Lords of the low-end, Walker & Royce, enlist hip-hop queen Sophiegrophy for the self-assured heater ‘No Drama’, out now via Club Sweat. In true Walker & Royce fashion, the pair impart their glorious glitch laden techniques onto a dark canvas complete with thumping bass energy and pulsating synth swirls. Sirens distort and oscillate throughout in a most sophisticated manner, demonstrating Walker & Royce’s production prowess and depth of experience. Increasing in intensity, the surging soundscape converges into the upper frequencies ready to set the room alight, only for Sophiegrophy to enter and stake her claim as master of the dance floor with her ever-evocative and rousing vocals. ‘No Drama’ is the mantra, and this all-powerful trio are here to make sure you live it.

Speaking to the new single Walker & Royce note, “We started the track before touring started up again. It took us some time to refine it and get it dialled in since we weren’t able to play it out. Sophie worked her magic once it was ready and put into words what we were all thinking and feeling. It’s always a pleasure working with Sophie, she is so talented.”

Sophiegrophy sums it up short and sweet, “We are having fun all year, no chit-chat, no back & forth, no drama”.

We were also able to catch up with Walker & Royce and had a sneak peak into the studio showing off some of the equipment/instruments currently being used by the duo – which doesn’t happen often!

Novation Bass Station 2 – ‘The main lead synths are all the Novation Bass Station 2. We’ve been using this thing for years, it’s so versatile and easy to use, it’s chunky and sounds good in a mix, you can’t beat it for the money!’

Sylenth – ‘Yes Sylenth of all things. It’s been around forever but it’s very simple and easy to get a riser or background pad out of. Cuts right through the mix. This is like, at least four sounds in the main mix.’

Waves R Bass – ‘We sometimes use this to bring out the character of basslines where otherwise it would just sound like all sub. Instead of using saturation, which might make the bass sound different, this just makes it more throaty or richer sounding.’

Valhalla ÜberMod – ‘Valhalla ÜberMod is a fantastic delay plugin, it barely uses any CPU, we use it commonly on long repeating delays that carry into the breakdown. It cuts through the mix really well and again, it’s really simple and fast to get what you want out of it.’

Oszillos Mega Scope – ‘This lets us see exactly what the waveform looks like on something, for example the kick drum. Since a lot of the parts of a track might be coming from samplers or have additional processing you might not realize how long the tails are, or if a sound is way off DC, or if it’s not as compressed as the meters imply. In No Drama it helped us get the kick to sound tight.’

No Dram’ is Out Now!

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@MitchDodge

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