Rainer + Grimm may only be five months old, but the duo have some serious production and engineering credits under their belts individually. They boast writing cred with The Weeknd (Rainer and Abel wrote "Wicked Games" and "The Party & The After Party" together), as well as endless engineering credits on major albums like Drake's Nothing Was The Same. Now, hot on the heels of the release of their debut EP Modern Wild (check out their behind the scenes making-of video here) the pair has a stacked roster of shows across the country and an ever-growing group of converts. Despite being relatively new to the scene, their reworks have been picked up by Capitol Records—their remix of Sam Smith's "Stay With Me" has seen over two million plays to date. After we caught up with them over dinner at La Carnita before their show at Weldon Park a few weeks back, they put together a mix a for us that is guaranteed to be the ideal soundtrack to your last few summer(ish) nights.THUMP: You guys seem to come from quite a technical background. How did you guys meet?
Grimm: We actually met at school for audio production at Metalworks Institute, and it's weird, we didn't actually start making music until we were both graduated. We started out making more pop beats, not even electronic, a lot more hip hop and R&B, trying to go for that Toronto sound. I had always made dance music and Rainer worked with Abel from The Weeknd, so that influenced our direction primarily.Rainer: [Laughs] Yeah, the one time Geoff took a break from chilling with me I met up with Abel…G: Yeah never going to miss a writing session again, learnt my lesson. Then we moved more towards the progressive house sound, but got bored of it super fast. Everyone does. After that we started an EP, which helped us really evolve from that sound to a smaller, tighter, groovier vibe. We found it had been too formatted, too cookie cutter when we were producing, and working on the EP really helped us to get away from all of that. We went away to Rainer's cottage for four days and just created our sound over those four days, which I guess is weird.So you said that working on this EP is what really got you away from that big progressive house sound and into more of your own style—what did you want to bring to the music that you didn't you think you've done before?
R: We wanted to be more authentic.G: I mean for me, my background is in drum and bass, which is like the bastard child of electronic music—it stays there, but no one really listens to it too much. But what I love about it is the realness of that scene and sound. So that's what we were trying to do, bring that authenticity in. Get more soul in it, really.R: We're on a path now that seems a lot more right than it did before, and I think with the sound change it's gotten easier for us to draw from genres different to the one we're producing and incorporate unique elements from all the sounds that inspire us and get us going.You guys mentioned briefly that you'd love to take off to Montreal for a month or so. Is that something that's on the table?
R: Yeah it's a floating idea at the moment, I think it would be really cool if we could incorporate our location into our EP—like pick a city, get a residency for a month, and just let that city influence the project, get artists to drop in and that kind of stuff. It's something we've been talking about, we'll see if we get it together.G: It's what we did in a way for the first one, being up near Muskoka while we worked on it. Would be cool to continue that idea.Where else would you love to do a residency?
G: Anywhere in the UK. I've been into that scene since forever. I went there a couple years ago and I didn't want to leave. I went to the Notting Hill Carnival and played a couple of shows; when I got back I was in depression. The last few days I was there by myself so I just spent all my time wandering around London. It was great.R: Australia. California. South America.G: Anywhere hot, it seems.Time for a little current affairs. What did you guys think about VELD and Councillor Mammoliti wanting to see INK Entertainment held accountable for the deaths at the festival? Do you think something like that will put a stain on the rise of the electronic scene here?
R: I mean, that stuff has always been here, it has happened lots of times. I think something like this is just a cause for us to evolve and improve.G: I used to rave a lot in the '90s, before they moved everything to the big clubs—you still had to call a hotline to find out where you were going that night. But something happened that forced the whole scene to relocate to these big clubs because it was just too dangerous having people breaking into abandoned warehouses and throwing 12 hour parties. So the scene shifted, and I'm sure it will slightly again after this. It makes us look pretty bad and it doesn't do any favors for the scene overall, but enough people—I think—have the sense to see through it and realize that it's a poor representation of a huge group of very varied people.Related stories:
Fingers Point Wildly as Two Deaths Reported at VELD Music Festival
Toddler T's Guide to Notting Hill Carnival Survival
The Best Drum & Bass Albums You Missed In 2013
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Grimm: We actually met at school for audio production at Metalworks Institute, and it's weird, we didn't actually start making music until we were both graduated. We started out making more pop beats, not even electronic, a lot more hip hop and R&B, trying to go for that Toronto sound. I had always made dance music and Rainer worked with Abel from The Weeknd, so that influenced our direction primarily.Rainer: [Laughs] Yeah, the one time Geoff took a break from chilling with me I met up with Abel…G: Yeah never going to miss a writing session again, learnt my lesson. Then we moved more towards the progressive house sound, but got bored of it super fast. Everyone does. After that we started an EP, which helped us really evolve from that sound to a smaller, tighter, groovier vibe. We found it had been too formatted, too cookie cutter when we were producing, and working on the EP really helped us to get away from all of that. We went away to Rainer's cottage for four days and just created our sound over those four days, which I guess is weird.So you said that working on this EP is what really got you away from that big progressive house sound and into more of your own style—what did you want to bring to the music that you didn't you think you've done before?
R: We wanted to be more authentic.G: I mean for me, my background is in drum and bass, which is like the bastard child of electronic music—it stays there, but no one really listens to it too much. But what I love about it is the realness of that scene and sound. So that's what we were trying to do, bring that authenticity in. Get more soul in it, really.
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R: Yeah it's a floating idea at the moment, I think it would be really cool if we could incorporate our location into our EP—like pick a city, get a residency for a month, and just let that city influence the project, get artists to drop in and that kind of stuff. It's something we've been talking about, we'll see if we get it together.G: It's what we did in a way for the first one, being up near Muskoka while we worked on it. Would be cool to continue that idea.Where else would you love to do a residency?
G: Anywhere in the UK. I've been into that scene since forever. I went there a couple years ago and I didn't want to leave. I went to the Notting Hill Carnival and played a couple of shows; when I got back I was in depression. The last few days I was there by myself so I just spent all my time wandering around London. It was great.R: Australia. California. South America.G: Anywhere hot, it seems.Time for a little current affairs. What did you guys think about VELD and Councillor Mammoliti wanting to see INK Entertainment held accountable for the deaths at the festival? Do you think something like that will put a stain on the rise of the electronic scene here?
R: I mean, that stuff has always been here, it has happened lots of times. I think something like this is just a cause for us to evolve and improve.G: I used to rave a lot in the '90s, before they moved everything to the big clubs—you still had to call a hotline to find out where you were going that night. But something happened that forced the whole scene to relocate to these big clubs because it was just too dangerous having people breaking into abandoned warehouses and throwing 12 hour parties. So the scene shifted, and I'm sure it will slightly again after this. It makes us look pretty bad and it doesn't do any favors for the scene overall, but enough people—I think—have the sense to see through it and realize that it's a poor representation of a huge group of very varied people.Related stories:
Fingers Point Wildly as Two Deaths Reported at VELD Music Festival
Toddler T's Guide to Notting Hill Carnival Survival
The Best Drum & Bass Albums You Missed In 2013