Photo: Fraser Taylor
Almost five years have passed since The Prototypes released their debut album City Of Gold.
Since then theyβve toured the world several times over, headlined more festivals than most of us will ever go to in a lifetime and launched their own label Get Hype. Theyβve also written their second album. Itβs called Ten Thousand Feet & Rising, itβs set to drop May 22 and launches with Shadows, their raviest cut since their highly sought Prodigy remix dubplate.
Shadows sets the tone and pace for the whole album. Featuring collabs with the likes of 2Shy, Kudu Blue, Elle ExxeΒ andΒ Lowes,Β itβs the sound of Nick White and Chris Garvey rolling their sleeves up, getting stuck in and celebating 10 years of The Prototypes in industrial-strength strong-arm fashion. Full energy anthems, gnarly tempo twists and lots of surprises. βItβs us being usβ says Garvey. Itβs them being absolute beasts, more like.
Ten Thousand Feet & Rising will be launched in their hometown Brighton at Chalk on May 22 then Colours, London on May 23. Hereβs where theyβre at right now.
Shadows! Proper ravey oneβ¦
Chris: As soon as that piano came along we knew it had vibes. It was from another idea we were working on but that was the bit that stuck with us. It was like βbam! This needs to be used!β
Nick: Itβs a straight up slammer. Itβs got a lot of different references for us but itβs mainly a belter.
Amen. A sign of things to come from the album? Weβve been waiting five years since City Of Gold for thisβ¦
Nick: This was the soonest it could come out really. Weβve been nonstop. We toured City Of Gold from 2015-16. Then we did a remix album and jumped straight into setting up our own label. That took up so much of our time. Weβve only released three singles during that time. We were in our own bubble, developing our artists and the label. We didnβt have the headspace to work on an album.
You were learning new skills!
Nick: Definitely man. It was something weβd always wanted to do. We threw ourselves into it quickly. We probably should have delegated some of the label responsibilities to others but weβve both very hands on with things.
Chris: I agree. You have to be all in or nothing. Thatβs us in a nutshell: fully concentrating on things. Whether thatβs the label or music. That said, weβre music producers first and foremost. Letβs not forget that. And thatβs when the album got serious.
Heads-down businessβ¦
Nick: 100%. When we release Millenia last year weβd already written half an album that we thought was good enough to go, but after Millenia we felt it wasnβt the right direction for us to go down.
Chris: releasing that made us realise how much the scene had changed a lot and it took a long time to get back into the zone and work out what we want to do, what we want from the musioc and what we love. This album is that β itβs us being us.
Was it hard to pick the first single from the album? Thereβs a lot of bangers on thereβ¦
Chris: For me Shadows was the number one choice.
Nick: The first time I played Shadows it just went off. Itβs one of those onesβ¦ Like when we first played Pale Blue Dot. You get this silence from the crowd for two seconds then you get this big roar. Weβve been in game long enough to know when weβve got a big tune.
Chris: Shadows is the perfect balance of where we want to be and who we are. Weβve not done a party D&B tune with a bassline like that in a long time. If ever!
I guess that captures the energy and vibe of the album. Whatβs the concept behind the title Ten Thousand Feet & Rising?
Nick: Itβs 10 years since we signed our first track to Infrared so itβs a reference to that. We achieved a lot of the goals we had set pretty quickly. Now we have to move forward and upwards. This is the latest project for us to do that. To keep pushing and keep raising the levels we set for us to reach.
Ten Thousand Feet & Rising is out May 22: Pre-order and launch party details
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