One of the most unique and exciting bass music outfits to emerge in recent times, Koven is the production alias of producer Max Rowat and Katie Boyle. Koven made a name for themselves with the free ‘Wake You Up EP' and remix work, in March 2013 the time had come for Koven to drop what was unbelievably their debut release. Released on Futurebound's Viper Recordings, an outlet renowned for its ability to find new talent, ‘More Than You' announced Koven as a new, formidable force on the EDM radar. A blend of melody, contorting bass and the unforgettable vocals of Kate Ashton, ‘More Than You' solidified Koven's style, earning them even more new fans and over 1.5 million views in the process. The single featured remixes from Drum and Bass dancefloor kings DC Breaks and support from Radio 1's Zane Lowe, ‘More Than You' began the next phase of Koven's rise in the dance music scene.
After making an uproarious debut on Monstercat with “Silence” and “Telling Me”, the UK dynamic duo Koven has alas unveiled their much awaited EP, Come To Light. I was lucky enough to send a few questions across the pond and Katie from Koven was gracious enough to answer them for me.
Thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions. First and most importantly to me, when is the next chance we here in the US will be able to see Koven?
Hi 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to write them. We can't wait to get back over the states, it’s been awhile. There are no set in stone dates at the moment but watch this space!
Come to Light is your first EP with Monstercat. Has there been much of a difference working with a different label?
It's been pretty exciting to be honest; it’s been our biggest opportunity to hit new audiences in quite some time. We are getting lots of comments from people saying things like ‘can't believe I've only just discovered your music' or ‘heard you for the first time and love what you're doing', which is obviously fantastic. For any music acts it’s so important to find ways to help your audience grow and Monstercat have done that for us. Plus there are some awesome acts on their roster, so it’s lovely to be part of the family.
Koven has a distinct sound that I find to be bass heavy yet distinctively delicate and beautiful. How do you manage that balance?
Thank you very much, that's pretty much what we are going for. We are lucky to cross genres and get away with it and I think it’s made possible by the fact that even though the genres change the emotive yet heavy sound doesn't. Not sure how we manage it, I think we both just have a lot of demons in our heads that luckily come out through creativity.
I love to hear your take on other producer’s songs. Are there any possible Koven remix’ in the works?
We are currently working on a Koven remix album, due to be released with our previous label Viper Recordings – so we are doing a lot of remixing of our owns track, haha, as well as other acts doing remix's for us. Will that suffice? 😉
Has there been any one particular track that you found difficult to put together, or complete?
Silence was one of toughest to complete. It all came together at the last minute, as we were playing around with different tempos of the track to start with. The demo was originally recorded at 110bpm which we haven't really written/produced in that tempo before. So we were toying around with the idea of maybe slowing it down to 87bpm for drum and bass, and then we found that it didn't suit, and then we tried speeding it up to 128bpm for electro, which also didn't sound right. So we decided to just to go for that electro feel but at its original tempo that it started at. So basically just did a full circle on ourselves.
The video for Breathing Me In is pretty amazing, how involved are you in the creation of your videos?
Thank you! Well we have to admit it was mostly the production company, it was their idea and their interpretation of the lyrics, but when they sent us the script we were both so hyped for it. Couldn't be more pleased how it turned out.
How close are we to seeing a Koven full orchestra set with live strings and horns?
That is honestly the dream, so for that reason I would like to say we are very close, haha. We were very lucky to get to create the music for a Jagermister advert at the end of last year and that then got played by a full orchestra – which was quite an amazing feeling. Definitely keen to do that again.
Do you still bring out the AlphaSphere or have you found an even more stylish way to bring your sound to the fans.
Yeh we still have the AlphaSphere and still whip it out for the live show, but we are going to be stepping things up a gear in 2017 by bringing in some additional live elements. At the moment we play a lot of DJ shows which are great fun, but we are looking forward to doing fully live Koven shows of all original material.
What does the future hold for Koven fans?
In all honesty this release has been such a confidence boost for us, we are both very excited for what next year will bring so Koven fans can just expect big things – we want to get out on the road as much as possible and finally put together that ‘Koven tour' people keep asking us for.
Show Support for Koven Here
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