No HIs Without The LOs: Franz Matthews x Beyond The Struttosphere

Leo and Ben met at Glastonbury’s Rabbit Hole in 2019 and made “New Frontier” in their first session, on a laptop in Leo’s London flat. Discolypso released it in 2020, and The Juan MacLean put it in his Beats in Space mix. Ben now lives in LA and Leo in the UK, so the duo mostly work over Zoom, eight hours apart.

Franz came to club music through classical piano, guitar and rock bands, and guitar runs through everything Leo and Ben make. Ahead of a shared bill in Peckham, they interviewed each other on gear, remixes, running a label and the records that shaped them.

Beyond The Struttosphere: Franz, you’re coming over to London for your highly anticipated UK live debut at The Greyhound in Peckham on 20 November. For the gear-nerds and dancefloor purists, what does your live rig actually look like? What’s the one piece of essential hardware you refuse to travel without to squeeze maximum energy out of the dancefloor?

Franz Matthews: I’m very excited to come back and play in the UK, 14 years after I came with my first band, Parlez-vous anglais?

My current live rig revolves around two core pillars. The first is my synth brain, the Roland Boutique SH-01A. I genuinely love its simplicity. It’s ultra-playable and hands-on, and it doesn’t force you to dive through endless submenus to pull out a killer sound. It has a wonderfully stubborn, slightly blunt character that cuts right through a club system, and it lets me play with the room in real time. That goes straight into a dedicated reverb and tape-echo pedal to give it a more spacey feel.

The second, and most crucial, element is the human voice. I run a live mic through a TC Helicon vocal FX processor that lets me mutate my vocal delivery on the fly. Depending on the tune, I can twist my voice into an icy robotic vocoder, drop it into an ominous, low-pitched “voice of god”, or pitch it up into high-frequency cartoon mania.

I still sing clean on a lot of parts, but having a physical microphone in your hand is very important to me in a club environment. Too many live electronic acts get buried behind laptops and mixers, where the crowd can’t tell if you’re composing a symphony or checking your emails. When you grab a mic and project directly into the room, people can see what you’re doing and feel that it’s happening live.

Franz Matthews: How did the two of you actually cross paths in the first place, and what was the initial sonic common ground- the records or scenes you both loved- that convinced you to start making music together?

Beyond The Struttosphere: Leo here. It all kicked off at the infamous Rabbit Hole at Glastonbury back in 2019. Ben was DJing there with his other project, the legendary Flying Mojito Bros; my older bro, Algy Strutt, was playing right after him, and I was out in the crowd, busy getting my mind blown. Ben and Algy had met a few months earlier DJing at a Gouranga party at The Social in London, so the connection was already there. Ben and I got hanging backstage afterwards, and it was pretty much love at first sight!

The real catalyst, though, was a few debrief pints back in London. We were swapping musical obsessions and realised we shared a massive love of rock music as well as chuggy nu-disco, in particular the dark, low-slung records Andrew Weatherall was playing. Weatherall was a guiding light for us right from the start. Even now, whenever we get stuck on a track, we literally ask ourselves: “What would Weatherall do?”

Around the same time, I sent Ben a payload of tunes I’d been DJing, alongside some of my mixtapes on SoundCloud: mostly cosmic, dark disco and anything featuring live guitar, something we both felt had been criminally sidelined in modern dance music. There were a few Daniele Baldelli records in there, along with the likes of Lindstrøm, Damon Jee, Rich Lane, Shubostar, and Rigopolar, and, of course, a healthy dose of Algy’s sleazy acid disco, which was a massive inspiration for us.

Ben was instantly hooked and suggested we get together to make music, taking the sounds we loved but forging something completely unique, in our own universe. We did exactly that. By the end of our first session, using just a laptop in my London flat, we’d made our very first track, “New Frontier”. It got signed to Discolypso and was quickly picked up by The Juan MacLean for his Beats in Space mix. The rest is history!

Beyond The Struttosphere: Beyond your extensive output, you’re steering the ship at your Berlin-based label, HIFI/LOFI. There are no HIs without the LOs, as the mantra goes. How is that philosophy shaping your upcoming release schedule, and what fresh projects do you have cooking on the imprint right now?

Franz Matthews: The HIs right now are all about the release pipeline, which is looking beautifully and chaotically full!

We’ve got a pair of EPs coming from Swedish producer Farfetch’d, properly cosmic, disco-tinted and slightly deranged club music. The package includes a wonderful remix lineup with fellow Swedish producer Mohawk & The Kid, my long-time friend and “slow trippy disco” producer E-Gerät, and Argentinian producer Cosmosolar. Cosmosolar is also following up with his own solo EP on the imprint, bringing a more eclectic, groove-heavy indie dance sensibility, featuring an incredible remix back from Farfetch’d as well.

On top of that, there’s “Close Connection”, a collaboration single between Italian producer Berny and myself, backed by an absolute weapon of a deep house remix from 16BL & Wild Dark.

We also recently launched our HIFILOFLIPS edit series. I kicked off #01 with a rework of Radio 4’s “Dance to the Underground”, and next in line is my partner in crime Bonnie Spacey, who delivered a fiercely pumped-up edit of Madonna’s “Ray of Light”.

As for the LOs? The harsh reality of running an independent imprint alongside touring, producing and putting on parties is that time is a brutal currency. I became a dad seven months ago, so welcoming little Mylo into the world naturally squeezed my studio hours down to the absolute wire. Juggling release campaigns, master deadlines and event logistics while running on dad-fuel isn’t always glamorous, but it forces you to cut the fluff and pour 100% of your energy into the music that truly matters. In any case, I’m very, very excited about what’s coming up!

Franz Matthews: Your last remix of “Futures” by Magari sounds dope, a cosmic arpeggiated journey at its best! Can you tell us a bit about what synths and gear, hardware or plugin, you used to produce it?

Beyond The Struttosphere: Ah, thanks man! That one was a proper labour of love this summer. The mission was to take Magari’s core elements and push them into a deeper, more hypnotic orbit, while applying our signature sound. We started by selecting the elements in the track that felt most BTS, reworking some using various sampling and effects techniques (we love filtering, delay and saturation) to reimagine the original sounds so they sat in a wider, more psychedelic space.

From there, we beefed things up with a mix of layering and additional production. We love to use synths, both hardware and software, and re-arrangement is also key in a remix. The raw, driving energy came from the Korg ARP Odyssey, and the squelchy, low-slung acid bite from a TB-303 clone we love called Bass Bot by Cyclone Analogic. We’ve started using Xfer’s Serum recently and it’s quickly become a go-to, particularly for that fat BTS-chug bass. We also used NI Massive, another firm favourite, along with Arturia’s vintage synth collection and a Jupiter for the 80s-sounding euphoric pads. To give the drum programming some character and variety, we wove in some improvisations on the DSI Tempest drum machine. And as it wouldn’t be a BTS track without guitar, we recorded a few live stabs on a Telecaster, heavily effected of course, and tripped them out a bit. Really happy with the end result!

Beyond The Struttosphere: Your sound effortlessly bridges driving indie dance, funk-infused house, post-disco and hypnotic wave. When you’re in the studio, how do you strike that delicate balance between making something primed for dark, sweaty warehouse floors while keeping your playful, narrative-driven edge intact?

Franz Matthews: Well, simple answer, I try not to think about it, ha ha. It comes quite naturally because I don’t set out to make a “genre” track. Words like driving, sweaty, groovy and hypnotic actually describe my style far better than rigid tags like “indie dance” or “house”. I love taking left turns, but the sonic thread that ties it all together usually comes down to obsessive attention to detail in the arrangement.

Even when making club-focused electronic music, I approach my tracks almost like pop songs. To me, arrangement is at least 75% of what makes a record work. You hear so many club tracks today that stumble into the loop trap. They set up a nice groove, but then ride the same eight bars for six minutes without going anywhere, and feel like they’ve been produced a bit lazily, if I can say so. Considering the insane amount of music that comes out, I don’t really understand why people don’t try to show their best side when putting their music out, because to me, that’s what makes a good track that stands the test of time.

I want a track to feel like a narrative arc where you never get bored. Something should always be shifting, evolving or teasing a new sonic texture to pull you into an emotional headspace where you’re genuinely travelling. If you can make a room sweat while taking their heads somewhere slightly psychedelic and unpredictable, I feel like I’ve done my job.

Franz Matthews: We’re teaming up for our debut HIFI/LOFI Records London showcase at The Greyhound on 20 November. For those who haven’t caught you in a basement recently, what specific sounds, BPMs or sonic rabbit holes are you obsessing over right now, and what kind of trip are you planning to take the room on for this gig?

Beyond The Struttosphere: Leo again. First off, I am absolutely pumped for this gig! With Ben holding things down out in LA, I’ll be flying the BTS flag solo for this one. I’m particularly excited to warm up for your live show. From what I’ve seen, it’s a full-throttle, high-energy performance harnessing club-ready LCD Soundsystem vibes. What’s not to like?

Kicking off early evening means starting things a bit more pitched down and groovier than usual, around the 115-118 BPM mark. That will give me room to let the tracks stretch out, get weird and explore some deep sonic rabbit holes. From there, I’ll be steadily driving the tempo up to our 125 BPM sweet spot, building into a high-voltage, tranced-out crescendo so the floor is primed and locked in for your set.

Right now, we’re obsessed with atmospheric drones, deploying low-frequency sustained tones as a hypnotic anchor to build slow-burning tension beneath our basslines and guitar riffs. We’ve also been heavily leaning into trance-inspired synths that have that characteristic rhythmical, gated sound. Rest assured, you can still expect our trademark BTS sound throughout: driving chug basslines, gritty 303 acid sequences, cosmic synths, Italo drum fills, syncopated arpeggios and, of course, loads of guitar. Strap yourselves in!

Beyond The Struttosphere: From growing up with classical piano and guitar, to playing in rock bands, to playing club nights around the globe and running your own studio in Friedrichshain, you’ve no doubt picked up a pretty wild mix of influences. If you had to pick two or three non-electronic records, or weird leftfield artefacts, that fundamentally shaped the way you approach producing a track today, what would they be and why?

Franz Matthews: Tough one, but let’s start with a record I actually discovered in London during that first tour 14 years ago: Herbie Hancock, “Just Around the Corner”, from Mr. Hands.

It can be debated whether fusion counts as electronic music or not, but what Herbie did on that record is sheer alchemy to me. It’s ridiculously groovy, cosmic and technically jaw-dropping without ever losing its funk. I have deep jazz roots from my piano days, even if I’m nowhere near a jazz player, unfortunately, and that track embodies everything I strive for: groove, fun, storytelling, pure craftsmanship, and the ability to take the listener on an actual cosmic voyage.

Second: is it even legally possible for me to do an interview without mentioning James Murphy? LCD Soundsystem, “All My Friends”. Again, it’s played by a live band, but that driving, hypnotic, motoric repetition is what dancefloor philosophy is about. Coming from a rock background where I played instruments and sang before diving fully into synthesis and (still organic) club music, LCD proved you didn’t have to choose between raw rock energy, heartfelt lyricism and relentless 4/4 momentum. It carries this massive sense of melancholic grandeur that stays with you, which is an important part I try to incorporate in my work as well.

Finally, on a completely different axis: Jon Hopkins, “Sit Around the Fire”, with Ram Dass. This track acts more like a guided sonic meditation than a conventional piece of music. It weaves an archival 1970s talk from Ram Dass around this gorgeous, ambient piano, using the metaphor of sifting through the ashes of a fire to find a single glowing ember, a reminder to quiet the ego, strip away greed and isolation, and reconnect with something deeper. Spirituality and mindfulness have become vital anchors in my life over recent years. Seeing an artist like Jon Hopkins, who built a legendary career on absolutely mindblowing electronic music, have the courage to step back, tap into source and pivot entirely into healing ambient depth earned my deepest respect. That underlying sense of quiet melancholy and emotional depth is something I always try to weave into my own tracks as well, even when they’re aimed squarely at making people dance.

Franz Matthews: Beyond the gig, what’s cooking in the BTS lab right now? Any unreleased weapons, remixes or upcoming releases you’re currently road-testing and buzzing about?

Beyond The Struttosphere: Ben here. Life in the BTS camp is a bit of a juggling act right now! Although we’re deeply passionate about this project, we’ve both got stacked plates outside of it. Leo has a full-time office job, a 19-month-old toddler running around, plus his own DJ gigs thrown into the mix. Meanwhile, my other project, Flying Mojito Bros, is pretty busy in the US right now, so I’m doing a lot of touring and production for that. With me now based in LA while Leo’s over in the UK, our studio sessions are mostly conducted over Zoom these days.

It was definitely a challenge at first, especially with the eight-hour time difference, but we’ve really got into the swing of it now. The distance hasn’t dried up our creative juices or diminished the quality of our output. Quite the opposite, actually! I also fly over to the UK a few times a year so we can get proper studio sessions in and still gig together. But with everything going on, we naturally have to be selective, putting out two or three records a year at best.

In the lab right now, we’ve just finished a track called “Star Guitar”. As the name suggests, this is a spacey cosmic chugger with prominent “guitars” that we concocted by plugging synths into a guitar amp with plenty of modulation and distortion effects to get the sound we wanted. We also designed an evolving synth sequence that adds a hypnotic layer, giving the track a slow, trance-like movement that fits the interstellar aesthetic. We’re happy to say the tune went down a storm during summer road-testing! Beyond that, we have two other tracks in production: one channels a Michael Jackson groove reinterpreted through a dark disco lens, while the second verges on psychedelic techno territory, packed with relentless pulse, a rolling bassline, and tripped-out FX.

We’ve got a few key labels in mind for these and some exciting ideas for remixers, but we’re keeping everything under wraps for now. What we can say is that this transatlantic setup has only fuelled the fire. We’re as ambitious as ever, pushing our sound into more uncharted territory and preparing to drop some of our biggest weapons to date. Watch this space!

HIFI/LOFI Goes to London is at The Greyhound, Peckham on Friday 20 November with Franz Matthews live and Beyond The Struttosphere on warm-up.

Follow Franz Matthews, Beyond The Struttosphere and HIFI/LOFI Records.