Francois and Louis Benton are a duo that have been stamping their names on the future bass and bassline scene throughout past few years. Their Weekend Offender release put the bass world on notice that these two would be coming on strong in 2018. Their two new singles on UKF’s latest bass compilation album (“Only Us” and “Over U”) have signaled that those predictions have come to fruition.
We were lucky enough to sit down with them to discuss their formative years as artists, their creative process, and those two new singles that UKF have released to much fanfare.
You guys have been collaborating for a long time. What brought you together and made you want to produce music?
We grew up on the same street and instantly became friends from the age of 8 years old. We shared many of the same interests, the main one being music. Our story is quite deep, Louis’s dad was a DJ but was tragically taken in a car accident. Louis soon inherited his dad’s decks and we self-taught ourselves. Francois had a few connections with bars & clubs in our home-town, so we got our first look in when we were about 18 at a club called M2 where we soon became residents. A couple of years after this, we started co-producing tracks with one of our friends, who goes by the name of Chris Lorenzo.
You’ve both released music as solo artists. How is it different working in a duo? What’s your usual creative process?
We both enjoy working on solo projects but prefer to work together as we both bring different ideas. We respect each other’s input in the studio session, which makes the end product what it is. Since we created Weekend Offender we have always put the pressure on ourselves to deliver.
Francois, your musical career started out with releases that were of the house variety. What caused you to end up producing bass music?
I’ve always collected a variety of music, and that will never change but bass music has always been what I really vibe off. We used to go to underground bassline nights when we were like seventeen years old. I would say that this inspired me to produce bass music.
Garage and future bass are rapidly growing sounds. Have you seen any changes in the seen that came along with the newfound popularity of the last few years?
Let’s be honest, the scene has just done one massive circle and come back round, but with a bigger & better audience which we think is great.
Louis, you’re in a somewhat small population of producers that contribute production skills and vocals to your songs. Is that something that you’ve been doing for a while? Do you have a background in singing/emceeing?
Well, I started out as a DJ but felt like giving the vocal side of things a go, it was a bit of a gamble but one worth taking now that I look back at 16 million plays on our first record, Weekend Offender. It’s been nice collaborating with bassline legend Jamie Duggan also.
You guys have several songs on UKF Bass Culture 4, including the lead songs, what can you tell us about “Only Us” and “Over U”?
We’re just buzzing that UKF wanted to sign them as it’s a label that we always wanted to be on. “Only Us” is probably our favourite record that we have ever made, it was fun working with Riddim Commission and the vocals from Asha are awesome.
You’re both from the UK, but recently you started touring around Europe, what’s that been like? Any plans to go to Australia or North America?
Well we wouldn’t quite call it a tour as such. We headlined our first festival in Germany last year which went off. Fingers crossed for Australia & North America tours, they would both be a dream.
Both of you have been very prolific releasing music in the last year or so, can we expect any new releases?
Let’s just say winter is coming so we will be hibernating in the studio.
We at RaverRafting want to thank Francois and Louis Benton for taking the time to answer a few questions for us. We’ll be following along with their progress and are eagerly awaiting the products of all that time spent in the studio.
Connect with Francois and Louis Benton:
https://www.facebook.com/francoisandlouisbenton
https://soundcloud.com/francoisandlouisbenton
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