In the midst of a hectic touring schedule, Disclosure flew to Ireland to play two Heineken Green Sphere's gigs in Dublin and Galway. As with all Heineken gigs, the tickets were offered free of charge and resulted in a near collapse of the website as eager fans attempted to avail of them en masse. We met up with Disclosure in the Olympia on the afternoon of their Dublin gig.
Electronic duo Disclosure, comprised of brothers Howard (18) and Guy (21) released their debut album Settle earlier this year. The pair collaborated with Jessie Ware, AlunaGeorge, Eliza Doolittle, London Grammar and Sam Smith to name but a few. Their sound is reminiscent of Basement Jaxx. It echoes earlier 90s UK dance and garage tracks but with a contemporary twist. In addition, Settle served to unearth and promote new talent such as Sam Smith, a notable vocalist in his own right [the acoustic version of Latch is worth a listen].
On finding Sam, Howard had the following to say 'My manager saw him singing in a pub that he was working in and then we got together and wrote latch. We wrote the original with Sam. The guy playing the piano is Jimmy. I really like it the acoustic version. The thing with Latch and White Noise is if you take all the dance tracks and layering off they're just conventional pop songs. Eliza does a really nice version of You & I as well. Eliza is friends with Jimmy too. She turned up and was dropping all these garage names and we thought "yeah, lets make a garage tune".'
The album has received many accolades since it's release this summer; it is the recipient of an impressive 9.1 mark from Pitchfork, it hit the coveted number one spot in the UK and was nominated for the Barclay Mercury Music Awards. Quite the achievement for two young musicians at this early stage in their career. "Aw, the Mercury Awards ceremony was wicked. We had a table right up the front. I literally like everyone on the list and without trying to sound like the guy who wants to be friends with everyone I'm a huge fan of Foals, David Bowie and James Blake. Laura Mvula was probably the best performance of the night. Arctic Monkeys are such a great band. It wasn't even about winning or the money. For me that was the most credible line up they've had in years and I was delighted to be part of it."
In the last twelve months Disclosure have played almost all the major festivals around the world, including Glastonbury, Coachella, Lollapalooza as well as a headline slot at Electric Picnic. "Coachella is definitely up there as one of my favourites, as are Bestival and Glastonbury. Electric Picnic was really great. I'd say Glastonbury was my favourite - it was my first time going and playing so that was really good. We watched loads of DJs and went to Shangri-La. We watched Mount Kimbie and James Blake. We had a really good time just generally walking around the festival."
For the majority of their gigs the duo play on their own but for select performances the vocalists are invited to perform on stage with Disclosure. "We just bring them [vocalists] to shows where it's very special, where we think it will work and add something to the show. I think when acts do that all the time it adds some confusion to who is actually in the band. On this tour we just wanted to ensure that it was Howard and I and just Disclosure. For the big shows like Brixton, it really elevates the crowd when we bring out Sam or AlunaGeorge."
Twenty minutes before this interview took place Disclosure released Together with Nile Rodgers, Sam Smith and Jimmy Naples. "I think Nile just wanted to do something and reached out to us. We had two days with him. We started working on something else at the start of the day and then I worked on the beat for this track while the others went to lunch and it was better. Some of his stories are insane. I have a video of him doing Sister Sledge sitting like a foot away from me. It was magical. Really fun to write something different. We didn't want to go into the studio with Nile Rodgers and write house."
The reality of Disclosure's recent success means that any new release is instantly featured on music blogs and by other press outlets globally. Sites such as Soundcloud also played a huge role in the promotion of the duo and provided a platform for their songs to go viral. "We grew up in the digital download world where people can get your music for free so it's kind of accepted. If we had released Latch in the 80s we might have gotten rich from it but if you're someone like Thom Yorke who was making money from music and then has that taken away that would annoy me. You used to have to tour relentlessly for free to promote an album but now it's flipped completely."
Over the next months Disclosure will embark on an extensive UK and US tour. Dates can be found here.