Introducing: 601

Blogs

601

With their recent album having received glowing reviews in the press, 601 are leading lights for future breaks. Our expert Johan Soh spoke to bandmember George to get their number.

North Yorkshire duo 601 are ploughing a forward-thinking furrow that does the damage on the dancefloor but still holds plenty of interest for those with more cerebral tastes. We thought it was about time we brought them to your attention and they've been kind enough to supply a fresh new mix for your listening pleasure. These lads have been mates since childhood, and have been producing tunes together since 1993, when they were a trio. The two remaining pair, Nat and George, are still very close with former 601 member Sam.

How does having known each other for all your lives affect the way they make music?
Sure we have had our rows but Nat's been with me through thick and thin and we have a great loyalty. Nat and I have learnt how to deal with each other like brothers over the years. We have an understanding of each other that means we can sidestep arguments most of the time. Funny thing is most people probably find us awkward as people but we get on like a house on fire. We have been doing this so long we're almost in sync a lot of the time and often come up with identical ideas. We also have a way we work which means we both have set roles in the studio, so we never tread on each others' toes.

Your album Dirty North got great reviews but 601 are still far from being a household name. With influences ranging from Baobinga & ID to Derrick May and George Lenton, it could be argued that you're unlikely to ever be streamlined enough for true mass recognition. Wouldn’t it be easier to just strap yourselves in the studio and mimic what everyone else is doing?
No, never and we never would. We're doing a few more bass music style tracks, with swung out four to the floor beats recently, but that's an artistic move rather than a commercial move cause we just fancied making some of those beats. Alongside this, we've also done some pretty heavy breaks mixes for Unstable and Downbeat and we've gone full out experimental breaks on some other mixes, like the one for J Hazen on Sound of Habib. We will always experiment but we would never sell ourselves out ever. I like the fact that we have that freedom with our stuff. We both have a sort of itchy feet attitude to music which means we couldn’t be satisfied with only making the same record over and over, so we always find ourselves experimenting and this has meant we have our own style

After releasing the album, you folded your own home label, Polar Red, and signed to RocStar, who are also taking care of your bookings. With this change in direction, what do you want to achieve with 601?
You would probably get a different answer if you asked Nat, but for me I'd like to deliver a body of music that I can look at with pride and hopefully one day I'd like to write a track that would be up there with the dance music classics. We'll keep trying even if we never quite manage it. It's good to aim high.

I loved having a label but it was hard to for us to juggle the roles as we are also both family men with kids and we have full-time jobs. Something had to give and so we had to reluctantly fold the label. We might have another label one day, but it would be a very different affair if we did. To be honest, Nat and I are always writing so we're pretty bad at being business men a lot of the time.

The success of the album and signing to RocStar has seen you doing more and more gigs. At first you were focusing on doing the album live but we understand 2010 will see a lot more DJ gigs?
We've concentrated on the Live sets for the last couple of years because they were more in keeping with the Dirty North LP and that cycle of material. We're going to be doing a lot more DJing this year, I think. We have a pretty cool set that’s ever changing, and it's got quite a little name for itself. For live gigs we have our main Macbook running Live and we have MIDI drum controllers, keyboards and an AKAI apc40 as our main controller. We do a lot of the triggering and keys live and we really concentrate on making it as live as possible. We played Glade this year and VJ Air joined us on visuals, which he'd made especially for the show, so we’re intending to collaborate with VJ Air a lot more in the future.

What can we expect from 601 next?

Well, in 2010 we have a ton of remixes on the way for (deep breath) Sound of Habib, Re:Connect, Westway, Unstable, Trickery Collective, Noodles and Pop and Lock, and we are working on original material for Rocstar. We've got a good spread of styles coming out, which will hopefully broaden our horizons. We're also going to be DJing a lot more, hopefully, as well as doing the live set.

Tracklisting