Louis La Roche is the Electronic music powerhouse who continues to show his inventiveness and ability to evolve within his productions.
Combining him with the legendary Mylo, making his long awaited return to Dance music, ‘Lovers’ has all the makings of an instant classic. The track is smooth, evocative and flawlessly produced. We caught up with the guys to learn a bit more about the track and what the future holds for them both.
T.H.E – Hey guys – first of all may I say what a pleasure it is to have you with us! How are you doing?
Myles – Thanks for having us. I’m doing good thanks. Hot, and busy. Haven’t even watched a single World Cup game :-)
Louis – Yep, all good here thanks!
T.H.E – How did the idea for the track first come about?
Myles – Louis came to visit me in London for a couple of days last winter and full credit to him for the concept. He played a few ideas and we chose one. My contribution was the modulation (chord change) and a few synth parts, and I guess we both chipped in on the arrangement. It was a crazy week as my brother and his girlfriend were visiting and I was also on deadline to do some sound design work for (French conceptual artist) Marguerite Humeau. Next time I’ll have a clearer diary, sorry Louis!
Louis – Haha! It was great though! I loved all the ideas Myles put down and I just let him do his thing. He added all these layers on top of what I’d done and took it to a whole new level that I hadn’t even thought of. We were talking about different influences and old Disco records, so I think we tried to put a bit of that influence in there.
T.H.E – Do you think the track is influenced by older or newer sounds?
Myles – I know that Louis and I are both devoted to disco but also, pop. Louis has an unbelievable disco version of Sacrifice by Elton John. I can’t think of anyone else who would think to do that :-). I spent a long time (too long) getting deeper and deeper into Italo and Cosmic but lately I’ve been going very deep on my own work for the first time in years so that means no DJing and less listening to new music.
Louis – I totally forgot about that Elton bootleg! I’ll have to dig it up and maybe it will see the light of day sometime…I think I’m the same as Myles on this one. I tend to get way too influenced when listening to new music. So I do try to limit myself a bit. You have to just let the music flow through you. As soon as you start over-analysing it, that’s when you lose the magic!
T.H.E – How long did it take you to create the track from start to finish – and were there any difficult sticking points along the way?
Myles – The first sticking point was that my guest bedroom was taken and I totally failed to sort out an AirBnB nearby so Louis had to sleep on the couch, sorry! And at one point later, someone from quite a big label was showing some interest but wanted the bird sample (a Loon) removed. Louis said “The Loon stays” :-). Admirable conviction I thought.
Louis – I’m glad we stuck to our guns too! I think the Loon sample is what makes the song so nostalgic. It’s a nod to all the RnB and House tracks that used it before us. It’s a sample from the E-mu Emulator II. It used these old sample library disks, which pretty much hasn’t been sampled since the early 90’s!
T.H.E – You guys obviously have both had some wicked releases in the past – how do you think this one compares?
Myles – I’m just very glad that Louis got in touch because I had never been any good at seeking out collaborations. It’s a first for me and not at all the same as, for example, the way that remixes are thought of as collaborations.
Louis – I really just look at every song as it’s own thing. I try not to compare projects or albums. As long as it feels right at the time it’s made, then that’s enough for me. I’ve got better at collaborations with time, but it’s a different experience every time. People’s approach to writing music differs so much, which it can be a bit daunting to sit down with someone and say, “let’s write a hit!” – it’s never as easy as that!
T.H.E – Do you think your new sounds are here to stay, or will you want to keep evolving and changing?
Myles – I’ll take evolving and changing please :-). For a long time recently I had been very busy with looking after family and other business. I wasn’t carving out enough time or effort with music. There’s no such thing as plateauing in my experience at least; you are either learning or sucking worse every day. It’s like that “Flappy Bird” game lol.
Louis – Definitely evoking and changing for me too! I’ve learnt to embrace change when it comes to my career in music. I spent too long worried about genres, what my ‘sound’ was and a sense of identity. I hate being pigeon-holed and love to experiment with new sounds, textures, genres. I get frustrated too easy (just like in Flappy Bird) if i’m forced to be niche, I like doing my own thing, haha.
T.H.E – What is coming next? Any big plans over the summer?
Myles – We’ve started talking about a follow up track so looking forward to seeing how that develops. On my own side, I’ve got a lot of solo work being mastered for the first time in years so will be putting that out as soon as I can. If I’m doing a remix I will usually do my own engineering up to mastering but for this project I wanted another pair of ears and was lucky to book a few days with the very talented Dennis White and David Gardner, who are normally working with Sasha and/or Pete Tong. So again, learning to collaborate.
Louis – I’m definitely interested to see what else we could come up with. I feel that now we know the way in which each other works, it would be fun to delve a bit deeper. Myles has an amazing ear for melody, so i’m so glad he’s back doing what he does so well! As for my own music, I’m still very much in the middle of writing another album. It’s very different from anything i’ve released in the past (in a good way), it’s the most ‘grow up’ music I think i’ve ever written! There’s lot’s of collaborations for this album too, but i’ll save those names for another time…
T.H.E – Finally, where can we get our hands on the track?
Louis – It’s available pretty much everywhere digitally! Spotify, Youtube, Apple Music, Bandcamp, Soundcloud.
We don’t care how you listen, just as long as you do!
T.H.E – Thanks guys! We will be grabbing our copy for sure!
