They brought you ‘Levels’ made you ‘Hush Ya Gums’ now there’s no stopping them with their brand new single ‘Never Hold Us Back’. We caught up with Crystal Clear to get a major look on the duo.
Who and what is Major Look?
Major Look is a new Bass duo basically comprised of myself (Crystal Clear) or Andy as my mum calls me and Rob Stapleton and we traditionally come from separate sides of the UK bass scene and we came together at the middle of last year. We are use to kind of bringing out our separate talents together and making a whole bunch of music from various different genres.
Could you please give me a brief history of the band?
I traditionally come from the sort of straight dance floor side of Drum ‘n’ Bass and Rob comes from the sort of the parkour end of the scene and our individual tastes are so broad. We don’t just want to be constrained to one style or one type of music. So yeah we decided to kind of pull our resources and work with anything we could come up with. The first proper single that we made together was something called ‘Levels’ which first got us noticed. Annie Mac was playing it on her show. You know various people that’s really got us noticed by people.
Describe your family member’s musical interests and abilities that enhanced you as an artist.
Firstly I grew up listening to a lot of old rock music, my Mum was a bit of a rocker and she liked it a lot. So I grew up listening to Hendrix, and Frank Zapper that kind of stuff so it sort of stayed with me. I guess through my childhood I kind of raided my Mums record collections. When I was about like 13 I got into playing instruments and stuff, it was only once I got to sort of about 14, 15 the influence of my friends brother got us into Drum ‘n’ Bass and Jungle and that.
Going to a club and hearing DJ Hype drop my tune in the raves for the first time and watching the place blow up with my track! I was like ah okay that’s working in the club then!
What are your fondest musical memories?
Oh that’s a difficult one, the first time I heard something of mine on the radio I guess was a good time. Going to a club and hearing Hype drop my tune in the raves for the first time and watching the place blow up with my track! I was like ah okay that’s working in the club then! Fondest musical memory that’s a difficult one because every time we go out there are good memories. You know you get off stage and are just on a high, you know watching crowds blow up every weekend, it’s a great feeling. It’s almost like an addiction you kind of feed off the crowd. I think the crowd kind of sees that you’re having fun then they’ll have fun too.
Were you influenced by old records & tapes? Which ones?
You could say Major Look is influenced by a cross between Ian Dury and the Bloc Heads, The Streets, DJ Fresh and Dizzee Rascal maybe.
Your latest song is ‘Never Hold Us Back’ tell us about the concept of the video?
The video is kind of off the wall, the last videos we did were sort of straight forward and we wanted to do something that is crazy off the wall. It was a good friend of mine who shot the video and yeah I mean he just came up with the concept. He was like, yeah I know we’ll get this baby to attack all these worm things and we were like yeah you know (laughs) we’ll stick with that, why not?
I really like the video it’s definitely different from what I’ve ever seen but the song, what is that all about? Who is holding you back?
You find when you start to move out of your comfort zone and kind of do your own thing within the industry there’s always people that are like ‘ah they can’t do that!’ I particularly come from the Drum ‘n’ Bass scene and there’s a lot of people who are wanting to kind of keep you in the one place. Personally I need to progress I need to evolve and I need to develop and there’s a lot of people who just want you to stay in the same place. Its kind of a a reation to that kind of attitude.
Tell us something that we wouldn’t expect from you both?
We first met like working in a super market together when we was like 15.
Also if your music was a dish, what would it be?
It would be pie and mash with chilli in, we keep it essentially British but with a little hot sauce on the side to keep things spicy.
Tell me about future plans and upcoming releases
At the moment we are just writing an album which will probably be ready next year we are just sort of writing various things. We are just honing our skills and learning to package things in the right way. We are kind of musically developing nicely and we are happy with the stuff that we have written so far; so there will be another couple of singles this year and we might even remake or re-release ‘Levels’.
What about festivals or tours where can we catch you next?
We are having a lot of festivals and we are doing BoardMasters, Wakestock and we are doing the main stage at Global Gathering. Yeah if you check our Facebook there’s all the details there
What are the three tracks that are changing your life right now?
Skittles – Poor with £100 Trainers I am listening to it, but it kind of changes from day to day to be honest but I’m listening to the new Skrillex and Damian Marley – Make it bun them which I really can’t get enough of because it’s just so ridiculous. Something that is really working in the club at the moment is something by Tantrum Desire – Get With It
Never Hold Us Down is available on iTunes now here
Follow Major Look @majorlookworld or on Facebook here
