UK or abroad…
Nothing beats the most recent Hospitality Brixton! The setup was unbelievable, will never forget it.
Can you be the Hospitable Hosts for We Are 18? It’s a diverse comp: from High Contrast, Metric, that Birdy/Nu:Logic tune, Rawtekk to Hugh Hardie.
There’s some great moments on it. Lots of great original stuff from old artists & new. Personal favourites would be Nu:Logic’s remix of ‘Wings’, ‘Kamina’ by Reso & ‘Spin The Bottle’ by Krakota.
Your contribution is excellent. As is the vocal.
‘Catch My Breath’ is a track taken from our album that we felt would work well on the We Are 18 comp. It’s a song we’ve worked on for a while and are really proud of, particularly the stunning vocals written and sung by Kate Westall. Definitely will be doing more with her.
How are you approaching 2014, with what sort of musical mindset? I guess I’m asking this: what is ‘filtering’ how you work? What influences and approaches?
Well, we both had a very busy 2013, lots of shows, but the main focus was finishing music for our debut album. So we spent a lot of time perfecting old (in our eyes) projects, and making sure they were as good as they could be, musically and sonically. It’s now finished, and feels like a big weight lifted from our shoulders, and already has sparked new waves of creativity, and fresh ideas for where we want our music to go in the future. So our mutual mindset is very positive for 2014! Something we have really got into in the last six months is writing and recording vocals ourselves, so we have plans to progress in this side of our music.
You must have an album story… ?
On one of our first vocal sessions for the album, we were recording this dude singing, who was awesome! But he made a lot of weird noises before he came in to sing his bit, it sounded like jibberish, of course he had headphones on so he didn’t realise he was doing it, but we could both hear him very clearly, and we were in absolute hysterics but tried our best to hold back the laughter, and as a vocalist the last thing you want is two people laughing at you doing your thing. It was rather embarrassing, but we held it down just about!
Nevertheless, the session went great, and it’s one of our favourite tracks on the album.
You must feel like continuing once the vibe gets that good.
Plans are to get to work on Album Two straight away!
And what about life on the road? What notable gigs have you done?
First Russian gig would be the most notable, we went there in October. It was insane! Other than that, it’s been quite a relaxed few months in terms of shows, as we’ve been on studio lockdown.
Continuing his year?
Lots of fun to be had this year though, we have TWO tours planned for the US & for AUS/NZ, and if they are anything like last year, it’s sure to be a blast!
