At the recent Rumble In The Jungle event in Cornwall we were lucky to catch up with Chase & Status to have a chat about their career, beards and cartoons! What was originally meant to be a video interview for you all was soon thwarted by a extremely annoying fridge which some how managed to dominate the entire interview audio with it’s constant hum. Luckily Mike HTF has been kind enough to write up the interview for you all so you can still enjoy it’s pleasures……..
HTF – Hit The Floor
CS – Chase & Status
HTF – Hi guys how you doing?
CS – Hey, good thanks
HTF – We are here today at the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ event which is being held in the Eden Project in Cornwall. So, is this the first time you’ve DJ’d in a giant green house?
CS – Yeah, it probably is. Although we’re not actually DJing today, it is a live show… but yeah it is definitely one of the more weird places we’ve played.
HTF – So out of all the places you’ve played gigs, which has been your favourite?
CS – Always like playing back in London, Manchester, L.A. is usually good for us, Australia Perth, a lot of the outdoor festivals it’s always nice to play in the sun.
HTF – as far as we’re aware, dubstep has been around as a genre for over 10 years now, but over the past couple years in particular it has really started to break through in to the mainstream. Why do you think that is?
CS – Well dubstep has been around more like 6/7 years, a lot of music that starts off underground and does really well is always going to cross over to the main stream. But I wouldn’t say it’s crossed over that much, generally I’d say it’s still pretty underground music
HTF – Are you worried that if dubstep becomes too mainstream it’ll lose some of what makes it unique?
CS – We think as long as the underground roots are strong it doesn’t matter what the mainstream producers do it will always remain.
HTF – Where do you take inspiration from when producing music?
CS – Everything! Listening to funk, country, blues, 60’s, rock, weird different stuff to kinda mash together. It’s hard to say so yeah we try to get inspiration from really random places.
HTF – What did you listen to whilst you were growing up?
CS – (Will Kennard) Well I was a massive U2 fan and a New Order fan that was before I really discovered electronic mucic. (Saul Milton) Pearl Jam, a bit of Cypress Hill, Wu Tang that sort of thing.
HTF – Hit the Floor magazine is pro-facial hair. Do you have any top beard trimming tips?
CS – (laughing) who’s that question directed at?
(Saul Milton) Well I like my beard to be longer than this, mines a little bit short today
HTF – Yes I’ve just trimmed mine too short aswell!
CS – Yeah I feel a little bit naked without it. Lost half my power!
I’ve been dabbling with a new Babyliss beard trimmer (there’s a talent to saying that fast) Well this is the result, a 1.5mm beard length but this is too short for me I would have preferred 3mm… we could talk for a long time about this but I’m not getting sponsored by Babyliss..
HTF – Haha fair enough lets move on
HTF – Do either of you drive?
CS – Will does.
HTF – What would be your dream car?
CS – Will would like an Aston Martin, Saul likes the Audi R8
HTF – What is your favourite piece of equipment in your studio?
CS – It’s always been the Mackie speakers. We’ve got a new distortion unit which we’ve been distorting sounds waaay to much with.. But we haven’t really got any interesting sort of old equipment, just the usual studio stuff.
HTF – On the internet these days it’s become cool to hate…
CS – and cool to be hated!
HTF – Exactly! With your online videos, how do you react when people write negative comments in response to them and do you ever get the urge to log on under a false name and defend yourselves?
CS – We just go and attack random people in the street!
HTF – in the hope you get someone who dissed you?
CS – No, just random people, punch them haha.
But seriously, no one likes reading negative comments. We just find some people don’t like our music, ok, but other comments are really personal like “I hope someone throws acid on you” or “I hope you’re run over, you’ve destroyed our scene!” and we think, how can you have so much hate?
It’s quite surprising what some people say, but quite amusing at the same time. “Ant & Dec”, “Noddy & Big Ears”, the creative insults can be funny and we rate those. We’ve seen some good Photoshop’s of us too, it’s cool that someone’s put the effort in.
HTF – Who are you listening to at the moment, and who are you rating as top producers?
CS – Nero, 16 bit, Nero again, That Irish guy, Tempa T, Yellow Wolf,
HTF – After your success with “More than A lot”, drum n bass album of the year, your next album must be coming along very soon…
CS – Yes, absolutely!
HTF – We’re looking forward to it
CS – Thank you
HTF – Would I be right in thinking you’ve collaborated with more American acts for this one?
CS – Well, basically we did a lot of work last year with some big American people but that wasn’t for the album. After that we resumed work with UK artists, we’re keen to push the British scene as I’m not sure the Americans get what we’re all about.
HTF – A rough date for the release yet?
CS – August / September, end of the summer when all the festivals are over
HTF – Who parties harder, the UK or USA?
CS – Hmm.. I reckon the UK, certainly with respect to going out and getting inebriated
HTF – We’re about the same age. When I was young I used to watch Jimbo and Inspector gadget.. what was your favourite cartoon as kids?
CS – Super Ted! Banana Man, Thunder Cats, He-Man. (Saul) I still watch a lot of cartoons now – Family Guy, South Park, they’re fantastic!
HTF – My last question. My friend Becky lives in student halls in Liverpool and she asked if you’d be like to DJ at her next house party?
CS – Haha of course man! We miss those days. Talk to our manager we’ll do you a good deal
HTF – Ok well that pretty much ends our interview. Can you please keep doing what you’re doing and we wish you all the best in your career
CS – Thank you very much
Interviewer: Mike Thomas
Thanks to Kiff Urban Empire and Lucy Rollins for the original filming.
