Descending down upon us with its pristine unwinding harmonics as chromatic drums strike down with swooping pads, jubilant vocal cuts, all while chopped up reese's rip through the celestial. We were delighted to premiere the release over on our Soundcloud as they embark on a new chapter with their sound which you can read more on….

At only the age of eighteen, hailing from Swindon, UK, they’ve both had their own unique music journeys along the way before joining forces. Ewan has already dipped his toes into new age Drum & Bass, aiming to integrate genres in an unexpected way with his vivid synth work and grainy textures. Hurleybird on the other hand has plunged into Drum & Bass and hopefully does not plan to look back. Coming from chill synth electronic music endeavours, gliding through many tempos and structures, his creative aptitude will certainly surge through our ears in the near future. In accordance with the premiere, we had the opportunity to catch up with them to see how it all began.

Welcome in, and thanks for taking the time out of your schedule to chat! First off, how did you two first link up?

Ewan: During lockdown when everything just kicked off, everything was taught online.

Will: When they were deciding whether to keep schools open or not…online is where everything started between Ewan and me.

Ewan: We were in the same music class at college and after the first lesson I sent him a message about something that happened in class. The first thing we spoke about was music! From there we met up irl and here we are.

What was your first experience with electronic music and how did everything first start out?

Will: The first time I interacted with digital music production I was around age thirteen in school they had music computers, everything was key-based, and mix craft so we were experimenting trying to use the loops and make music. This was my first interaction with making music on a computer, before it was all performance with drums. We had school bands so most of my experience was with drumming. After year eleven sort of the transition into college, deciding what I should do for the courses, Digital Music Production was definitely the one.

The knowledge I’ve learned, the techniques and workflow went exponential from that point on. The songs I’ve released myself were not on Ableton which is what I use now, but on an iPhone app called Auxy. I figured out my workflow there, I seemed to make more diverse and complex songs rather than Ableton because of the learning curve. I kept pumping out songs with my skills there but as soon as college kicked in in September 2020, my eyes were opened. Discovered all the different genres I was missing out on and different production techniques I was forgetting in previous songs. This year even more so, Ewan started proper music production around the same time I did and he showed me the music he’s made which was many steps above what I was doing, it blew my mind. Took the knowledge he had and started working on our collaboration together ‘Seraphim’ which was five to six months ago.

Ewan: My start in music was with my dad who's been DJing forever. The first experience I had on the decks was when I was around eight or nine years old, nothing serious but it was fun nonetheless. I mainly mixed Hip Hop and House, stemming into darker Bass House music, where the inspiration in my music comes from. Around thirteen years old was when I properly pushed into DJing and a year later I sort of got bored of it so I started producing. I wanted to learn how to do everything in music and not be limited by one thing. I began making very) bad House tunes until I discovered a few Drum & Bass artists that I liked which completely set it off. Over the past two years I properly started to produce and hone my skills.

In the beginning, what artists really inspired you?

Ewan: Noisia, Secula, Maysev, IMANU, Flume, Sophie and Buunshin are the big ones that come to mind, absolutely insane stuff. RIP Sophie.

Will: The stuff I listened to back then was all over the place but KAYTRANADA, glue70, Photay,  Sam Gellaitry, and Voyage really made things interesting.

Ewan, I first discovered your music through the collaboration 'Fuchsia' with the producer azotix from Romania.

Ewan: It was through the IMANU Patreon! It's a great community. I recently left due to circumstances with mental health but we met there, azotix is awesome, and I’m really excited for what he does next with his musical journey.

Why the switch to your real name?

Ewan: MIDAS became a bit of an experiment because I was sort of just winging it to be honest. I was younger and wanted to experiment with musical ideas, and not have them be attached to my real name. I have tons of unreleased songs as MIDAS that I don’t think I’ll ever release because they're still attached to the minimalistic style. They were deeper, rooting from a few years of stress with lockdown and school. Eventually, we eased out of lockdown, and I eased out of my mindset. I moved on with things and realized I didn’t want to be limited to making deep Drum & Bass so I strived to make more melodic tracks which were when I found IMANU and Secula & YAANO’s servers, who are a great community.

A first big moment for you was when your collab with Hydrae made it on VISION Radio, how did you guys link up to create ‘Sterile’?

Ewan: I found him through the IMANU server. I joined about a year ago as MIDAS when I experienced my name change. Hydrae stood out to me because his art, music and knowledge were stunning to me. I genuinely cannot thank him enough! He has helped me so much, I owe him a ton. He’s doing artwork for another collaboration with NOÚS and me, coming soon.

Ewan, your first official label release 'Raincoat / What You Say' came out on Influenza Media, how’d it come to be?

Ewan: ‘Raincoat’ is actually the same project file as my other track “OMIT” believe it or not! They stemmed from each other. I and azotix were on a call one night in IMANU’s voice chat on Discord and I wanted to re-create a lead sound I heard on ‘Wake Up Slap’ by latesleeper & gyrofield. It's similar to the lead I eventually stuck with for 'OMIT' but I changed it in a way that I thought would fit. Taking inspiration from Camo & Krooked, it all fell into place. ‘Raincoat’ was originally me experimenting with more liquidy, techy sort of sounds. It really takes inspiration from the game ‘Little Nightmares’, to the point where I even sampled some of the foley effects and musical elements. The artwork is also very inspired by the series. Eventually ‘What You Say’ was made with TheRavingNerd (Vince). I met him through the IMANU server as well, again it was more experimentation with the polar opposite of what MIDAS was. I was happy with both tunes and reached out to Marco from Influenza and they liked the tunes I sent.

What’s the meaning behind 'Seraphim'?

Ewan: It's gone through many very different changes. Seraph is a type of celestial or heavenly being, originating in ancient Judaism.’Seraphim’ is simply a collection of these entities. I do want to mention how amazing Gaijin handled the artwork for the release and I really appreciate it. It is gorgeous, we weren’t expecting this quality at such speed. We love it!

Will: We were stuck on trying to pick a name, the song was going quite well, and we had some fairly cringe names before. We have no clue what they were now.

Ewan: I must admit there is no real meaning to it, we both thought it was a cool name and stuck with it.

How did the track get started in the studio?

Ewan: Originally it started with an idea from me. I actually have the original concept project file, and it’s very similar. It shares the same sonic qualities in a way but the changes have been refined over and over through Will and I finding time together. I really wanted to work on a Drum and Bass tune with Will because we had ideas through inspiration from ARIGTO, an Ambient music producer. duo. Also, the ideas Will has are amazing and I wanted to see how he would affect a DnB tune.

Will: We started in the college studio at first.

Ewan: We had two and a half hours' worth of ideas in Midi, it was a little studio with a keyboard and a few synths. We were messing about and eventually, Will played with some really nice chords that we eventually used in ‘Seraphim’. It went from there, and the ideas came out and we blended them all together. I wrote them down on my laptop and it came to life at home.

Will: Yeah I was messing around on the keyboard to achieve those chords. We began by using them in the intro rather than the main drop. Eventually, everything was following the same patterns of our previous ambient works but then we just flipped everything to Drum & Bass. It was a nice turnaround and really gave some character to the tune.

Ewan: The majority of it was done at college in the spare time we had at the studio and I’d come back home to refine it with the ideas we had together. He came over a few times, we made the second drop along with many other ideas and made a funk version as well.

Will: I noticed some sonic elements missing especially with the bass, it had a big dip when I was analyzing it so I added a sawtooth and filled it in. Arranging it as well, the idea Ewan came up with after we finished the intro, the drop part was a bit abrupt so I spent my time on Ableton smoothing it out, making the pads flow into each other and also made the rhythm to the second drop as well.

Will, I assume you plan to make more of your own bass electronica yes?

Will: I do yeah! My hard drive has hundreds upon hundreds of unfinished good ideas, I just lack the mindset at the moment to finish them off and make them polished tracks. Originally I’m from the chill synth background but now I’m planning on making releases into more deep bass electronica tracks.

Any artists you would really like to work with?

Ewan: Sign would be amazing. Circumference as well, their recent release 'Breathe' on Soulvent Records was glorious, I reckon a collaboration with them would be amazing. They all seem like amazing people too.

Will: Davz is someone I would absolutely adore to work with, his soundscapes are amazing, and hearing his music is like reading a story with your ears. His sound design is on another level, and the attention to detail he has is absolutely stunning, especially with his ambient EP.

I’ve learned through our RendahMag Discord that you really enjoy bread Ewan so tell me, what’s your favourite type of bread?

Ewan: French bread with spicy mint butter spread. Honestly could live off of the stuff.

Lastly, any advice for anyone out there learning to produce?

Ewan: Know where to spend your time because the number one thing you don’t want to do is spend it worrying about yourself and the numbers. The entire production process takes a long time, but trust me it’s worth it. Getting goosebumps from your own tune is a good feeling, it just takes a bit of time.

Will: Focus on how to develop yourself, don’t fret about being as good as other artists. Take inspiration from them instead of reflecting it onto your own work.

As always, your time is greatly appreciated so thanks for chatting!

Stay tuned for a RendahMag exclusive track from these gentlemen through our Dominion subscription next month!