Some things just make sense together. Summer and festivals. Empty pools and skate boards. Ice-cream and icemagic. And a new one for the growing list: Frames and Elizabeth Rose. They're both artists from Sydney and both skilled producers. Individually they've got a lot of fans, and working collaboratively they're making even more. Count us in. Frames kindly sat down to chat about the project, and made us a mix of sunny jams for the season ahead. As Frames explains "This mix was recorded live in my living room on the weekend on the day daylight savings started in Sydney. In my mind that day is essentially the beginning of summer. There's a bit of house, a bit of disco and a few extra jams to be best enjoyed with a cold one around the BBQ. Shorts mandatory.
Frames: The collaboration came together really naturally. I saw Elizabeth play at a local venue one night a couple of years ago and was blown away. Afterwards I introduced myself and floated the idea of doing something together; we swapped details and later that week I emailed over a track I had been working on – an instrumental that eventually became the basis for "Anywhere". Elizabeth was into it, but mentioned on the phone she was pretty busy and wasn't sure when she'd have a chance to sit down and work on it. Elizabeth promised she'd revisit it when there was some spare time in the coming weeks. A handful of hours later my phone rang, Liz was too excited to wait and had already written, sung and recorded a demo vocal, and let me know it was sitting in my inbox. Liz also had a strong vision of where the track could go, and had edited my demo to be slightly more to her liking. We figured it'd be best to rework things together and find a middle ground, so we arranged to get in the studio together and it clicked really nicely.The two songs you've just released have a distinct feeling, but also relate to each other in interesting ways. What were you aiming for with this debut release?
Both tracks come from a similar space. We were aiming to write songs that sound good on the radio as well as the dancefloor. To me the biggest distinction between the tracks is their attitude. "Intentions" is a shade darker; a touch more tense. "Anywhere" is slower, warmer and more laid back. Think of it as salt and pepper, they make more sense together.You worked on these tracks over the course of a year, what was the process?
This release was actually a very organic process. We consulted each other and collaborated on nearly every part of each track; drums and vocals, melodies and arrangement. It took a little while to get everything finished but we were also working on our own projects during that time. It was actually really fun just the sharing music with each other, particularly while we'd eat lunch or take a break from the studio, and then attempt to incorporate some of those influences into what we were making. I feel this release is a really nice middle ground between what Elizabeth Rose and I do individually - it really feels like the natural meeting point between the two of us. The melodies, the chords, the strong sense of groove and of course Elizabeth's voice – we did everything together and I feel that really shines through in the music. As a house music producer it was really refreshing to attempt to write something with a little more weight; a little different to what I'd normally do. Here's hoping its something I can explore again soon.Elizabeth Rose+ Frames' EP "Intentions/Anywhere" is available via October Records here
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THUMP: Congratulations on the new release. What's the story behind this collaboration?
Frames: The collaboration came together really naturally. I saw Elizabeth play at a local venue one night a couple of years ago and was blown away. Afterwards I introduced myself and floated the idea of doing something together; we swapped details and later that week I emailed over a track I had been working on – an instrumental that eventually became the basis for "Anywhere". Elizabeth was into it, but mentioned on the phone she was pretty busy and wasn't sure when she'd have a chance to sit down and work on it. Elizabeth promised she'd revisit it when there was some spare time in the coming weeks. A handful of hours later my phone rang, Liz was too excited to wait and had already written, sung and recorded a demo vocal, and let me know it was sitting in my inbox. Liz also had a strong vision of where the track could go, and had edited my demo to be slightly more to her liking. We figured it'd be best to rework things together and find a middle ground, so we arranged to get in the studio together and it clicked really nicely.The two songs you've just released have a distinct feeling, but also relate to each other in interesting ways. What were you aiming for with this debut release?
Both tracks come from a similar space. We were aiming to write songs that sound good on the radio as well as the dancefloor. To me the biggest distinction between the tracks is their attitude. "Intentions" is a shade darker; a touch more tense. "Anywhere" is slower, warmer and more laid back. Think of it as salt and pepper, they make more sense together.You worked on these tracks over the course of a year, what was the process?
This release was actually a very organic process. We consulted each other and collaborated on nearly every part of each track; drums and vocals, melodies and arrangement. It took a little while to get everything finished but we were also working on our own projects during that time. It was actually really fun just the sharing music with each other, particularly while we'd eat lunch or take a break from the studio, and then attempt to incorporate some of those influences into what we were making. I feel this release is a really nice middle ground between what Elizabeth Rose and I do individually - it really feels like the natural meeting point between the two of us. The melodies, the chords, the strong sense of groove and of course Elizabeth's voice – we did everything together and I feel that really shines through in the music. As a house music producer it was really refreshing to attempt to write something with a little more weight; a little different to what I'd normally do. Here's hoping its something I can explore again soon.Elizabeth Rose+ Frames' EP "Intentions/Anywhere" is available via October Records here