Producer Sessions 015: WE ARE FURY glisten on first light with 'DAWN' EP [Interview]
Canadian duo WE ARE FURY has released their DAWN EP, the premier installment of their forthcoming album and predecessor to their DUSK project coming in December. The projects are being released on Seeking Blue, home to Illenium, Said The Sky, Seven Lions, Dabin, and more. DAWN is a two-track EP that includes “Broken” featuring Luma and “Don’t Know Why” featuring Danyka Nadeau.
“Our whole world is built on contrast, we have opposite personalities, and our strengths are in different parts of the creative process,” the duo said in a press release. “From sound design to writing and performing. We wanted to showcase this as part of a bigger project and also give our fans the ability to connect with us as individuals.”
They also took time to answer questions for DA about their latest body of work.
What does each song mean for you?
“Broken” is a bit of a sad song. It tells the story of someone going out on a limb in a relationship, cautiously hoping the response doesn’t leave them disappointed: “Please, don’t leave me broken.” It’s about taking a leap of faith and opening up to the people around us. On the track, we took the “please don’t leave me broken” lyric and alternated between “please don’t leave me” to provide a cautious versus desperate contrast.
The second track is the aftermath of a bad relationship. You can question yourself a lot and feel more insecure. The song is a bit more pessimistic and sad.
What’s the purpose of this EP?
This project is meant to show one side of us, DAWN, and our next EP is called DUSK, showing a different side. The self-reflecting, vulnerable, melodic side is DAWN, while DUSK will be a lot more on the heavy, dark side. DUSK, comes out next, and our full album coming out on Seeking Blue in 2020 will be an embodiment of both.
How do you guys collaborate as a duo?
Joachim is a lot more involved in the heavier sound design, whereas my [Stuart] strengths are more on the melodic and arrangement side. Joachim will make the sounds, and I’ll help put them together. We live pretty far apart, so we’re bouncing projects online quite often, and when we get together, we write in the studio.
We don’t have a specific process. Every track has starts with their own inspiration weather it’s topline, a melody, a sound, or a beat. It’s nice being a duo whose comfortable with communicating openly about what we like and dislike. That open communication is vital to our workflow.
How did you guys start working together?
We met at university. We met each other at an internet club of producers. Nobody was actually a producer at university; most were DJs. I needed someone I could bounce ideas off of, and we found each other, started collaborating, and began developing our relationship.
What was the most difficult part about the EP?
The arrangement and feel to “Broken” was challenging. We started with the verses, and spent a lot of time trying to find the feel of the entire track.
The percussion was also difficult, but it was more of a macro thing. There are a lot of producers making melodic future bass, and we really wanted to bring an edge and add bigger bass element to the melodic side.
What DAW do you use?
We use FL Studio. We’ll probably do Ableton when we do more live stuff, but out workflow is so good with FL. That’s where we’re comfortable.
Any specific VSTs do you use?
We use a lot of Serum four our bass sounds and chords.
Stuart: A reverb that I swear by is Valhalla Room. We put it on vocals, synths, percussions.
Joachim: I’ve been using this plugin by Infected Mushroom called Manipulator. It’s a real time audio buffer. You run audio through it and can process it in real time. That’s how I do a lot of my vocal chops and other sound design.
How does your culture impact your music?
Joachim: I grew up in six different countries. A lot of my sounds are influenced by North America with Latin roots, so I grew up with that sentiment around music and cultural osmosis. That influenced my taste and style, but I still knew I had to go to North America to turn this into a career because that’s where one makes a career in the entertainment industry.
Stuart: I have a big Asian family of 30-plus close relatives. This helped me because I grew up with a strong support system that gave me the confidence to pursue music as a career.
Photo credit: Matthew Butcher
