TNGHT Breaks Down Their EP "TNGHT"

This past July, production duo TNGHT released their self-titled debut EP, and they've been in the spotlight since. The pair consists of Montreal native Lunice, who's worked on remixes with artists like Diplo and The xx, and Scotland's Hudson Mohawke, who has a production credit on Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music anthem, "Mercy."

"I don't like talking about that process because they keep it very quiet. but it’s amazing to move into that world see how things work on that side. Coming from making music in our bedrooms, then to be mingling with some of your musical heroes, it’s an amazing experience," he shares.

Part of the reason why Lunice and HudMo's styles mesh so well is because they both craft beats Fruity Loops. "That makes it easier for us to work together," Lunice says.

The rest of their chemistry can be attributed to working together, in person, an increasingly rare form of collaboration. "It’s all about the feedback," Lunice explains. Hudson chimes in, "It stops you from getting caught up and thinking too much. If you're sitting in the room with someone, there’s more of an atmosphere."

Their sound has caught on, and the TNGHT EP is a hit, with all types of music fans taking notice, especially hip-hop listeners. Lunice confirms that was their intention. "The whole idea of the TNGHT project is to bring our sound to the rap game." Hudson Mohawke is pleased that it wasn't forced, either. "We’ve heard such and such rappers using this one or that one, without u trying to get it to them. It's taking off on its own, which was exactly what we were hoping for."

With that said, we spoke to Lunice and Hudson Mohawke about the stories behind every single song on TNGHT. Continue reading for their track-by-track breakdown.

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As told to Ernest Baker (@newbornrodeo)

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Hudson Mohawke: "That one was actually the last one that we did. It was because the rest of the record was quite forward and aggressive so we wanted to have an intro track. That was one that Lunice had started. Then I ended up finishing it. It was something to have a different flavor that's not so energetic, in-your-face immediate. We wanted what was more atmospheric."

Lunice: "That was the only track that we worked on over the Internet. Over email. All the rest of the tracks were pretty much made while I was in a studio in London with him."

Hudson Mohawke: "It’s not really planned or anything like that. That’s the weird thing about the record. None of it was planned in advance. We never set out and said we need this or we need that. It all fell into place. This was the only one Lunice was saying that we wanted a different kind of flavor. It was literally back-to-back collaborative work and there was no great theory behind it."

Lunice: "Yeah, it was really an 'in the moment' kind of creativity in a way where it was like, ‘Oh shit, we got this idea going.’ We continue and continue and then halfway through the track we just stop right there and we worked on another track just in case. We just keep going on multiple ideas. Once you buy in on how many tracks you got and which ones you like the most, those ones we try to finish."

Hudson Mohawke: "Also, the main core idea of all of the tracks is really, really simple. So we just have one main idea in each track and focused on that and built everything around that. We didn’t get carried away and go in all sorts of different directions. It’s really, really like focused and simple."

Hudson Mohawke: "That was one that I'd basically done already."

Lunice: "Yeah."

Hudson Mohawke: "It wasn’t intended for anything. It was actually made for a rapper or something like that."

Lunice: "It's very simple in its capacity."

Hudson Mohawke: "I played it myself a couple of times. I’d been DJing and I was like, ‘I’m not going to put this track out myself.’ Because we don’t have the record coming out anytime soon, and it’s probably not smart to put out one of my own records, so both of us were like, ‘Yeah, we can both work on this record.’"

Lunice: "It was mostly him."

Hudson Mohawke: "He did a few parts on that."

Lunice: "Yeah."

Hudson Mohawke: "But, most of it was there already, to be honest."

Lunice: "Yeah, exactly. Basically, the whole feel."

Hudson Mohawke: "We had another track that sounded exactly like that one, and at the last moment; we weren’t able to put it on the record. [Laughs.] We tried to make another track which had the same energy, progression, and vibe. The original track was the one we did last summer when we made all the other tracks."

Lunice: "The track never even had a name."

Hudson Mohawke: "Yeah, exactly."

Lunice: "It still doesn’t. [Laughs.]"

Hudson Mohawke: "The vocal sample is from an old house record."

Lunice: "It’s sort of a long story why it couldn't go on the record. It’s for good reasons."

Hudson Mohawke: "Yeah, it was definitely gonna be on the record and it was last minute when we had to take it off the record. We decided that we had to build something in the same vibe. People were already reacting to it without knowing what it was, just because of the energy."

Lunice: "We were both in London starting on this track. First thing I thought of in terms of putting in the drums was, like, early 2000s when the whole turntablism scene was popping. There were all these scratch meets, but they weren’t breaks. They were made up loops that scratch nerds made. The kick patterns were so different back then. I was thinking, ‘What if I came up with something around that kind of feel?’ You know, where the kick doesn’t come on the one but it maybe comes on the two. I got in with that idea and then I was like, ‘Shit, this is something HudMo can fucking kill on right now.’

"I sent him the melody real quick. He made this slap so hard. He just made it even more tight. The melody of the song is basically—it’s not even a synth or anything. It’s just a snare with everything re-queued into the melody. It really feels like me and HudMo were exchanging verses sonically. 'Buggin' came together really tight."

Hudson Mohawke: "Yeah, the entire track is about the kick. It was weird. For a little while it was playlisted on daytime radio in the UK. I think of the arrangement of it as well. We wanted to make something that’s not a drop, per say, in terms of dubstep drops, but something that had the arrangement that had a build up in it.

"It’s almost like an anti-drop. The whole space that you hear in that when is what people react to. It’s like, openness rather than every frequency being picked up by everything. There’s a lot of air in it."

Lunice: "That’s the track I remember when we were pretty drunk on some cheap whiskey at that time."

Hudson Mohawke: "That was the first one. That was the very first one that we did."

Lunice: "Yeah, I think that was the first one. I remember buying some random ass whiskey and he was like, ‘Yeah, that’s one so shitty.’ I was like. ‘Ah, whatever. Too bad.’ And we just started drinking it. I remember he put on an explosion sound and we were just laughing at it for some reason. And he was like, ‘Alright, we’ll take a track out of this one explosion kick.’ I am like, 'Alright, whatever.’ I started adding parts to it and he started adding parts. And every part I remember adding, he had to laugh about it. I guess that’s how it turned into that crazy song, because we were just like cranked up, really."

Hudson Mohawke: "It had gospel samples all over it and stuff."

Lunice: "Like, weird pitched choir sounds on that."

Hudson Mohawke: "That’s one of my favorite parts on that track for sure."