Electronic duo EchoStorms release their debut single Tidal Wave: a soaring, melodic dance cut with stunning vocals, backed up with a thumping remix from Chapter & Verse (Repopulate Mars, Atlantic).

EchoStorms are Ben Locke and Katya Fadeeva. Born out of their mutual love for electronic music and informed by their disparate but complimentary musical backgrounds, Echostorms make full-blooded, emotionally-charged dance music that incorporates elements of melodic techno, indie dance and house, resulting in a highly distinctive and electrifying production aesthetic.

With a sound coined as cinematic tech house, EchoStorms inspired by Ben and Katya constantly travelling the world and absorbing cultural markers on their way, with debut single Tidal Wave announcing the project in highly impactful fashion.

Creating an atmosphere that’s both reflectively melancholic and incredibly uplifting, Tidal Wave is dance anthem for the ages, with punchy bass and sidewinding synth lines providing the bed for Ben and Katya’s rich, evocative vocals.

On the remix they’ve enlisted the talents of Chapter & Verse, whose previous releases have landed on storied imprint such as Repopulate Mars and Wyldcard. His remix is a bass-heavy, tech house thumper that still manages to preserve some of the ethereal qualities of the original.

Born and raised in Russia, Katya became involved in dance music when she moved to St Petersburg and being heavily involved in the local rave scene, organising and eventually playing at parties. Hailing from Cheltenham in the UK, Ben has been involved in the music industry for years as a producer and writer, with credits including Timbaland, Jason Nevins, Snoop Dogg, Jim Beanz Lil Wayne. He’s also DJ’d at some of the world’s most renowned venues, including Pacha, Ibiza Rocks and P Diddy’s Grammy Party.

WWD: How did you guys first meet, and when did you decide to start producing together?

We met through a mutual friend online in 2019 and decided to meet each other half way (Ben was in the UK and Katya in Russia) in Munich, Germany. As soon as we saw each other at the airport it was like being reunited with a long lost best friend and the chemistry was instant. We ended up travelling to Paris together in a van and it was during that journey that EchoStorms was born. After that we went to St Petersburg and lived there for a month working on new material and absorbing the local culture before flying to the UK and spending six months there, continuing developing our sound and building our repertoire.

WWD: Who were your musical heroes and reference points when it came to making your own music?

We don’t have musical heroes really, but there are definitely artists who have inspired us along the way. Avicii and David Guetta were artists who inspired us. When Levels and Titanium came out they didn’t just change the game, they reinvented it! I guess nowadays though we are each other’s musical heroes haha.

WWD: You’ve described your sound as ‘cinematic tech house’… could you elaborate on that a little?

Cinematic Tech House took a while to develop. We love all the early 2010s progressive house stuff – Alesso, SHM etc. It was all very musical and dynamic. We love Tech House drops but feel that often the tracks as a whole can be quite linear and generic. We wanted to take the “blow your head off” element of Tech House drops and fuse them with an updated take of the early 2010s progressive sound, add in a bit of Hans Zimmer and there you have it – Cinematic Tech House!

WWD: ‘Tidal Wave’ seems to have caught the ear of a pretty wide range of DJs. Was it your intention to make it appeal to a variety of artists and audiences?

We hoped that it would appeal to a wide variety of DJs and the two versions of the track have definitely helped achieve that. It’s really been quite astonishing that so many big DJs have supported the record and we are so thankful that the record has been so well received. When we go about making a record we always set out to appeal to as wide an audience as possible so it’s very satisfying to see the widespread appeal of this track.

WWD: How did Chapter & Verse come on board for the remix? Were you fans of his already?

That’s a funny story actually! Back at the start of this year we were both doing some cratedigging separately on headphones and suddenly we both stopped, as we do when we find something that we really love and want to show to each other. It turned out we had both discovered Chapter & Verse at the same time – Katya had discovered Ashes and Ben had discovered the remix of Bed! We reached out to him on Instagram and the rest is history! We love working with Chapter & Verse and are very excited about our collaboration with him – U Wish – which comes out on the 24th of September on Atlantic.

WWD: We heard you say that the best songs are written about things you’re passionate about… what are your passions outside of music?

We did say that and we one hundred percent stand by that statement. Outside of music our main passions are each other! We do love travelling, swimming, Skiing (Katya) and snowboarding (Ben).

WWD: We’ve been able to listen to your next record Do It For Me, which sounds a lot darker and more club-focussed – to us at least. Are you going to keep mixing things up with your releases in terms of tone and genre?

Do It For Me definitely sets the tone for the next releases. The collab with Chapter & Verse and the following release, which is a collab with R3WIRE which will be released on Stereohype, are much more firmly in Tech House territory than Tidal Wave. We love making records that are a bit darker and left of centre and that’s the road we’re on right now. We always follow our passion with our writing and production and follow where it takes us.

WWD: Can you tell us about your studio set up? Do you have a ton of gear, and are there any go-to pieces in particular you rely on to achieve your sound?

We record everything in our mobile studio which we take everywhere on the road with us – we work in Logic and heavily use all the UAD plug-ins on our Apollo. For recording vocals we use a Telefunken TF39 which is a wonderful tube microphone with a rich and crisp tone. We track through a Neve 1073 preamp and TubeTech CL1B compressor. Synth wise we use a Sequential Prophet 6 which is a wonderful combination of classic analogue sound with modern versatility. We also use the brilliant and extensive Arturia V collection which is a fantastic reproduction of all the classic synths and always one of our go-tos, and of course we also use Serum, Sylenth, Nexus and Omnisphere. For snares, claps and build ups the Pioneer RMX 1000 is very useful.

WWD: As a duo it must be important to push each other and be honest about whether things are working in the studio… how do you maintain that balance?

It’s wonderful to work as a duo together – we are each other’s biggest quality control which is so important when writing and producing. We love to inspire, motivate and challenge each other in the studio. We can always be completely open and honest with each other because at the end of the day we both want the same thing – the best possible result and the highest quality product.

WWD: You’re playing live this month… what do you expect from the upcoming shows? Do you think it will be strange to be back on the road touring?

Strange? Are you kidding? No it will be awesome! We spent the last year and a half in the studio creating all this music waiting for this moment for everyone to hear it! We are so excited to be touring and to play out all our new tracks for everyone!

WWD: What else do you have coming up this year?

More releases, more shows and more awesome times together – bring it on!