We’re not trying to say The Prototypes have been a bit quiet on the release front… But The Prototypes have definitely been a little quieter on the release front.
Until last week, Millennia has been their only single on their Get Hype label in over 18 months and last year their only single was Species with TC on Bassrush.
But all of that is set to change. It’s already changing…. Last week they blessed us with a massive remix of Delta Heavy and Modestep’s Here With Me. Now they’ve dropped Into The Night. A powerful vocal boost back to their original sound – with added 2020 production muscle – they add to the 40+ pile of uploads we’ve done with them since the earliest days. For both The Prototypes and UKF.
And this is just the beginning. There’s a good reason why Nick White and Chris Garvey have been quiet on the release front…. They’re neck deep into their second album! Here’s what we know so far.
Millenia, the Here With Me Remix, Into The Night. I know you never went away, but it does feel like you’re well and truly back!
Nick: Yeah it feels that way too to be honest. It’s been a long road.
Chris: A very long road. After our City Of Gold album, it’s taken us a long time to find our sound again and find ourselves as artists and what we love about D&B again. The scene has changed a lot in the last four years
Nick: In the last two years alone it’s changed massively.
Chris: The conclusion we came to was that we are who we are and we’re not going to jump on trends.
Nick: We’ve seen a lot of guys start producing jump up when they’ve never done a jump up track in their lives before and that’s not what we’re about.
Chris: We’ve never followed trends or jumped on bandwagons. We’ve always stuck to our guns.
All the legendary acts do! It’s about having your own sound that’s beyond trends or subgenres. It’s yours…
Chris: Yeah for sure. That’s one of the pressures; you set a bar for yourself and you’re constantly trying to hit or raise that bar. And that’s a lot of hard work.
Nick: And we’ve just felt it’s not been the right time to release our music. There’s been a few things like our collaboration with TC in 2018 and Millennia in March on Get Hype. There wasn’t the space because the label was so stacked with other artists, so all of our time has been invested in that.
It’s mad Get Hype is over three years old now. That’s been the main focus for you guys since the album hasn’t it?
Nick: It has man. It’s opened our eyes a lot about stuff behind the scenes and we’ve learnt a hell of a lot. It’s made me respect how hard it was for us to breakthrough & how it can still be really difficult for new artists in the long run. You have so many platforms to shout from that getting the flash in the pan is easy now – maintaining it is the real skill.
Harder now then when you broke through?
Nick: I don’t know man there’s a lot more emphasis on image and social media numbers – don’t get me wrong we like to keep our social media content strong on all fronts but its become very gimmicky & that shit is just fucking dead to me – i hate it – yeah we get involved to an extent but man that doesn’t mean it still doesn’t suck, but it seems that if you do that enough your music can be a bit shit but you’ll still get good traction. Its backwards to me personally.
Chris: That’s true in a lot of cases but if the music is good enough then you will break eventually. I still believe that. And when things do kick off, all that hard work pays off. That’s why we’re supporting and bringing through lots of acts we believe in.
Nick: We didn’t realise how much work we needed to put into the label. We pushed ourselves aside to help the new guys come through and relaunch some of the older guys. We definitely put Get Hype before The Prototypes for a while but now it’s the time for The Prototypes to be the priority.
Chris: It’s time to concentrate on us now.
Nick: The time is right for us to come back and stamp our sound down and say ‘we are still here’. We never went away but things move so quickly we never want to get complacent…
Amen. So you broke the seal with Millenia. Now Into The Night for UKF10….
Nick: It feels wicked to be back with a vocal tune. It’s been four years since our last vocal release but as the original Proto fans will remember, we used to release vocal tunes all the time.
Chris: Yes it’s definitely a throwback to our original sound, but much fresher.
I think that’s really fitting for a UKF10 release. Do you realise you’ve had over 40 uploads on the channel? You’re one of our most popular acts. Give me some UKF stories….
Nick: 40 uploads? Fucking hell that’s crazy. Time flies. A good friend of mine (DJ El Presidente) first told me about UKF when we had written Cascade and Evolution. Way back in 2010 I think. I was like ‘what the fucks that?’ He told me ‘you have to send them these tunes, I think they will love the sound.’ We did, and sure enough Luke loved both those tracks and the relationship grew from there. Thanks for the link George.
Chris: We played at the first ever UKF night too. It’s nice to see us all grow together and some of the projects we’ve worked on together, like the Transmission video. They have been seriously epic.
Didn’t realise you played the first ever UKF night! Take us back to that!
Great memories. It was at XOYO, playing on the stage and the place was rammed! It was also Modestep’s first ever live show. I believe they played after us. It was the first and only UKF event at XOYO and not long after that UKF was at Alexandra Palace! I’m sure there’s a fresh-faced pic of us from that somewhere.
Yeah just less than a year. Mad. So I think we’re pretty lucky to get Into The Night… Rumour has it you’re very much neck deep on your second album?!? What can you tell us?
Nick: Slowly but surely. We started to develop ideas and work on ideas & they have come together nicely. We’re not rushing anything but we’d like to think it will be ready in the next few months.
Chris: That’s all you are getting from us for now! We are really excited about it though that’s for sure.
It sounds like a different approach to City Of Gold. That was a very intense process, right?
Chris: It was by the final stages and the mixdowns. Yeah, we hated the studio after that one for a while!
Nick: It’s mad to think it was four years ago and that we’ve only released four singles since then. Weirdly our DJ schedules just keep getting busier and busier. We’re going for the jugular man, this isn’t about putting out a few singles to remind people we’re here, it’s about putting out music and saying ‘we are back and we aren’t fucking about’
You always have, though. Since I’ve known you, there’s always been an ‘all or nothing at all’ spirit to The Prototypes?
Chris: Thanks but there are peaks and troughs with everything aren’t there? We invested so much time and energy into our last album that it took a long time to get back to that level where we felt we could do that again.
Sounds like you’re well and truly back at that level now though?
Nick: It’s been a tough but rewarding 18 months. Don’t get me wrong, the DJing schedule has been a dream. We’ve played fucking everywhere but stuff in our personal lives took precedence, as it can for anybody. It’s taken us most of this year to get back into the place where we can say ‘yeah we are ready’ again. Because we fucking are.
Be ready: The Prototypes – Into The Night is out now on UKF10
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