In The Studio With: Brodanse

On the 24th of this very month Brodanse will be returning to Room Three for the second expression of their live set here in Farringdon, where they’ll be seamlessly working their established records and their secret weapons together to drive their Danse Club room. To get further insight into what exactly goes into their productions and how they've arrived at such an effective performance we asked the brothers to guide us through their shared set up in the latest of our production and live set focussed feature... Firstly can you give us a brief verbal tour of your studio? We are really lucky, we have this stand alone building without neighbours. Our studio is on the ground floor and our offices on the 1st floor – there is even a little kitchen and toilet! We have insulated the studio and have an Apple Macbook Pro each running Ableton 9 and run it through a 22 inch monitor screen. Equipment wise we have a Roland TR8, Korg Electribe, Ableton Push, Icon i-controls, Juno 106, Minibrute, pair of Adam A7X monitors, Adam Sub 8 and a Fireface 400. Notepad and two chairs, tons of wires and a coffee machine. On the other side of the room we have two Technics 1210s and a Pinoneer DJM 800 on a separate Hi-Fi system (with an old 12 inch car subwoofer reclaimed from an old car) to test out productions against tracks we play out. What’s your favourite and most essential item? We would have to say the TR8 – that thing is knockout! What is it you’re performing on when you play live exactly? A smaller version of our studio, so: Macbook Pro, Abelton 9, Abelton Push, iPad using touchAble (on a Virtual Private Network), TR8, Korg Electribe, Icon i-controls and two pairs of AiAiAi TMA1s. Oz controls the TR8 and Push for drums and clips, and Scott controls the Electribe for efx, i-controls for mix and Ipad for touchAble. How often do you change things up in your live set? Every time. We take out what wasn't as strong and replace it with new stuff – always tying to improve! How much of it is new unreleased material? Do you find live sets double up as testing grounds for new tracks? Over 90% is unreleased and some of it is for 'Live only'. It is an experiment of the remixes and originals we are working on - it is essentially what is coming out of the studio at the time. Everything you hear is as we are hearing it now and should be coming out in some form within a few months. We even do special versions of our own remixes, our current favourite tracks and some of the classics. Can you run us through why you’re working in this set up and what creative freedom it allows you? We watched a lot of live sets over the last few years and took what we thought was the best from each then used that as the foundation. Simplicity is key [in everything we do] - we find it allows us to be very spontaneous and take the tracks in the direction we are feeling at the time. How different is it from what you produce with in the studio? Not very different, there are just more details in the studio. Live set is a bit more radical with less tuning and precision, the vibe is more 'club' orientated. How’s that developed over time? Would you say there’s been a move more in favour of digital? Just practice, practice, practice, ideas are picked up along the way, things are learned from others and through experience. To be able showcase it on a stage like Fabric is very special! We suppose looking at the wider picture, yes there must be a move more in favour of digital which is certainly not a bad thing as long as the connection with the origins are not lost. And finally, if money was limitless what’s your dream studio purchase? Jupiter 8 and Apple Mac Tower