NEWS
EVENTS
We talk food, joining Viper and their new EP Body Check with Mob Tactics
Drum and Bass | Monday 19th September 2016 | Arren
Mob Tactics exploded onto the scene and quickly established themselves as a serious force.
They specialise in big room, dancefloor trashers, making that shit seem easy. No surprises then that support for them comes from across the board with Andy C, DJ Hype and Friction all fans.
They've just released another big EP on Viper, 'Body Check'. We thought it was about time we found out a little more about them.
Hey, how are you? Have we got both of you or just one?
Greetings! Not bad, thank you. You have one half, Luke at the minute.
Nice one Luke, what was your first thought this morning?
Kittens! Currently fostering four kittens with my wife for a month. They’re quite the handful, but insanely cute.
Cool, so apart from looking after kittens, what else have you been up to recently?
Been busy writing and gigging of late. Had some awesome shows all over the world, including Let It Roll which was SO good! All of them have been really awesome to be fair. We’re lucky to get to play so many cool places, always reminding ourselves of this.
Sounds like a good summer then! Where are you guys based?
I’m based between Cheltenham, UK & Seattle. Mark is based in Chipping Norton. Neither Cheltenham or Chipping Norton have not much going on in terms of nights per se, but there are a lot of guys in the scene who are from Cheltenham and the Gloucestershire area: Annix, Callide, Donovan Smith, etc. Seattle has a wicked scene by all accounts – hoping to find out for myself first hand real soon!
One half of Mob Tactics, before Luke & Mark founded the duo.
So how did you both start Mob Tactics?
We met in 2010. I worked at Chemical Records from 1997 through until late 2011, so I have a huge love for drum & bass. Mark was writing material under the name The Funktion at the time and I was interested in his music.
Outside of work I’ve always been massively into metal & hip-hop and if you go through my music library this wold be become very apparent. I like to try and keep my musical palette as varied as possible. Variety is the spice of life as they say!
Mark has similar tastes to me. He was very into metal growing up and we have the same influences as far as drum & bass is concerned. It’s cool cos there’s no arguing in the car over what to listen to on the way to gigs!
We decided to link up and write a tune together in one another’s studios and the rest is history as they say!
How did things go down at the start?
Our early releases got a lot of support which was pleasantly surprising to us both if we’re honest. DJ Hype picked up on our first ever few tracks and caned the life out of them which was amazing. He definitely helped get our sound to the masses, along with Crissy Criss, Andy C & Friction. There have been so many highlights over the years, but a few that stick out would be -
1. First release on Playaz.
2. 1st Radio 1 guest mix.
3. Tracks getting picked up for Ram.
4. Chase & Status releasing The Answer EP.
5. Signing with Viper!
Was there a tune of yours that got signed that took you by surprise?
I guess maybe ‘Joe Mangle’. We only included it last minute in a folder we sent to Ram cos it was kind of a weird track. Low and behold, it was the one they took! Needless to say we were stoked.
You had a lot of tracks on big labels until 2015 when you signed to Viper. Why did you decide to permanently join Viper?
We’d been working closely with labels such as Ram and MTA but never really had anywhere to call home. We’d always wanted to do something for them and we’d just finished a new batch. It was actually Prolix that said “I bet Viper would love these” and me & Mark both agreed that it was the right time to try and approach them. We sent them to Brendan and he got back to us saying he wanted to sign all of them. We were over the moon!
A few weeks later they asked for a meeting and offered us the chance to sign exclusively with them and we signed on the dotted line. It’s the best move we’ve made career-wise. Such a great team of people and artist’s – real family vibes, and they run a tight ship: always on the lookout for new ways to expand the label and reach new people and places. So happy to be a part of it.
You've had a big year touring wise, any dates or shows or places you wanna give a shout out to?
This year has been awesome on the touring front. So many wicked countries and shows! Our Australia/New Zealand tour was a real standout, as was Let It Roll and our NYE shows in LA. Like I said, so many spring to mind, could be here all day shouting everyone, haha!
You've just dropped an EP on Viper Body Check, how's that gone down?
The tracks all came together relatively quickly, but the mixdown process obviously took a lot longer – as it always does. So I guess from the very beginning to the very end when they got signed off on was about five months. I’m personally very proud of ‘Body Check’ and Mark changes his mind from ‘Dot Matrix’ and ‘Now Is The Time’. On the whole though we’re super-happy with this project, although we’re STILL hearing things now we would change/tweak. It’s torturous, haha! ‘Now Is The Time’ was a bitch to mix. I mean, it was an absolute horror show… But perseverance paid off in the end and all was well. Praise the lord!
Get a copy of Mob Tactic's Body Check EP
Your Instagram features food & drink, fancy a quickfire?
Favourite beer: Little Creatures
Wine or beer: Wine
Best breakfast: Full English
Is pineapple a topping on pizza: Most definitely.
Which country has the best food: tough one… probably America for me.
What food fuels our studio sessions: Pizza, Peri Peri chicken, curry.
What's coming up next for you guys?
More of the same. Lots of decent shows on the horizon both in Europe and the states and we’re always working on new material. Actually working on some collabs at the minute that we pretty excited about and we have a bunch of finished remixes all in the pipeline. Staying busy.
If you could play anywhere in the world, where would that be?
Itching to play Womb in Tokyo! Heard so many good things about that place and I’ve always wanted to visit Japan. So yeah, that would be top of the list.
Womb, one of Japan's biggest and best clubs.
What's the worst job you've ever done?
When I was a kid I signed up for an employment agency one summer. The type of place that call you early in the morning with a job for the day/week. Anyways, I got a call one morning to be told I had a job with the ‘Environmental Cleansing Agency’… Needless to say those words didn’t register with me at 05:30am and yeah, it was a day working on the bins. It was MURDER! That was my last job on any kind of agency…
What's the most trouble you've ever been in?
Ask my wife, each day I manage to surpass previous efforts!
Who's the funniest person you know?
Probably my mate Tobie from Serial Killaz. We’ve known each other for 20 odd years and he still has me in hysterics with his antics. Legend.
Who would be in your ultimate band?
Ooo, good question! Would probably go something like…
Vocals: Corey Taylor, Phil Anselmo & Method Man
Guitars: Kirk Hammet & Dave Mustaine
Bass: Steve Harris
Drums: Joey Jordison
Synths: Richard Wright
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