Exclusive Interview: Twofold
EPIC: Start off with introducing yourselves, who is Twofold?
Adam McKinney: I'm Adam McKinney, 22. Twofold is the combination of two Adams from two countries. I was formerly known as Vannin and I live in the Bay Area.
Adam Crewes-Meyer: I'm Adam Crewes-Meyer, I'm 20 years old, and I live in West Sussex, UK.
EPIC: What were you two doing with your life before you picked up an instrument or digital audio workstation and decided to make music?
McKinney: I was studying to be a sound engineer for video games and cinema, it's still something I intend to pursue.
Crewes-Meyer: I was drummer and producer for a local post-hardcore band before discovering dance music, so music has long been a hobby for me. More recently, I was working towards a degree in Neuroscience at Sussex University, but I've put that on hold for the moment to focus on music.
EPIC: Which artists inspired you guys and ultimately helped find your sound?
McKinney: I've always loved dance music, it's just the genre that's resonated with me the most. Orbital, Tiesto, The Chemical Brothers and Aphex Twin all spring to mind. The melodies in trance really stuck out and I've followed the genre for as long as I can remember. That said, I'm interested in almost every sub genre of dance music.
Crewes-Meyer: I'm still very much in to rock music. In terms of artists, bands like Underoath and Funeral For A Friend are frequently on my iTunes top 25 list. What's captivating to me about that style of music is the combination of aggression and melody that they can combine into a song – something meaningful, whilst simultaneously packed with energy.
EPIC: Every crowd responds to a set differently, what's your go-to track to get the audience pumped when they're looking a little slow?
McKinney: At the moment, Showtek "Booyah" (Party Favor Remix). From our own tracks, "Warships" definitely gets the crowd going.
Crewes-Meyer: Difficult to say really! Our sets are usually geared to be as high energy as possible, so there isn't one track we look for.
EPIC: Fill us in on how you two got linked up with Firepower Records. How was it meeting Datsik for the first time?
McKinney: We'd just finished "Clandestine" and "Ordnance" and my friend Daniel (Slosh) sent the tunes over to "Getter". He passed them on to Datsik who was on tour at the time. He started including the tunes in his set and we began discussing an EP, which resulted in The Prelude. We first met in person at Beyond Wonderland, where we played at the same stage together."
Crewes-Meyer: Well being in the UK, I've yet to actually meet anyone involved in person, but what I can say is that everyone running the label has been fantastic with us.
EPIC: You guys released your first EP off Firepower Records earlier this year and you're expecting “The Second Phase” to come out soon. Can you tell us a little about what to expect on the new EP?
Crewes-Meyer: It's a bit different than 'The Prelude', but with many similarities. We tried to add a bit more melody, whilst still keeping our aggressive and dark synths. We've also got possibly our most melodic track to date with 'Skyfire' with Avielle Breen doing a great job on vocals. Equally, we've got quite a relentless tune in Goliathus, so there's a decent variety amongst the four tracks.
McKinney: A little bit of everything. Of the four tunes on the EP, there are three different genres and tempos.
EPIC: Twofold has been blowing up, you won the discovery project for both Beyond Wonderland Bay Area and Escape from Wonderland in SoCal this year. Can you explain to us how those experiences helped enhance your music career?
McKinney: Well we only won the Escape from Wonderland one, with Beyond Wonderland we were asked to play the main Bass Stage. They were both great experiences and it it definitely gave us the desire to play more festivals.
Crewes-Meyer: I unfortunately couldn't fly out for either of them, but they sounded great from what Adam has said.
EPIC: What do you guys like to drink while performing?
McKinney: Vodka and Redbulls!
Crewes-Meyer: Just water for me. Lots of water.
EPIC: Your productions tend to be bass heavy, falling under genres like dubstep, drumstep and moombahcore. Would you guys ever think about producing other genres like house, techno, trance, etc.?
Crewes-Meyer: It's certainly something that we're looking to do. I think it's important that fans of our current discography don't assume we're abandoning our principles when we try out some new things, which we plan to during 2014. I personally look forward to us experimenting with ambient works, that would purely be for listening purposes rather than the dance floor. That being said, we will still continue to create heavy, energetic tracks that are designed with the club/festival in mind.
McKinney: What Adam said is exactly how I feel too. Our style is very eclectic, and we don't want to limit ourselves to two, or even three genres. We hope to experiment with a bit of everything.
EPIC: Besides the new EP, what can the fans expect from Twofold in the near future?
Crewes-Meyer: We're finishing off a couple of drum & bass tracks at the moment, one of them in particular having some really fun drumming. Also some collaborations.
McKinney: Lots of collaborations. We've got tracks lined up with AFK, Mantis, Shelboy, Jake Sgarlato and possibly some more. Expect a lot of different genres too!
AUTHOR CREDIT: CAROLINE CANTRALL