When it comes to astronomical profile rises, few this year come close to What So Not. Don’t take our word for it, take Emoh’s. We caught up with him when he made his London debut last week…
“It’s been pretty crazy, right?” grins Emoh. “Got to give love to HARD. They gave us such a great opportunity. Gary (Destructo) saw us playing at Stereosonic in Australia and said he’d put us on The Holy Ship. I didn’t expect it to become a reality or anything to come from it. Then two weeks before the event the set times came out with our names on the bill! It hadn’t been run by our management or anything. It was like, okay I guess we’re playing!
“Harley was already playing as Flume. So it was a rare time when we both played together. Every artist got on the stage. Skrillex, Diplo, Boys Noize all geeing everyone up on the mic. The turnaround from that was HARD Summer a few months later… From people not understanding our sound to packing an entire tent and having everyone sing along was an amazing experience. In the space of six or seven months.”
The same goes for Emoh’s recent London appearance. We’d say he smashed the club to pieces, but he’s far too appreciative of European architecture for that turn of phrase to suit…
“Coming here I understand why so many of my friends travelled to UK and Europe after school,” he considers. “Seeing the foundations that are embedded in Australian culture, you can see the depth. The buildings and bridges and sculptures and everything I see around here, all the details, blow me away… Australia was only colonised 200 years ago. So to see all of this history around me blows my mind!”
Fitting, because What So Not blow our mind a bit, too. Mixes like this recent one we hyped the other week and productions like Jaguar and Tell Me (with RL Grime) have ensured What So Not a prime position of every radar in the widest bass music spectrum.
The big question is when the devil are they going to release more?
“It’s coming,” Emoh promises. “I’m really excited about it. It’s taken longer than I wanted but I think it will make up for it. It’s the most exciting stuff I feel we’ve made together so far and I can wait to get it out there!”
We’ve taken the all too familiar EDM arpeggiations – those banging, hard monotonous sounds – and turned them into something really nice and melodic
We know there’s a track with vocalist George Maple. We know there’s a collaboration with Dillon Francis. We don’t know the release date – not even Emoh does – but we did find out how they’re approaching the productions and why Emoh is excited…
“We’ve always liked taking things that don’t go together and putting them together,” he explains. “Recently we thought we’d have a bit of fun against the EDM scene. So we’ve taken the all too familiar EDM arpeggiations – those banging, hard monotonous sounds – and turned them into something really nice and melodic.”
“We’ve also been fooling around using movie foley and even things like household appliances like a toaster popping or a fridge opening or a door shutting and using those in the fills instead of the usual drums you’d hear. Then of course we’re pulling it together with the big moody synths and chord progressions and vocal blends. Like I say, I can’t for you all to hear it.”
Neither can we. Keep What So Not locked: Facebook / Twitter / Soundcloud
