Chase & Status talk to eGigs

Chase & Status, aka London Drum n' Bass duo Saul Milton and Will Kennard, have been climbing from strength to strength in the last few years. They have made songs with home-grown talent Plan B and Dizzee Rascal, as well as producing tracks for international superstar Jay-Z and producing songs for Rihanna's critically acclaimed album, 'Rated R'. eGigs caught up with one half of the duo, Saul, to discuss their whirlwind success.

How long have you guys been together for?
We've been friends since 1997 but we've been making music together since about 2001.

Your music has been described as drum n' bass, electro, and dubstep amongst other genres, how would you personally describe it?
I think it's a bit of everything really but obviously we come from the drum n' bass scene and the dubstep scene. Those are where we cut our cloth and where we became known.

I would say it's UK bass music; high energy, exciting, bass driven music. That's what we're about.

You've collaborated on tracks with the likes of Plan B and Dizzie Rascal. What has it been like working with those guys?
Yeah it's been great. Plan B is an old friend of ours and he's done very well, which we are proud of.

So you've known Plan B for a while then?
Yeh, we’ve known Ben since about 2006/2007. Our first experience with him was remixing a track of his called 'No Good' and of the back of that (he loved it) we got together and wrote 'Pieces' and 'End Credits' and so on and so forth. We've known him for a long time.

We've known Dizzie for a while as well. We'd been meaning to get into the studio for ages and it just kind of all just came together quickly one evening and we took it from there really.

In your career as a duo so far, what have been the highlights?
Wow. It's a good question but impossible to answer. There are so many stages; I think at every stage of our career there has been a little incident that has really pushed us forward. To start with, having our first actual ever release on local Renegade Hardware – our first drum n' bass tune - was a big deal. Then we wrote a song called 'Duppy Man', which got us signed with Breakbeat Kaos. Then we had a song called 'In Love' which won an award at BBC One, and then we signed to RAM Records, which at the time was a massive deal. We had the album 'More Than Alot', which opened up all of our lives basically; on the back of that we signed to Mercury. Next thing, 'End Credits' was in the Top Ten.

We won lots of awards, about 10 awards in the last couple of years, and of course the stuff for Rihanna and Jay-Z. The way we see it though is that we haven't achieved anything in the scheme of things - we're blessed and we've done well and we're getting recognition. We won't rest on our laurels though because we've got so much more we want to do. All our stuff has been great and we're really excited and blessed for it but we've got plenty more to do.

Brilliant! Have you got any festivals booked so far for next year?
Yes, there are a few already. We've got Glastonbury and Wireless. We did a lot of festivals this summer so I think we're doing a few less next summer.

Do you like the vibe when you play at festivals?
Yeah it's amazing. It's kind of special to tour with the band; all the festivals we have been doing with our band rather than DJing how we have done previously. It's something special – there's a real nice family vibe at festivals as well.

Finally, what would you like for the future of Chase and Status?
I'd like our own label MTA to go from strength to strength. We've got some new and exciting artists; we're really proud of our label and we want the best for the artists, so we really intend to do as much as we can for them. We want to move forward and produce for artists and bring exciting new artists through.

Cool. That does sound exciting! Thanks for taking some time out to chat to me today.
Thank you very much. Take Care.

FUTURE GIGS