There’s a good chance you may have already heard about this lot. Getting heavy rotation on Radio 1, played by the likes of Annie Mac, Jo Whiley and Zane Lowe Fenech-Soler are strapped-in and ready for lift off.
Brothers Ben and Ross Duffy, Dan Soler and Andrew Lindsay are far and away the most exciting and talented young group in the country. Producing solid, well-crafted pop-a-la-dance their first single The Cult of Romance was released on Mr Alain Braxe’s Vulture label with a re-edit by the man himself. Since then the boys have toured and written a track with Groove Armada, laid down vocals for Axwell and seen their fan base grow faster than pubescent teenager getting a lapdance from Megan Fox. New single Lies was recently released on Moda and is the perfect introduction to a young band with undeniable talent.
How and when were you first infected by dance music?
Early Chemical Brothers and Daft Punk albums were a starting point. Having come from a very guitar based background it was all new to us, which I think was a good thing. We realised we were only scratching the surface of electronic music and there was so much more out there. We used to go to the early Play club nights in Bristol run by Grayson and Lee from Deepgroove and I think this whole period was our introduction to dance music.
When did you start making/producing music and how long was it before you started making tracks that you were happy with?
As soon as we got an Apple Mac and Logic we stared to mess around which I guess was about 2007. It was a basic set up and a complete trial and error approach which to be honest took a while but we had a lot of fun with it. We recorded at home in Kings Cliffe for about a year not really taking it seriously until something clicked and we had a sound we were really happy with. We bought some old anolog synths, drums machines and other studio gear and just continued to teach ourselves. To be fair it was quite sometime before we could sit back and be totally happy with the tracks. The Cult Of Romance which we released on Alan Braxe’s label was maybe the first.
What have been your personal favourite productions so far?
In terms of production I’m really pleased with a track called LA Love. It’s always a highlight of the live show and I think with the live drums on the recording we captured the energy. We finished a new track this morning called Stop & Stare that I think could be the next single. Very happy with that too.
Where does your name come from?
A Maltese patriot from the 1700s. It’s part of our bass player’s name. Royal blood!
Who would you most like to work with?
We would love to work with Bloodshy & Avant from Sweden. We’ve been massive fans of all their production work so they would definitely be up there. We’re currently working with Axwell from the Swedish House Mafia on some tracks for his album so maybe there’s a route in there! We have also co-written a track with Groove Armada which will be a single on their upcoming album Black Light. It’s a great experience working with long-standing established acts.
What do you have in store for the coming months?
Well our single Lies came out recently on Moda Music run by Andy George and Jaymo from Radio 1. It’s doing really well and we’ve had some great remixes by DJs such as Alex Metric, Tom Maddicott and Tom Staar. We’ve recently finished the Groove Armada UK tour and have been doing club nights while working on our debut album due out next year. We have shows in Germany and Spain and a UK tour coming up in January and February, so lots of playing, writing and studio work.
What can we expect from one of your live shows?
Slick, tight synth-pop with a heavy amount of bass and a load of soul and hip-hop influenced parts. Some of the beat patterns are very hip-hop. We ARE a band so expect real instruments!
If you weren’t a DJ/producer what would you be?
That’s a hard question. Right now I can’t honestly think of anything else that would give me the same satisfaction levels as this. Probably very bored.
Which other producers and djs and artists do you really rate?
As mentioned, Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg (Bloodshy & Avant)… We’ve been listening to the Miike Snow record a lot recently as well. The Neptunes and Pharrell are high on our list too...serious songwriters. The list goes on…
www.myspace.com/fenechsoler