2020Soundsystem
2020Soundsystem was started as a new way of playing live by Ralph Lawson, original DJ at the legendary back to basics club in Leeds, and Danny 'dubble d' Ward. Tired of a jaded club scene they sought a different way to entertain and excite. By weaving live instruments into Lawsons DJ set, they transformed the clubbing experience into something new by giving the best of both worlds: the continuity and diversity of a DJ mix with the raw energy and excitement of seeing a live band.
“The 2020Soundsystem has its origins in a request from Fat City Records in Manchester to make a mix for their 'Stars on 33' series. I was totally bored of everything at the time and wanted to try something different. I wanted to mix records from 1979-1999 and many weren't done on computers so you couldn't beat match them. I wanted to find a new way to mix them. I spoke about it with Danny 'Dubble D' Ward and he suggested that he played kit over the records and handled any changes in tempo and then made our own 'breaks' coming out of the tracks. I would then mix the next record into the drums that were now tight. Basically the idea worked and I still love the mix we achieved. We left the idea for a while but I became obsessed with putting a band together. It had been a dream since my teenage years and became an itch I still felt I needed to scratch. So when I was sent a demo by two Argentineans called Silver City (Fernando Pulichino and Julian Sanza) that featured live bass and keyboards I put 2 and 2 together and we made 4"- Ralph Lawson.
The project became four when bass player Fernando Pulichino and Julian "keys" Sanza, recent arrivals from Argentina, sent 2020 a demo under their Silver City moniker. Lawson heard the guys ability to play (as well as cook a mean steak), and asked them to join the project. At first it was a jam around Lawsons jocking, but as the idea developed original material started to come out of the sessions. The crew played very much as a dubstyle soundsystem for the first two years and then started experimenting with adding vocalists. Diane Charlemagne who is most famous for her song, 'Inner City Life' with Goldie can be heard on 'High'. The Soundsystem then started to get remix requests and one was from New York band The Glass. They were so into the singers voice that they asked him to guest on the album. This has resulted in a two track collaboration with Dominique and Glen from The Glass 'No Order' and 'Won't Bother'.
Their reputation as a live force spread quickly and they were invited to play the highly respected clubs Fabric, Back To Basics, The Subclub and Bugged Out! At the time clubs were only just starting to accommodate live shows and these were usually only one man and his laptop. Wherever they went the Soundsystem smashed it and confidence started to grow. The guys hired out a studio space that picked up the name ‘Sweatshop Studios’ as all the work was getting done for no money. Focusing on developing the jams into tracks became the mission and a purple patch in 2004 produced the first singles ‘All Systems Go” and “Experience”. The band were surprised to see the singles sell well and gig offers increased. Remix requests started to come in and the band duly obliged for Brighton based Mula and New York’s The Glass. The work for the Glass was universally well received and became championed by John Digweed on his radio show and mix for Fabric Records. A few gigs were arranged together with The Glass and the bands got on so well that they decided to go into the studio together and this produced two album tracks for ‘No Order’ including the title track.
In 2005 the Soundsystem were invited to play the world re-knowned Sonar festival. Not only did they play it but they closed the whole festival on the famous outdoor stage as daylight came up for 10,000 people. This gig really propelled the project and offers now came in from around the world. The band found festivals were the perfect place for a show of their size and have to date played many of the most important ones on the planet including playing to 25,000 people at Exit Serbia and Creamfields Argentina. Other festival highlights include playing at Glastonbury, T in the Park, Creamfields, Global Gathering, Skolbeats Brasil, Sync Athens, Homelands and Fortdance Russia. The group already realized that the key to their success was live shows so they arranged to record the set at Sonar including positioning several mics to capture the crowd noise. They now had enough tracks to complete the first album and present it on two discs entitled “Sweatshop Studios” and “Live at Sonar”
The ‘Live at Sonar’ disc is regarded as a pioneering work for bands mixing DJs with live musicians. The band had created a whole scene in the states without even realizing it. Now there are many acts doing a similar thing so clear decisions were made to try to create something new again on ‘Falling’. An entire first version was completed using guest vocalists but was totally scrapped, which nearly led to the band losing faith, but as always perseverance prevailed and a second version was produced that found Fernando stepping into the role of singer songwriter. ‘Falling’ manages to balance songs with dance tracks and still retain the overall flow and feel of a live 2020Soundsystem set.
In September and October the crew return to Europe after a year in the States for a series of shows. Starting at the infamous Bestival on September 11th, they then play Leeds Faversham Sept 24th and The Wee Chill in Glasgow Sept 26th before going onto to support Simian Mobile Disco at London Forum October 2nd. There is a London album launch party at Tea Bar on October 3rd and then they continue throughout October with gigs at The Loft Barcelona, Goa Madrid, The Deaf Institute Manchester, We Love in Edinburgh and many more announced soon. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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