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Get to know HOST, the hottest new duo in town
Fresh off the back of premiering their new track 'I Wanna Be Your Friend', we get to know production/DJ duo HOST.
Hey guys, how’s it going? What have you been up to recently?
Tom: Hey dudes, feeling pretty hungover today, I DJ’d a party in central last night and it got a bit out of hand ha BUT super excited today because tonight it’s our SECRET EAST LONDON SHOW tonight.
Ben: Yeah just flew in from Berlin last night. Setting up some machines and getting ready for tonight. Pretty excited!
You released your debut single ‘All Night Every Night’ in April, so you’re still new on the scene – tell us how you first started making music together?
Tom: We first met through a mutual friend who said we should start writing together. You never know what the outcome is going to be, but we hit it off. The first song we wrote garnered a really good response online and made us realise we might be onto something, although we weren’t sure what. ‘All Night Every Night’ was the first track we wrote after starting in 2014 where all the pieces of the jigsaw fell into place and we began to understand what HOST really was.
What’s the story behind the name HOST?
Tom: Not sure there’s a particular story. Though the name just got cooler due to ‘Westworld’!
What’s the production process like for you guys? Do you split everything evenly or do you have different elements you prefer?
Tom: It’s a collaborative process but an initial idea often comes from one of us. We both throw different production and song ideas into the melting pot and back and forth bits over email as I live in London and Ben is in Berlin. Then when we regroup in either London or Berlin we craft those ideas into fully-fledged tunes.
And what about the dynamic when you’re DJing?
Tom: Although we have DJ’d in the past our main performance output is our live show. Here it’s all hands on deck – both playing keyboards, tweaking synths, working the mixer it’s all running into and on the vocals.
What’s the inspiration behind your new track ‘I Wanna Be Your Friend’?
Tom: I just like the idea of that statement being transferred onto a dance floor really. Actually we wrote the vocal over a different song and then shifted it into something completely different…..then right at the end when we were mixing I came up with the line ‘I wanna be your friend’, which just kind of tied up the whole concept of the song and we just thought, ‘yeah, that’s pretty good’.
Your debut EP is coming out very soon, what can we expect from the record?
Tom: Our debut EP features our new single ‘I Wanna Be Your Friend’ both the radio edit and the extended acid mix! Also on there is a song called ‘Never Look Back’, a proper club track we open our live sets with that we wrote a while back and then twisted up in the studio with Steve Dub. There’s also a banging remix by The Mekanism, one of our new favourite producers that’s been shown a lot of love on Radio 1 recently. We dig him because he’s bringing back that acid flavour. Finally there’s a remix from my new project as well, it’s called Ginger Prince.
Steve Dub was involved in the mixing, what was it like working with him?
Tom: Steve Dub is a crazy, creative genius. We got on like a house on fire when we worked on All Night Every Night / State Of Your Soul and felt like he really set our production alight. With the first two tracks they came together quite simply. ‘I Wanna Be Your Friend’ took a lot longer to craft and shape into the final track, which at times felt challenging. The song clicked into place once we did a day at the mute records studio and went nuts on their awesome collection of vintage synths leaving with a tonne of ideas for the song. Then we came back to Steve once we’d arranged those ideas and he wrapped it up.
What’s the best thing about being part of a duo?
Tom: Feeling like a pair of champions when everything goes right!
And what’s the worst thing?
Tom: When shit gets intense cause you’re not feeling like champions haha!
New Order and Talking Heads are big influences on you, would you say that the 80s is your fave decade?
Ben: It's really hard to say 'fave decade?' People have this idea about music genres shifting massively at certain points in history, but it wasn't like people just suddenly went new romantic as soon as it turned 1980! Trends are more fluid than that I think. I actually think there’s great music from all decades and the best music should always sound like its been sent from the future.
What track have you got on repeat at the moment?
Tom: Abra - Crybaby
Ben: Anything by Shuggie Ottis
If you could fill a swimming pool with anything in the world, what would you go for?
Tom: Negroni. Ice cubes at the bottom and a giant orange slice to float on!
Ben: World peace
What are most in love with right now?
Tom: My George Michael t-shirt that just arrived in the post.
Ben: Anything by Shuggie Ottis.
What one thing are you hoping to accomplish by the end of 2016?
Tom: Put out more records!
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