Zone Magazine Issue 036 - DJs From Mars

Coming from different musical
backgrounds, what was the idea
behind Last Survivor?
Mick: Having the different backgrounds is what
made this fun and appealing to me. Decky and I had hung
up our musical boots so to speak and got chatting about
music. We like a lot of similar music but created polar
opposites. Last Survivor is what happened when those
worlds collided.
Cara: As someone who was asked to feature on a
track with Last Survivor, I got to witness the genius of
Decky & Mick. Both had different musical backgrounds and
it made me more eager to get involved because I knew the
authenticity of the record is what would make it so stand
out.
Decky: Money. And free stuff. Did I say money?
How did you adapt to collaborating
during lockdown?
Mick: This album is the positive side of lockdown,
we had time to write and because we couldn’t get into the
studio together we put it out to other artists to collaborate
and I think it makes this album special. It was definitely a
challenge and sometimes we worked back to front but
overall I think it’s made us better songwriters.
Cara: I genuinely owe a lot to the creative
process of working with the lads during the lockdown. It
gave us such an excitement to look forward to people
finally understanding what all the hype was about.
Groupchats, phonecalls & emails were the winning trifecta
for us being able to keep moving during numerous
setbacks.
What are your studio setups?
Decky: Over the years I had loads of hardware
setup in my studio long before softsynths and DAWs. But
I’m boringly just gonna say - thank you Ableton.
What do you look for when
choosing guest vocalists and
collaborators?
Decky: this really stemmed down to the people I
had worked before. Mark Baker and I have known each
other years and released music on Whartone Records and
more. Mark produces music with Dave Beattie as the
excellent Novablood and we then got chatting, next thing
Dave had done a few tracks for us too! Marty Doherty had
done an advert with me for a Japanese car company years
back and he’d previously laid some vocals down with us in
The Japanese Popstars. His voice is immense and so
powerful - he is literally on half volume on Just A Creep.
Such a talented and lovely guy. Then there is Brandon
Jerwa, who was a writer on the popular GIJoe comicbook
series and had heard Hedrock Valley Beats years ago and
loved the music, so dropped a band name check into the
comic. I’m a big G.I. joe fan and proper geek - this blew
my mind! I had crossed over into the comic book universe.
On top of that it was actually a universe I had grown up
reading religiously as a child. Fun fact: I actually had a fan
letter printed in the comic in the 80s to top it all off!
Brandon told me he wanted to try singing Ashes To Ashes
by Faith No More, after I posted on social media that I
needed a singer for the track. Brandon was singer in a
band called SD6 when I first started chatting back in the
early 2000s, so I knew he was a talent to be reckoned
with. Days later he sent me a demo and as you know, Mike
Patton from Faith No More has very a unique, powerful
voice. But I really think Brandon manages to capture that
and deliver his own twist on the vocal. I was pretty lucky to
get to work with him.
Any personal highlights on the
album?
Mick: For me there’s a few, the first song we
wrote was Waste Away, so that will always have a special
spot for me. That gave me the initial buzz of thinking this is
going to be great. I extremely proud of The Wasp, as I
sang vocal on it. My favourite on the album is the new
single Midnight Run. Lockdown had ended and we got to
record it altogether and that’s when it felt like a band for
me.
Cara: I'm going to selfishly answer this by saying
writing and helping produce everything linked to Midnight
Run. I am immensely proud of the work we have
accomplished but for me seeing my name in the media
beside something I helped create was so overwhelming in a
positive way.
Decky: It’s hard cause everything becomes my
fav when writing or when it gets close to a release promo
but I do think Midnight Run is very special. I’ve not written
anything like this before, so it was a massive change in
how I needed to see music structurally. It was one of the
first track ideas written for Last Survivor. Of course, Cara
came along, sang on it and smashed it out of the park!
Do you have any plans to play
live?
Cara: Yes you will be sick of seeing us next year!
What’s next for Last Survivor?
Mick: World domination
Cara: A double vodka & coke followed by a big
deep breath. WE DONE IT!!
Decky: yeah, vodka and coke for me too please!