Most of the time, when you try and force two things together – especially musically – you can end up with a huge mess and a whole lot of lost credibility. Trying to pair that catchy synth hook with that soaring vocal might sounds pretty good in your head, but once you’ve stuck them together in the mix it can often clear dancefloors and end up with questioning looks from your peers. However, some mash-ups just work. Period.
Copyright’s ‘We Can Rise’ and Chris Lake's ‘La Tromba’ - aka 'La Tromba Risin'' seem to have been made to go together, which is surprising as they most definitely weren’t, and it took a chance internet encounter to bring the tracks together. We caught up with Sam Copyright and Chris Lake themselves to explain…
Sam...you guys have just been to Indonesia? How was it??
Sam Copyright: Great fun. It’s our second time there and we played at Dragon Fly in Jakarta and at Mansion in Bandung. Defected have a radio show and a residency out there, and it was amazing how many of the people knew the really new music. Plus the food was amazing, saw a couple of ace films on the plane too; if you haven’t seen Looking for Eric' starring Eric Cantona, watch it!
La Tromba and We Can Rise go together like cheese and onion...who's idea was it and how did you make it happen?
SC: The two go together really well; if only Lampard and Gerrard worked together as well as this! It came about from a guy on YouTube who mashed up the two tracks. Chris Lake heard it and asked us if we wanted to do this an official release. Chris & LYS have done a mix and we have done a mix which updates our original mix. It was really fun to do because La Tromba has been huge, so it was great working with the music and adding our own flavour to it.
Chris Lake: We all had a group hug, nodded our heads, and the deal was done. SIMPLE!
SC: This has been one of the biggest records in our set in recent weeks so fingers crossed this will do well in Ibiza this season.
Chris Lake
It looks like it's going to smash it in Ibiza, let alone do well…any other tips for the summers' biggies?
CL: Prok & Fitch have done a killer mix of Todd Terry ‘Something Going On’ which is blowing up for me. I really really rate this record, and of course, the Prok and Fitch guys have big things ahead I feel
SCL: DJ Gregory is on FIRE at the moment. He’s got two tracks ‘Canoa’ and ‘Paris Luanda’ which are huge for us now. I also think the Shapeshifters ‘Helter Skelter’ is bubbling away and people always ask us the name of the track when we play it.
Are there any other tracks you've thought of doing a mash-up of?
CL: I've been smashing out a bootleg of Deadmau5 ‘The Reward is Cheese’ with my ‘Only One’ accapella for over a year now, and it's a killer combo to be honest. Goes down a treat, but maybe that's ‘cos it's my song, who knows!
SC: Yes we have a few more ideas, but the number one rule of doing mash-ups is; DONT TELL ANYONE. Just do it, play it and surprise people.
Sam, how do you guys feel about your forthcoming House Masters compilation?
Well it’s a great honour, because we are joining a very select group of producers who have also done the series, a lot of people who have inspired us over the years. There's a good mix of old a new stuff and we've included a couple of less obvious tracks that have been previously been unavailable digitally. There's also some brand new material, we've just finished.
Are you masters of anything else that we should know about?
SC: I can eat a Big Mac faster than anyone in the world. Gavin can drop some serious breakdance moves.
Copyright
Chris, what other projects have you got in the pipeline?
CL: Well I've just released my Toolroom compilation which is getting some lovely write-ups. Basically, I gave backhanders to all the right people (kidding). Next single from me is Chris Lake & Nelski ‘Minimal Life’, including remixes from Filthy Rich, DJ PP and Rene Amesz. Very happy with this package! I'm also working on a Chris Lake and Marco Lys album, which is taking up a lot of my time, but some of the records we've made are testing super well in the clubs, so I can't wait to get it all out!
What has been your proudest moment in your career?
CL: You know, ‘Changes’ was a highlight as it got my music out to a much wider audience, so it's very difficult to see past that, but I've had a great run of it since then, worked with some super-talented people, and to be honest, had the time of my life, so yeah, it would have to be ‘Changes’.
SC: I think the day we got a copy of our Voices and Visions album in our hand at the defected offices. We put a lot of work into and it was a great feeling to have the finished album. It felt real! But doing this album is right up there too, when you see all your tracks together as a body of work it definately makes you feel very proud.
La Tromba Risin' is out on Defected Records 7th July – click to listen & pre-order.
You can see Chris Lake playing the terrace from Cream at Amnesia, Ibiza every Thursday from 12th August until the end of the season.
Keep up-to-date with the Copyrigh’t summer madness, including Big Mac eating contests and dance-offs on Twitter - @UKcopyright.
