Premiere: Mermaids – Night Walkin’ Ep

It's Friday which means my heart can start beating slower than it has done for a while. We need something to smooth the edges off. Step forth the intriguing MermaidS. 'Night Walkin' floated on a summer breeze through the windows of R$N Towers and we all found the stress levels drop as we fell headfirst into this release. We thought the track was SO GOOD that as well as premiering it right here we managed to pin MermaidS down to ask a few questions about how they make their ear-tingling aural gems;

For those not in the know: who are you, where are you and what are you?

We are a pair of music-obsessed friends who met in Glasgow and decided to make some sounds that we would like to listen to.  We are now split between London and Glasgow but are psychically linked at all times.

Describe your sound without using the letter 'e'.

Broad, subliminal, intergalactic, warm, hazy, undulating…

There's smooth jazz-ness going on, on 'Night Walkin', what did you do to give your own spin on the track? Do you principally listen to sub-90 bpm or are you keener on the doof doof too?

Production-wise we did very little, we just let the two records we sampled revolve a bit more around their respective grooves. Listening-wise we are in to absolutely heaps of different stuff. Good music is just that, irregardless of tempo or genre. Our DJ sets can often start way down in the 80 to 90 bpm territory and end up fast and hard. We don't believe in applying boundaries to what we do.

The track is being released on your own label – how important is that for having complete control over the release? What would your advice be to anyone looking to set up their own label?

For us it was important to contribute something to the world of buying records; of digging and discovering new strange sounds, and not having to worry about anybody else's expectations what the tracks might sound like. To anyone setting up your label, just make sure you're doing it for the right reasons. Don't set out to make money. As artists and label people it is our responsibility to keep our world alive and filled with quality music from the heart.

Which do you prefer: a funky guitar riff or an insane bit of synth-work? Can you have both in your track and get away with it?

Both are wondrous things! See our track 'Two Moons Rising' to hear them at work together. 

On a scale of 1-10, how sexy is the saxophone on 'Night Walkin'? have you ever encountered a sexier sound?

It's definitely up there – a nine perhaps? Got to leave a little room for improvement, and I reckon we've still got even sexier places to take our listeners! That whole section – the guitar chords, the drums, the sax – really does make the skin tingle… 

You've already exhibited your wares at a number of festivals – which has been your favourite so far and where would your ideal performance be?

Pleasure Principle was special because it was for our friends at Numbers and we were really unknown, so to have the room fill as we played, with people emerging from the camp site and following the sound, was so cool. And Field Maneuvers last year was amazing. Had to play the final set of the whole weekend after one of our heroes Move D… Happily it was the set of my life!

Have you ever met any real mermaids? Would you rather meet a mermaid or a talking fish?

With the right combination of chemicals all these things can and will happen.

If your sound was a herb/garnish, what would it be? Which meal do you think you'd fit into best?

If any herb was to define our sound, it would almost certainly be marijuana. I think we'd be most at home at a massive Caribbean feast at sunset. Colourful, hot, fresh, smoky…

What can we expect to hear from you next?

We have an EP coming out on Amsterdam's Subjekt label that shows a slightly tougher, even spacier side to us, along with a remix for Stockholm's Oh! Records, and the much fabled collaboration between OOFT, Ben La Desh and ourselves may see the light of day soon and we have some cool artists set to release on GoodShip as the year goes on.

MermaidS. 'Night Walkin' is available in all good Record Stores this weekend.