Chase & Status: Interview

Drum & Bass is back in a big way. And right at the top, already boasting a Number 1 in the UK Dance Chart for their first collaboration featuring Plan B (‘Pieces’), Chase & Status are on the road promoting their new single - another Plan B gem - ‘End Credits’, which, funnily enough is the end credits song for what could be this year’s best British film ‘Harry Brown’, directed by Sir Michael Caine.

Saul Milton (Chase) and Will Kennard (Status) make up the London Drum & Bass production duo, who can count Jay Z and Snoop Dog as fans, as well as Radio One DJs Annie Mac and Zane Lowe. We were lucky enough to grab an exclusive interview with Will, on their tour bus in Hull before a live set, where he gives us a little more insight to the world of Drum & Bass.

4or The Record: So how’s the tour going so far?

Will Kennard (Status): It’s going phenomenally well - better than we could have ever dreamed. Every gig’s been sold out and absolute carnage. We’re sitting on our tour bus right now outside the venue in sunny Hull. We’ve just been loading the gear, doing sound checks and getting ready for the show tonight . It should be another mad one - It’s been a real experience so far.

4TR: This is your first time touring live - so which do you prefer: live shows or DJ sets?

Will: The tour’s all been live, yeah. But DJing was our first love, and we’ve spent the past five or six years DJing all around the world; we’ve been fortunate enough to travel up and down the country and the world five times over, and the buzz from that is always incredible and so much fun. The live thing has just added a whole new dimension for us. Traveling around with the whole team: the roadies, the drummer and the whole group. It’s a lot of fun on the tour bus, great fun. The audience is great - people just come to see you and there’s a totally different atmosphere. There’s an energy from the crowd that is unlike any DJ gig we’ve ever done. I guess that’s something that we weren’t really ready for; even though we’re playing the same songs as we do in a DJ set, the reactions that we get from them are just unbelievable and creating that music live, on-stage and feeding off the crowd is unlike anything else. Sooo, I can’t really pick one but the live thing is really blowing us away.

4TR: So while you’re on tour, how do you guys chill out? Or is it pretty much: on a bus, in a venue, on a bus, in a venue?

Will: Yeah, it pretty much is. There’s a lot of time on the bus; we try and sleep when we can - it’s quite relaxing on here. We’re quite fortunate to have quite a blinged-out bathroom; we’ve got fourteen beds on here, two sitting room areas, two kitchens, flat-screen TVs - it’s pretty chilled actually. It’s intense - we’re on our 24th date today over literally 25 days. So we’ve covered a lot of ground and sometimes it’s quite disorientating. Sometimes I wake up and basically don’t know where the hell I am but we’re keeping it together.

4TR: You guys are at the forefront of commercial Drum & Bass, a genre fast-becoming as popular as indie. Do you think artists like yourselves get enough recognition in the mainstream?

Will: Are we getting enough is kind of saying do we think we deserve more?I think the thing about Drum & Bass and why it’s continued to do so well and has such a strong, vibrant scene regardless of commercial success or not is because it never sets out to be commercial and it never has loads of money pumped into it from major labels - well it did a little with artists like Roni Size and Goldie - but it doesn’t expect any commercial success, so any it gets is just a bonus. It’s always there smashing up clubs from here to Tokyo so it’s really rewarding and we’re really grateful when a song we write gets a lot of airplay. There’s a lot of talk about the next single charting but that’s never the intention - we just wanna write music that we think’s edgy and different.

4TR: You have been nominated for the ‘Best Producer’ category along with Mark Ronson and Calvin Harris at this year’s Urban Music Awards - what do you guys think about that?

Will: We didn’t even know that! That is really, really cool. It’s an honor to be put in the same category as those two - we’re big fans of both Mark Ronson and Calvin Harris, who are pretty legendary producers so it’s amazing. Hopefully we’ll win it - we can go up there and do a speech.

4TR: You have recently been producing and co-writing Rhianna’s new album and have worked with huge artists in the past. Is there anyone in particular you would love to work with?

Will: There is someone we’re hoping to work with in the near future - he’s a Canadian rapper called Drake. Such a cool guy - we were fortunate enough to meet him in London a few months ago. He’s from Toronto and real hot stuff at the moment over in the States - set to be the next Jay Z or Kanye West. He put out a mix-tape called ‘So Far Gone’, which is basically an amazing album - he gave it away free last year. Drake’s just so talented - an amazing singer-rapper with really deep lyrics and he’s got lots of swagger. He’s a really lovely guy - really humble, cool and open-minded. So we’ve been asked to go out to New York and work with him in November. We’re really vibing off him.

4TR: Your new single ‘End Credits’ features on Michael Caine’s new film ‘Harry Brown’ - how did you manage that?

Will: It’s a crazy story behind the whole track. We wrote the song with Plan B, called ‘End Credits’, months before we heard about the movie - a song about someone dying and whether they’re gonna go to heaven or not. Then we got a call a few months later from Pete Tong, who is the Director of Music for the movie, saying “Look guys, I’m looking for a song for the end credits of this new movie with Plan B in it” and we said, “Well funny enough we’ve done a song called ‘End Credits’ with Plan B - have a listen.” He thought we were pulling his leg but we sent the track over and he loved it. And it all happened like that. It’s kind of a scary coincidence, like it was meant to be.

'End Credits'

4TR: Do you have plans to work with Plan B again, in the future?

Will: Absolutely, yeah. We’re great friends with him now and he’s been touring a lot with us at the moment. He’s such a creative and multi-talented guy; he can rap and sing in some of the most amazing tones and about some of the most amazing things. What we love about him is that he’s always up for doing the most unexpected things with new material and ideas. He never goes down the route of pop production but does something a bit more left-field. So yeah, I hope so, I don’t see why not, we work really well together.

4TR: So which Drum & Bass or Dubstep artists are you listening to at the moment?

Will: Well, I’m a bit biased. We’ve just set up a record label called NTA Records and we’ve signed two young guys called Nero - Dan and Joe, who’ve been on tour with us. They’ve done a big remix of The Streets ‘Blinded by the Light’ and have since worked with MJ Cole and La Roux - remixing for everyone! They’re amazing producers and currently writing an album in the studio next to us so we’re great friends with them. Hearing all their new material has blown us away. They’re a real mix of electronic music, Dubstep and Drum & Bass. Really open-minded producers so they are definitely the ones to watch out for and I personally think they’re gonna be massive.

4TR: How’s the new album coming on?

Will: We’ve been working on it very loosely. It’s difficult to find the time and really get going but we’re coming up with some ideas at the moment and angles we might go down. The album’s gonna start the minute the tour’s finished. We’ve got to deliver an album in the first half of next year. February in fact, is the date that’s being thrown around recently so we’ve got a lot of work coming up. We’re looking forward to getting back to writing and taking some time off from the constant touring and traveling, and focussing on some new material for a change. So lots of big plans for us.

Words: Shelly Elcock

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