No Artificial Colours, real names Ryan and Lewis, are a pairing from London who have been producing a very fashionable variety of house music of late.
Putting out tunes you’d expect to hear on the DC10 terrace on any summer’s Monday evening in Ibiza, Jamie Jones, Art Department and Maya Jane Coles have all been spinning NAC’s tracks, which come packed full of chunky basslines and a myriad of tasty vocal samples. Their trendy house sound has taken them to the lengths and breadths of the UK scene this year, featuring in the unforgettable Lovebullets HQ at Glastonbury, as well as spots at Ministry of Sound and Brixton Academy. They’ve also recently been signed to the Krankbrother’s agency, a couple of guys who have been hosting some raucous roof parties this summer.
i-D online speaks to the NAC lads about desirable collabs, their musical meeting of minds and Ibiza!
When was the point that dance music clicked for you? A trip to Ibiza back in 2007, standing in the middle of the dance floor at Pacha & thinking…WOW…what on earth is going on here?!
How did you find yourselves DJ’ing and producing together? We were often booked at the same events as we come from the same area and had a similar music taste; incidentally that is how we met! Quite a few of the promotors would ask us to play back to back and the pairing just kind of made sense. Producing was a few years down the line, we attended a production course together at Point Blank college and since then have been working together on our releases.
We saw you at Glastonbury, how was it? Glastonbury was something else, one crazy place! Love bullets HQ @ Shangri La was where we played and is one place we will never forget! We were there for the weekend so got to explore the festival. Having said that I don’t think anyone could honestly say they have seen all of Glastonbury. It’s just mental, I mean you can’t even sit down and eat breakfast without a funktion one system pumping in your face – which suits us!
What other new artists are exciting you right now? Waifs & Strays, Alexis Raphael, WiLDKATS & Huxley.
If you were looking to collaborate with somebody outside the realms of electronic music, who would it be? If he was alive Lou Rawls. His voice is something else…. you can’t just make that soul!!
What are your five biggest tunes right now? Not all new, but…
Be Patient – Waifs & Strays
Street Knowledge – No Artificial Colours
Want You Back – Gwen Maze
Drifting Boats featuring Fabien Reichelt – Emerson Todd
Amame – Intruder
What releases/gigs have you got lined up? We have a 4-track EP getting released on petFood entitled ‘Street Knowledge’ which we are really excited about. Gig wise, WetYourself have asked us to play for them at Fabric on the 6th November which will be our first time there, so we are pretty hyped about that too!
Text: Luke Sutton
