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Introducing...Dense & Pika

At the end of 2011, at the start of their production partnership, Dense & Pika made the choice not to reveal their musical identities and let the music do the talking on a series of white labels released on their own eponymous imprint. Their super tight and bold productions did the work, getting them widely noticed and they saw a successful year of live dates and media attention followed, as well as a signing to what we’ve already declared here to be one of the most prominent labels of the moment, Hotflush. That’s about as much as we know at the moment, so we got some time with the production pair to get in on their story and find out what we can expect from their live set next Saturday as they join Scuba in Room One when they venture to Farringdon for the first time. So what’s the story then? Where did you guys emerge from? It’s all been a bit secret…but your releases have been big ones in a relatively short space of time. We're really happy that people are liking what we are doing at the moment. We have a lot of fun making the music and aim to keep things as interesting as possible in the live show and on the records. The aim of the project has always been simple, just put out music we like and work with people we like. Last year your released a series of 12”’s on your own imprint Dense & Pika which worked well to get you guys recognised – while firmly staying anonymous was that all part of the plan? We think putting out music and letting it do the talking rather than shouting in everyone's face about it is a good honest way to start a project. If it doesn't work then it doesn't matter. If it does then great. Being anonymous is not really an important part of the plan as we have been gigging together for sometime and releasing music for over 10 years so if people wanted to find out who we are and where we live, etc, it wouldn't be that hard. Dense & Pika – Crispy Duck Now a year on how do you think this approach has paid off for you? We are both really happy with how it's going at the moment. We have a great agent and have felt really comfortable and happy working with Hotflush. Originally we planned on only sticking to the white labels. The diary is starting to get busy with some exciting shows in the coming months. How did the Hotflush hook up come about? Scuba had been playing a lot of our tracks so we sent him some new material and they asked to put out a 12 and that led to us deciding to put out 3 a year with them exclusively which we are really happy about. What’s the secret to your super tight production – or maybe not THE secret but what’s can you share about what’s at the core of your production set up? Pressing record and jamming around with as much kit as we can get our hands on then editing for days afterwords. Lots of running things out and back in and re- recording through kit to get the crunch. Dense & Pika - Crackling How do you translate that into your live set? Is it about replicating the tracks for you on stage or creating something new when you play live? There are sections where neither of us know what is going to happen and sections that are planned. The aim is to stray as far from the original tracks as possible whilst still keeping them recognisable. And I have to ask, what’s with the food themed track titles? Lunch is a big part of the day for us. Dense & Pika will be playing live in Room One on Saturday 2nd February joining Craig Richards and Scuba. For more info and tickets go here.
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