Kings Of The Rollers talk ‘Chin Swinger’ EP
Back in 2016 Serum, Bladerunner, and Voltage embarked on a journey that would see them become a powerhouse collective within the world of drum & bass. Eight years on, their collective known as Kings Of The Rollers have shone in abundance, displaying a carefree yet pragmatic approach within the scene – which has seen them rise to the very pinnacle of the genre. Their standout sets full of variational flair and mastery behind the decks have ensured that this trio will go down as one of the very best to grace the electronic dance world. As a result, creating a loyal following that have sold out shows around the globe.
Undeniably, their solo careers have been long and successful ones. Individually, they moderately differ in styles. Acclaimed in the scene by most, their hard-hitting rolling drums and jump-up influenced past features heavily in their DNA. Alongside this is an embracement towards their jungle roots. Creating this euphoric rush throughout the abundance of sets they’ve performed over the years. Having worked with some of the most influential voices in drum & bass such as Inja, Maverick Sabre, Katy B, and Chimpo we have watched some of the finest collaborations the genre has to offer.
With what was a radio slot show that emerged by chance, the three DJ’s had separate slots with Rough Tempo on the same day but decided to join their sets together. The chemistry between the three was evident to see and the trio were sought after within a day of the show ending. Kings Of The Rollers were born. Fast forward eight years and this DJ collective has gone from strength to strength. Performances worldwide, an album, and several releases later, it’s safe to say we have already witnessed a legendary project within drum & bass. In 2018 they signed with highly distinguished label Hospital Records for a spell, marking a moment whereby one of the most prestigious labels within the community wanted to champion a different type of sound. A style that holds such variation, drawing inspiration from many sources throughout the world of music – the likes of which we rarely come across. Some would argue this has paved the way for even more cross sub-genre projects making the community even stronger and more accessible for a wide range of fans.
In what seems like we’ve been starved of regular Kings Of The Rollers sets and productions as of late, we are now entering a new chapter for the legendary trio. Their latest EP release ‘Chin Swinger’ contains two tracks including ‘Chin Swinger’ and ‘War Of The Worlds’. Both numbers are extremely weighty and ideal for the massive rigs up-and-down the country. Close your eyes to these tracks and you’d be whisked away to a 250-cap basement enjoying the melodic yet hefty melodies on a thumping soundsystem. Experimenting on new rave-like flavours in these productions is evident. It’s their first time releasing on Serum’s very own Souped Up Records – could this be the first of many with the label? With an arsenal of projects behind them, and numerous shows in the pipeline for their loyal fans to look forward to, we thought we’d catch up with the boys and look back on what they’ve achieved so far, whilst also finding out more about the ‘Chin Swinger’ two-tracker which was released this month.
Before we dive into the new releases, let’s to go down memory lane and take a look back at the beginning.
Serum: It was a radio show that started it all off. We all jumped on an impromptu back to back. We all had a radio slot on Rough Tempo, which at the time was a big deal. There were the three of us with individual slots. I’d played with both Voltage and Bladerunner before so we thought why not just all play together. I’d been working with Bladerunner since 2005. We were kind of like a double act already – some of the biggest tracks we both had were written together. A bit further down the line myself and Voltage started working together too. We enjoyed that set so much, after the show we wondered if anyone would want to book that. The interest in booking us as a trio went crazy after that.
Voltage: We actually all had the same agent too which was Jon at Urban Agency. So on that front, it made the process even easier. Once we agreed on the name I wanted to get the artwork done and get the brand launched. Two days after that radio show our agent got in touch and wanted to know what we’d done on that show because his phone hadn’t stopped ringing with people trying to book us as a trio. We told him to sit tight because we were about to announce the Kings Of The Rollers collective.
And why the name Kings Of The Rollers?
Serum: I guess the reason we’re called Kings Of The Rollers is because at the time those very stomping, regimented, kind of beats were the trend and we did jump up with that old-school flavour. A very Bristol rolling-type sound.
Voltage: And we definitely injected our own twist on it. We were all very much on the same page with the 96-97 sound. We wanted to bring that back up-to-date and we definitely weren’t short of ideas. Throughout our solo careers, there’d been a couple of articles before we’d even played as a three referring to us as that. In the end it was pretty easy to agree on the name. We did actually ring up Doc Scott to see if he minded us using the name. He had an EP out under that name. He was also another DJ who was dubbed with the title. Luckily, he completely agreed with the name for us and said he couldn’t think of a better name for our trio. After the launch it went mental for us.
The term rollers might mean something different depending on who you ask.
Serum: Yeah. What some people feel rollers are now has really changed since we got involved with it. It has definitely become more of a vague term. Some people think it means the beats, some people think it’s those foghorn basses we’re known for. In the little place in time where we came into it, it was something we did that was different to everyone else. We sit in between a lot of genres, the music we make has been pretty varied.
Voltage: Our sound definitely stuck out like a sore thumb. At the beginning we were just playing what we wanted at the many festival and club night sets we were getting. There was a space in the market for us. The ethos behind it was that we knew there was SASASAS doing their MC-driven project. They were doing huge things. We wanted to show the flipside of it and really push this DJ-driven collective showcasing a range of sounds that heavily featured rollers.
Looking at how far you’ve come now from a DJ collective, did you expect to be releasing music together?
Serum: The original goal was that it was solely a DJ project. At the beginning we didn’t feel we even needed to be releasing music. What the shows were about early on was us just going at each other on the decks. No real plan behind the sets. Just 3 songs each on rotation and you’d only really know what you were playing once you heard what the person before you finished on.
Voltage: Exactly. We’d all individually make tracks and the next day play it on the set, surprising one another at all times. We just made it as much fun as possible and the crowd can really see it and that’s a powerful thing. It is nice to come together and make music. It keeps things fresh away from the solo work.
Joining Hospital must’ve been a big moment for the group. Almost a marker that your unique style was accepted by the wider drum & bass community.
Voltage: Yes, definitely. When we got the call from Hospital Records to make some music it felt really random. We’d all done our own things within different avenues but never touched the Hospital community up until that point in our careers. We definitely brought a new crowd to their events. Myself and Serum have built a big jump-up following over the years and Bladerunner was dominating the jungle sound – they all seemed to really take well to the Hospital events. This new crowd we built was really telling after the first Boomtown we did. They’d follow us everywhere.
Serum: There was nothing bigger than Hospital within drum & bass at the time. Our music hadn’t really gone to that sort of crowd yet. As Voltage said, we had a lot of bases covered within drum & bass but Hospital definitely felt like new territory. I don’t think they had signed an act like us before so it really did feel like something new was being born at the label. I remember Hospital needed a tune fairly quickly. We finished this tune in a few days and it was ‘Burnt Ends’. It showcased this roller sound but with the huge foghorn-like noise, which reached this new area of the scene. This foghorn movement became such a big thing and caught so many people. Making the tune was a complete accident, but it worked.
I think it’s safe to say you individually have different styles, but what influences the Kings Of The Rollers sound?
Serum: I think a lot of non drum & bass stuff influences us. We always look out for influences in other styles of music. We listen to a lot of different types of music and try to figure out how to make it ourselves. It’s a good way to avoid sampling issues too. That jungle culture of fusing different sounds is something we really like to use. Going through the history of the genre is something we are passionate about. We are open to anything really.
Voltage: There’s always something that hasn’t been done. We try to draw inspiration from a wide range of things because that way we are more likely to find the innovation we need for our sound. With longevity comes that bit of know-how when playing in front of a crowd, sometimes the crowd takes to what you’re playing and sometimes they won’t, but after so long we can kind of work it out better.
And Inja! He’s been a man that’s toured with you everywhere and has essentially been the voice to your many sets.
Serum: It’s just effortless! Every DJ has a few MCs they just work well with. Where you can just play to the MC and they know exactly the pace of the set. It just works with him. When we DJ with him as a group there’s this clear connection. We can all see where he’s going and he can see where we are going. He’s got bars for all of the big tunes we’ve got. We really are all just making it up as we go along though, so it’s great to see everyone believe that these are finely tuned, well practiced, performances. That’s partly down to how great Inja is and the way he can just make things up that goes so well with our mixing.
Voltage: He’s an insane MC! We started with a few MCs on rotation. We had so many shows coming so it seemed like a decent idea to have a few options. We’d done a couple with Impact, a couple with Carasel, and a couple with Inja. But it just so happened that the promoters and the ravers were all requesting Inja. Every gig that came in was always asking for Kings Of The Rollers and Inja. It really took us no effort whatsoever. It was so easy to work with him. He makes it look like we’ve been practicing together for hours and hours. But it’s just not the case. He’s so attentive and in tune to the way we all mix. He knows which mixes and drops are landing in the rave. He just stores all these moments and executions in his memory. Making everything so cohesive
So you’re all back in the studio together again moving forward?
Serum: Yes, I’d been building up my label Souped Up quite a bit beforehand. I’ve enjoyed doing that. Now we have ‘War Of The Worlds’ out on the label. It’s a tune we wrote during lockdown. We’ve written a whole album worth over lockdown to be fair. We couldn’t really road test any of these at the time, and then as I said earlier we shifted our attention to our solo production. Now seems like the natural time for us to get back together and put out these new tunes we’ve got.
Voltage: Yes, and we have started with ‘War Of The Worlds’. We’re all working very effortlessly in the studio together again. Just very natural. We’d just been missing that togetherness in the time we hadn’t been performing with each other as much. When we were constantly playing shows, we’d be together every day and when we weren’t performing we’d be in the studio making tracks. That’s the period we find ourselves in again. When you have that kind of flow you feel unstoppable.
The ‘Chin Swinger’ EP contains two tracks. Your first release in ages. ‘War Of The Worlds’ is already out as you mentioned. Tell me about why you put this together. And on Serum’s label!
Serum: We’ve got a lot of different stuff we could’ve released to be fair. I’ve built Souped Up to a point where I feel it can do us justice now. It’s our first time releasing on the label. Having been with Hospital they were naturally the bigger label to release with. I actually started Souped Up at a similar time to when we started Kings Of The Rollers. What my label does really well is rave tunes. So I thought why not put out a couple of club bangers to begin with. Now we’re no longer in an exclusive deal we can release where we want. So it made sense for these tracks to be released on my label. It really is a privilege to be able to pull this off. In the rave these songs really work well I think. On a really good rig they both ridiculously go off. One of the hallmarks of our collective is the big cinematic intros. I think these tracks show that off incredibly well. That’s probably the biggest difference between our individual productions and a Kings Of The Rollers production.
Voltage: I completely agree with that. We do actually spend a lot of time on the intros. Obviously, there is that big drop culture where everyones just waiting for that moment, and we do deliver on that too. But tracks like ‘You Got Me’, ‘Somebody Else’, and now these releases really do show off our musicality on the intros. I believe the trance type of sound is really landing on the intros, just pushing a different type of sound onto the production really gives it an edge.
And maybe this could pave the way for more releases on Souped Up?
Voltage: Yes, for sure.
Serum: Definitely. Now we’re not tied down to a deal. We’ve already started to do different things like the release of ‘Paradise’ with Katy B. That was such a different project to what we’re used to.
How was working on ‘Paradise’ with the iconic Katy B?
Serum: So cool. It was a very different experience to usual releases. We had our tune end up on the TV which was crazy to see. It had started off as a fairly typical tune of ours. But then morphed into something else. An instrumental version worked its way to her through Geenus who manages Katy – we’ve been working with him for a while. He was looking for tunes for her. We gave him a folder of stuff and she really liked that one. The release also showed us parts of the industry we’d never experienced before which was cool. The sound was still us but it was definitely more of a commercial track, something we’ve not really put out before.
Voltage: Katy was wicked to work with. She has a mad talent. She’s got an iconic voice, it’s as simple as that. She’s been on so many iconic tunes that when you hear Katy on a record it already sounds sick. It was a nice feeling when she decided to put her vocals down on it as she hasn’t been releasing much – so she must’ve really liked the track.
What’s your take on where the drum & bass scene finds itself at the minute? It has molded into a more global movement.
Voltage: It’s in a very healthy place and it’s great to see. The sky’s the limit for sure. I guess there’s a risk of over-saturation with certain parts of the scene. I always reference when the scene peaked in 1997 you’d have people walking around with record bags on the off chance there was a set going round someone’s house. Now you have people on TikTok showcasing what they can do, and the power of social media has been able to explode this even more. The competitiveness of the scene definitely pushes people like us who have been doing this for so long. We’re always on our toes. Always trying to be better than what we did in previous years. Whether it be the kids on socials knocking out millions of views online or the heads who’ve been around for decades like Shy FX and Chase & Status still producing anthems, wherever you look in the scene everyones pushing each other. As I said, it’s great for motivation to do better, but it can cause a general over-saturation in my opinion.
Serum: Yes, I mean there’s a lot of people going to see these drum & bass events, but like anything there’s winners and losers. The variation within the scene has suffered as a result. It can be difficult for us when we put on our nights because we love to show off diverse sounds. With all this competition means sometimes certain things won’t work out but you’ve got to learn how to take it on the chin and move on.
We’d love to see more Kings Of The Rollers-led shows!
Serum: We haven’t put on a show in a while. We’ve had a year of trying to figure out what’s next. We had shifted back to our solo stuff for a while now because that’s what feeds it all. Our act was primarily based on being a DJ act, just about getting together and playing unplanned sets – having fun. Just so everyone can enjoy us enjoying ourselves. We feel we can offer a full rave experience and play a whole event from start to finish. It’s alway been a battle of our dubs. Sort of like a clash. When we do a show again we really want it to stand out. As good as our last ones. Our favourite shows are one’s where we’re close enough to connect with the crowd. They’re the ones you remember. We love engaging with our fans and getting in amongst it. I guess for our next big shows we’d like to achieve that.
Voltage: Yes, our sets are definitely like a clash. Although sometimes I’ll get to the end of a two hour set and feel like I could’ve played another four hours. We have so many tunes between us that cover so many bases. I think we’re coming back at a time that really suits us. People want a bit of personality from us at the rave. We can look back and appreciate that we’ve done the week in week out shows as Kings Of The Rollers, we’ve done the multiple hour sets, and played the big festivals. The next step for us is just trying to play shows that are constantly special for us and the crowd, if that means playing out less then that’s fine. Playing a good old fashioned rave setting is what we love the most. We put so much of ourselves into this brand and have made it become part of drum & bass history – no one can take away that from us.
Talk me through your iconic Royal Rumble shows. I think they have etched you into drum & bass history.
Voltage: It’d be mad to look out into the crowd. No matter what part you looked at, you knew their faces. They were just there all the time. When we started doing Royal Rumbles at Studio 338 was mad – that April one was incredible. There were these little moments where I’d stand back and think ‘this is very different’. The production from that event, and the Printworks event, was a notch up from what anyone had done up until that point. No ones got fans like us
Serum: Yeah, that was pretty crazy. The Printworks event got rescheduled so many times we weren’t even sure if clubs were ever going to open at the rate it was going at. Once it began though, it felt like it was ours because we personalised it a lot and the rig was great. We will always enjoy events with the massive rigs because that’s what we make this music to be heard on.
And can you say what’s next release wise?
Serum: We’ve got a track called ‘Warrior’ coming out next month which has been doing the rounds at the parties. So we’re starting to get things moving along thick and fast. We’re getting in the mix again. Very exciting stuff.
Voltage: Yes, that’ll be out on DnB Allstars. I feel like we are entering some exciting times. The mad thing is I can actually see where we’ll slot back in within the scene.
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