Breaking Through with My Nu Leng

Photo: My Nu Leng

Now core members of the all conquering bass imprint Black Butter, the incredibly down-to-earth My Nu Leng lads have in the past couple of years been responsible for an inspired run of releases, that alongside their whirlwind DJ sets explore the full range of underground dance music (witness that in their DJ Mag set below).

Remaining ever hard to categorise, My Nu Leng's fearless originality has lead to their prevalence in a scene that continues to blur the lines between house, techno, dubstep, grime and UK garage.

To cap it all off, the Bristolian double team bagged a deserved 'Best Breakthrough Artist' award at this year's Bass Music Awards, underlining their standout quality in an increasingly competitive scene. We thought it only right to speak to the men of the moment ahead of their very busy winter season.

Hi chaps, cheers for speaking to us! So it's been a crazy last couple of years for you both, My Nu Leng seems to have finally received the widespread recognition it always seemed to deserved. How have you been adjusting to a more hectic life and a busier touring schedule?

The last few years have been incredible for both of us, we have travelled to some amazing places to play music and have met lots of people we have become good friends with. Adjusting to travelling so much, has and still is difficult at times, but when behind the decks and playing to the crowds, any tiredness disappears.

You're set to play on the Blu Music Tour at Stealth in Nottingham in December, for those of us unaccustomed to your DJ sets, how would you describe them?

Fun! We try to make sure the crowd are having as much fun and enjoying it as much as we are behind the decks. We try to play a lot of different styles that inspire us and always keep it fast paced and moving.

Before then though you’re hitting Rainbow Venues alongside fellow Black Butter mates Gorgon City. That label keeps going from strength to strength, what’s it like to be involved with?

It has been such a great label to grow as artists with, they have helped us with every aspect of our career so far and we owe so much to them. Their success is a shout to the artists they have on their roster and the way the label is run, we can't wait to put more music out with them and hopefully keep growing alongside them!

You racked up an awesome three nominations in the Bass Music Awards, including 'Best Breakthrough Act', 'Best House and Bass Single' for 'Masterplan' (below) and 'Best EP' also for 'Masterplan'. That must have felt pretty good?

We were shocked to see we were even nominated let alone three times so that was nice! We have actually visited the BMA recently to pick up the award for 'Best Breakthrough Act' - it means so much to us to have been nominated by Plastician and then voted for by the public to win. It is a nice benchmark to look back on to see how far we have come and now we can look forward to 2015!

Did you have any idea ‘Masterplan’ would be the enormous record it’s turned out to be? It really showcases that darker sound you do so well, the beats too are edgy and sparse, and Fox’s vocals tie the whole thing together brilliantly. It sounds like you had a lot of fun making it. This begs the question, how are you going to follow it? And are there any plans to do another track with Fox?

We always believe in the music we put out and just hope that listeners enjoy it as much as we do, the success of 'Masterplan' really blew us away and we owe a huge amount to Fox for being so great in the studio with us. We would love to work with Fox again and think this will definitely happen when we are all free.

Our aim is to come with something bigger and better every time and we know our next release is going to be a hard task! 

Elsewhere your sound definitely nods to the classic UK and speed garage tropes (hear that in 'The Grid' below), were you both big garage heads back in the day? Why do you think that sound is stronger than ever at the moment?

Tommy was, but only briefly whilst DJing at a youth club as everyone was a garage, bassline or grime DJ in that period, Jammo was more into bands but we both got into drum & bass quite early on. 

We think it's a UK thing, the whole of UK music culture seems to be the strongest it has been at the moment, people are taking pride in what we have, you only have to look at the Red Bull Culture Clash from the other week to see that.

It's almost become overdone since it came back into fashion to be a garage or grime DJ but the fact that younger heads are growing up and looking into where it all came from is amazing. 

Did you have to pinch yourselves when your records started getting support from the likes of Justin Martin and DJ EZ? What’s been your career high point so far?

Definitely! It was huge for us and still is! Every time someone tells us "oh I was 'wherever' on the weekend and 'so and so' played 'Masterplan'" we still get all excited and giddy, it's a huge thing for us to have the people we've looked up to for so long even listening to our music let alone supporting it! 

We think our career high point probably has to be touring the US with Rudimental and Ed Sheeran. To play overseas is one of those things that you have to step back and pinch yourself with as it is but to live on a tour bus with some of the biggest names in music right now was just crazy!

What are your respective roles in the studio? Does one of you have a particular strength for beats, the other melody etc?

We don't have specific roles so much at all, it's more a case of putting both of our ideas out there, making sure we express what we like or don't like & coming to agreements in how we want the end product to sound.

Jammo has always been the more confident producer so will do a lot more of the technical side of things, but we are both still learning so much and with that our way of working changes and evolves as well. 

What’s next for My Nu Leng? 

We are looking forward to spending lots of time in the studio over the next few months and getting our next EP or single finished. We want to spend as much time needed to get it perfect... Other than that, spreading our sound as far and wide as possible, hopefully touring lots in UK, Europe the US and Australia! 

And finally, hypothetical question... You have the power to curate your perfect party. You can play alongside any DJ past or present. Where would you have it, and who would join you?  

That is incredibly difficult as we have such a broad range of musical heroes, many of whom we since had the opportunity to play alongside! We love dark dingy basement clubs over massive arenas any day so it would have to be something like that, maybe The End how it used to be back in the day.

And DJ-wise, it's hard to say, John Peel, Brian Eno, The Streets 'Original Pirate Material' set, Andy C and Friction or maybe a Black Butter v Digital Soundboy sound clash with all associated artists from both camps!

Find out how to grab tickets to Ny Nu Leng's appearance for the Blu Tour here, or below.

Head here for all of My Nu Leng tour dates.

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