Northern duo System2 had a chat with us for the Cowlin Presents interview series. With their 2016 album nearly completed, which is set to be released on 23rd September on Fatboy Slim’s ‘Skint Records.’ The two boys have definitely marked their name to the underground music scene.

We spoke with them about their new album, who the first established artist’s were to support their music, how they get motivated before a studio session plus more…

Lets start by talking about how you chose your path into the underground music scene… How did it all start?

Well we both met at a house party after a night out in Manchester. Seperately we were both into house music well before we knew each other so it was probably only a matter of time until we crossed paths.  Going to venues like Sankeys, Soap, North, Ampersand, The Hangar, Holy City Zoo. The only one still going is Sankeys now, kind of shows how old we are getting!

How long were you just DJs before you started producing music?

We started playing in 2002 around the bars and clubs in the city & the surrounding towns. I think we both got our first computers for production in 2003/2004.  I can’t remember to be honest… We started up on Reason & worked our way through that program to make stuff we thought was amazing. It wasn’t! It really has taken us until the last 3-4 years to really find our sound.

Before a studio session, what motivates you to write good quality music?

I think sometimes the best stuff is made when your day isnt set out sometimes if we put days aside in advanced for studio time, you can end up in there without any inspiration.

Sometimes I’ll be sat there and something comes into your head. I think those are the moments to seize and generally once you’ve got a vision for something they’re the easiest types of tracks produce.

Who was the first ‘big name’ DJ to play one of your tracks?

Tough question. I think it was Popof. Or maybe Maceo Plex at DC10 playing our track ‘Weekend’ when we used to perform as H2…

The video is still up on Youtube for that! It’s always amazing to see the big names playing your music. It helps so much as well for getting your name out there! It’s like a source of press and PR you can’t control yourself. We want as many people as possible to discover our music so to do it through some of the industries elite is always special.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xFKEiRqzrw

When you got your first release signed, what did you do to celebrate?

I think I remember Danny buying some leather pants to celebrate with the arse cut out. He wore them for ages after that. I suppose it’s hard to celebrate just the release of something because you want so much more to happen after that. It’s like a never ending reel of goals and once you’ve achieved something you quickly move on to the next!

What was your first release that was signed and how has your music style changed since then?

Well as System2 our first release was on Underground Audio.  It came out on 12″. Our manager and agent Kal runs the label so for us it was great to start off with that label. Our second release after was the first on our own self titled label (System2).

As H2 it seems so long ago to even remember what the first single was. Our music since those days has changed drastically. We used to play and produce Electro and Techno back in those days. One of the reasons we started System2 was because we wanted a new identity and for people knows for our musical taste as it is today.

For the rest of 2016, what can we expect to hear from your releases?

Well our album is due out on September 23rd on Fatboy Slim’s “Skint Records“. It’s taken us a long time to polish it off ready for release & it’s finally happening now. The first single from the album “Dawn Of Time” was out on July 15. We’ve not really released much music in 2016 because of the album.  Its really diverse & different to what people would expect of us but what would be the point in an album if it was the same?

The album is called “From One End Of The Spectrum” and we can’t wait for people to hear it. We are in the process of building our live set/production with visuals which will be ready hopefully by October/November so we can’t wait to get out & show the world the System2 Live production!

Any DJ bookings you have coming up you are exceptionally excited about?

We are waiting for Skint to announce a System2 album tour which we are hoping will be kicking off late September when the album is released. Before that we have a gig over in Dublin at Hangar on September 3rd and the week after on September 9th in Darlington at Avalon. Until then now we are focusing on working on System2 Live & promoting the album singles & release!!!