Bliss And Tell

It’s been a remarkable year for English dance producers Guy and Howard Lawrence, the sibling duo whose debut album as Disclosure, the wonderful house odyssey Settle, has hit the charts internationally, reached number one in the UK and earned a Mercury nomination.

Just a few days before we spoke to the elder Lawrence brother, 22-year-old Guy, the pair had hit the headlines, after their record company pulled the video for ‘Help Me Lose Me Mind’ from online outlets, after complaints that the clip supposedly glamourised drug use. What was the band’s take on the situation?
“The video didn’t actually contain anyone taking drugs at all, in any way,” explains Guy. “In the clip we tried to create a sense of euphoria and people having a great time. The plot is these kids go out to a club and then they come home, and they’re just socialising with each other. I guess, the way it was filmed, people were perceiving as they were all kind of fucked on drugs, and we don’t want to put that message out.
“Our music is not about taking drugs, although a lot of people do go out and listen to house music on drugs, which is their choice. That’s fine. It just was not the right time for a video that was getting comments like that. It’s a shame.”
Disclosure also found themselves in the press recently after controversial rapper Azealia Banks accused them of being “rude” for the provocative gesture of, er, discussing a planned collaboration during a radio interview. Given that Banks likes to shoot from the hip, were the boys prepared for such a scenario?
“Not at all, I didn’t see that one coming,” admits Guy. “I thought she was going to be really up for working with us rather than leaking our music. I’m just going to let her do her own thing, I’m not interested anymore. You can watch the interview online. It was with a Dutch radio station. We just explained that we’d started making music together and it wasn’t finished. We said that we’d chilled all day and ate sushi together and stuff like this. She took it as being really rude. I don’t really know why.
“And then she threatened to leak the music that we made together. You can watch it and if you perceive it as rude, fine! I mean, we apologised to her as well, personally and publicly on Twitter, and then she still wants to leak it. So, fuck it!”
Disclosure’s Mercury nomination for Settle capped what had already been a wildly successful year. Guy confesses that commercial objectives didn’t figure in the duo’s thinking when writing the album.
“We weren’t thinking about the Mercury Prize or anything like that,” he notes. “Number ones, singles and that sort of stuff weren’t on our radar. We just write music for the love of it. We’re not doing it for money, fame or anything like that. Anything that comes along like number ones or Mercury nominations are just insane added bonuses, definitely. We will be there for the ceremony. We’re flying home from America literally on the day it’s happening, and then we’re starting a European tour the next day!”
Although Settle is built around a succession of irresistible dance grooves, Guy points out that the overall songwriting structure is quite grounded in tradition.
“The actual tunes don’t really come from house music,” he observes. “We were trying to write conventional songs. We just wanted to produce them in that way. If you listen to ‘Latch’, ‘White Noise’, ‘You And Me’ or any of those ones with vocals. You take all the production off, you’re just left with a normal song. You can play it on piano or guitar, and you can sing along.”
There are numerous vocal contributions on Settle, with appearances from the likes of AlunaGeorge, London Grammar and Friendly Fires’ Edd MacFarlane. Had Disclosure known any of their collaborators beforehand?
“With Sam Smith, Aluna and London Grammar, we were seeing their names pop up every now and then on YouTube or blogs,” reflects Guy. “We just reached out and said, ‘Do you want to do something for our album?’ But with Jamie Woon and Ed MacFarlane from Friendly Fires, we were massive fans of them. So we managed to get in touch, and we met up to talk about music.
“It turned out that they were big fans as well, and it ended up with us going into the studio together. I’m a massive fan of Friendly Fires and Jamie Woon, so it was great.”
Who would be Guy’s ultimate collaborator?
“Growing up my ultimate collaboration was J Dilla,” he responds, “but obviously he passed away. He would have been my ultimate man just to meet, so it’s a shame that will never happen.”

Disclosure play the Black Box, Galway (November 14) and the Olympia, Dublin (15) as part of the Heineken Live Project. Tickets are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis at heinekenmusic.ie