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Bridging the gaps between albums, UK dance trio The Japanese Popstars have struck up a partnership with the Caterham F1 team, and plan to mix dance music and fast cars across a series of EPs due for release this year in their 'Supersonic 7' series. Their first, 'RS27', is out now.
We caught up with the Declan ‘Decky’ McLaughlin from the band to find out whether the band had had the chance to drive one of the F1 cars, discuss why David Guetta is doing such great things for dance music and find out what happened when they asked David Bowie to appear on one of their tracks...
Your new EP is a collaboration with the Caterham F1 team. Have you had a chance to drive anything really fast yet?
We went to Herez in Spain and we got did PR with the brand new Caterham car and got our photos taken with that and they took us around the track. We had a driver in one of the two seater Formula 1 cars and this guy went racing around the track at 150mph and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Then to top it all off they allowed us to drive around a make-shift track made of cones in one of the Caterham cars. If Carlsberg made the perfect day it was like one of those.
How did the collaboration come about?
Our manager had this idea that we should maybe try approach one of the F1 teams to see if they would be interested in doing some sort of collaboration. I think our manager is very much a petrol head, he owns a Trans-Am like the one from the Smokey and the Bandit movie. Essentially he had this idea and he approached Caterham and the PR guy that he approached actually had our first album and the guys in the garage had been listening to our tunes and it just was perfect timing as were just about to unleash the RS-27 and they said let’s try it, let’s see what happens when it cross’ the Renault engine noises and we basically wrote a track that we could put the engine noises into. We sent it back to them and they really liked what they heard.
With the music industry being in such a massive mess, do artists like yourselves have to look at partnerships to generate revenue rather than the way you used to have to do it?
The way I see it, 15 years ago people were doing remixes and get silly amounts of money for it. Now the music industry has got so bad, they want you to remix for free. There is not as much money in it than there was in its prime. You see the likes of David Guetta and AfroJack, all the big names; you don’t see them releasing a track by themselves as much anymore. They are collaborating with large artists that they like and what that seems to do is bring in a larger fan base. For example David Guetta will tap in to the AfroJack fan base once he does a collaboration with him. So he would be going more underground so it will definitely get you more revenue that way.
With the Caterham thing, it was a challenge more than anything else because I don’t think anything like this has been done. I’m sure enough that The Prodigy did a track that used race car engines from speedway years ago and I’m sure there have been a few other tracks that have used car engine noises but I don’t think any of them actually collaborated with an engine noise from Caterham or any F1 team. It’s new and exciting. It keeps us interested in what we are doing.
David Guetta: doing great things for dance music the world over or strangling the scene?
I’m just going to say: “God Bless David Guetta”. His music might not be my cup of tea but he has done so much for the dance industry, especially in the states. He has created a whole new culture in America, the Americans call it EDM. We played in Seattle at a show that Tiesto was headlining and just before he was on, Sub Focus were on stage playing drum and bass and the Americans were just eating it up with a spoon. It was just so good. It was like old school back in the early days when dance music was fresh here. People were just having a good time, they didn’t just stand there and stroke their chins judging our music, and they just literally just went and had a good time. It was so refreshing. I think the Americans are just on the cusp on what we had years ago. It’s a great place to be and it is all thanks to David Guetta.
So what's next for Japanese Popstars?
We are working on a series of E.P’s. After we our last album, we had so many underground club ideas that we didn’t put on the album and what we wanted to do mesh the tracks with the with the club tracks we did on our first album, so we kept a lot of tracks and what we are going to do over the next year is try and release these tracks we have got sitting there. We are currently writing some more new material to distribute through the E.P’s as well. Once we get that out of our system that’s when we start thinking about a third album.
You've included some major artists on your previous tracks - such as Robert Smith and James Vincent McMorrow. Do you worry about the standard you've set yourselves?
We look at ourselves as chancers. We never expected to get the artists we did. Everybody we asked said yes apart from David Bowie. We didn’t expect to get Robert Smith or John Spencer or anything like that.
If you’re going to be turned down by anyone, it may as well be Bowie.
Exactly. Well he hasn’t actually turned us down we just haven’t heard anything back from him. It’s one of these things where we were lucky with the first album, and with the new tracks we are looking at in the studio the now we are going to go for some new blood rather than some of the legendary guys. Like stuff we did with James Vincent McMorrow and Dot JR.
The dance scene is always evolving but then when a band like Daft Punk or The Prodigy or The Chemical brothers start announcing new stuff, everyone goes crazy in anticipation. What do you think it is about these massive bands that still get people excited?
I think it is their proven track record, as simple as that. They have made so many people happy, they have got so many fans. For a guy like myself, if The Prodigy are announcing new music, I will be on the internet straight away looking for it. I’ve looked up to what they have been doing over the last 20 years and like I said they have got a track record, they have proven themselves, they have released some amazing tracks that people still play today. They still stand the test of time. You hope when they release a new track that it is going to be the exact same. Maybe in 20 years’ time, people will still be playing the likes of ‘Omen’ and stuff of the new album from The Prodigy and Daft Punk etc. In my head that’s where the hype comes from, it’s people being loyal with the band that they love.
In terms of the next big dance act, who do you think is going to rise up to be the next big headliner from the dance world?
There are a few people I really like at the minute. I’m not too sure on where they will take it because it is really fresh. There is a guy called Attack. He makes this sort of dark techno and everyone seems to love him at the minute. Then there is a group called Loops Of Fury, two guys from Australia, and their named after The Chemical Brothers track and their making what to sounds like early rave meets techno. Everything they are releasing at the moment is amazing. I’m really digging both of them and I can imagine they will be making loads of headway this year. There is a French guy as well called John Lord Fonda. He’s released his first album and it’s fantastic, it’s techno but it’s beautiful. I don’t know if he will be massive or anything like that but what he is doing is fantastic.
We'll be sure to check them out. Thank you very much, The Japanesee Popstars.
'RS27' is out now.
