Fred V & Grafix Interview

Fred V & Grafix Interview

Fred V & Grafix Interview. Before starting their Australia and New Zealand tour in May, we catch up with liquid Drum and Bass duo, Fred V & Grafix to find out about their latest album ‘Recognise’ and how they like their coffee.

Hi guys, how are you?
Hey, all good thanks, currently on a train! Hope you’re good.

We’re good thanks! What have you both been up to this week?
We’ve just had our first weekend off in about two months, and the only one for the next three months or so – things are pretty busy at the moment. We’re super exited for a summer packed full of festivals and fun times though.

You’ve dropped your debut album, ‘Recognise’ in March. What do you want it to say to listeners about Fred V & Grafix?
Hopefully it will show people that we’ve spent a lot of time in the studio. I think that the production level has significantly increased since our last release and hopefully other people agree! I think it shows a nice variety of influences and every tune sounds different. We are into a lot of guitar-based music, which we’ve really brought into the mix. I think the hardest part was trying to make it sound like an album while still making it as varied as possible which is hopefully something we’ve achieved.

What are the advantages of releasing it through Hospital Records?
It’s amazing being part of Hospital, it’s a label that we’ve always aspired to being a part of so it still occasionally seems strange to be good friends with some of our favourite producers. I think our favourite thing about being part of Hospital is the amazing events. It’s very hard for other club nights to compete with the atmosphere at the Hospital shows, especially in London. The A&R team is also very strong; it’s very handy being able to ask Tony (London Elektricity) for production tips!

Rumour has it, it’s been a long time in the making; what struggles did you face?
I think the hardest part of making the album was forcing us to put all our creative energy into only a few tracks. The most fun part of making a tune is usually the initial creative process so finding the energy to finish a half-finished tune can be tough, especially when you’ve heard it thousands of times before. It’s all definitely worth it when you get a good crowd reaction or if your dad likes it!

‘Bladerunner’ has been getting a lot of attention as everyone’s stand out favourite due to its intense build up. Can you take us through the production of it?  Did you both have individual roles and what were the influences behind it?
I came up with the initial idea of programming all the strings and orchestral parts which made up the entire intro. We messed around with the intro a lot and came up with a few different versions, some which had drums on the intro. Eventually we decided to have the intro pretty much how it was to begin with. Josh made the drums for the drop, arranged the tune and mixed it down. Every tune has a different process. ‘Bladerunner’ was actually made quite quickly in comparison to other tunes on the album like ‘Shine’ which we spent over a year on! 

We can definitely hear the cult ‘80s film in it. Would you do a movie soundtrack if you were offered the chance?
Yes, we’d love to do something like that! Some of our favourite soundtracks are for ‘Solaris’, which was written by Cliff Martinez (Ex Red Hot Chilli Peppers) and ‘The Social Network’, which was co-written by Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails). So hopefully one day!

You have a mix of vocal tracks and solely instrumental ones; do you know instantly where you’re going to go with each one?
Sometimes vocal tracks come together really easily and sometimes they take a lot more work. There are several tunes that we tried vocals on that we ended up keeping instrumental. There are other tunes like ‘Catch My Breath’ which came together really easily just by sending the instrumental track to a vocalist (Kate Westall in this case) who sent back an amazing vocal which we instantly fell in love with. I also wrote vocals for three of the vocal tracks on the album and co-wrote  two more. Writing vocals is definitely something I want to work more on and is one of the advantages of being part of a duo, since it means that Josh can focus on other areas like mix downs.

You’re famed for your remixes, including Rudimental and Emeli Sande, but there are none on this album. Why is that?
With this album we wanted to focus on our own music, we are thinking about making a few cheeky bootlegs for our festival DJ sets. Also we’ve just done a remix for the new MNEK single.

Was there much experimentation with techniques or instruments that you’ve never attempted before?
We’re always experimenting with new production techniques. Josh makes almost all the drums and is always coming up with new ways to make them sound interesting and unique. Interestingly, I think the fundamental things that make a tune sound good are always the same though, so the most important thing to improving as a producer is to get better at the fundamentals. When you’re a new producer you tend to imagine the more established producers have secret techniques that they never tell anyone, but this is rarely the case (as far as we are aware!).

Where will you be this UK summer?
After we return from our May Australia/New Zealand tour, we head straight back into a very busy festival schedule, which we’re extremely excited about! It’s too early to mention a few of the gigs we have planned since they haven’t been announced, but there is a strong mix of UK and European festivals.

Let’s find out a little bit more about the guys behind the name:

Beach holiday or city break?
This depends on the city and the beach you have in mind! Probably go for beach holiday, we get to see enough cities’ as it is!

 Prince or Michael Jackson?
Michael Jackson.

Tea or coffee?
Coffee, no sugars, lots of milk please.

Where’s home for you both?
I live in central Exeter and Josh lives in a small town a few miles away called Ottery St. Mary.

You’re sitting on a bench in a park on a Sunday, and you can pick one person, dead or alive, to be beside you. Who do you pick?
Jimi Hendrix would be cool to hang with. He’s probably so cool we wouldn’t know what to say though.

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