The Prototypes – Levelz [Review + BONUS INTERVIEW]

Don’t worry, this is no Avicii.

You couldn’t get more hype than The Prototypes. They’ve been on fire all year, their record label, Get Hype, is burning especially bright. “Levelz,” donning vocals of the don himself, Mad Hed City, will be the next installment  on the label, and boy is it a banger.

Check out the music video!

What is your favourite thing about working with vocalists?

NICK: Personally I like the different dynamic they give the tune – It can lead you down a totally different path from the original one you were on. It’s also nice to have that extra energy in the studio or that extra audio to play with to enhance the track.

CHRIS: Yeah a lot of the time getting a vocal can help you finish a tune or turn a tune into something completely different than what the demo vocal was performed on. Processing vocals to a modern spec is a lot of work but being able to work with vocalists like Kerwin (Mad Hed City) is a pleasure because he brings so much style to the table and when we work together a sound comes together that doesn’t when we work with other people and i think the same can be said for Kerwin.

What motivated you to start the label Get Hype?

NICK: I think we felt that we had been through so much over the last 6 years or so that we weren’t prepared to have to answer to anybody but ourselves. The thought of building our own crew & dominating the scene with a collective sound is an ambition & it was too big an opportunity to pass.

CHRIS: We’re no longer creating a sound for someone else, everything we do now we do for us (musically) we can do what we want when we want and that brings its own responsibilities but also Freedom to be us… fully. We’ve learned a lot from the journey through every label we’ve released on, both the things we like and dislike and we bring to table at Get Hype especially when dealing with and looking after other artists.

What’s the end goal?

NICK: To be the biggest, baddest label & crew in the game. No holds barred.

CHRIS: Glastonbury main stage.

Why do you think you succeed so well in creating powerful, large dancefloor tracks?

NICK: 90% of the time we have approached the writing of tunes the same way – Too fuck up the dance. Eventually, you work out a formula and then work on making that sound bigger & better. Simple really…….NOT!!!.

CHRIS: Its a combination of the different styles of music we both like outside of drum and bass thats ultimately lead to our music sounding the way it does and learning from making a lot of mistakes musically in the last 7 years that has helped us to understand who we are / and who we don’t want to be as artists when we make music as The Prototypes, that and the need to make a dancefloor go nuts.

What are your favorite and least favorite things about one another?

NICK:  Favourite: His eye & ear for detail.  

            Least Favourite: His ability to fall to sleep in 1 second.

CHRIS: Favourite: He takes no shit from anyone.

             Least Favourite: When he puts one usb stick in the deck when were going B2B on four. (its a long story.) 

What are your goals as artists?

NICK:  To be the biggest we can be & have a top-selling album.

CHRIS: To fulfill as many dreams as possible, we’ve already achieved more than we ever thought we would,  so the goal from now is to reach for the impossible.

What kind of an impact do you think your work has made?

NICK: I think the moment you start caring about how your work is being perceived you put yourselves under immense pressure – We are confident in our sound but most importantly our fans love it & that’s all that matters.

CHRIS: Yeah we learnt early on when we first came onto the scene and received huge radio support right away, it lead us down a path of ‘trying’ the write the next big tune, unfortunately it doesn’t work like that, it happens when it happens and the more pressure you apply the further backwards you go, so we never like to think of what impact we’re having on the scene were just doing what want and enjoying it.