An all-star roster, wonderful team chemistry, and a steady stream of kicks. Are we talking about Man City’s treble? Not quite. But The North Quarter’s recent production camp was arranged to mimic some of those core values of the beautiful game, producing equally beautiful results.
The gathering was held in West Amsterdam’s Balboa Square, where football legends Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard founded their lifelong friendship. Also in the home territory of label boss Lenzman, and core contributor Submorphics – the first couple of names we can attribute to this VA release… Each track will, however, simply be credited to ‘The North Quarter All Stars’.
These elements of intrigue and storytelling give the listener an added wonder about what went down within those temporarily sound-proofed, Airbnb walls. Listening through each track, it’s difficult to pin-point the artists involved, but they’re all soaked in the trademark sounds that The North Quarter champions.
There’s a supporting mini-documentary, which shows faces of some of the usual suspects: Satl, FD, Redeyes… But In the spirit of the concept, it is best to view the tracks as a product of the chemistry bubbling in that room. A team effort, where each producer brings a slightly different skillset, style, and approach. Nevertheless, a couple of unmistakable vocalists cut through prominently, including Steo – who peppers almost every track, and Fox – who has a soulful feature on the beautifully rolling ‘Schizm’.
All in all, bringing the crew together for an in-person, days-long production session has been a winning formula. The resulting nine tracks are nothing short of the finest drum & bass, maintaining the standard that The North Quarter has been setting since 2016. The label is known for it’s tight roster, who are always in collaboration with one another – Balboa Square is a pure example of what these family-focussed values can bring to a label’s outputs.
UKF wanted to dig a little deeper into the dynamics of this producer camp, while keeping with the theme of it being a collective output – so we set up an anonymous interview with the NQ All Star squad. Along with the mini-documentary, expect a rare insight into the processes and interactions that built this unique release…
Tell me about these producer camps… where are they? Do they happen often?
NQ All Star #1: A bunch of us came together in an Airbnb in an undisclosed location in The Netherlands to write music for a few days. We all brought some equipment and set up throughout the place having multiple spots to write and record. Using ironing boards as synth standards etc. We’d been wanting to do this for quite some time; just to be able to have the experience of writing music in an isolated setting without distractions. It’s the first time we did it as most of us had to travel. It’s not that easy to organise, but we’re all keen to do another some time.
NQ All Star #2: This was a first time occurrence and was located about 60 km outside of Amsterdam kind of in the boonies. Getting six of the crew together felt like a small miracle logistically – but taking around 4 days to write sketches and hang out proved to be a fruitful endeavour. Perhaps the next one will be in a more exotic locale like New Zealand or even the south of France…
NQ All Star #5: I think they are great – all creative minds put in one box forced to make music on the spot, and whatever happens, happens!
Why did you choose Balboa Square?
NQ All Star #1: When Ruud Gullit met Frank Rijkaard at Balboa Square in West Amsterdam not only were two legends born, but a life-long friendship was forged due to a mutual love for The Beautiful Game. This same location was the starting point from where we drove to the camp location with a goal of capturing the essence of a label built around this same friendship and a mutual love… but for beautiful music.
NQ All Star #5: Because all of my label mates are into football!
Was it the usual NQ roster there, or were there some special guests invited too?
NQ All Star #1: As it was scheduled right at the tail end of the Covid situation, there were still some travel restrictions and geographical difficulties, so not everyone was present, but we did get most of the core members involved after the fact.
Let’s talk about the music you made there – do you come prepared with track ideas, or is it all completely fresh?
NQ All Star #3: There was one loop I had on the go, but I hadn’t intended on putting it out there for the project. It was really a clean slate. I never come prepared, I let the music dictate where the music goes. If I catch a vibe then that’s the starting point.
NQ All Star #4: I came unprepared pretty much, apart from bounced sounds and half-ideas I had from before that we could work on, or start an idea with. Not loads of these got used, but some did, and it made for a useful jumping off point, or a quick starting block to build from.
NQ All Star #1: I think everyone prepared some samples, sounds, recorded synth stuff, drum hits and so on. But the idea was really to go in fresh and without anything prepped so the process of writing on the spot with others, being inspired by the setting and the process of working in a group would take centre stage.
NQ All Star #2: Some very raw ideas and samples were brought to the camp to have some launching points – but mostly these tunes were written within the 4 day camp.
NQ All Star #5: I went in completely fresh, straight out of the box!
How does it work technically? Are you all working from shared instruments and samples – or does everyone bring their own?
NQ All Star #1: Everyone did bring their own stuff where possible. We had some synths present, a guitar, a load of pedals, monitors and so on. I think we had two set-ups with monitors, one recording spot and everyone had laptops so people would just be making music on the dining table with headphones as well. The synths were shared, but also stuff was worked on individually at times and then passed around. It was all quite organic and done without much premeditation. People just worked with who they felt like working with at the time, and someone could just walk into a room and jump on a session if they caught a vibe.
NQ All Star #2: Two workstations in two different rooms were created. The local artists provided their monitors, and some additional hardware instruments. At all times there were two creative rooms going simultaneously with different sketches and ideas happening at once. Steo also had a room for doing vocals separately – so the whole household was turned into a creative bubble.
NQ All Star #4: The answers above pretty much cover this – we all bought our own stuff and ideas and sounds. But we did also share these samples and sounds – and we bought some bits of outboard gear that everyone then used and tried ideas on.
How is it different having everyone in the room at once, versus a normal solo or duo production session?
NQ All Star #3: There’s nowhere to hide. Each person’s process is different and not all methods will work with the other, so each person has to compromise on their approach. There’s also an added dimension of pressure when working with people who’s music you love and admire. When I work solo, I have the comfort of refining the idea before it gets heard by other ears. Obviously that’s not the case in this scenario. Personally I loved it. Instant reaction – good or bad – was quite refreshing. Things that I may have dismissed were picked up by others and ideas I was locked in on weren’t. Things were made in the moment and magic kept on happening.
NQ All Star #4: It just adds a really different and refreshing energy. Everyone has the freedom to add something or interject with something, so it’s different in that everyone can have an input. But also the energy and flow are different, and consequently, so are the results – you really hear a bit of everyone and everything.
NQ All Star #1: I think you just get a different type of enthusiasm for the process of writing when there’s a few people working towards the same goal. You get different angles to tackling a problem. There can be some obstacles, as people might be working on different DAWs to what you’re used to, or you might have different directions you want to take an idea on – but for the most part it was an extremely inspiring and positive experience.
NQ All Star #2: Only three or four people in one room at once made things less cluttered, and I reckon four chefs in one kitchen tends to be enough!
NQ All Star #5: I think it’s just constant vibes, if you get stuck with what to do there will be another three people giving their input.
Were you drawing on these themes of football and friendship throughout the production?
NQ All Star #1: Well that’s something that has been an ongoing theme in the label group. Especially because the label is very international we have banter about it. Not everyone is a massive football fan, but it does get talked about frequently… especially the glory days. Holland actually played Germany while we were at camp, so we obviously watched that together.
It’s just friendly banter, something we’ve connected over. We thought it was a fitting theme as we are doing this project as a team, and we set off from the very spot that Gullit and Rijkaard met each other.
Obviously not everyone contributes to every tune – I imagine each one touches 2-4 artists? How do you choose a person to split off with in this producer-camp environment?
NQ All Star #5: It came on really naturally – we didn’t have a schedule who makes music with who, just walking from room to room to see what’s going on, and catching vibes
NQ All Star #2: Each member of The North Quarter All Stars has specific skills in terms of technicality, musicality and everyone has a few sounds or styles that they are more adept at. With that in mind, we all know each other’s musical styles and skills fairly well and seem to know which group member would suit each idea best. One person tends to start each tune, but yes – three or four people were involved in every individual tune.
NQ All Star #4: To me, it felt that we just went with whatever felt like a good thing to do at the time. We did look to have combinations that hadn’t happened before though, in terms of who worked with who at the camp later down the line.
NQ All Star #1: Yes I think the minimum number of people on a single track was three, but there are tracks with up to five I think. It wasn’t really a conscious decision to work with certain people – it just happened in the moment when the foundations for the tracks were laid. Because we wanted to get as many ideas down as possible, we never really focused on getting tracks done at the camp, but more on laying down vibes and moving on. Things played out really naturally and we ended up leaving with around 30 sketches.
Then in phase two, everyone was deciding on which were the strongest sketches and asked to work on specific tracks. We then made a schedule on who was working on what, and in what order. Initially we had thought about each of us working on everything, but that was too ambitious, and also a bit like having too many chefs in the kitchen – with people having different visions… So we just decided to have certain people focus on finishing specific tracks.
We also had a few people involved on tracks that couldn’t reach camp unfortunately. There could have been more people involved but as we had a lot of people involved already it became more about streamlining and narrowing things down in order to get things done. We could’ve kept going forever otherwise.
Was there any track that everyone touched?
NQ All Star #5: Don’t think so.
NQ All Star #2: There was not.
NQ All Star #1: No, we had set out to run it like that, but after we got back from the camp and we had about 30 sketches, and picked around 10 to work on further, it became evident that life got in the way again – that magic of having everyone in the moment, in the same place, with the same goal, at the same time, was impossible to achieve again long distance. People have things going on and some were off on holiday, or on tour, or had kids to take care of. It became clear that we’d be better off if certain people took charge of certain tracks to get them over the line.
Was there any collaborations that hadn’t occurred before, but turned out to be amazing?
NQ All Star #2: Some participants had not attempted to make music together previously. These first time creative linkups proved to have some rather interesting results – and it feels like everyone’s egos and expectations were put to the side, for the benefit of creating some fresh musical and sonic amalgamations!
NQ All Star #1: I think every single track on the project is a combination of artists that never worked together in that format before. Some of the link-ups are perhaps more ‘logical’ than others, but overall we’re all very proud of the project and as it’s linked to a pretty unique experience it would be really hard to single out tracks to pick them over others.
Are there any other particularly special tracks, with special stories, from the list?
NQ All Star #2: All the tunes feel special in every way and I know everyone has their individual favourites – for me personally ‘Never’ came together in an unexpected way and the end result is a slice epic, cinematic, widescreen soul with some unexpected drums and heavy wobbly bass.
NQ All Star #1: There’s one track that started as an ode to our favourite French NQ member, with a vocal hook singing his name. The track made the cut, but with a slightly re-worked vocal, haha. I’ll leave it to the readers to guess which track it is.
What did you learn from this experience?
NQ All Star #5: That music is a universal language, no matter who, and where from, each of us is – we can all get in the one place and write some amazing music that we all identify with.
NQ All Star #2: The best ideas happen when you work casually, have fun, put your ego to the side, let someone else give their spin on your ideas, and not have any expectations of what the end results can or should be.
NQ All Star #3: Just try ideas out. Don’t overthink it. The difference between the first thing I made at the camp versus what I was doing a day or two later (freestyling about a sweet French man) is noticeably better. Also, these moments aren’t promised. They are rare and you need to enjoy them for what they are. It was as much about seeing these people and hanging out as it was about making music. I loved every second of it.
NQ All Star #4: That it’s lovely to be together and work with people in-person. I knew this already – but this definitely reaffirmed it!
NQ All Star #1: Just how important being part of a family is in the music business. Having like-minded people working towards the game goal with the same morals and a similar history. It can be easy to get disheartened in this current thing where social media can be a shortcut to success, where it pays off to let go of being true to your beliefs and respecting the history and craft of this thing we all grew up on and cherish. It really is inspiring to have a group of people that are all in the same boat. And just working towards the same goal in the same space you have a certain joy that you don’t experience sitting on your own listening to snare previews. It’s not just the music, it’s also the people.
READ
