Insider Interviews: Ben Soundscape X Collette Warren

After 12 years of gigging and touring the world together,  Ben Soundscape and Collette Warren have finally come together for an EP- ‘Last Drop’, featuring 4 tracks ‘Remember You’, ‘Another Day’, ‘Last Drop’ & ‘Disco Ball’ set to drop October 18 on Intrigue Music.

The EP is based on the culture of late nights, afterparties and touring, with ‘Remember You’ paying tribute to all the fallen soldiers we have lost. Exploring new sounds together and stepping out of their comfort zone, could this be a teaser for an album on the horizon?

In this interview, Ben and Collette get together for a chat about how it all came together and why it’s taken so long to do a project like this together. 

Collette: So Ben, why exactly has it taken us so long to do a project like this together?

Ben: I think it’s because we’ve been so busy with other stuff over the years and you’ve been working with lots of different artists. I’ve been working with different people as well as on my own. I think when we get together, we don’t always want to work together because we already perform together a lot. But when we sat down to make the first tune we were like, actually it’s not that hard. Let’s do more because it went really well!

Collette: It’s a case of finding the time, and I feel like now’s the time to explore that further. The fact that, you know, we live together, it was easy because we can keep running up and down the stairs to the studio changing things, because usually I work with people remotely so that part is a lot harder to do.

Ben: Yeah it’s become a lot easier with having the studio at home and the vocal booth, everything’s set up real nice and sounding good. It’s like, yeah, it’s the right time. In fact a little bit of inspiration for even starting this whole project was one of our friends who said “How come you don’t work more together on music” and that very night I started thinking actually yeah, why don’t we work more together? And so when we got home after that night, I think it was a techno night that we went to, we’re like, let’s get in the studio and see what happens!

Ben: So let’s go through each track starting with, ‘Remember You’. So for that one, where did the lyrics come from?

Collette: We both decided that, after the sad passing of Randall, we wanted to write a track about all the fallen soldiers we have lost in the scene, but not just the scene, in life in general. I just I feel like it’s an important thing to write about. Rather than it being remorseful and a sad song, we wanted it to be about like even though you’re not here, I’m always going to remember you, and “Look for me, and I’ll look for you” you know, “I’m always going to look up to the sky and see you smiling down on me”.

Ben: People are always gonna be in our thoughts, their energy will be with us forever, and we tired to convey that in the tune.

Collette: We also wanted to step out of our comfort zone. It’s a different style for you, especially as a producer. What made you want to do that more epic-sounding track?

Ben: We wanted a range of styles on there, didn’t we, and to make that sort of big epic-sounding tune without it being cheesy but still kicks it in a club. Maximum impact with the amen break in there and the big bassline, you know, something that the big DJs would play, something that Marky would play.

Collette: When we wrote it, we knew that Sun & Bass  was coming up and one of the highlights is Marky playing one of your tunes, so we were like, “Let’s make something we think Marky will love, and hopefully he will play it at Sun & Bass!” And well dreams come true, as he does love it and he did play it at Sun & Bass, and I got to sing it live with him.

Ben: That was a special moment, very proud of that. Smashed it!

Collette: So the next track on the EP is ‘Another Day’ Let’s talk about this one.

Ben:‘Another Day’ started with just a simple techno vibe, and the idea really was to to make the track about our travels, going from place to place, and the tour life involved in that. Traveling around America, getting all these flights and going from show to show and still trying to keep grounded, you know, and not letting it run away with you. Keep your feet on the ground. That was the inspiration. I made something which I think flows really nicely – lots of long bass notes and some distorted bass as well. Love the pads and stuff as well.

Colette: As for the lyrics, I was imagining us when we’re travelling and when we’re in the sky on planes and about to touch down, and you know you’ve got to stay grounded and not let it go to your head. Sometimes you’re just absolutely shattered and the last thing you want to do is go and do a show, but, you just have to sort yourself out and get on with it.

Ben: Because sometimes you haven’t slept for ages. I really love that track. I think it’s something different for both of us.

Ben: So onto the the third track on the EP, it’s called ‘Last Drop’ which is actually the first track we did. Do you want to tell the story about how that one started?

Collette: Originally with the vocal I’d worked on a track with another producer, but it didn’t end up working out, but I really liked the vocals and what it was about,  and when we got in the studio together, I was like, oh, should we give these vocals a go? And you just found this pad to go with it and it was perfect really! So it’s basically all about going to an after-party because that is very much the culture in drum and bass. As soon as the night finishes, people want to carry on! So I wanted to touch on that really, just because the rave finishes at 2 or 4 or even 6, doesn’t mean the actual night ends and usually people want to go somewhere else after.

Ben: Yeah exactly, so the last drop of the of the tune of the night isn’t the end! That’s where the track title comes from. We started with your vocal, I built an intro around it and then it sort of sat there for ages, and then it was that night when we came back from the techno night and we’re like, let’s actually try and get a beat in that tune, and you really helped with the bassline in terms of melodic input and style. So we actually wrote it together, which is the first time we’ve done that. It was really good fun and it all came together in one night, we must have started it at 2 in the morning, and I think we finished up around 7 in the morning, didn’t we?

Collette:Yeah, so suits the whole ‘after party’ theme haha!

Collette: So finally, we have ‘Disco Ball’. Do you want to talk about that?

Ben: Disco ball was just experimenting with different sounds really, I found this old house vocal that said ‘disco ball’ in it, and I just sort of chopped it up and put it in there and then made the tune. And then I spoke to you about re-singing it, because then it’s like a different style for the EP. It’s not a full vocal track, but you’re still singing the sample. 

Collette: It’s different to anything I’ve done before, it’s because it’s almost got an American accent twang to it. We wanted at least one track to not be a full vocal, let the music do the talking.  I just say a couple of things and a couple of ad-libs.

Ben: We wanted a range, and we wanted something that was a bit different. You know, it’s quite minimal, then when it drops this crazy lead comes in. I was just having fun in the studio one night, just messing around with all these different sounds and distortion and just trying to get it to sound different to anything else. The lead that I made reminds me of someone riding a motorbike!

‘Last Drop’ EP is coming out on Intrigue of course, which is my label. It’s being released o October 18. across all digital outlets.

Collette: And we’re actually going to be away on tour in the US whilst it comes out. So we’re taking it on the road! Oi Oiiiiiii!

Ben: Yeah we’ve got 10 dates out there from east coast to west coast, some great cities – Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Washington, DC, Denver and many more. Also Submersion Festival which is really exciting. We’re going to be showcasing all of our tracks, looking forward to that one! Big up to all our stateside crew.

Collette: Yeah and as we said,  we really wanted to get it done by Sun & Bass because it is a pilgrimage for us. We go there every year and have done so for 15 years now, we actually met there, so it’s a special place for us! It was really great actually because we got to perform the EP in both our sets and it went down really well there.

Ben: It was cool having a sort of deadline, wasn’t it?  When we got back from America in July we started working on the EP, going back and forth, bouncing ideas, re-recording vocals getting it all wrapped up in time… Just about!

Collette: Absolutely! Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the EP, and maybe we will do album together next year if this goes down well haha?

Ben: It’s on! Thanks to everyone for taking the time to read this, and we can’t wait for you to hear the EP, if you haven’t heard it already. Big ups.