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In The Studio With Brookes Brothers TECH


then re-record them down the line. These days we’ll either write a track, and then do the vocals towards the end of the writing process, or we’ll get sent a vocal idea and write around that.”


Do you record your vocals in professional studios or do you use your home set-ups? Phil: “We do both, all the album vocals were recorded in Miloco Studios, but we have our own vocal set-up that we can use from home. Either works well. For pristine, big-sounding vocals though, we generally like to record in a dead booth, preferably with a Neve 1073.”


What was it like working with Robert Owens on ‘Beautiful’? Dan: “Robert is a house legend and a great dude. It was a treat for us to work with him, having been fans for a good 10 years. We were doing our vocal sessions for the album at Miloco studios in Shoreditch [East London], Robert came down one afternoon and we had it all done in about an hour. He just knows exactly what he wants out of his own vocal, and nails it super-fast! Easy work for us, and we were really happy with the way the vocals turned out.”


Do you both have set roles in production? Is one of you more melodically inclined than the other? Dan: “Not really, we both try and cover all the bases. It’s important to be well-rounded as producers individually as well as collectively. We often push each other to work on our weaker areas.”


Who are your main influences? Phil: “Damn, we love so many different types of music, it’s hard to say! It’s always been a massive melting pot. We’re both big into ‘80s funk and soul. Stuff like Earth, Wind & Fire, The Whispers, Dazz Band, Hall & Oates etc. Electronic music- wise, our greatest influences are more melodic artists like Daft Punk, Jazzanova, MJ Cole and so many d&b artists, guys like Photek, Marcus Intalex and ST Files, Calibre. Currently we are loving Disclosure and Bobby Tank. Also love a good pop tune, who doesn’t?”


Your album track ‘In Your Eyes’ is pretty much a full-on dubstep record. Have you considered expanding on that sound and is there anyone in that scene that you’d work with? Dan: “We just do whatever we’re feeling at the time. We like to switch things up and keep the music fresh. The latest track we’ve written is four-to-the-floor at 140bpm. There’s a load more cross-genre material on the way. In terms of dubstep collabs, we’d work with anyone whose music we love. Loving Gemini and Bobby Tank.”


You worked on some music for Example’s last album. How did that differ from your usual production process? Phil: “Completely different! With both tracks that we did — ‘Microphone’ and ‘Wrong In The Head’ — the actual songs had basically been written already, so besides adding a few parts it was just a case of producing the tracks. Having said that, we had to rebuild all the drums and bass from scratch — that was the most time-consuming part of the process. “‘Microphone’ was a ballad written by Guy Chambers, so we had to be pretty careful not to screw that one up! We’d never done anything in that style before, so it was definitely out of our comfort zone, but we ended up learning a lot more as a result. We took a similar approach technically without having to make the tracks as loud as our dancefloor stuff.”


What’s next for the Brookes Brothers? Dan: “Our latest single ‘Loveline’ featuring Haz- Mat — the Detroit-based talkbox wizkid — is out now on Breakbeat Kaos, we’re DJing a lot


as always and just finishing up a remix for the legendary Candi Staton, which is out very soon. Also, we’ve got a few exciting collabs in the works. There’s going to be a torrent of releases over the next year, prepare for the onslaught!”


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