Punctual are Will Lansley and John Morgan, a songwriter, producer and DJ duo whose debut single ‘Eva’ propelled them into the spotlight, clocking up over 3 million plays on Spotify to date and radio support from the likes of Zane Lowe, BBC Radio 1’s Pete Tong, Phil Taggart and Huw Stephens.
After taking some time away to focus on their production last year, Punctual continue their assault on summer 2019 with the second in a string of singles. ‘Anything (For Your Love)’ is another uplifting house banger with soaring vocals and triumphant keys that’s about as life-affirming as music gets.
We caught up with Punctual to talk about their new release ‘Anything (For Your Love)’ and other musical topics.
Electronic Groove: Hello, guys. Thanks for chatting with us. So you have a new single out titled ‘Anything (For Your Love)’. What can you tell us about the production process behind it?
Punctual: Hey, thanks for having us! So yeah, ‘Anything (For Your Love)’ was a track we made as a demo when we both lived in Bristol. We found the project when looking back through our hard drives and thought it would be a perfect fit for this new EP. We spruced it up with some additional production, got the vocals re-recorded and we were away!
EG: The tracks has some great vocal arrangements. Can you elaborate on who did them and how is the creative process to incorporate them into the track?
Punctual: The original acapella was actually sampled from a Debelah Morgan track, we then got a great singer called Laura Davie to re-record it so we had more control over the sound. We wrote a new post-chorus and a few other bits and it all fell into place! The original acapella was much slower and when we sped it up it gave us a real buzz. The vocal ranges of Debelah and Laura are crazy!
EG: You have a few gigs coming up. Any in particular that you’re looking forward to?
Punctual: A gig that we can’t wait for this year is Mysteryland Festival in Amsterdam. It will be our biggest gig to date, and we are playing the Main Stage which is 15,000 capacity, should be pretty special!
EG: What is it like working as a duo? Who does what and how do you solve any differences?
Punctual: Working in a pair gives fresh perspective on ideas which is invaluable. Sometimes it is easier to flesh out ideas on your own though, so we work together and separately! Generally, we start with a chord progression/beat that John has started and then we work together to flesh out/produce the rest of the track with the addition of melodies from singers/topliners.
When we have differences in ideas, it is quite easy to create alternate arrangements within projects so we can leave things in or out and come back to them with fresh ears. Quite often it is much more obvious then!
EG: Tell us about your musical backgrounds and how did you start working together?
Punctual: We both grew up playing instruments from an early age. John was in an orchestra playing French horn and Will was in a Brass Band playing the cornet, drums and percussion.
We originally met through a mutual friend, who also produced music on the computer and we got together off the back of this and continued working together through to uni where we signed our first deal!
EG: How do you work your DJ sets in terms of individual styles and responsibilities? Is it based on what’s happening at the moment or are you guys strict with set planning?
Punctual: As crowds can differ we don’t plan sets, as you never know what people are going to like so being versatile is important! For special events, we may go as far as finding good combinations of tracks to play, but as a rule of thumb, we improvise! We take anywhere from 1-3 tunes at a time each, and the other often works the FX channels if not fist-pumping! Stylistically, we then run most new music past each other pre-show and discuss the predicted type of crowd so we find similar types of music!
“DJing vinyl is a skill in its own right”
EG: Do you guys have any new material for the rest of the year? Any sneak peeks?
Punctual: Do you want a download link or?… (laughs)… Yes, we have another 3 tracks to come out on this summer’s EP. And following this we have another collection of tracks, more suited around the wintertime. So keep those eyes peeled, there is much on its way!
EG: Vinyl, CDjs or both? And why?
Punctual: DJing vinyl is a skill in its own right, and much more fun to do once you get the hang of it. Having said that, when we play a gig, the most important thing for us is playing good music with seamless transitions and there is much more to lose when playing Vinyl. It’s all about the end product when we DJ, not how we get there, and we should be happy that technology has progressed in a way that allows us to our job better, with looping and without jumping or needle knocking! If people come and pay good money to see us, we want the performance to be as good as possible, why would we make this harder for ourselves?
‘Anything (For Your Love)’ by Punctual is out now. Grab your copy here.
Follow Punctual: Facebook | Instagram | Soundcloud
