UK electronic dance giants Chase & Status have a massive year ahead of them, promoting their latest album, ‘Brand New Machine’, with a world tour that includes the run of Future Music Festival dates.
Will Kennard, aka Status, took time out from his hectic schedule to talk about the album, their plans for Future Music and how he’s changing the face of music education.
How are you doing, Will?
All good man, how are you? Good thanks, very well.
How was your Christmas and New Year’s?
It was very nice, thank you. I managed to get a bit of time off from touring and the madness of the job, had some down time with the family and some relatives haven’t seen for like a year. Actually New Year’s wasn’t too bad either, had one DJ gig and kept it pretty chilled, man. Lots of energy through the year and I’m happy to be at the start of 2014.
The latest single from ‘Brand New Machine’, 'Alive', came out in December and I’m wondering what the response has been?
Really good. It’s been amazing man, possibly the best feedback, I’m not sure. It seems it’s maybe people’s favourite record on the album and it’s done well on radio. In the UK it’s been on the A-List on Radio One for a long time and the feedback’s been great from that. It goes down amazingly when we perform it; over the summer in the UK it was a real highlight. It’s nice to unveil a new singer a new voice a new talent, a young guy with the voice of a legend like an old guy and everyone wants to know about him so that’s cool as well.
Chase & Status are very much a collaborative act, you’ve got all sorts of credit and you’re considered the ‘producer’s producers’. Is there anyone you’ve wanted to collaborate with but just haven’t been able to yet?
Yeah. Last time we were at Future Music a couple of years ago we met Tyler, the Creator and the whole Odd Future group and we watched at side of stage and I remember Tyler had broken his leg and was on crutches and he was still stagediving and stuff. I love their music and their whole vibe, they’re very creative and different and I’ve always dreamed of doing something really off the wall with Tyler but he’s a difficult guy to pin down. Also, Pharrell Williams, we’ve met Pharrell a few times and always talked about working together but never did and he’s such a legendary guy, I’ve always been a fan of all the stuff he’s done and the different reinventions he does so I’d love to get in the studio with Pharrell sometime definitely.
Pharrell’s one of the guys who’s given you a lot of credit so I’m sure there’s something on the cards?
Absolutely, it’s just difficult being artists and producers at the same time in that you’re constantly working and travelling, so snatching moments in the studio is difficult enough, let alone trying to combine that with his schedule and suddenly you’ve got minutes in a year that you’re both free at the same time. It will happen one day though, it’s all about grabbing the moment; it’ll probably be in an airport, we’ll get the laptop out and that’s the way, particularly the Americans, tend to do work, they just work very quickly on the fly and make things happen.
You mentioned Future Music Festival earlier; you’ll be out here in a month or so for that. What are you looking forward to the most?
Oh man, obviously the crowds are amazing and the weather but also it’s such a nice concept travelling around with the other artists and there’s [sic] so many great people there and you really make some friends and meet people you’ve been speaking to online or whatever, you’re hanging out in hotels and airports. It’s great for networking and collaborating and just being inspired, you know? You’re hanging out with your peers and we made a lot of good networks last time so I’m hoping for that to happen this time.
Are there any Australian groups/ artists that you like or are particularly interested in?
Oh man, at the moment I’m looking forward to being educated when we’re out there. We haven’t been out there for a while and I’ve got Australian friends out there who are always telling us to look into stuff. I think Flume is someone that’s done some amazing stuff, big fan of his. Some of his music has been really amazing. I need to be educated more; you need to tell me who to look out for.
There is so much here, it really depends on your taste. … The music Chase & Status do, it gets put in so many different genres, so I was wondering: if you had to organise a record store by genre, where would you put your own albums?
That’s a good question. We always have this problem, well not so much a problem; we’re quite lucky in the way we get to write quite eclectic records with varying tempos, beats, styles and vocalists and stuff; we came very much from a drum & bass background but gradually brought in different influences. There’s often a lot of soul, a lot of kind of soul influence, whether it’s hip hop or R&B or soul or reggae and also just a lot of energy; we really love our shows and DJing.
When we listen to a song, we try to find that moment that there’s real excitement or you can really create some drama or some energy in the record. So it doesn’t really matter about the genre, it’s just about the excitement and the impact. Probably it’s what unifies our music but I don’t really know what genre we are, it’s probably a good thing from a producer/ creative point of view — we’re quite lucky in that respect.
On that note, you ended up co-headlining the Download festival next to Machine Head?
Yeah, that’s right (laughs).
So in your mind, how does an electronic act like Chase & Status end up on the same bill as Machine Head at a metal festival?
I think we played before Metallica…or after? I think we’ve definitely always brought a punk or rock attitude. Our frontman Rage, he’s the frontman of our band, I mean he’s a cool guy, covered in tattoos, always wearing black and he brings that rock sort of madness to the show, he’s got so much attitude and so much energy that some of our songs, even though they may not be traditional metal or rock, they’ve got a similar intensity and we’ve built up a reputation of having quite a serious crowd and a lot of energy, a lot of kids going absolutely nuts and at a festival like that and they [the organisers] thought they could add something different. It went down so well, these kids were going nuts and obviously we made sure the setlist was one of the hardest setlists we played; but it was a big moment for us, Download, and it was a big moment of acceptance I guess.
Excellent. It would definitely be a sign of acceptance when a sea of metalheads are moshing to your music. Have you got any upcoming collaborations planned?
Well, not really. We just finished the album and we did a lot of collaboration there and now we just kind of taking stock from that and figuring out what our movements are. We’re heading to Miami just after Australia and a lot of touring going on this year promoting the album all over world and stuff. So no planned collaborations but definitely open to always working with exciting people and we’ve got a record label ourselves; we sign lots of talent there so I’m sure we’ll be working with people on our label definitely.
And will MC Rage and your drummer, Andy, be coming to Future Music?
Absolutely man. We’re bringing out the whole band and some feature vocalists; the whole thing is a big part of the show and those guys are central to it and it wouldn’t be the same without them. So yeah, it’s the full bonanza this year, man.
If you don’t mind, we’ll get off Chase & Status quickly and on to your work with the East London Arts Music free school project. Can you tell me about your involvement with it and how it all got started?
Yeah sure. I spent a bit of time teaching when I was younger, I was 24 or 25 and had a job teaching part-time to pay the bills while I was trying to be a music producer myself and I was teaching these kids up in the north of England; kids from rough backgrounds and I was teaching them music and music technology and I was blown away with how amazing some of these kids were, they were so talented. They didn’t even really understand the possibilities and where that talent could take them. I left after two years and started to do my own thing as Chase & Status and I was just really disheartened to see that a lot of those kids, or in fact none of those kids actually realised their potential and made something properly of what they had. I just put that down to lots of different thing and felt like the schools weren’t really set up to nurture that talent and those sort of personal backgrounds and circumstances.
So the idea is to set up a school in London and it’s primarily for kids from some of the poor parts of town and it’s about giving them an education in music, whether it’s business, performance or technology. It’s really world class; it’s up there with the best private colleges, the best private schools and universities and just giving them the same quality of equipment, the same kind of access and opportunities into the industry itself and the right kind of support, figuring out that these kids just need a bit of support, they need a bit of personal mentoring as well and if you do all that the sky’s the limit and I’m confident we’re going to find some amazing people.
So I set it up a few years ago and it’s going to open this year in September. There’s a team behind us, what we’re doing so it’s very exciting and it’s been a big passion of mine, as I said, for the past near three years now. So it’s a bit different but it should be cool, I’m very excited.
That’s great. I think you should be congratulated for your work with the ELAM, I think it’s a great project. I’ve spent a bit of time in the industry as a technician and with kids, or young adults, there are so many possibilities in the music industry but it’s so hard to get into and they just don’t try or get disheartened most of the time.
Thank you, thanks a lot man, that’s exactly why. No one tells you how to do it and unless you’ve got good parents or good teachers at school or someone to really help you, if you don’t have that it’s almost impossible. So it’s just making sure everyone has the same chance to get into it and it’s important for music as a whole; it’s important that we’re bringing you the best of the best: whether it’s technicians or managers or singers, whatever, that all these kids have a good shot with it. But thanks man, I’ll let you know how it goes.
Chase & Status play Future Music Festival
Sat Mar 01 - RNA Showgrounds (Brisbane)Sun Mar 02 - Arena Joondalup Joondalup (Perth)
Sat Mar 08 - Royal Randwick Racecourse Randwick (Sydney)
Sun Mar 09 - Flemington Racecourse (Melbourne)
Mon Mar 10 - Adelaide Showground
