Him_Self_Her Interview

Dynamic Dance duo, Him_Self_Her caught up with BBMLive ahead of their residency at Egg in London to chat about their epic year, their mammoth tune ‘Gone Too Long’ and what can been found in their shopping trolley. Read on…

Hi Claire and Leon, how are you both?

Hey guys, yeah we are all good thanks, things are going really well at the moment.. loving life!

How have things been evolving for you across 2013?

Well, the start of the year was really crazy for us with remix requests and gigs booked in for all over the UK and Europe, and we had an absolutely amazing summer. In the last couple of months we have pretty much called the studio home and have tried to take some time out from working on remixes so we could concentrate on our own sound and develop some new material, which we can’t wait for you to hear!

How did you first become signed to Crosstown Rebels?

It was the weirdest moment, when a message came through on our fan page from Damian Lazarus. One of those moments where you have to triple check to make sure it’s really happening. Funnily enough, Damian had heard another DJ play ‘Gone Too Long’ out in Mexico and was messaging us to ask for the track. We sent it through, thinking all that would happen was for him to play it in his sets. Little did we know a few months later the track would get re-released by Crosstown Rebels, on vinyl, and we would get the chance to release a follow up EP and possibly an album. Crazy!

Do you have any favourite fellow artists from the label?

The standard of artists on a label like Crosstown Rebels is immense, so it’s hard not to like them all! But there is one that stands out for us in the way of style and production: Ash (Subb-an) is an artist we have admired for a long time now. His style is so distinctive and catchy yet deep and very clever! (Still waiting for that call Ash to jump in the studio with us, haha). We have also got to know the Fur Coat guys through meeting them at gigs and they have given us some great advice that has helped us a lot. We love their sound and their performances too.

Were there any strange moments in Ibiza and a stand out moment for you this year?

We actually got booked to play at Sankeys in Ibiza over the summer, and the whole experience was quite surreal for us really. As soon as we arrived at the hotel we had a film crew waiting (complete with big fluffy mic!) to give us an interview and we are pretty down to earth people, so walking down the Ibiza harbour and striking poses in front of a film crew is something we haven’t quite got the hang of yet! In a 14 hour window, we managed 4 interviews, had dinner with the Defected guys, partied hard with The Underground crew and did the closing set for Sankeys in the main room following on from Finnebassen, before heading straight to the airport for a very tired flight home. It was an amazing experience.

Picking a stand out moment from this year is really tough, as the whole year has been like a dream so far for us. The highlights have been closing the main room for Sankeys Ibiza, a stage rush in Dublin, celebrating Ukrainian independence day in Kiev, and the amazing turn out we got in Manchester when we played for our agent’s night ‘The Underground and Friends’. Any time we play in Manchester is a treat for us as we get such a good reaction from the crowds up there.

So, day to day in the studio, what is your production process? What is your favourite piece of kit in the studio?

We really just try to be as creative and dynamic as we can in the studio and really enjoy the process. The studio set up is actually pretty simple, we use Logic Pro with a whole heap of plug-ins and have a vocal booth for recording. Maschine Micro has also just been added to the set up, so we can get a bit more hands on with sampling and arrangement and hopefully a nice vintage hardware synth might arrive soon too if Santa is good to us!

Disco and Techno seem to go seamlessly hand in hand throughout your production, what inspires you to create this sound?

Tech/Techno is somewhere we have always seen ourselves, but the Disco infused sound really seems to come from the vocals. Most of our original tracks and remixes are produced or chosen around a solid vocal and that seems to edge us towards a NuDisco vibe. As our sound evolves we are getting deeper and more Tech.. and you can definitely hear this in the sets we play!

Do you build a track around the lyrics or start with a melody first?

This really depends on where the idea comes from and how it falls together. Most of the time we will make a really rough beat and bassline pattern, or just a basic chord progression and write a vocal over that. Usually it’s easiest to write the lyrics and melody together, it just seems to flow better that way. Once the vocal is recorded we then go back and rewrite the whole track around it.

For your best known track ‘Gone Too Long’ to spend 11 weeks at the top of Beatport must have been an overwhelming feeling. Did this then apply the pressure to make another hit?

Overwhelming is an understatement really… it was massive for us and we didn’t see it coming as this was one of the first tracks we worked on together. We didn’t feel any pressure at the start or for a few months really as we were still just making music we loved and we released a few remixes and originals that did quite well in the download charts. Just recently we have maybe started putting a bit more pressure on ourselves in the studio but that’s purely because of the labels we are reaching out to now. And obviously the bigger Gone Too Long gets, the harder it is to follow!

How is the EP coming along? What can we expect from the album, in three words?

Obviously plans changed slightly when the label re-licensed ‘Gone Too Long’, and this ended up being the first release for us on Crosstown Rebels. But we also have a follow up track in the pipeline with the same vocalist, which has been getting great reactions so far in our sets. That will be coming out soon with remixes… watch this space. As for the album, can we cheat and say four words??… House music with feeling!

The Egg is about to become your monthly home for your residency, have you partied at this club before?

We have both agreed for a while that Egg is one of our favourite clubs in the UK, for DJing and partying! It’s kind of got that ibiza vibe – where clubbers are there for the music and to have a good time, and by the end of the night you have made a whole load of new friends!

If you could be any item in a supermarket trolley, what would you be? And who would be pushing your trolley?

Well we are quite different when it comes to food. Claire would probably be some kind of organic fruit and veg as she is a health freak, and Leon would more likely be a packet of jaffa cakes or something sugary (because anything green is mean!) We reckon our manager Kal would definitely be pushing our trolley, as he spends most of his time bossing us around!

Thanks for catching up with us guys, and can’t wait to see you all at the EGG!

By Frankie Salt