Chase & Status on festivals, staying grounded, and working with Stevie Wonder

Skiddle caught up with D&B duo Chase and Status at the recent Hideout Festival to talk about their hectic festival season, how they manage to ignore what the press says, and their dreams of 'Stevie Wonder and Chase and Status doing a dubstep record'.

Is this the first time that you have played in Croatia?

No this is not the first time playing in Croatia but it is the first time that I have played here on Pag Island. Obviously with it being the first Hideout festival, I know the promoters very well from playing for them in England for the Warehouse Project and also know the guys from Metropolis. They're all like extended family!

You played at Glastonbury last week, how did that differ from any other festival?

Well it was my 30th Birthday, so it was very much a double celebration! To have 30,000 people singing along to the words of all your songs, on my 30th was something I never thought I would experience. It was a really beautiful feeling and a real special day. But I got to say that all the festivals have been incredible. I did Rosskilde in Denmark, Rock Werchter in Belgium and they were all off the chain. We played Wireless on the main stage to 55,000 people, all my family were there and my nephew, it was really special. It’s all a lot to take in but we are really pleased with how it’s all going.

Have you got a lot more festivals lined up for the summer?

Yeah we another 30 festivals to go and some more DJ gigs to go so it is pretty non stop!

So do you prefer DJing to playing live gigs?

They’re incomparable really because a little intimate affair like Hideout, where I am mixing quickly and playing a lot of fun tunes is so different to playing live in a band where you play all your own songs from start to finish is very much like a gig. Everyone who comes to see us play live comes to see us whereas with a DJ set, they come to see us perform as DJ’s. sometimes its nice have intimate gigs and sometimes it’s nice to have a gigantic crowd, it really does depend on the moment.

So out of all the collaborations that you have done so far, which one would you say is your favourite, or the most memorable or do you feel has had the best outcome?

It is impossible to say which is the best you know as they have all been fantastic. To be honest it changes week by week, but for a little while now I would have to say “Blind Faith” featuring Liam Bailey. Especially now that the festival season is in full swing and the song we feel is a real “hands in the air” euphoric moment which takes you back to the early days of rave. That one is certainly a favourite!

What is your dream collaboration?

There are loads of people we would really like to work with but at the moment we are trying to pursue Stevie Wonder. Stevie Wonder and Chase and Status doing a dubstep record. We will have to wait and see what happens.

Finally, Chase and Status over the past couple of years have done so many different things. You’ve had big success on Radio 1 and done many successful collaborations, what’s next for you guys? What goals are you looking to achieve next?

Yeah definitely. You see the thing about us is that we always set ourselves new goals, every week basically. We never read the press good or bad. If you start reading bad press saying that you’re an idiot or you’re rubbish you are gonna start believing it. The same with good press - if you start believing the press saying that you’re amazing, the chances are that you will start to become an idiot. We try to keep the same mentality which is that we are here doing something that we love and that kind of keeps me level.

We have also got our label MTA which we have exclusives from Nero. We are also signing some more acts and we are going to be looking at pushing them forward. We have the Nero album coming out in August and we are going to be looking at pushing that a lot.

We are also looking at finishing off a little bit more production from the likes of Example and Delila. Production-wise though we are focusing on Chase and Status and we are already starting to work on the third album which is gonna be a bit different. It’ll probably be a bit darker. You know, we will look to do some more production later on in the year with more artists and maybe even a soundtrack but there’s plenty of time yet.

Interview: Ben Plant and Katie Grange.

See upcoming Chase and Status events at their Skiddle artist page.

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