I recently spoke on the phone with Will Kennard from Chase and Status to discuss their upcoming album "No More Idols" and recent collaborations with Tempa T, Plan B and Cee Lo Green.
Interviewer: You've got a new album coming out end of January called "No More Idols". You guys have always been one to blend genres and crossover, what influences and styles have you got planned for the new album?
Will: Gosh, lots of different sorts of influences really. It's quite a varied album, there's some quite extreme different styles of music, from tracks we've done with Plan B to the group White Lies, or a singer called Claire Maguire… From really deep, wanting vocals to tracks like "No Problem" which is like drum n bass tear out, and tracks like "Hypest Hype" which is rock infused, grime meets dubstep meets… god knows really (laughs). There's just so many different sounds on the album, there's hip hop as well, raw sounding hip hop with Tinie Tempah. I hope it all works on the same album and makes some kind of sense (laughs).
Interview: You've just released Hypest Hype with Tempa T, what's the response been like so far?
Will: Incredible. It wasn't an official release because it was a free download but it got on the A list on Radio 1 and was one of the most played records on there in the last few weeks. The response has been unbelievable, from Chris Moyles playing it at 7 in the morning… which we thought was quite hilarious, but yeah it's turned into a bit of a beast really, it's become a real highlight in the live show. We've been bringing Tempa T around with us, and he's phenomenal, his energy is just unlike anyone. So it's really exciting, really amazed how big it's become.
Interview: Are there any tracks that really stand out, for you, off the new album?
Will: We're quite excited about a track we did with Cee Loo Green, who's obvious recently had a worldwide no.1 with "Forget You".. We've done a track with him, which is not what people will know from him, it's hardcore, pretty grimy and punky sounding, really excited to see what people think about that. A track we did with Tinie Tempah we're really excited about, "No One Knows", it's not really typical of what he's been doing at the moment, that's sort of what we're all about really. There are so many, the White Lies track I'm really proud of, the Claire Maguire track, and the new Plan B song on there that no one's heard with Rage on it, from our band. Proud of it all really, hopefully people will be feeling it too.
Interview: Is the new Plan B track similar to "End Credits"? You released that a year or two ago, and have kept it on the new album?
Will: Yeah that's right, it was released a while back, but then we took a while getting our album finished. We felt it was a nice way to, at the end of the album… it felt sort of important to add to this collection of work, it was done at the start of a new era for us, and it sort of ended with the finishing of this album. The new track with Plan B, it's got a drum n bass vibe about it, it's a little a bit harder than "End Credits", it's quite similar but has a punky feel, and we're hoping it'll go down well in the live show.
Interview: What was it like working with Plan B? Do you guys just vibe in the studio or have him in mind when you produce a track?
Will: Well, our history goes back to when we remixed a track off his first album called "No Good". It's a natural relationship, we know each other so well now. We toured around with him a lot, we're always throwing ideas around, and in the studio he's obviously such a creative guy to work with, coming up with hundreds of ideas, and it's about channelling some of those ideas into what we want to do. It's very natural and very easy, it's just hard pinning him down now because he's so busy and successful now, so keeping it rapid is our goal.
Interview: You have a new single "Blind Faith" coming out soon...
Will: Yeah, that's coming out a week before the album, on the 26th January. It's featuring Liam Bailey who's gonna be a massive name next year. It's a really cool track, we wanted to do something that had inspiration from early rave, rave culture, and an almost hardcore vibe but with a modern twist. We do it in live shows towards the end of the set and that takes a break from people moshing out and kicking the crap out of each other! Yeah it's just a really nice moment, and we hope people like it!
