JDNB Interview - Lateral
Lateral are Ben and Patrick who have been making music together since school days, starting with guitars and eventually arriving at their mutual love of Drum and Bass. After a couple of years of focussing on the basics and an intense period of honing down their ideas during the 2020 lockdown via whatsapp, they had a couple of tracks picked up by Christian aka Toronto Is Broken and his label YANA music and are now more focussed than ever in perfecting their craft.
Their influences range from classic rock, hip hop, soul, funk and early rave and breakbeat hardcore to any kind of drum and bass, but particularly dancefloor. Their love for big catchy melodies are easily apparent in their music, ensuring their music is nothing but unforgettable. As you know we love getting to know new artists here at JDNB so we thought it would be a good chance to catch up and learn more about their 'Take Me Away / Do It' release which is out now on Yana Music.
Hi Ben and Patrick, thanks for chatting with us here at JDNB. How have you been coping with the Covid-19 Pandemic and what have you been doing to fill your time?
Ben: Hi… Well I guess we have to be honest and admit that the lockdown actually gave us some serious time to focus on music and the timing was right because I’d just moved house and built a studio, literally a couple of months before. It’s the one good thing that came out of that tough situation. Suddenly I had all this time to fill. And Paddy would be firing ideas over on whatsapp almost every day and I'd work on them and send them back with further ideas until we were happy. Our debut release has come about as a result of that.
Paddy: It came as a shock at first seeing what was going on, but I think we adapted quite fast. But just in music terms it definitely worked as a positive with having to stay in the house and our productivity went right up.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and where you are from?
Paddy: We are based near Leicester which is where we both grew up. Our schools were across the road from each other and both being really into music from an early age we naturally got along
Ben: I think we met via a mutual friend who knew we were both mad on music and said you should meet. And then we would just meet up and jam on guitars and talk about hip hop and stuff after school. I remember Paddy got bought this drum machine and he would show me all these beats he’d made and I was really impressed.
What musical influences did you have growing up?
Ben: I was really into guitar music growing up. But older stuff, 60s and 70s rock and then blues (really old blues) then punk and Indie and that’s mainly from my dad who has this huge vinyl collection from his era. And always hip hop, particularly the old school stuff because I loved the breaks and the energy. I was in an Indie band back in the day too. I really like UK Breakbeat Hardcore also, I got into it recently and there is such amazing energy in that stuff. And lots of breakbeats!
Paddy: I was mainly into Hip Hop, House and Garage growing up, but being a guitarist I’ve always had an appreciation for live genres like blues, rock and Motown. So my Influences are quite varied with artists like Dr Dre, Michael Jackson, The Prodigy and Jimi Hendrix being big inspirations growing up.
How did you both get together to form Lateral?
Paddy: After school I went on to study music tech at college and then Uni, while Ben was doing solo ventures. We kept in touch and would meet up and collaborate now and again, but we started working together more often a few years ago. We messed around with other genres before getting into DnB.
Ben: We used to meet up once every couple of weeks at my family home and mess about with ideas, because that’s where I still had a really old studio setup and where I was currently living had no space to make music in. After a while we kind of thought our ideas were getting better, but technically we were a bit behind. So I ended up moving house and we set up a studio then over lockdown I spent every day in there trying to figure stuff out. It was a long process. I remember whatsapping Paddy constantly with “I think I’ve figured out how to make a snare better” and things and he sent back some musical bits and said “try it over this idea”. And after a while we realised our stuff was sounding better and we started to think about labels.
What first got you into jungle drum and bass, and was there a specific track that made you think “yeah this is the genre for us”?
Ben: We messed about producing hip hop and dubstep and stuff like that for a while, then one day Paddy sent me an idea for a track with a drum and bass beat and I remember thinking “yeah this has the right energy, why have we not tried to make this before?” And suddenly we were completely immersed in the music and we were discovering new artists and being blown away daily. And then revisiting the older more mainstream stuff like Chase & Status and Pendulum which we always liked anyway, but then realising how it all fitted together in this huge genre going back to those amazing old Jungle records from the 90s. And that was it!
Paddy: I was a big fan of artists like Zinc and Shy FX back in the day, but I never really thought about producing it myself. I went to college with guys who made dnb though and I was always really taken back by its technicality and creativeness. Then over time, I just found myself listening to more and more and we both agreed it would be cool to start trying to produce it together.
What would you say has been your biggest achievement so far within the drum and bass scene?
Paddy: Getting a track signed was a huge achievement for us. We spent a long time getting our production up to scratch and that was when we felt like all the hard work paid off.
Ben: Yeah definitely getting the track signed. Hopefully there are more achievements to come!
What does your studio consist of, and what’s your fav plug-in?
Ben: So the main studio is at mine and we use Cubase. Our speakers are KRK Rokits and there’s a really simple MIDI keyboard and that’s the extent of the outboard stuff. Would like to get a proper analogue synth though soon and get into synthesis a lot more. Other than that it’s Serum and Massive mainly and my fav plug in has to be… probs a bit boring but Fabfilter ProQ. It's solid and every channel has it on in the chain somewhere. Reverb wise I like Valhalla Vintage a lot at the moment. And LFO Tool for sidechaining everything.
Paddy: It’s kind of unusual, but I'm a big fan of Garageband on IOS for basic ideas and concepts. You never know when an idea will come to you so it’s handy when you’re away from the studio to be able to get something down there and then. Once we get an idea going we’ll transfer it over to Cubase and go from there.
You have your first release ‘Take Me Away / Do It’ out now on Yana Music. How did this opportunity come about and how did you feel when you found out they were being signed to the label?
Ben: Christian did a twitch stream over Xmas and invited tracks for feedback so I uploaded Do It onto it. When he played it I was watching him intently nodding along and wondering if he was really feeling it haha… and then he said “yeah I’d play this out. This would work on YANA” and we were buzzing. I sent him a DM straight after. Because we were big fans of Toronto Is Broken. And Take Me Away I posted a couple of weeks later on a production forum as a work in progress and just generally asking for feedback from other members and he saw it and messaged me saying “why have you not sent this to me yet lol” and again we were buzzing.
Which track did you have the most fun making?
Ben: I liked Take Me Away because Paddy put all those nice intro chords and lovely melodies together and then I stuck that big bouncy kind of jump up bass on the drop which totally switched the vibe and it sounded like two different tracks until we managed to find a way to link them up.
Paddy: For me it was Do It. It’s a bit darker and has a few Prodigy influences in there which I really like. It’s usually my job to look for FX samples and I had fun with this one and everything came together really nicely.
What bit of advice would you give to new producers wanting to get their tracks heard by the major labels?
Paddy: Don’t expect things to happen overnight so just keep grinding away and building your online presence and eventually the right person will hear your music. Try to get regular feedback from other producers as well as non-musicians because a fresh set of ears can often keep you on track.
Ben: Don’t bombard labels with all your tracks, really be honest with yourself and maybe wait until you think you have something that stands out before you submit. And even then you might not hear back and that’s when you have to really keep the faith and carry on. It can be disheartening, but if you are patient and honest with your craft then eventually doors will open. Also, be cool – don’t be pushy when approaching people!
Where do you get your inspiration from when making tracks?
Ben: Stumbling across new sounds mainly. Sometimes certain sounds suggest certain melodies to you. Sometimes you hear a DnB track that inspires you or other genres, like recently I’ve been listening to a lot of Acid Techno and we have a track in the works which takes a lot of inspiration from that. Paddy sends a lot of melodic ideas all the time, so we will look at these and try to pull out the best defining melody and make that the focus of the track and work everything else around it.
Paddy: Just by listening to as many different types of music as possible. I tend to hear melodies more than sounds so say, if I hear a cool melody or chord pattern I’ll try to create something with a similar vibe.
If you could remix one track from Yana Music, which one would it be?
Ben: Hard one… there’s a really nice hypnotic vocal that goes through Here We Go by Coastal. That would be fun to get our hands on.
Paddy: Yeah or Toronto Is Broken x Christina Rotondo x Aktive - Letters Goodbye
Name your top 3 Yana Music tracks?
Ben: Between Planes by Toronto Is Broken, Obey or Die by Aktive and Dusk by Theatrix
Paddy: I’d want to add Tengu – Ready for the Heat in there somewhere!
What are your goals for the next year?
Paddy: Just to keep churning out new material and not lose momentum. We’ve got a few tracks in the pipeline which we’re really excited about so watch this space.
Ben: Yeah this… more releases, hopefully keep improving the production side of things and not lose momentum.
What would you say you like most about the www.jungledrumandbass.co.uk website?
Ben: I love the way you give newcomers a chance to speak in these interviews. Its such great encouragement for us all. And your featured tracks are always bangers!
Thanks for your time. Lastly, any thanks or shoutouts?
Ben: Thanks to you guys for having us, everyone who’s behind our release and lastly Christian at YANA for giving us the opportunity to show what we can do
Paddy: …and all Christians feedback and advice. That’s really helped sharpen our game so we know what to look for when finishing our tracks.
Ben: And sorry to Christian for bombarding him with new mixes constantly haha.
Lateral - Take Me Away / Do It is out now on Yana Music: Download / Stream Here
Lateral Socials:
Yana Music:
Beatport / Juno / Soundcloud
Interviewed And Edited By: Chilla
Published: 28/05/2021
