Featuring the talents of Phil K and Luke Chable, Lo-step has been making waves in the worldwide scene lately. Their first single, “The Roots”, was signed to Global Underground and Dave Seaman selected it for his GU: Melbourne compilation. This has placed them firmly on the worldwide market as producers to look out for and with more releases due, they are bound to continue their success. Along with the likes of Nu Breed, Ivan Gough, Kasey Taylor and Sean Quinn they are part of the dance community which is putting Melbourne on the map. Phil K has been DJing for over fifteen years and his productions have graced the decks of the world’s best known DJs. Luke has only been producing for three years but in that time has managed to become one of the most prolific producers in the business. I caught up with Phil while he was putting together some ideas for the show.
Escape will be the first time Lo-Step appears behind the decks. What have you got in store for the night?
It’s going to be mostly DJing, but we’re going to have a sampler, we’re going to have a laptop and we’re going to have some edits of tracks which don’t really exist. There will be some of our records thrown in, some original remixes and both of us will be working at the same time. We are planning on spending three or four days in the studio previous to the gig, putting some things together for it so it’s going to be something special I think. It won’t be just us playing records.
What is the Lo-Step sound? Do you have a specific style in mind which you want to bring out when producing as Lo-Step?
We’ve spoken about what we want to do and as far as our dance singles go we want to make records that are pieces of music rather than dance floor fodder. A lot of our music is very musical, compared to a lot of the breaks records being released. Just open- mindedness I suppose and trying different things with our music, that’s what we’re looking at doing.
You have been approached by Andy Horsfield (director of Global Underground) about the prospect of producing an album. What’s the story?
The whole project started as a happy accident really. I was working on the music for The “Roots” track in the lounge room basically, on my PC, which wasn’t even a music-making computer, it was just the computer I had in my house. I had some ideas for this track and I was getting together all the sounds and then Luke came to my house and I played him what I was mucking around with and he put some ideas into it as well. Then Dave Seaman came over and I played him what was on my computer and he said “Can you do me a burn of that” and it sort of went from there. It wasn’t really an intended project to work on. It went onto the Dave Seaman, Global Underground and then they signed it as a single and from there we thought well we have a single, we need another two singles. When they signed the second single, they said we’d really like you to do an album. We haven’t signed off on it yet and we’re in negotiations at the moment on what we’re going to do and when we’re going to do it. It was really the first time it entered our heads that hey, we have to do an album. We’re just in the process of coming up with ideas for the album at the moment.
“The Roots” features the vocals of Lior Attar. Who is he and how did this come about?
Lior is a guy from Sydney who I heard sing with a band called The Hive a couple of years ago and he was singing in Hebrew. At the time I was working on “The Roots” and I was thinking I’d like a vocal on this track. It was almost like I could hear him singing on the track I had in my computer. I suggested to him that he come down to Melbourne and have a shot on it. He came down and did the vocals, we put it on the track and it worked. I think that myself, Luke and him really connect. A couple of weeks ago we were working on the new track and he came into the studio with his guitar and within a few minutes he had a chorus for the track. Luke and I were just looking at each other, melting. I think we’re going to do a lot more work with Lior. He’s a really amazing vocalist and songwriter. Even though he doesn’t really listen to the kind of music we make, he really tunes into it and he really feels it.
What is the biggest inspiration for you as a producer?
Inspiration is my friends who write music and all the mad music that I get from people. To see my friends, who are just normal people, reach down inside themselves and come out with something amazing is inspiring. People inspire me, the goodness of people.
Was there a defining moment when you decided that you wanted to make music?
Not really, it was something I realised, early in the nineties that it was something I had to start working on if I was going to be serious about my DJing. It’s been a long process of learning and I still don’t think I’m a quarter of the way there yet. I’ve still got so much to learn and so much yet to write. I still don’t think I’m anywhere near what I want to be as a producer.
What is the process you go through when producing a track?
It’s about coming up with a strong musical concept. I think a lot of today’s DJ records are sounding generic and I think that’s why a lot of labels are going down. With a lot of the music that’s being made, there’s no passion in it and there’s no thought going into it. People sit down and make a bunch of beats and keep adding to it until they’ve got a six or seven minute piece of music that’s just beats. I’m still guilty of it at times but you know, I say this to everybody I work with; by now, we know fully well that when we sit down to write the beats, they’re going to work. So, I think first and foremost, we’ve got to have a strong concept, a strong musical idea before we start. What I do now is come up with an idea of what I want to do and then write the music around that. I get some soundscapes happening and get the melodies happening until it’s really strong on its own and from there, produce them into dance tracks, adding the beats. I want to make tracks that people are going to remember. I want to make tracks that are going to stand out. I don’t want to make 35 Phil K records a year, I want to make three or four with strong musical ideas behind them.
What would be your ultimate achievement as a producer?
The ultimate achievement would be to sit down one day and write a record that you really felt and you thought was great, all your friends thought was great and all the DJ’s thought was great, for the record to shine so much that it became a pop record. To be able to do this without bowing down and bending over to the pop world would be ultimately gratifying. Seriously, I don’t think you could get anything better than that.
As a DJ with over 15 year’s experience, what do you see as being the most important element in being a successful DJ?
Being able to move with the times, listening to everything that’s out there and being open-minded. There are two sides to the music; there’s the obvious, cheesy side and there’s the less obvious, more intelligent side. I think the intelligent side will always put something forward that is so fucking fresh that if you don’t have the time to listen to it and dissect it, it could easily pass you by. You really have to be open- minded and listen to everything that’s out there, whether it’s hard house or whatever. If you hear something and really believe that it’s going to be the biggest sound in three years, as much as people oppose it, you have to stand up and say this is what I believe in. The whole key to it is to not hold things too sacred and not play the same thing all the time.
What is new and fresh in your record box?
The coolest stuff I’m hearing at the moment is a lot of the German house stuff that’s coming out. You listen to it and it kind of jars you and you’re like “What the fuck??”, and you have this frown on your face. With the stuff that is truly innovative, the first time you hear it, you aint going to get it. Your brain has never really tried to decipher anything like that in the past. It’s got to be testing; if it’s not testing then it’s not moving forward. I’m going to London and Germany this year to look for stuff that’s odd. I need to find something that’s really fucking weird again.
What is in the pipeline for Lo-Step in the next twelve months?
If we do decide to write this album, that will be a major part of the next year, then developing a show that me and Luke can go out and perform and push that boundary as well. I think our shows will be somewhere between DJing and live, but it’s still something we haven’t really put a lot of work into yet. Ultimately we are talking about taking two laptops out onto the road. On one we will be running something like Final Scratch, DJing through that and the other will be running something like Ableton Live, putting in live drum loops. The show will be something in between house and breaks. Our aim is to have people come along to the show and say “Fuck, we’ve never seen anything like that before!”
Lo-Step will play Escape @ Seven this Friday May 23rd
