CONTINUING their onslaught of releases and paving the way for their sixth studio album, Freestylers are ready to unveil a brand new single.
Featuring the mighty Scarlett Quinn on vocal duties, ‘Fabulous’ landed on the 11th June.
After launching their new album with the euphoric, uplifting ‘Happiness,’ the veteran duo is revisiting their funk roots, infusing sounds of the 70s with innovative synth stabs, next level production and that inimitable Freestylers touch was only ever going to have one outcome. This is a seriously danceable tune that’s ready to soundtrack the summer. Plus, it comes with a heavy disco remix by new NYC production duo HillSide. Their forthcoming album ‘Other Worlds’ delves into a mishmash of drum and bass, hip-hop, electronica, dub, breakbeat and everything in between. It also showcases incredible talent from across the globe, including Plump DJs, Blapps Posse, Laura Steel, Spyda, Tenor Fly, Hyperactive MC, Mad Doctor X, K-OSS and Scarlett Quinn.
We caught up with the dance music veterans to chat about their new project, working with Scarlett Quinn and everything in between.
Congratulations on the release of your new single! ‘Fabulous’ falls under so many genres and styles, how would you describe it?
Thanks guys for the support again. I would say it’s the best part of 70’s Funk with a 2021 kick up the backside!!
The importance of the vocals really shine through on this one, how was it working with Scarlett Quinn and what do you feel she added to the track?
Working with Scarlett was so good. She’d previously sung on a Stanton Warriors track and I really liked her voice. We met a couple of years ago at a boat party I was djing at and I said I have the perfect track for you. So, I sent her the backing and then about 3 weeks later more or less I was sent this song “Fabulous” and loved it straight away. After a bit of tweaking, some added music and production the track was finished. I wanted to do something similar to our song “Push Up” but with a slightly different vibe, I think this is the perfect match that captured that essence. Scarlett has also recorded another song “All Your Fears” which features on our new album “Other Worlds”
The use of sampling in this song is amazing, what’s your process when using them? Do you instantly know it’s going to be a song or is there a lot of trial and error involved to find how it fits?
What sample? Haha!
As you mentioned sometimes samples can be a bit hit or miss. There’s definitely an art in adapting samples to fit in your tracks, a bit like assembling a tricky jigsaw puzzle. There’s been plenty of times where we’ve found a piece of music or drum break, tried to make it work and it hasn’t and that’s what makes it a good challenge.
Would you say ‘Fabulous’ gives us a taste of the rest of your forthcoming album? What can people expect from ‘Other Worlds’ in August
The new album is very eclectic. We went back to basics with incorporating our original sound, vibe and musical identity with it and I guess ‘Fabulous’ is cut with that same fabric. I would say that the new album are the best parts of ‘We Rock Hard’ and “Raw As FxxK”. There’s many new collaborations on there too including Tenor Fly, MC Spyda, and Plump DJs.
Why did you decide to release your sixth studio album now? Has it been a long time in the making or was this a spontaneous project?
We actually started making it in 2019 for a 2020 release but then Covid happened so there’s been a few setbacks but I’m pleased to know it’s coming out in August. The great thing about making this album was there was no pressure and everything felt like it came together very organically
Finally, will you be taking the album on the road? When can we see you live again?
Most definitely and we’re raring to go. All being well we have many shows lined up from August onwards so praying that there’s no more setbacks. At the moment we’re just going to concentrate on the DJ side of things just to get the ball rolling and see where that takes us. It’d be great to take the band on tour though of course.
