Halflight releases “Out Of Love” [Interview]

In terms of new labels, René LaVice‘s DeVice is quickly sweeping 2020 by storm with a barrage of new music that truly showcases a vast variety of stylistic elements that all tie into the same refreshing record outlet. Featuring massive collaborations by the head honcho himself with artists like S.P.Y, Benny L, and many more, the label itself has finally released its very first solo artist release. Halflight, the very first artist to release a solo composition on DeVice, has received groundbreaking support with his tune “Out Of Love”.

We had a few words with him recently to hear what he had to say.

Yeah, we put Cutline to bed a while ago now. Jeryl and I basically fell out over which Decepticon leader we thought was better Megatron or Galvatron (obviously Megatron). It’s super awkward now though as we live on the same street and have all the same friends. Bastard even made me his daughter’s Godfather just so he could get free babysitting.

So after we decided to send Cutline off to the proverbial farm in the country, Jeryl went back to his PR company full time and I ended up going down the solo route and back to my first love, Drum & Bass.

And so Halflight was born.

How did this track come to fruition? Tell us about the process.

I’d had this idea of writing a piano house style Drum & Bass track for a while. I was listening to a lot of the old skool classics by Alison Limerick; Awesome 3; Black Box etc to get the vibe I wanted. I wrote the piano part first and then built the rest of the track around that.

For the drop I had originally been trying to go for a standard two step dance floor vibe, but it just didn’t feel right. I had been listening to a lot of Upgrade‘s Ram stuff at the time and so decided to go for something a bit more drum break orientated. Once I had decided to go down that route, the rest of the track came together very quickly.

How does it feel to be the very first solo release from an artist other than René LaVice on Device?

It’s great! Signing ‘Out of Love’ to Device happened very organically. René had just made my track ‘Lean’ on Viper Recordings his rinse out tune of the week on his BBC Radio 1 show and when I sent him an early version of ‘Out of Love’ he just jumped straight on it.

René was excellent in helping me get the track ready for release, he’s incredibly supportive and giving of his time.

Who are your top 3 artists that you feel influence your production style most?

I’m very eclectic with the style of tunes I write and draw influences from loads of different artists, Noisia / Sub Focus / Break / Upgrade / S.P.Y / Calyx & Teebee etc. and that’s just the Drum & Bass heads, so it’s impossible to pick just 3.

Having said that, Liam Howlett will forever be deeply engrained in any music I write, as The Prodigy were so influential in my choice to become a producer / DJ in the first place and still inspire me to this day. My track ‘Call Back’ on Futurebound’s Viper Recordings, literally came to fruition after having rinsed their ‘No Tourists’ album for the umpteenth time that week.

Moving forward, without giving too much away, what is in store for Halflight from here for the rest of the year?

Going back to the gym to work off the lockdown belly I seem to have acquired. I stupidly decided to learn how to bake during the lockdown; breads, pizzas, desserts, I made and ate them all, every… last… piece.

Musically though I have a couple more singles lined up and a collab in the works, so I’m pretty excited about those. I’m basically just going to be keeping my head down and working hard on tunes, then hopefully when things get back to normal, I’ll be able to put my DJ hat back on and get out to the clubs again.

If you could collab with anyone, who would it be?

Anyone whose music I like and that I have a good vibe with really. In the past I’d have probably said someone like Method Man, or Liam Howlett, which would obviously be amazing, but at the end of the day I’m more into just working with people that I can write a good tune and have some fun with. Being a producer can be incredibly isolating most of the time, so finding someone you can vibe in the studio and have a laugh with is great.