Claiming to be on a "musical journey through a genre-less minefield", Star.One offer a fusion of house, grime, garage, hip-hop and to the currently booming underground club scene. Not one track from the two blood brothers sound the same; whether there's a slight touch of dancehall and pop or an energetic burst of grime, the London residents make every track a journey within itself. Proving that electronic music doesn't need to be as methodical and contrived as it may seem, the formula-less backbone that Adam and Joe have adopted has made for a lively musical expedition on their latest mixtape, Elements.
The eleven-song set has made major waves on the net—and for good reasons, too. Creating something so intensely different to their competition, Star.One have raised the bar in terms of production, providing a glimpse into the future of the UK electronic scene, banger after banger. Already highly respected within their territory, the next step for the boys is to bring their textures to the mainstream and influence the imminent regeneration of mainstream sounds, for the better. Peep our recent catch up with Star.One, after the jump.
Interview by Bally Athwal
It's been nearly a year in the making for your Elements mixtape. Did the time on the project make you more nervous when it dropped?
Adam: In a word, yes! It definitely felt like a relief when it came out.
Joe: Yeah, I felt relieved when it came out so we can move onto the next one.
Adam: We spent so much time on it that we were a little bit nervous when it dropped. We wanted to make sure we got it right, but after we put it out, it got such a good reaction that it made us a lot happier. It took us so long to make, because we had to sort out so many artists to feature for free.
Joe: We had it finished quite a long time ago, but then there's the mixing and mastering and a few sleepless nights and weekends.
Adam: It was a long process but it was a great learning curve, as we did it all ourselves.
The mixtape blends a range of genres. Was it hard to fine-tune, find the right balance of different textures and keep a sense of flow throughout?
Adam: At the start, we came with the premise of just making a tape mainly for MCs and then we spoke to different artists and sent different beats to people who we got in and it just flowed quite naturally, like getting MC Creed on the garage track and getting P Money on the grimey, hip-hop track. I think it flowed well. We wanted to have a range of tracks that show all elements of the styles, which is why it's called what it's called. We had a list of people that we wanted to reach out to. D Double E was the one who we really wanted to get, and I didn't think he would do it. We sent him some beats over Twitter and then he called up our management's office about two weeks later like, "Yo! it's D Double!" That was Monday morning, and on Wednesday, he was in the studio.
There's been a bit of a revival with UK garage recently, while dubstep has taken a back seat. What are your thoughts on the whole thing?
Joe: It's just going back to the roots, I guess.
Adam: I love garage! I grew up on it. The dubstep thing was cool, but it was quite dark.
Joe: And technical!
Adam: Coming off the house movement happening right now, I think we'll see a few garage singles about in the next year. It's great for us because that's the kind of thing we do and we're happy doing that. Although most of the dubstep producers are changing their names and making house now, the sound and scene definitely opened a lot of doors for the British underground scene on a global scale.
So, Disclosure, SBTRKT and the likes have been branded "future garage" for a while now...
Adam: The term "future garage" is a weird one.
Joe: If you're making garage that doesn't sound like exactly like it used to, you're apparently making "future garage" [laughs].
Adam: I really like SBTRKT, though. I'd say Disclosure are definitely more house than anything else. The UK scene will mix with the house, the garage, the grime and just become a melting pot. So, if you want to call it "future garage" that's fine, but I think it will just be garage for us!
Obviously, London is one of the world's biggest and most diverse melting pots. Do you think this element of the capital has given you access to sounds you would never have even thought of using?
Adam: Yeah, I think in London especially but also the whole of the UK. There's so much music coming out and the scenes, from house to drum and bass, they're all blending. You're much more likely to hear a cross-genre set now in clubs. We listen to all types of music from the UK and beyond, and that all gets added to the melting pot and it all influences the music that we make.
What's next for you guys?
Adam: We'll be shortly starting work on the next release. It'll be a vocal-led, probably shorter EP.
Joe: Yep! We've got some singles and remixes in the pipeline and production for loads of different artists.
Adam: The aim, really, is to just keep moving and developing, and work with as many people as possible.
