The North Base men sure spat out a winner with “I’m Forgiving Love” (Featuring Ewan Sim.) Dean Fletcher, William Gregory and Simon Martins have been making consistently memorable tunes for 6 years now, and their latest dancefloor hit for Technique Recordings does not disappoint.
The tune is emotional off the bat with crisp, lingering, mournful horns and twinkling plucks that cascade into Ewan’s strong, but wistful vocals. The breakdown’s epic crashes and pulsing build drops into a surprisingly energetic dancefloor drop— full of zinging saws and powerful, beautiful synths complimented by a light, uplifting stringy melody. The emotional switch from regret to power is what makes the tune a winner for me. The song feels like a triumphant journey through emotional pain, and has a strong feeling of self-acceptance. Raw and refreshing, this tune is 100% a must play in my sets right now.
I wanted to know more, so I reached out to Dean and Simon to pick their brains on their newest tune, their approach to music, and where 2017 has brought them.
What is at the root of “I’m Forgiving Love?” It feels personal— Tell me the story behind the tune.
Dean: We just teamed up with Ewan and the rest is history really. He is a up-and-coming vocalist, singer/ songwriter, so we all sat in the studio, put down some chords, and came up with the song. It was real easy really– I think we had most of it done in one day, which is pretty quick for us in the studio. Normally tracks with vocals can take some time to get right, but Ewan is a pure G– he just came in and smashed it one time. We hope to be working with him again in the near future.
Simon: The root for ‘I’m Forgiving Love’ was by putting chords to the vocals making the intro of the track as emotional and captivating as possible with the instrumentation such as the horns and the string section. Then adding melodic synthesized sounds to work within the natural elements. Once we had a skeleton of the intro we then started playing around with bass lines that would work well with the track.
Ewan is a great vocalist! He was very easy to get along with and bounce ideas from. Once we had the overall track we started smashing it on the dance-floors and it seemed to get an amazing response.
What do you think is unique about your music? What about your sound are you most proud of?
Dean: I think what is unique about our music is there are so many different styles we can make. Yeah everyone can make styles of music, but not many see it through to the end and I think thats where we differ. I feel that with North Base we have stuck to what we know and what we can do in the studio and just gone from there. One day it could be a hard vibe other days it can be chilled.
Me, personally, I like what we are doing ’cause we are being different from everyone else, where most producers just stick to making jump up or Dancefloor dnb. I like to create the whole spectrum– if it’s cheesy, it’s cheesy; if it’s mellow, it’s mellow; it’s jump up, it’s jump up. it’s all music at the end of the day right?
Simon: I think what makes us unique is the fact that we can turn our hand to most sub genres with in Drum N Bass.
What is the key to successful collaboration? Why is collaboration important to music?
Dean: Collabs are very important– It can pull you into a scene you have never worked in before, and you can learn so many amazing things in the studio. It’s a win win on both sides– it brings people together and we can make new friends, have fun etc etc.
It’s all about working as a team in this game really– Our scene is very small and we all need to muster together to make it better.
Simon: I believe collaboration is key. It’s two different sounds coming together, which will both form a fusion of the genre and create something unique. As well as making friendships and also learning things from each other, you both learn helpful tips or unique ways of working and creating new music together. What you then learn from these collaborations you can then use in your own unique way of how you work and create music.
Tell us about your favorite place you’ve traveled to this year– work or pleasure.
Dean: In Bulgaria we played on a secluded beach for DJ SS– it was an amazing place, and I hope to go back again next year. We are also going to Tokyo this year, which we are looking forward to and should be amazing– Looking forward to Kuala Lumpur as well.
But so far Let It Roll has been the highlight of this year– Chilling with all the greats of dnb, getting mad drunk, watching Benny L fall asleep. It’s been such a fun year this year– We have met so many great people and had such an amazing time. We hope we can do it again next year
Simon: My most memorable place i’ve played so far this year has to be Let It Roll– It’s been a dream to play there! Let It Roll was a very messy time as well as making loads of new friends there. Forbidden Forest which we have just played as well the crowd. Hideout Festival has to be up there as well which was a really great experience with it being my first year out there and of course D&B Weekender that was a hell of a lot of fun!
Listen to “I’m Forgiving Love” (Featuring the lovely vocals of Ewan Sim) here:
