DJs chased the dream and found status

THEY have headlined Glastonbury. They have produced Rihanna. They have collaborated with artists such as Tinie Tempah, Example and Plan B.

Yes, in the DJ and dubstep world, it seems that Chase and Status have done it all. This year sees them playing a slot at Leeds Festival on the Main Stage.

The British electronic duo, comprising of Saul Milton (Chase) and Will Kennard (Status), was formed 10 years ago when Milton and Kennard met whilst attending separate universities in Manchester. They both dropped out to pursue a career in music.

They were signed relatively quickly and began releasing drum and bass music on various labels, but real 
success for Chase and Status began in 2007 when their double A-side single, Hurt You/Sell Me Your Soul, was released and went to number one in the UK charts.

However, when their debut album, More Than Alot, was released a year later it only got as far as number 49.

By then, they had already carried out production work for the likes of Snoop Dogg and Alexandra Burke and Chase and Status became bona fide stars with their second album, No More Idols, which came out in 2011.

The band has now completed their third album, due for release in October. Speaking to Saul last month, he revealed I was only the second journalist to be told the title of the new record.

“I can let you know that 
on September 29, we’re going to be releasing our next single off our album. That’s going to be called Count on Me,” he said at the time.

“It’s featuring a brand new artist, who we’ve signed recently to our label. Her name’s Moko. We’re really excited about her; she’s an exciting talent – British, of course.

“The album is going to 
be called Brand New Machine.”

Later that evening, Saul went to Radio 1 to perform the song for the public to hear for the first time.

Chase and Status founded their own independent label, More Than Alot Records (MTA), in 2009 and have signed many artists, particularly ones who make dubstep-orientated music. “We have a full staff at the label; we’ve got a great A&R team.

“They do a great job at sourcing new talent. Anywhere we can find music, we go out and find it.

“If people say ‘I know this kid who’s a sick producer’– great, let me hear the beat.”

Saul insists that the duo never started out with dreams of becoming so big.

“You always, hopefully, intend to do well at what you’re doing; our goal was just to basically be able to do music for a living that’s what we aimed at,” he says.

“If it means you can get up every day, make some music, maybe do some DJ’ing, and you can live off that and we are our own bosses – that’s the dream.

“The fact that we can do that is the best thing; anything else that comes with it (is) great.

“The success we’ve had is great, but we don’t want to rest on out laurels now. We’re always thinking there’s much more to do.”

Milton’s passion for making music has remained with him throughout his life.

He can still vividly recall what first sparked his interest in electronic music.

It wasn’t necessarily the style of music, however, that first inspired him. He owes that, like many musicians, to overhearing and being forced to indulge in an older sibling’s music collection.

“My sister is a few years older than me. I probably heard things like Joy Division coming off her stereo,” he explains,

“As I got slightly older I found The Prodigy and really got into their stuff; obviously being a little kid and seeing a Charlie Says video on TV interested me.

“In about 1994 at some peculiar dance event that I went to as a kid, people were playing jungle drum and bass in there and one of the first tunes that really caught my ear was Shy FX’s Original Nuttah.”

It was the start of a new musical education.

Chase and Status have accomplished a lot since their formation.

As producers they have had a hand in producing tracks on three of Rihanna’s albums, two of which went to number one in the UK.

They have also produced the likes of Snoop Dogg, Example and Rita Ora.

They were the first drum and bass/dubstep band to sub-headline Download Festival. When it was announced in 2012 that Chase and Status would be sub-headlining the festival, it received a lot of criticism and protest from Download enthusiasts, as the festival is usually recognised as a festival centered on rock and heavy metal bands.

Although you could be forgiven for thinking that it wouldn’t be a smooth ride for a dubstep band, when they took the stage, they received a great reception from the crowd of Metallica and Machine Head fans,.

As Chase and Status’s popularity grew, their sound did too. They now have a band when they record.

As Saul recalls: “When we wrote the first album, it was, basically, strictly written for clubs.

“As it so happened, we had an idea to become a band, and we started playing those tracks in a band and they started to work really well. As you start forming into in a band, touring and so on and so forth, you start seeing what will work and what doesn’t work in the live realm.

“In some sense you do go away thinking ‘how will this music translate in the live show?’ But usually we just sit down there and make music. I think first and foremost you just have to write music for what you’re feeling.”