Gold Artist 014: Spectrasoul

Three years since their brilliant debut album, 'Delay No More', Spectrasoul - Jack Stevens and Dave Kennett - are returning to Shogun Audio with follow-up 'The Mistress'. Breaking free from the drum 'n' bass blueprint, the London duo have put together a sublime LP of varied musicality, dropping the tempo and moving into song-focused territory in places, proving exactly why they're two of the best in the business.

One thing you notice looking at the tracklist for 'The Mistress' is the amount of vocalists, some lesser known than others, they've got on board. There are six in total, including Pedestrian on the sleepy 'Hot Head Rock', Keysound Recordings affiliate Joshua Idehen on 'Kutchi', Harleighblu, Dan Moss, Tamara Blessa and South Londoner Lily McKenzie, the latter who belts out vocals on the soul-drenched 'Shelter'. All delicate guitar riffs and slow-smashing drums, it's this one that's a clear representation of the breadth of styles on the record.

Since starting out on Shogun sub-label SGN:LTD back in 2006, they've marked a tick next to just about every big d'n'b label around. On top of their long-lasting ties with Shogun, releases have come on Exit Records, Metalheadz and Kasra's Critical Recordings. Along the way they've produced rock solid rumblers like 'Melodies' and beauties like 'Memento' and 'Sometimes We Lie', remixed Above & Beyond and Rudimental and collaborated with dBridge, Icicle, Rockwell and Alix Perez. Not bad, eh?

It's been a long wait, but with album number two landing in just under two weeks, we've got the exclusive of 'More To Give' featuring Tamara Blessa. Gritty but shining, this'll give you another idea of what to expect from 'The Mistress'.

Your new album, 'The Mistress', is a lot more varied than the last. What made you want to work with so many vocalists?

Jack: It's always something we've wanted to do. Since our first album, we've moved away from working with sample vocals to having control. We got as many varied people as we could and we were really lucky to end up working with a group of really talented people with a broad strain of voices, backgrounds and styles.

Dave: The other thing for us was using vocalists that not many other people had used before. So trying to find people that are interesting and in a slightly different field to us. People we can work with and create something unique rather than the same, typical kind of dance-y tune. It's just about incorporating our wide taste in music into the music we make.

Would you say it was to prove you can move away from the drum 'n' bass blueprint and work within a slower tempo song structure?

J: I don't think it was a conscious decision to try and prove anything. We're quite self-indulgent with our music. I know it sounds really selfish, but it's not really made for anyone else. When we're in the studio we make such a wide breadth of stuff that it made sense to incorporate that into an album format. If we made those sort of tracks ['Shelter', 'I'm Real Good', 'Hot Head Rock'] as standalone singles, there would probably be serious uproar. I think it's just a signature of what we've always done, which is write varied styles of music. I guess the easy thing to do would be to make a purely d'n'b or club album, but Dave and I have never really been interested in solely club music.

D: Sometimes it's good to keep it divisive and not just doing what's expected of you. We want to keep it interesting ideas wise and creatively when it comes to being in the studio for however many hours in the week.

What spurred on the live show for the album launch in London last month?

D: We did a live showcase for our first album ['Delay No More'] a couple of years ago and we just wanted to do something a bit more hands-on and showcase our amazing vocalists in a live environment. Obviously the album isn't all club-friendly so it's nice to be able to perform some of the less club-orientated tracks in an environment where people are willing to listen to it. We can stretch DJ sets a little bit and play the non-dancier tracks but, ultimately, it's clubs where the more bass-heavy stuff gets played.

J: We didn't want our album launch just to be a club show. We wanted it to be about our record that we're celebrating. It's more like, 'people haven't heard any of these records before, let's get the vocalists down and perform those', rather than doing a DJ show. We're doing that anyway with the UK, European and North American tour. We may even do a small tour of the live show at some point. It's not the sort of live show that's easy to place, so it's kind of tricky.

You had an extended quiet period between your first album, 'Delay No More', and this one. What took so long to get it together?

J: If we'd have started straight away off the back of the last record, this one probably would have sounded a lot like that one. From taking a bit of time with it, the album's basically the best tunes we've made in the last three years. That's why I think there's a fair bit of breadth to it. There's some bits that do sound like the first record but there's also stuff that's moved on a bit. We got a new studio straight after the first album so we spent a lot of time planning new creative processes and working on new sounds. That's a reflection of what's on the record, too. Yeah, it took us out of the market for a longer period than we wanted to be, but it means when we did come back, we have a better product than we would have if we rushed into it.

It's an exciting time for drum 'n' bass at the moment with a lot of fresh, young producers coming through. Where do you see yourselves status-wise now you're on album number two?

J: I don't think that's something either of us think about. That would be putting it in the paradigms of competition. I don't see it as hierarchy or anything, but there's definitely friendly competion between producers. Most of it's about technical stuff really, not who can write the best tunes. Though, I do think there's a hierarchy as the generation goes. We'd be on the same level as Alix Perez and Icicle. Above us you've got your Calibres, your Marcus Intalexs, your Commixs. Then above that you've got your Goldies and your Grooveriders.

Wilkinson and Sigma aside, do you think there's scope for d'n'b dominating the charts as much as house music has in the past 18 months?

J: House music has been around for ages and when I think of it, four-to-the-floor in a chart format has been around for years. For d'n'b in the charts, I don't think it's ever been stronger. There's Wilkinson, Sigma have had two number ones, Rudimental you could call drum 'n' bass. I'm not saying it's all to my taste, but I'd call all of that drum 'n' bass pop music.

D: Again, music goes in cycles. You can trace it back to Shy FX ['Shake Ur Body'] and Roni Size ['New Forms' LP] having their chart successes. You've got the one-off hits here and there and it's always interesting when underground music rears its head into the mainstream. It tends to drive the more underground people even further underground and the stuff that is mainstream tends to go out of d'n'b into pop. Like DJ Fresh for example. He doesn't play at d'n'b raves anymore because he's gone so far one way, he can't necessarily come back.

It's testament to how people are consuming music these days, as well. You don't have to sell hundreds of thousands of music anymore to get into the charts.The more poppy d'n'b that is getting into the charts is appealing to the younger audience and fans. All they've got to do is click a button to buy it. They might like it for a week then move on to the next thing.

How would you feel if a major label came in for you guys?

J: It all depends on the situation because Dave and I are quite principle of what we do and we're perfectionists in terms of wanting to be involved in every element of how it's presented to the public. We make a living from what we do but that's not why we do it. It's not specifically to make money because we're both creative types. Regardless whether it's a major label, they have to understand that [creativity] comes first and foremost. I saw that Spotify contract with Sony recently and it gives you an idea that the majors aren't interested in giving you freedom. At the end of the day, it's a business for those guys and if the situation did come along, we'd have to move our position a little bit.

Have you had any thoughts on starting your own label?

J: It's been discussed, but with the album, we've not had much time to think about it. We never will have much time really, because we're always in the studio or out gigging. I think it's a really exciting time for labels. We're good friends with Darren [dBridge] and what he's decided to do at Exit Records is cut out the middle man (the distributor) and it's freed him up to do a lot more interesting things with releases.

This one's aimed at you Jack. You were pretty vocal on Twitter about the Tories being re-elected into power. What effect do you think that'll have on UK nightlife over the next five years?

J: Put it this way. I don't think there's nearly enough emphasis placed on the importance of creativity in the UK. I don't think anyone understands the value of creativity here. It's constantly undervalued, not just by the Tories, but it always has been in this country because they [the government] can't put a price tag on it. So many people come to the UK for music, to go to club shows, art exhibitions, all sorts of things you can only access in Britain. For funding of creativy-type courses and creative-type subsidies all being cut, it's got to a point where there's limited possibility to do creative things. I hope I'm proved wrong but at the moment I'm incredibly pessimisstic about what it's going to be like for young people trying to get into art or music for the next five years. It's pretty scary.

Some of your album launch parties have seen you playing three-hour sets, longer than the usual one-hour slots. Tell us some of the pros and cons of that.

D: The norm for drum 'n' bass is one-hour sets which, for me, is too short. It's never enough time as you're always rushing to put in so much new music. It means you're not too sure where to go and you always end up not playing anything you want to play. Whereas, as soon as you get to play over an hour - 90 minutes, two hours or three - it's great. You can really stretch it out and mix it up.

We did our show in Cardiff in May and it didn't feel like three hours at all. It went really quick. Obviously there's two of us as well. When we play together, we play three or four tunes on and off. That means you can play your tunes, have a breather and go into your music and think about what you'll play in your next section.

J: Not to moan about drum 'n' bass but I think there's a problem with the thing about hour sets. If you go anywhere else, people play three hours as the standard. That's a real way to get an idea of the artist and what they play over the course of three hours. Obviously you've got a lot more scope to dig really deep and it's a lot more satisfying. There's that saying about nothing being worth doing unless it's difficult or challenging.

Why do you think drum 'n' bass promoters have a thing of putting on nights with so many DJs?

This isn't a good or a bad thing, it's just a statement. The d'n'b crowd [in the UK] is quite young and this is just symptomatic of young people in England - I think they've got quite a short attention span. They need shit loads of eye-candy on a flyer and after an hour they think 'oh, it's been going for an hour, I need someone new'.

To a degree it can be good because of the dynamic it creates over the course of the night. You could have someone like us and then Calyx & Teebee and that gives you a different dynamic. I also think with drum 'n' bass clubs, it's become the norm to bring four headliners, whereas in others you can have one DJ to play the whole night. It's part of the reason we've done this tour together. To try and see if we can get back to that - play at a 300 or 400-capacity club, fill them out and see if we can create that vibe.

Finally, now the album's complete, have you got any producer collaborations lined up?

D: There's nothing planned. What we've found from collaborating with other producers is that the end result will either sound more like one person or the other. It's really hard to get a fine-tuned balance between the two. It also depends on the reason behind it, too. We have got a few remixes coming out, though.

Shogun Audio releases 'The Mistress' digitally on June 14 and physically on June 15. Pre-order it on iTunes or on the Shogun website here and here