Perc & Truss are currently gearing up to release their first collaborative EP in almost two years this week via Perc Trax and above, we are premiering one of its three tracks, ‘Badman’.
A contrast to the new EP’s title track, ‘Leather & Lace’, with its stonking, big room synths, ‘Badman’ sees the pair, as ever, working live in the studio on the hard-as-nails techno they have refined over the years. Watch out for that climatic breakdown! The new record is out this Friday and ahead of its release, we caught up with Perc and Truss below for a quick chat.
This is your first work together in almost two years. What made you both decide to come back together now for this EP?
It wasn’t really a case of coming back together after time apart, we are often working in the studio together or playing back-to-back gigs. We just waited for the right tracks to come along and for the right time in each of our own release schedules for this EP to come out. Last year we both released solo EPs on Perc Trax so there had to be some time left between those and this collaborative EP being released. Vinyl delays extended that gap even more, so I’m happy the record is finally coming out now.
Did work together on this latest EP differ in any way from your collaborations in the past?
This EP was made in a similar ways to our past EPs with live jamming being the foundation of the creative process, though this time around though there were some additional editing and elements added to ‘Subox’ and ‘Badman’ afterwards. Sometimes the magic is in capturing the spirit of a track as early as possible and at other times leaving a track for a while before coming back to it can work wonders.
Why do you continue to come back together for collaborative EPs? Is there something more interesting or fun about the way you work together compared to producing solo?
Some collaborations work, some don’t. We seem to work well together and it’s a good excuse for a couple of friends to get together and hang out. Our collaborative tracks, much like our Perc and Truss DJ sets, allow us to indulge in slightly more ‘overt’ music than perhaps we would do with our solo productions – and that’s a lot of fun.
The title track of the new EP is probably the most ‘big room’ I’ve ever heard you both on record with its anthemic, trance-y synths. Where did the impetus come from for that?
We had discussed doing something a touch more melodic or riff based than some of our previous tracks. Our first EPs had lead tracks centred around acid lines or noisier elements. Those sounds are present again on the other tracks on this EP, but the title track is definitely a move to try the type of strong main hook that we had not previously attempted.
We’re premiering ‘Badman’. Could you tell us a little about the titling of that?
Naming tracks is always an afterthought, for me at least. In the case of ‘Badman’, it’s simply referencing the cheeky sample used in that track
