June Miller have emerged sprightly & energised from their high-tech hideout deep in the heart of the Netherlands to drop ‘Empathy/Operation Ivy’ via Ram. The vibe is so buzzing that the guys are literally floating in the promo pics: see below.
Going by the sound of this, there must be some huge stories connected to your new release on Ram?
I really wish we had some super amazing story to tell you about the tunes, but the reality is, we can’t ha ha!
OK. So how did ‘Empathy’ come about?
With ‘Empathy’ we started with a pad – which you hear in the intro… that really was the basis of the tune. We wanted to write something which blended a nice mix of beauty and darkness. I remember I wanted to lay down a vocal and it was the summer, where I normally suffer from the hayfever bug, so my nose was totally blocked.
I kept trying to wash it out with salt water so it clears, then quickly lay down the vocals but it was total nightmare! Unfortunately and as you can clearly hear, the salt water didn’t work so great!
It sounds like a new production tip! Millions will now emulate. Why ‘Empathy’ however?
‘Empathy’ was originally called something else but we thought it was best to call it after some of the text in the lyrics.
… ONE title shares its name with an older band (I think?) and I know from talking to you before that you like Black Flag, is there a connection?
We love it when someone notices! When we first started we came pretty much directly from a Punk/Hardcore background, so when we started drum & bass, we thought we would dedicate our new music to our old. The bad thing is, we are totally running out of good bands to use now though.
How’s it working with a machine as big as the Ram behemoth?
It’s really fantastic, all the crew that work there are gold and have a huge passion for the music. All really refreshing.
Did they influence you as younger D&B heads? If so, how?
Well we only started really getting into D&B about six years ago.
We totally missed it as kids due to the fact that we were so into Punk/Hardcore. But one tune that massively influenced us was Noisia’s ‘Moonway Renegade’ – then of course you start schooling up on certain labels and it was like Christmas finding all these golden oldies we totally missed.
So now we’re in 2014, what’s on your mind in terms of evaluating what you do, what you want to achieve?
Well I think technically 2013 was a good year and we learnt TONS. We have always said we should just do what feels right and just make music we want to make. This year we are literally raring to go and starting to put together album ideas, which we are really excited about, so hopefully this time next years it’s done.
Some people may be new to you and your sound: could you select three key moments in your career thus far that you’re proud of, to give some perspective?
I think our first proud moment is when Loxy played about 10 of our tracks on a radio show. No one really backed us at that time apart from him, and all of sudden he was playing loads of our music. It was a priceless move and gave us so much push. Forever grateful: the best phrase that springs to mind.
The RAM signing was massive and it came out of nowhere! I also use to send Andy tunes and never spoke or meet, then randomly one day he hit us up asking if we could send over some new tunes. We basically started writing loads of new material and he seemed to love them. When he offered us a deal it was just crazy.
I think the last one, would be playing at Fabric. It’s quite scary if you hear people all over the world talking about this club and additionally you are also playing against some of the worlds best DJs! It all went well luckily haha.
What’s a tip, to give someone new to producing the music the benefit of your experience?
Keep trying and try and understand what you actually doing.
And a tip for when creative ideas might be elusive?
FOOD! Just start cooking and everything is great again ha ha!
What music outside of D&B is getting under your skin? You getting to any hardcore punk gigs?
Well I (Mark) hardly leave my home ha ha. I’m a self confessed hobbit and really enjoy being close to my speakers. I know Bart went to see Jimmy Eat World recently and said it was one of the best live shows he has ever seen.
Note to self: Must get out more!
I hear you two have an super-efficient naming system…
Well Bart and I call each other the same name, which is ‘Piet’. ‘Pete’. It’s quite bizarre but one day we where in the studio and thought it would be funny for one day, when in fact it stuck around until it never stopped.
So when we go somewhere to play or meet someone new, they always seemed quite confused when we start calling each other Piet, without thinking.
Empathy/Operation Ivy
Image: Isolde Woudstra