There is definitely something about Kove. The UK based producer and DJ who was spotted by Chase & Status and snapped up by their label MTA Records, has seen a meteoric rise to popularity. Perhaps it’s the way he seamlessly moves from genre to genre – whether it’s the euphoric summer D&B anthem that was 2013’s ‘Searching’ or the classy house beat that was the recent ‘Way We Are’, if you hear a Kove tune on the dance floor, you will know about it. Now about to embark on a US tour supporting Netsky, he leaves his epic ‘Murmurations’ EP to continue doing the rounds across the globe. We caught up with Kove, otherwise known as James Rockhill, to get the lowdown from the man himself.
Having had such success from ‘Way We Are’ over the summer, did you feel an added pressure for the release of this next EP?
Not really, ‘Murmurations’ was really a response to ‘Way We Are’. Most of the tracks had featured in my sets over the Summer and I wanted to make something that was more focused on the underground.
‘Murmurations’ has a huge array of musical influences throughout; do you feel like this is a fair representation of you as an artist?
Certainly, I wanted to put something out that combined a bit of everything that was exciting me about music and I think ‘Murmurations’ reflects that. The way an EP is formatted, you can really throw anything in and not worry about the flow and context like you would with an album.
‘Feel Love Again’ is breathtaking, how did the collaboration come about and how was the process of working with (drum and bass producer) Dimension?
I’ve known Dimension for a while now and we’ve spent a lot of time in the studio. Normally we tend to muck about a bit, but with ‘Feel Love Again’ we really came together and combined our sounds perfectly I think. I came up with a basic loop and we pretty much finished it up in a day at his studio.
You have been delving in and out of the slower tempo bass/house music for some time now, what is currently your favourite genre to produce, play out and listen to?
I go through phases so quickly. I started making music at lower tempos before I started making D&B. I had been listening to and making a lot of house over the last few months but I was hit with a pretty bad period of writers block, so I started making D&B again, which has been really exciting.
‘VCO’ has seen you delve into garage style bass; will we be seeing more of this from future releases?
I never really try and predict what I’ll be putting out next but I’m enjoying the simplicity of making tunes like ‘VCO’. I also love a lot of the music that’s coming out from the side of the genre like My Nu Leng and Chris Lorenzo’s output.
When playing your live shows, has there been one track from the EP that goes off more than the others?
‘Feel Love Again’ has been going down really well, I think it’s probably the closest to my earliest output – plus its a great tune for those huge double drops!
Where did the inspiration come from for the creation of ‘Still High’?
I’d been listening to a lot of film scores and ambient music so really wanted to try and transfer some of those influences and vibes into a D&B song. The tune came from the vocals which were an unused session pitched down and really glued the track together.
‘Drop’ is quite a diversion from what we have heard in the past, how have fans responded to this change in sound?
It’s been mixed! I wrote it as a bit of a tongue-in-cheek nod to the whole big room house thing, over the top and a bit silly. It is quite surprising how upset people get about something that drastically different – I have and always will continue to try different things, it helps with learning new production techniques and keeps things fresh.
Finally, what’s next for the future of Kove? Where would you like to see your sound in 2015?
I’ve been writing so many songs recently that there should be a few vocal based tunes coming out, and there’ll be a few dance floor bangers in there as well!
Follow Kove:
http://facebook.com/koveofficial
http://twitter.com/koveofficial
http://instagram.com/koveofficial
Feel Love Again
