UK duo Solardo are already making a play for breakout act in 2016. The pair are quickly amassing an impressive back catalogue having appeared on the likes of Of Unsound Mind, Resonance, VIVa Music and more. Their latest EP arrives via Madtech, the burgeoning imprint of House & Tech legend Kerri Chandler. In addition to sharing a full exclusive from the release, the Solardo boys took the time this week to run through the project and the stack of impressive EP on the horizon.
WWD: Thanks for taking the time to chat guys!
Start us off with something we don’t know about Solardo?
Solardo is made up of me, Mark Richards and James Elliot. I also go under the alias of MRK1 (Mark One) and I was one of the pioneers of dubstep back in the day before dubstep was called dubstep. Back then it was just a handful of producers making the sound which at the time was called “Forward thinking music”. There was people like me, Skream, Benga, Scuba, Hatcha, Oris Jay, Wookie, Zed Bias, Plastician, Kode 9, DMZ, Horse Power, EL B, Caspa, and a few others. I went onto have over 150 releases, including an album on “Aphex Twins” label “Rephlex Records” and 3 albums on “Planet Mu”. These are very left field labels. I played most festivals including Sonar, Glastonbury, 10 Days Off and Roskilde.
WWD: Weirdest party you’ve ever found yourselves at?
James – Ive found myself at loads of mad parties. One of the best was the paradise ADE afterparty which was up a crane in the control room. It only around around 50 people and it went on all day and night after the Paradise Party.
WWD: Back in the room… what’s it likes to get the seal of approval from Madtech and a legend like Kerri Chandler?
Mark – It’s wicked. When we started making our music we wanted to make it a little different which was a bit of a risk as we weren’t too sure as to how it would be received. When Madtech came along and offered us a chance to release an EP it was quality as we knew then that we must be doing something right.
James – Also Madtech is such a cool label. To be involved with a label of that stature is amazing.
WWD: Of course, Skream’s label Of Unsound Mind has also become a home for your records. You’re putting quite a catalogue together, do you still get excited about where you sign your music?
James – Yeah we have loads of tracks signed now to some of the biggest and most respected labels in the world. We’ve signed around 40 tracks in the last 3 months which is every track that we have made. Were now approached by labels for music which is an even bigger buzz for us. Its come to the point that we need to work even harder in the studio and get more tracks together. We always get excited when offers come from labels! We have literally dedicated our whole lives to making this sound spending around 70 hours a week in the studio. After being in the studio for that amount of time, when the offers come in, its a real sense of fulfilment.
WWD: It’s not either of your first musical projects. What inspired the creation of Solardo?
Mark – Like I mentioned I did my MRK1 thing for almost 15 years, and I’ve also dabbled in a few other genres of music. I wanted to try producing everything so that I could become an all round producer and know about other musics. With different genres of music, theres different styles of production, and learning them has really helped my hone in on the sound that were coming out with now. I spent a bit of time working with “Hank Shocklee” of Public Enemy who showed me a whole different side to production as well as the business side of it all. He’s a grammy award nominated producer so getting to learn my trade from him was amazing as he showed me things I had never previously thought of.
WWD: What were the 3 most important lessons you took from previous ventures in music?
Mark – Never let your foot off the gas, always push to learn new things, and be the full package. Its all good being a producer but once you have that sorted make sure you maintain to other aspects of being an artist, i.e. social media, DJ ability, and general people person qualities. And the main thing, just be nice to others.
WWD: We know you’ve been spending a lot of time in the studio but what we want to know is what do you do when you need a break from the music?
James – We haven’t taken a break from the studio now for the last 8 months. We have been there all day everyday and the only time we have left is to do gigs, go to meetings, and go to Nandos.
What do you hope defines 2016 for Solardo?
Mark – We want our music to be unique and have a sound that is very distinguishable. We also want to make all our music to sound big, warm, and loud.
WWD: Can you give us three artists you’ll be following in 2016?
James – Theres a quite a few! The obvious ones who we always follow as Skream, Richy Ahmed, Jamie Jones, and Steve Lawler as there sound is energetic and gets the club jumping which is completely what we aim to do with our music. But in terms of new/newish producers theres Latmun who is making some great music at the moment, Cassell, who is an artist from Manchester who is doing a bit at the moment, and Wade whose productions we think are on point!
WWD: Anything else we can look forward to from you in the near future?
Yeah we have loads of releases coming up including our Madtech release, and EP on Snatch, EP on Underground Audio, EP on Roush, EP on Material, Collab EP on MTA, EP on Viva Music, EP on Of Unsound Mind, Remix of “No Artificial Colours”, EP on Underground Audio, EP on Kaluki and a few other things in the pipe line were close to signing off on.
Will we see you in Dublin any time soon ?
Yeah were playing at the Hanger in April.