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We caught up with London-based electronic music duo Disclosure—brothers Guy Lawrence and Howard Lawrence—before their show at Union Transfer in Philly for a short chat about electronic music, the duo's current life on the road, their upcoming album, and the brothers' one wish.
Interview by Kadene Chin
What influence has London’s underground music scene had on your musical taste and production?
Guy: We started making music because of what was happening in the underground. In 2008/2009, dubstep was fully involved in England in all the clubs, house wasn’t really that relevant anymore, and garage, U.K. garage had gone away a long time ago. Garage—that means something else here, doesn't it?
Howard: Yeah, I think they call it two-step.
Yeah, dubstep here has taken on a different meaning to some people too. Think Skrillex.
Howard: That's what dubstep is now.
Guy: Yeah, that's what dubstep is now. Basically, dubstep was good in the U.K. In America, it's not what we know dubstep as. Dubstep in America, it's more aggressive, a bit more shoutier, like rock music.
Howard: Like rock music.
Guy: Like death metal.
Old Detroit techno, old Detroit house, old Chicago house, that’s what it all leads back to. If you get into dance music, you always end up there—listening to old house music.
Guy: When we were first listening to dubstep, it was more like dub, reggae dub. I was listening to Skream, Benga, Mala, and Loefah. They were the main pioneers. When I turned 18, that’s what I started hearing in clubs. Later, I went out to a few house raves and I realized that house music was much more the type of music I wanted to make. So I went home and showed Howard. At first, we started out by copying the people who were around then. Skip forward four years to now and we are probably making music that sounds a lot more retro and older. We wanted to know where those guys who were playing modern house music got their sound from and what their influences were, and now their influences have sort of become our influences. Old Detroit techno, old Detroit house, old Chicago house, that’s what it all leads back to. If you get into dance music, you always end up there—listening to old house music.
After you heard house music, is that when you felt compelled to make your own music?
Guy: Well, we had always made music. We started playing instruments when we were very young. Our parents got us into playing music. I’ve played the drums and guitar since I was 3 years old. Howard plays bass and piano.They didn't get us into dance music, they just got us into playing.
Howard: We’ve always been in music, always. But hearing that Detroit stuff, dubstep, and the newer house stuff, it made us want to make songs in that format but not necessarily that type of music. There are club songs and then songs in the style of club songs, which is kind of what we make. Like “Latch” isn’t really a house song, it’s a song that’s produced like a house song.
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What kind of music did you listen to when you were growing up?
Guy: To be honest, when I was young, I rarely listened to music for enjoyment; I listened just to learn how to play my instruments. It wasn’t until I was like 14 or 15 when I started listening to hip-hop that I started listening for pleasure and got into the way that those guys made beats. It would be just 8 bars and I thought it was weird because my whole life I had been listening to verse, chorus, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, middle 8, chorus. But in hip-hop you just make eight bars and I thought, “Wow, that’s really easy” so I started producing beats – just beats. I was listening to things like DJ Premier and Gang Starr and basically everyone that J Dilla had produced but I didn’t know then that it was one guy that produced all of it. When I found out I was just like, “This guy is incredible.”
Yeah, Dilla is fantastic.
Guy: Cool. There's a guy called Jay Lotus on soundcloud. Basically, he just loves J Dilla and Flying Lotus and he just copies them.
Fly Lo is going to be here in a couple of weeks.
Guy: Really? Damn. I've only seen him once. I'd love to see him again.
Howard: Yeah, when we were growing up, we just listened to music to learn to play our instruments. Guy would listen to prog rock that had amazing drumming in it. I was listening to funk and jazz because that music has the best bass in it.
Do you have friends that are in music and if so, do they have any influence on you?
Guy: None of my old childhood friends are musicians really. I used to be in a band with some mates from college. We just played like house parties and stuff like that but it never really went anywhere.
Howard: I think it does effect us though because we do make songs that we think our friends will like.
What are your strengths and weaknesses versus his strengths and weaknesses and how do you go about combining your strengths?
Howard: I do more of the chords and melodies and lyrics. This guy [pointing to Guy] hates writing lyrics. [Laughs] He usually does the drums and the production. But we both do a bit of everything.
Guy: Yeah, sometimes, Howard will do a whole song and I will just mix it for him. Other times, I will make a whole song, sampling and everything, and then give it to Howard to see what he thinks.
We’re going to drop the album in June. We’ll have a full-length release in the U.K. and then an EP in the U.S. We don’t know all the full details because we haven’t had the meeting yet but that’s the plan.
Your album is dropping this spring, right?
Guy: Yes, we’re going to drop the album in June. We’ll have a full-length release in the U.K. and then an EP in the U.S. We don’t know all the full details because we haven’t had the meeting yet but that’s the plan.
Do you have a working title for the album yet?
Guy: Not yet. We will probably call the EP something simple like "The Singles." Nothing amazing. But the album title, we're still fighting about that.
Do you live together back home?
Howard: I live at my girlfriend's house.
Guy: I still live at home. We haven't had time to move out. I haven't even seen my mom for like a month. We've just been so busy.
Do you guys work out, try to stay healthy while you're on the road?
Guy: No. I'm very unhealthy. I drink a lot of beer, do a lot of partying.
Howard: I keep saying I'm going to join a gym but like he said, we just haven't been home in such a long time.
I'm thinking about joining this yoga class where they heat the room to 110 degrees.
Guy: Oh, so you sweat it all out.
Howard: Ugh. That sounds awful.
Guy: I'll start exercising when I'm fat, let it build for a while. [Laughs]
I know you have to get ready to go on stage in a few minutes so final question: If you could have one wish, what would it be?
Howard: I would go for the ability to spawn objects—like money and beer.
Guy: That is a good one. I would choose the ability to fly.
Howard: Yeah, to fly, that’s a good one too.
Are you changing your answer?
Howard: No, I would just spawn a hover board.
Guy: That’s not a real thing. You can’t spawn things that don’t exist.
Howard: Says who? Are you making the rules now? [Laughs]
Catch the delightful Disclosure brothers on tour, including at Coachella, Primavera Sound, Sasquatch, and several other festivals around the globe. Dates here.
