Building up a layered kick
The first element of the track that Ben and Jon create is the kick drum. “This is the only track of ours without our usual kick drum. We were trying to do something melodic but still with a groove, with a nice breakdown and stuff,” explains Jon.
“We were trying to do something a bit ‘weaker’ than our last track, Maasai”, adds Ben. “Something a bit less tough, less big-room. It didn’t work like that, but that was the idea!”
To get their big kick drum sound, the pair layer two samples. Jon elaborates: “We had a standard ‘round’ kick as our main sound, which we layered with a high kick, just so it pierced through the bass, which we knew would end up being quite deep and droney. There’s actually no processing whatsoever on the main kick – we just sampled it from the front of another track, which is something we tend to do quite a bit. The kick that cuts through was quite bassy, so we just put a highpass filter on it, leaving a top note that complements the bottom end.”