DOCUMENT ONE Join The Team!

Announcement 5/6. We want this season to reflective of the diverse sound of the magnificent creative and technical wonder that is Drum & Bass. We absolutely love artists who have a sound and stay true to that; but equally we have so much respect for those who dare to tread into all the sub genres and styles. Document One seem to do this effortlessly and with such class. Whether it’s working on big vocal anthems spilling with musicality, or straight up dancefloor murkers, they seem to bring strong flavour, grooves and a really exemplary technical finish.

This is another duo that go back. Writing music for over a decade together and individually for 20 years each. As a duo, their first ventures and breakthroughs in 2011 were during the Dubstep years. They wrote numerous massive tunes in the 140 vicinity, also releasing some future garage and electro tracks and… some D&B too. This range was perhaps the first indication of what was under the hood here, and what technical and musical capacity would unfold in the coming decade ahead.  And my word didn’t it do just that…

By the time 2014 had arrived they seem to have settled down and taken their vows with D&B; now signed to that OG prodigious label, Technique Recordings. This is when the (our) scene really started to take note of what these boys were about – monthly turnings out of absolute killer tracks, and with a sound that seemed to be evolving before our very eyes. With faithful backing from Friction on BBC R1, it came as no surprise when Document One later signed to Shogun and now, more recently Elevate.

With so much under their belt already (most notably their self titled debut album in 2019 (which is a total masterpiece with so many vibes and styles mastered on there)) and since then EP’s, collaborations, remixes and singles. We can clearly see why they are – in no uncertain terms – well into their stride as artists and engineers. Add to this, that they are really nice people with a genuine enthusiasm to deliver top class content to our members, it’s an understatement to say we are absolutely stoked to have them onboard and a part of the Sample Genie team for the next year ahead. Incoming!

>  We asked Joe & Matt a few pre-season questions…

Yes guys, welcome aboard! So awesome to finally have you with us for a season… several years in the planning now. How are you both doing & what’s been going on for you?

Hey! Thank you! We are so happy to be involved! We’re both doing good, we’ve been playing loads of great shows recently and the third single from our Coordinates EP, ‘Technology ft Dusky’ is out soon so really busy across the board. Exciting times!

The first question, perhaps you have answered this elsewhere before…. but your name, is there a story behind it? For some reason it has an unusual feel (in a good way!)?

It’s the default file name in the DAW we used to use. Early on we saved a finished track as this file name, first it stuck as the track name, eventually somehow it became our artist name. Wish it was a more interesting tale ha ha.

How long have you both been writing music together and how long were you working individually before that? Do each of you have certain strengths?

We’ve been working together for well over a decade now. We both played instruments from a young age, Matt the guitar and Joe the Piano. We’ve both been writing music for over twenty years.

You have a seriously diverse sound, but at the same time a distinct one: few people seem to be able to pull this off. What would you say is your ethos and aesthetic for a Document One track?

Yeah, we don’t tend to stick rigidly to one style or sound. We just have fun with it, that’s what music is about for us. We like to experiment and try different things. Something which carries through regardless of the style of track we are working on is that we involve a lot of harmonic content. Chord structures and music theory is important to us, we also love sound design and synthesis, so these are two elements which feature heavily in our production. Maybe that’s what makes our sound distinctive, we don’t really know.

What are your favourite bits of studio kit? (hardware or software)?

Do you have a process for how you like to write music together / do you find a workflow has developed over the years?

We tend to write separately and throw projects back and forth over email and catch up on the phone or whatsapp. It’s super cool how easy it is to remotely work on music these days. Workflow changes a lot from one track to another, we try not to be too formulated about our approach to writing music.

Which area of the samples you are making for our members are you most excited to get out there?

The bass samples. We’ve gone to town on the sound design and we think there are some really exciting sounds for other producers to get their hands on in there.

We’re really excited to work with you on the tutorials side of things, what would you say is your strongest suit when it comes to making D&B?

I think we can share some really cool tips when it comes to the mixdown stage, we can teach some cool sound design techniques too.

Lastly – we’re always interested to know… what are your hobbies and interests outside of music / D&B?

Joe: loves snowboarding

Matt: loves playing football

Awesome.

The new season of Sample Genie begins on 1.7.22.

More announcements coming soon!