Time for a view from the North Base, populated as it is with gala big room appearances, last minute flights to the Alps and the proximity to a large Viper. It’s like a Bond film. Time to salute and say…
North Base, how’s life? What are you doing right now?
Hey D&B Arena and crew how’s things yourselves? Are you all looking forward to a nice break over the Christmas period and New Year? Maybe we should do a interview on you guys instead?
OK fine, let’s do that.
Anyway life is good right now we are so happy how much support we are getting for our new EP. There’s been a run of shows this week, such as Andy C at the Warehouse Project, Loughborough University for another show, same night and also the French Alps with 1800 raving students.
So there’s loads happening in Manchester and of course Leeds too, sounds big in the region, is that true?
We know Manchester is on point at the moment but we can’t speak for Leeds really as we have not played there in over two years now. But as far as we know there is Metropolis at Canal Mills that do a few shows here and there oh and I heard Sub Dub are back at the West Indian Centre so that’s a good shout and I think Jungle Jam does a few events over there in the city!
But Manchester is where you want to be as it’s vibing right now! We have a range of clubs from Warehouse Project to Soundcontrol to Mint lounge to Joshua Brookes all doing top D&B nights and more across the musical board!
As they say ‘we do things differently up north’ ha ha.
Take us into the ep… really liked the tune with Ragga Twins, it’s a killer, really must cause chaos on the floor too!
Yeah both tracks the original and the remix get mad love on the dance floor! We remember playing it at Moss Side Carnival on the Red Bull Stage last track and it sent the place crazy.
‘Polarity’ has to be our favourite on the EP; we had so much fun making this track with our Russian brothers Cynematic and of course our Irish friend Mitch Dowd.
We sent the track back and forth and got the vocal down in a few takes and bang it was done. The Call again is another one of our personal favs too. We love the way the pad comes in and just takes you to euphoria! Well that’s what we think anyway.
And the Trei mix… that’s pretty ugly!
What Can we say Trei is a badman! He just came in and smashed the back doors clean off it! Brendan Futurebound linked us up with Trei earlier in the year and we gave him the parts! A week later he sent this back! This one just hurts people on the floor.
We couldn’t have asked for a better remix to be honest and Trei has done just that.
Also look out for some forthcoming collabs with us guys and the man like Trei in the near future.
Why the title of the ep? It’s sort of points to ‘differences’ of variation, contrasts, is this the intention?
Well originally it was going to be called The Call EP but when Dima from Cynematic sent the idea over we just had to change the name to ‘Polarity’.
Think it stands out more and yes we guess it’s kind of a focus on what we have been doing for the past year in way. Knuckling down in the studio getting our sound right we have been working hard these past few months we’re telling ya.
So what sort of things do we find in the box as it were these days, what sort of things are you drawing?
Rah so many things in box right now, Culture Shock, Noisia, Dimension, Fred V & Graphics, Wilkinson, Rockwell, Smooth, loads of new North Base stuff we have not unleashed on folk yet… TC, TREI, Annix, Audio, Ivy Lab, Kove, Signs, Dub Phizix, Upgrade, L33, June Miller, Insisdeinfo, Gridlok, The Prototypes, Signal, Frankee, Delta Heavy, DC Breaks, Mind Vortex, Serum, B.Motion, Harvest, Upgrade… so many great artists and people making so much amazing music right now!
How is it to be working with Viper?
Yeah Love it the guys at Viper are great! They know what they are doing and always on the ball and never missing the tricks! Viper are the backbone really of what drum & bass is today! This year has seen them release hit after hit.
We just hope our EP gets the same response! We can only pray for our first Beatport number one. It would be a buzz still and good for the CV.
What have you guys learned over the last few years… things you do differently now than before?
We’ve learned so much in terms of mixdowns, what plug ins to use and when to use them and so forth.
Have to give a big shout to Brendan, TC, Beau at TenEightSeven Mastering, Champion, Kitcha, Harvest, Shimon, Erb & Dub for helping us get our sound right!
They never showed us any tricks if that’s what you’re thinking but told us what to use so we just went in the studio and learnt it all.
We learn new things every day… that is the joy of making music.
OK, any shouts North Base?
Shout to all ours fan and the people that have helped us make North Base what it is today without you guys we would be nowt!