Upfrontbeats | Guestmix - Black Girl / White Girl

Black Girl / White Girl

Black Girl / White Girl are an Amsterdam based production due set to explode onto the electronic music scene. Their relentless production prowess has seen them garner a whole new level of support across the globe. With their high-octane deep house and bass-heavy cuts, the duo has released music on Roush, Flasmob Records and now, Max Chapman’s Resonance Records with their brand new release ‘Tales of Light’.

Their productions have turned more than a few well-respected heads since the onset of their career, counting Jamie Jones, Richy Ahmed, wAFF, Detlef, Riva Starr, Paco Osuna, Leftwing & Kody, Shadow Child, Dennis Cruz, Hector Couto, Santé and Sidney Charles among supporters of their music.

UpFrontBeats caught up with Black Girl / White Girl, while providing us with a mix packed full of exclusives, to discuss their recent release, future release plans and what they have in store for the summer season.

You’ve been creating quite a noise lately, with a string of successful releases, but how did the project ‘Black Girl / White Girl’ first come about’ Where did it all begin’ Who brings what to the table’

Hi there! Thank you, that means a lot. Actually, we’ve officially been making music together since 2014. We met a year before in Amsterdam and it just felt right, we had both been infatuated with electronic music since we can remember, so it was a logical step. You could say it all started because we felt like there was something we could add to the musical landscape, you know’ In the studio we just start it all out by having a good conversation about what we want to achieve with this particular track. Is it going to be a dancefloor bomb’ Or more of a groover’ From there we find a solid kick, build tight percussion layers and then flesh that out. Karin is really great at writing bomb bass lines while Ty is usually banging out the melody lines. The vocals we use are usually the result of hours of digging through many audio resources, looking for clean, interesting stuff that could work well in our tracks. Being picky is key here!

Your next EP sees you release ‘Tales of Light’ on Resonance Records, can you explain to us the thought process that goes into a EP like that. Where do you begin’ Why Resonance Records’

Resonance has always been one of our favourite labels, so it was a joyful moment when we heard that the guys liked our tunes. Resonance stands for this groovy, weighty house & techno sound that we’re really fond of, so it was definitely a logical step for us. The ‘Tales Of Light EP’ is all about storytelling, which you don’t see done that often in this particular way. ‘Crazy Joe’ is about Joe Gallo, a notorious mobster who terrorized NY in the 1900s, so with this tune we really wanted to go all out and make it an unruly, thumping banger. The other tune, ‘Piglet Booty’, let’s just say it’s an account of a freaky lil’ lady who loves to go clubbing and scam men, a Joanne The Scammer kinda girl. With this one we were out to create an dirty, wonky belter that could easily unravel dancefloors at 4am.

Your record collection has been growing exponentially, but what was has been your personal favourite and why’ Any tracks hold fond memories’

K: Ooh there are too many! One of my alltime favourites is ‘Gone Too Long’ by Him_Self_Her. Still sounds great now as it did a few years back!

T: Anything released by Ed Banger over the last decade or so, all those Justice, Uffie, Feadz and DJ Mehdi, Riton etc tunes were epic. Mad love for DJ Mehdi’s ‘Stick It’ till today.

It was so sad to hear about the death of Robert Miles. Children was a staple feature throughout the 90’s and will remain an all time classic. What has been your favourite track over the years’ Has anyone in particular inspired you through your musical journey’

T: Quite sad indeed, it’s a shame to see people go before their time. Underworld’s ‘Born Slippy .NUXX’ is a big favourite, it’s just nuts, from the vocals to the energy, what a belter.

K: Inspiration wise, no doubt it’s Catz n Dogz. It’s just great to see them reinvent themselves and push out something super fresh with every new release. It’s definitely something we strive to do as well.

The summer season has official started, but where can we catch you girls spinning this summer’ Any locations, venues or festivals you enjoy playing the most’

We’re currently locked away in the studio, the focus is on building a massive repertoire so we’re going to be able to tour and meet up with our fans all over the world – it’s a key goal for us right now. But we’re definitely not in any rush. Some dream gigs are festivals like Coachella, Burning Man, clubs like DC10, Panorama Bar, Egg London, and of course that huge Resistance spider stage at WMC! Having said that, make sure you keep an eye on our Facebook page for some major announcements.

Over the last couple of years, has seen you release tracks on some of the biggest labels around; which includes Flashmob Records and Roush Records. But, what can we expect to hear this summer’ Any weapons in the pipeline’ Any exclusives’

We have our much buzzed about single ‘Feelin” coming out on Lapsus this June 9th. This track has been getting rinsed by Santé & Sidney Charles since January 2017, with further support incoming from Hector Couto, Yousef, Luca Donzelli, Roland Clark, Max Chapman and more. Then, our three track EP comes out on Smiley Fingers on July 21st, it’s shaping up to be a massive one. It’s going to be another great addition to an immensely successful 2017 for us and our project. There’s also our debut EP coming on Roush later this year, that’s your exclusive right there! It’s going to be a three track EP and we’ve already received support from the likes of Detlef and Jacky on it, so that’s just already blowing our minds. Both the Smiley and Roush EPs will represent a totally new side of us you guys haven’t heard yet, so the excitement is real. There are definitely some other developments we can’t announce yet. But big things are coming up for sure, and we’re really happy and thankful with how things are going at the minute.

It must be fantastic playing and writing music with your best friend, but if you had to say, how would you describe each others best qualities and their worst’ Lol.

Haha! To be completely honest, we’re probably the most impatient, driven, demanding and annoying people to ever work together, so we’ve just accepted that fate and use it to our advantage. Sometimes we really lose our patience when we need to wait on others, so we usually prefer to take matters into our own hands. We got to where we are by working our asses off 24/7 and giving 200% all the time, so there’s no cutting corners with us at all. Guess you could say we’ve become a well-oiled machine, working together is an absolute blessing and being able to get things done on your own terms is a great little feeling, we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Can you identify a particular piece of software or hardware that enjoy working with and why’ Any advice for aspiring artists’

Currently we’re kinda obsessed with Valhalla’s Plate and SpaceModulator plugins. We frequently use iZotope’s Neutron, which is a mixing plugin, but we use it to make synths sound really gritty and freaky. Best tips we can give: don’t EVER give up, make LOTS of music, don’t be a perfectionist, don’t spend all your money on hardware (unless you’re really going to use it a lot), study up on some basic music theory, and if you want something, go for it fully. Give it everything you got, it really is the only way.

Can you explain to us how you went about creating the mix and is their anything in particular we should be listening out for’

Yes, this mix has got to be one of our favourites so far! When we do these, we want to serve a BGWG club set, but also explore some avenues we might not always get the chance to hit up in our DJ sets. So we created the mix with that in mind, as well as wanting to showcasing some of our favourite tunes at the minute. And as you guys are all about the exclusives, we’ve mixed three of our unreleased tracks in there, so that is a biggie! Can’t dish too many details about them yet, but just know that these tracks are not even going to be out for another 5-6 months.. Hope you enjoy