Andy Bell Dave Aude

Surely the majority of most music lovers must have heard of the name of Dave Audé, the Grammy nominated producer / Billboard # No 1 remixer and DJ, whose credit’s roll out like an industry awards night out. Glistening amongst the top of the tree of pop glitterati to the tune of artist names which include; Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Britney and Depeche Mode whom are amongst just a few of the many pop elite names that have entrusted their work to be given the esteemed remix and production skills of Dave Audé.

Although, on somewhat of a different tack from the pop elite for Audé, the astute EQ readers amongst you might have picked up on the recent Emerging Artist feature on Starling Glow whose debut track “We Are Infinite” has also seen Dave stamp his EDM skills upon the track.

One of the most exciting developments now winging it’s way out from Dave’s own Audacious Records imprint is the collaboration between Dave Audé and Erasure front man Andy Bell.

The track in question “Aftermath (Here We Go)” see’s the pairing shape up together a sizzling upbeat mix consisting of Andy’s distinctively powerful pop delivered vocals synergized seamlessly against Dave’s frenetic high energy dance ready beats. To be honest Dave has fitted the track out awesomely with an effective retro radiance of classic 80’s synth embellishment so much so that “Aftermath (Here We Go)” has taken me right back to the day of my first ever CD purchase, which no word of a lie was the Erasure album “The Innocents”. For the most part I am drawn back to “The Innocents” album since I just feel there are elements within “Aftermath” that instantly took me on a journey right back to Erasure’sShip Of Fools”.

Erasure stand as one of my all time favourite electro pop acts, and infact, no surprise here to learn that Andy Bell is one of Dave Audé’s favourite artists of all time also. So question how did they come to work together? Here we have been extremely fortunate, as we were given the chance to find out a little background insight behind this stellar pop collaboration by dropping a few questions to Dave and Andy, directly below this rather fabulous exclusive picture of the pop titans working together in the Studio.

Dave Aude Andy Bell 1

Photo: N Svider

INTERVIEW

EQ: I have read that Dave refers to Andy as being one of his favourite artists of all time, and as such this project is a dream collaboration. So count myself curious & our EQ audience to know a little as to how this collaboration between both artists came about.

DAVE AUDĔ: As fate would have it Andy decided to reach out to me 2 years ago to see if I wanted to collaborate on some stuff. Little did he know that Erasure was my fave band ever!!!

EQ: How does this collaborative project play out? was it as clear as Dave focusing on the production side of the project with Andy solely overseeing the songwriting? or did both parties pitch ideas forward and contribute?

ANDY BELL: The ball was pretty much in Dave’s court though he is a very busy man with his DJ work & remixing & co-writing so we hooked up probably about five times over a period of two years. He would play me some good tracks he’d been working on that he thought might be suitable or otherwise we’d start from scratch in the studio, I love having someone to bounce off of. When I’m inspired I just like to pick up the mike & sing!

DAVE AUDĔ: In between my DJ and remixing schedule – I did the music and Andy wrote lyrics and melodies. It’s definitely a collaboration!

EQ: “Aftermath” has such a great energy to it, would you be able to give a little insight as to what the track is all about. Am I right in my interpreting that it’s about a relationship that works best from a distance?

ANDY BELL: Yes. It’s really a song about moving on being between two love affairs where one has ended in a physical sense & the other has just begun!

EQ: Keen to know whether there might be further collaborations in the pipeline between Dave and Andy and also can we expect to see “Aftermath” included within Andy’s upcoming third solo album.

ANDY BELL: In all we’ve written about 15 songs together more of which I’d love to be released I don’t think we’re in too much of a rush & we’ll test it out track by track but there is some great stuff there.

DAVE AUDĔ: You can definitely count on a lot more from Andy and I. We have 12-15 songs already written and recorded so this is just the beginning of many great things to come!!!!

“Aftermath” (Here We Go) is released on 1st April through Audacious Records / pre-order now via Itunes