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Hey guys, great to meet you! As brothers do you have separate tasks in the band? i.e. does one of you do more production work and the other play live instruments and lyric writing etc... Or do you both do a bit of everything?
The Mon Frere project came into life when Paul began producing some epic dance music tracks. Paul is a professional drummer and has a real skill in creating interesting grooves. The initial tunes were techno-heavy dance tracks. So, Paul came to me (Matt) to discuss creating a more commercial sound. He already had a track in mind. I had a listen and could envisage a real dance anthem. I created some catchy lyrics and our first single ‘Hero’ came to life. Paul composes the tracks and is the engineer and producer, then I create a theme and compose the lyrics. Together we then choose the right singer to add the final piece of magic.
Could you tell us a bit about the equipment you worked on for your new album, Urban Glow. What's your DAW of choice and do you use Hardware or Software, or a combination of both?
The whole album was written and recorded in our own studio which we have been developing over the last couple of years, which as the readers will know, is no mean feat in setting up. Getting the acoustics right in your own environment is a challenge and we had some fun sticking loads of sound treating materials over the walls and ceiling. As Brighton is blessed with so much musical talent, we used some local session musicians who Paul has worked with on the session scene. For example, on the title track, Urban Glow, you can hear a fantastic sax solo from Dan Leavers who lives and gigs in and around Brighton. This helps to give 'Urban Glow' an organic edge. We use Cubase as the DAW, and the Native Instruments 'Komplete' packages amongst other popular synths such as Sylenth. We recorded the vocals on an AKG C214 (the baby brother of the 414) which we feel produced great results. Needless to say, most of the album was created 'in the box' but we will always be looking to reinvest and add to our studio.
You have a great array of featured singers on the album, including Kate Wild who we featured a couple of months ago in Audiation Magazine. Where did you discover the singers on the album. And have you worked with any of them before?
We feel very lucky to live and work in Brighton. To me, Brighton is now the Manchester of the 90’s. There is so much musical talent coming out of Brighton at present. Look at Royal Blood who stole the show at The Brits and you’ve also got the dance music God himself, Fatboy Slim and his Big Beach events. You can also walk down the street and bump into David Gilmore or Nick Cave, so Brighton really is buzzing with a creative energy. It attracts a lot of young aspiring musicians to study and perform. Paul has worked with a lot of the featured vocalists on the function and session scene and as a producer. He also studied at The Brighton Institute of Modern Music which has a great network of musicians and contacts. When we write a song, we review a list of potential candidates from Paul’s past, then we look at their Soundcloud, Facebook or YouTube sites to watch them in action. We then choose the singer that fits the track the best. Then we contact them and try and charm them into working with us. All of the singers have been tremendous. We invited them all round for dinner one day