ENTT are a three-piece Alternative Dance Band from London who formed back in 2017.
Made up of three members who collectively have over 10 years worth of experience in the music industry. ENTT’s style is best described as a combination of alternative and electronic. Their latest single titled ‘Mumbai’ is a synthy pop song with evident 80’s influences; we caught up with ENTT to find out some behind the scenes exclusives.
T.H.E – What was the inspiration behind Mumbai?
ENTT – The production of Mumbai stemmed from our love of dance music. The hard-hitting drums, exotic instruments and the progressive build-up to the main drop, complements the track in a different way.
When going about the songwriting process, we needed something everyone would find relatable, and “feel-good”. So, therefore, the main lyric you hear in the chorus “Come Alive” features throughout the project. Themes such as a party lifestyle, being care-free, and other themes that are current in today’s society, are also highlighted.
T.H.E – Who are your musical influences?
ENTT – Our musical influences expand into several different genres of music. We class ourselves as an “Alternative Dance” band, and therefore anything within their subgenres, could be considered a potential influence.
Some examples include; Empire of the Sun, Queen, Kosheen, Depeche Mode, Oasis, RUFUS DU SOUL, Coldplay The Neighbourhood, The Cranberries, Disclosure, LCD Soundsystem, Florence + The Machine, MGMT, Faithless, & Eric Prydz.
Mary mentioned Lady Gaga as an inspiration to her. The way she’s able to create theatrical movement, but able to write music that is relatable and universal, is something quite unique and cool!
T.H.E – How would you sum up ‘Mumbai’ to someone who hasn’t heard it yet?
ENTT – Close your eyes and start painting this picture; It’s night time and you’re in one of the busiest cities in the world, Mumbai…. you discover new sights and new sounds… these new discoveries turn into an experience that catapults you into a different world, and this is what we want people to hear with Mumbai.
Mumbai is a song that creates an impact on the dancefloor, shakes your soul and projects the flare & finesse that ENTT is capable of showing.
Freedom, Love, Energy, and Fun …. Four key adjectives we’d use to describe Mumbai.
T.H.E – How did you decide who would remix ‘Mumbai’?
ENTT – When deciding on how we wanted Mumbai to be remixed, we clubbed all of our hours of research together. Then we reached out to different artists, gave them a slight direction based on their previous work we heard before, and then we left the door open for creativity to be unleashed.
We must say, the results have really paid off from this! The remixers appreciated the slight nudge, and yet we got back some amazing results as you can hear!
T.H.E – Where did you find out about these artists?
ENTT – It was mainly through finding up & coming artists around the globe! Not just the UK, as we felt that we needed completely different directions for the Remix EP. When listening to this collection, you can hear each artist’s individual flair, which is exactly the way we wanted the remixes to be!
Other websites that artists can advertise their remixing services also helped us out, to find people who are not only up & coming, but who also has an extremely good work ethic. It was important to us to have good communication with these artists, as well as letting them have their creative freedom.
T.H.E – Talk us through your creative process?
ENTT – Usually, our creative process consists of Kaan or Elliott coming up with a brand-new idea. Then, Kaan will draw out the production, probably to about 80% completion.
Once this has happened, Mary will write some lyrics and a melody, and then it’s time to record vocals. After vocal recording, Kaan will usually extend the production, and mix the full track. This is a lengthy process and takes us a decent amount of time until we can say we have a 100%, fully complete final mix!
However, sometimes our creative process has started out with a studio session, and the three of us create the whole track together. Each of us dip our hand into the creative process, and wherever else necessary.
T.H.E – Did you overcome any struggles with this track?
ENTT – One struggle that we had to overcome was ensuring Mumbai sounded perfect and represented ENTT in the best possible way. Kaan started on the idea of this production almost 2 years ago! And as we know in the music industry, things change rapidly, so we had to make sure we were prepared for this release by keeping everything up to date.
Kaan also wanted to make sure this was 110% right, not just 100… It was important to all three of us that our debut single is something we can be judged on, in the right way.
Mary was challenged with writing something simple, catchy, effective and relatable. Once she heard the instrumental to Mumbai, it became easy to allow her creativity to be expressed.
T.H.E – Tell us more about your label and recording studio business?
ENTT – So, our recording studio business is based in South Bermondsey, London. As well as using this as ENTT HQ, we sell time to up & coming artists, helping them take something like an idea from scratch and build this into full production. With this full production, artists walk away with a song ready to be published, to perform live with and promote themselves with.
We also offer other services, such as podcasting and voice-over services at the studio, as well as basic recordings for a variety of different instruments.
Kaan and Elliott work as in-house sound engineers and producers, and Mary is the in-house songwriter, and many clients have benefited greatly from the excellent work she has done. The work is challenging and helps us all grow as a unit.
T.H.E – Is there anyone you’re looking to work with for future releases?
ENTT – We admire a lot of up and coming London based bands, that we see playing live, that have gigged with us and our friends have even told us about!
We have invited some outstanding artists to the studio, that are doing R&B, Alternative, Hip-Hop, Pop and more, and some great content has been the reward of these sessions!
In other words, we aren’t limiting ourselves to collaborating with artists from the Alternative or Dance genres. As we know in this industry, having a little something different could really catch on and that’s what we are about. Working with others really helps in creating something that wouldn’t have otherwise been possible as just ENTT.
T.H.E – What’s next for ENTT?
ENTT – Well, we are looking at releasing another single and possibly an EP in the upcoming months before 2019 is over. The songs we have lined up, that could potentially be released, are a different direction to what everyone has heard so far with Mumbai, so we hope you are going to enjoy that!
We also have four gigs lined up over the next couple of months, so please do come along to any of the following;
- Thursday 8th August 2019 @ Cargo, Shoreditch, London
- Saturday 24th August 2019 @ The Islington, Islington, London
- Thursday 19th September 2019 @ The Hope & Anchor, Islington, London
- Wednesday 2nd October 2019 @ The Lighthouse, Shoreditch, London
Thank you so much!
