Chaos In The CBD interview – “I think the new generation coming into this need to know about this music”
The brothers from NZ digging deep for fabric
It’s midday on a chilly Thursday in February, and Chaos In The CBD’s Louis joins me via Zoom from the living room of the South London home he shares with his brother and bandmate, Ben. “I just got a little bit of packing done for the weekend,” says Louis. “We’re getting ready to play in Serbia and Macedonia for the first time, which is exciting.” March 31 sees the release of the pair’s ‘Fabric Presents’ compilation and over the past 12 months, they’ve been as busy as ever — performing at sold-out shows across continents, selling copious amounts of records, and playing their fifth electrically-charged Boiler Room show.
Ben, also known as Beans, enters the room with a beaming smile on his face. “I’ve been trying to make some music, but I don’t have a laptop at the moment,” he says, enthusiastically. “I’ve been using two drum machines — an MPC and SP1200 clone. I’m learning how to track something without a computer. So, I guess like how you would probably have done it back in the day. It’s fun, like, doing mutes on the desk, using faders rather than automating things. It’s got a real live, rough kind of feel. It sounds authentic.”
The Helliker-Hales brothers have enjoyed a steady, upward trajectory since their music first started appearing in 2011. Born and raised in Auckland, New Zealand, the duo first made waves in the lo-fi house scene before their evolving sound began taking on ever more musical textures. In 2015, with releases on the likes of Hot Haus, Amadeus and Needwant having already helped alert the deep house community to their studio chops, their ‘Midnight In Peckham’ release on Rhythm Section International well and truly popped, with Isaac Aesili’s memorable horn solo capping a sumptuous bed of intricately woven melodies.
The Peckham-inspired track did much to elevate their status, and for a while, the brothers were synonymous with the area’s vibrant underground scene — Beans worked in the district’s fabled Yam Records, and the pair were fully immersed in the party moves bubbling away in the borough “back in the day.” Today, however, their busy touring schedule means they’re less connected with the locality than they once were. “We’re never here anymore,” says Louis. “We’re kind of away constantly at the moment. When people say ‘oh, you are on tour’ we kind of laugh, cos it’s just like, when one ends, the next one starts.”
In recent years, pandemic aside, Chaos In The CBD have been fully booked playing premium, transglobal shows, and, by and large, they are enjoying the unrelenting schedule of gigs and international travel. “I love it,” says Louis. “It’s the just variety that you get to experience on the road. Whether it’s the weather, new places or different types of food and people. And, everyone’s always so excited to see you cos the chances are that you haven’t seen those people for like a year or whatever. So it feels like everywhere you go, it’s like a big get-together.”
Though not without its challenges and discomfort, the brothers recognise what a blessing it is to be able to travel the world to spread their music, and they’re mindful of embracing the bountiful times they’re living through. “It’s an amazing opportunity that we have and sometimes it’s really easy to take it for granted,” says Louis. “So, I’m kind of just getting back into treating everything like ‘the glass half full’ and just trying to enjoy, experience and live in the present, you know, rather than looking back in 10 years and being like, oh shit!”
The brothers have made serious strides since doing their first DJ show in 2009, and there’s a sense that their efforts are increasingly bearing fruit. “It’s been a long, long slog, but it’s finally starting to take shape,” says Beans. Their journey has indeed been hard-earned, with their entry into music production — inspired, at least in part, by music-loving parents — beginning when they played in a band together at high school in 2005. From indie rock beginnings, they evolved into crossover dance territory via bands like Klaxons and The Presets, acts that were “almost enough to convince your rock and roll friends that this was kind of cool.”
With the underground electronic scene in Aukland somewhat limited at that time, the brothers turned to the internet to find early inspiration. “I was on blogs, heavy,” says Louis. “I had a list of bookmarks and I would check them every day and there’d be a list of new artists in the kind of fidget house scene.”
Thankfully, there was at least one venue close to home that helped quench their thirst for floor-focused sonics, and the pair spent their fair share of late-night hours absorbing these sounds in the kind of environment they were intended to be heard. “We were going clubbing a lot at that time,” says Beans. “We had one club called Ink Bar which we just kind of lived at. They played really good music, early 2000s tech-house, you know, Wiggle and Terry Francis. That was the common sound that was played at these places, it was kind of rolly, after-hours stuff. A lot of ‘hospo’ people would go after work and it would be a little bit druggy and just kind of fun when we were young, you know?”
Perhaps above all else, the irresistible combination of Beans’ self-taught studio dexterity and Louis’ diligent deep dives to uncover ever more compelling audio possibilities has served the act extraordinarily well. Fast forward to 2023, and the invitation to curate the latest ‘Fabric Presents’ album feels like something of an arrival, not least because Caspa & Rusko’s FABRICLIVE 37 mix proved especially inspirational to the burgeoning artists following its release in 2007. “It’s massive,” says Louis. “I mean, it was a straight-up pinch-yourself moment, you know?”
The CD and digital versions of Chaos In The CBD’s fabric presents features 23 lovingly chosen tracks that the boys consider to be “hidden gems” from the house music archives, while the double-pack vinyl features eight of the choicest cuts. Comprised of lesser-known pearls, hard-to-find burners and unadulterated dancefloor weapons, the likes of Joshua, Chris Brann, Kerri Chandler, and The Element are among the many protagonists represented on the compilation. Rather than present a selection of all-new productions, the siblings took it upon themselves to shine a light on far-flung corners of house music’s storied heritage.
“It was quite an organic approach really,” says Louis. “These are the records that we would buy if we were in a record shop, and stuff that we own [and] that we’ve played for years. For us, they all mean something. So it has this cohesive feel to it as well.” Beans agrees, adding that the importance the duo placed on introducing vintage tracks to younger audiences was a vital component when piecing the collection together. “I think the new generation coming into this need to know about this music,” he says. “I don’t think they should just know about what’s current. This is the music that we love and that inspires us. It’s stuff that doesn’t age, and if it’s still good now, it’s gonna be good for another 10, 15 years, you know?”
They feel that, while platforms like TikTok have helped to introduce underground dance music to youthful audiences who may not have otherwise accessed the sounds, the bitesize and disposable nature of the clips featured on the video hosting giant aren’t especially conducive to gaining a deeper understanding of the form. Louis suggests that introducing newer listeners to esoteric classics that helped power the movement can help join the dots between past and present. “It’s always been important for us to go back and do our research,” he says. “It’s like a history lesson almost. So, if we can contribute in any way to that thread of educating people, I just think it’s important to say, ‘hey, there’s a whole world of music that sounds like the music you like, but from 15 years ago.’ Sometimes you have to unearth that stuff as well, you gotta dust off a bunch of shit to find it tucked away somewhere. It’s not easy to find. And when you find it, it’s like treasure, man.”
Of the digs selected, there are two in particular that Beans and Louis feel warrant special mention. JD Hall’s 2005 Sunfire Records release ‘Into You’ is one that Louis let slip through his grasp when he first became aware of it, missing out on buying a fresh copy before the title got swallowed up by resale speculators, so he was particularly pleased to include it here. “I’ve been trying to buy that record for a long time,” he says.
“There was still one copy at Juno laying around [when I first searched for it]. I went to buy it the following week and it was gone. But now [its price] went through the roof. If you go on Discogs, I think there’s two available starting at like 90 pounds or something. So, that’s a good one to have obtained. I feel like people need to have and to hear that track.”
Another inclusion they were thrilled to get hold of is Hanna’s ‘You & Me’, originally released as a 2003 white label on Room Records and as rare as the proverbial hen’s tooth. “[Hanna] didn’t even have a master for it, so we had to go through a process of buying a copy we found, that was quite expensive, from Paris and then ripping and remastering it. It’s just like, fuck. I mean, to get people to hear that again, cos it’s so fire, it’s so underground. It’s like, no one has it, no one’s gonna be able to get it unless you pay fair money.”
The siblings are keen to point out that the chosen music didn’t simply make the cut because it’s quite probably novel to many of today’s music consumers. The bygone tracks featured across the compilation are endowed with a depth of feeling that, one could argue, many of the unending proliferation of contemporary deep house releases are devoid of. “Not to disparage the new music that’s coming out, but I don’t think a lot of it has that kind of feeling for me right now,” says Beans. “A lot of [newer] stuff is just incredibly polished and a lot of [the older music] would’ve been one take, you know? It’s a little bit sloppy. It’s just got more groove. It feels real. It kind of grows and it sounds alive. I guess there’s a rawness to a lot of it and there’s a bit more soul involved in that.”
Louis feels that one reason for the production disparity between contemporary and older music is partly due to the mode through which it’s generally consumed today. Whereas tracks from dance music’s halcyon days were recorded, almost invariably, with dancefloors in mind, that isn’t necessarily the case today. “It’s just where the music ends up, or where it’s intended for,” he says. “A lot of this stuff gets listened to on someone’s phone on like an Instagram reel and shit. I don’t think there is as much intention to put as much effort as people used to, I guess back in the fucking like late 80s into the 90s. The reality is, a lot of the tunes that are on Billboard charts and stuff are made by some fucking 20-year-old on his phone and shit. So it’s a completely different playing field.”
While very much associated with varying shades of deep house, Louis reveals a somewhat surprising love for sounds far removed from the music for which he and his brother are best known. “It’s mainly underground rap,” he says. “I love it. [I’m] fanatical about it. just watching people’s careers blow up and just the way they market themselves and the scandal they all get into. And like the beefs, I just love it. It’s this whole world that dance music doesn’t really have. Dance music is very polite for the most part. People aren’t really in open competition with one another. But, in the rap world, it’s very raw. And I like raw.” Beans, too, has plenty of admiration for hip-hop and r&b production, suggesting that the quality of the production aesthetic is hard to best. “That music was made, I think, objectively better,” he says. “Snoop Dogg and Dre and all that stuff back then, like Nas, and also the 2000s stuff like Dungeon Family, Neptunes, Timberland. I don’t think there’s anything that competes.”
Louis passes what looks suspiciously like a joint to Beans, and, after they confirm my eagle-eyed observation, the conversation goes off-piste for a while as we discuss our collective affinity with the healing herb. “For me, it’s like, fuck, if we go to California or something, it’s just like candy land,” laughs Louis. “If I see a billboard, it’s essentially like, nugs. I’m like, we gotta go in there!” As the room gets smokier and laughs increasingly ensue, we eventually steer our way back on topic.
To mark the compilation’s release, Chaos In The CBD were invited to curate the line-up for all three rooms of Fabric for what looks, in all probability, like being an epic launch party on April 1. The brothers are joined in Room One by Berlin-based duo, S-candalo and fellow New Zealander, k2k. “We’ve known S-candalo for a long time, they’ve just been going from strength to strength and we believed in them from quite a while ago, and k2k is amazing as well. She’s been bubbling and just done a Boiler Room and stuff.” Room 2 sees “master of the sound” Fred P alongside DJ Qu and Aleqs Notal, while Room 3 features San Diego’s Sinéad along with local lads, Heels & Souls. “It’s just sick, man. We’re not promoters, but it’s definitely a party that we would like to go to,” says Louis. “We tried to make the night as cohesive as possible. It’s not just 10 names [with] conflicting styles that are popular right now. We still really believe in a night kind of growing and having a cohesive flow.”
The opportunity to curate a night from start to finish is something that appeals to the duo, with the short, high-impact sets they are often booked for these days meaning only the tougher end of their musical range is showcased. “I think that’s like where I see our career going as we get a little bit older is trying to have full control of an evening,” says Louis. “We’re kinda pigeonholed in this world where you’re expected to ‘go big or go home,’ and that’s not how we always wanna play. So, if we want to keep enjoying this, as a job, it’s important to like find a way to create an experience where people trust us to take our time.”
During these longer sets, Beans tends to take the reins for the first part of the evening, allowing his brother to “sit and smoke doobies” as he puts his diligently mined digs to good use. “I love doing the warm-ups,” says Beans. “Fucking yacht rock, funk, street soul, hip-hop. Some guitars, some dub. Everything downtempo.”
Turning back to the long road along which they’ve travelled to get to where they are today, the brothers share that, at various points in their journey, encouraging words from some bona fide house legends have helped them to maintain momentum. Among others, vocal support from the likes of Chez Damier, Roy Davis Jr and Kerri Chandler have added fuel to their creative fire. “It puts the battery in your back, you know? Whenever you’re questioning and doubting stuff — cos we all get imposter syndrome — you just have to remember those moments where it’s like, yo, they like had some belief in you, you have to believe in yourself too, you know? It leaves a big impression. And I think they know that as well, cos they’ve been from the bottom to the top and seen it all.”
Understanding the appreciation Beans and Louis have for the movement’s pioneers, as well as the humility they show when receiving compliments such as these, puts into sharp focus the importance the siblings attach to shining light on the work of those who’ve inspired them. “You’re reciprocating and sort of telling that story through music. We’re trying to keep those values alive, you know, it’s all about respect and shit.”
Patrizio Cavaliere
Pre-order Choas In The CBD’s fabric presents mix ahead of its March 31 release here