Snakehips, photo by Frank Fieber

Known for their wide range of collaborations and remixes with a deep range of artists, British electronic duo Snakehips teamed up with DUCKWRTH on their latest single “All Around The World.”

The track includes a brand new video from the group featuring multicolored animations and transitions between the two artists showcasing both act's respective nuance. To further learn more about the duo and their endeavors, Variance's Ethan Ijumba sat down with Snakehips to discuss their composition process, collaboration bucket list, and upcoming debut album.

Be sure to stream their newest single on all platforms and scroll below to read the full interview.

What’s your favorite part about touring and favorite part about being in the studio?

I feel like they both feed off each other in a way, when we’re out on tour we get really inspired by the shows and the reactions to our sets that you always wanna get back in the studio and work on new stuff. Then when you’re working on new music in the studio you can’t wait to get back out there and play it for people. But yeah we’ve been so lucky to tour loads and travel to places we’ve never been before, that’s still so much fun. We went to Quebec City in Canada a couple of weeks ago for the first time and it was such a cool vibe there. It’s cool to do the shows and then still be a bit of a tourist afterward haha. 

Working with artists who are different from one another has been a recurring trend for both of your careers as artists. What was it like working together on your recent single, “All Around The World” featuring Duckwrth?

I think that’s just part of being a producer having to adapt to work with different artists and singers and stuff. When you’re producers but most of your records feature different vocalists, it’s gonna be a different process every time and I guess the main thing is to fit them into our world sonically. With Duckwrth it was just a good vibe, we’ve been listening to him for ages and just had this initial beat idea that he was into. We ended up sending it back and forth over email as we were in different countries & Duckwrth was on tour a load whilst we were writing it. So it turned into one where we were both adding little bits to it and then we finally finished the production around his vocals once we’d got the whole thing down. We love how it turned out, kinda has this futuristic west coast funk vibe to it and it sounds dope in the club.

To go along with that, your sound incorporates a range of electronic, R&B, pop, and other genres when working with artists. Do you have any specific influences that inspire your unique sound?

We’ve always taken inspiration from loads of different places, I think when we started out the sound was more rooted in a kind of boom-bap hip-hop and soul type of place. It’s just evolved from there really into loads of different things, we’ve done tracks in so many different styles. I’d say our early influences were people like Hudson Mohawke & Flying Lotus and all of that era of the beats scene stuff, I just loved how imaginative & futuristic it all was whilst still being really soulful and rooted in sampling and stuff. We both have always listened to loads of different stuff outside of even electronic music and I think it all inspires us and can make you think of music & writing in different ways.

From all the variety of artists you’ve worked with are there any particular or specific artists you would hope to collaborate with one day in the future?

We’ve been really lucky to have already worked on so many dream collaborations like Chance, Anderson. Paak, Tinashe, Joey Bada$$...there are probably still loads though haha. I’d love to do something with Denzel Curry, I’d actually love to do a record with Azealia Banks I’ve always loved her music. 

So In terms of working and collaborating with others do you have a specific method you follow when approaching a song, or do you base your composition process on how the other artist works?

Nah it’s always different, so many variables depending on how you’re working. Ideally, we like to get in the studio with artists and work something up from scratch or from a basic idea we might already have worked on a bit. Just because we’re traveling so much it’s not always possible to be in the same place at the same time so sometimes you have to send things back & forth and just talk on the phone or zoom or whatever. I think it’s important not to be too formulaic and just try to do what feels best in each different situation.

Furthermore, you’re now in the process of recording you’re debut album. Is there anything about the composition and creative process you’ve enjoyed and/or done differently?

We’ve been working again with some old friends that we’ve written a bunch with before. Mainly Cass Lowe & Joe Janiak who we did “All My Friends”, “Don’t Leave” & “Cruel” and a few others. I think with writing it's good to work with people that you’re super comfortable with and just know what each other’s vibes are. I’ve been playing way more piano and keys on the new stuff with has been cool and that’s a bit different from before as I’ve just been playing loads more and been enjoying writing from there as a starting point.

With that being said, when it comes to your upcoming album is there anything you plan to experiment with now that it’s been nearly 4 years since your last project?

We just always try and make the best songs and vibes that we can. We don’t try to overthink it too much. It’s all just about people’s emotional response to the sounds. I think if we’re digging it then hopefully other people will too haha.

To follow, is there anything else that fans can expect to see next from you that you can disclose?

Just good vibes and songs that we’ve really loved writing. Also some collaborations with some awesome singers we’ve worked with in the past. We had to run it back with a couple of our favorites.