Previously known for their innovative work as Solarity, London based musicians Alfie Granger-Howell and Nick Harriman are no strangers to taking musical exploration to the next level. Not content with their already sizeable success as Solarity, their new Dusky endeavour has taken them into deeper musical waters - with swift success too. 

The first single under their new alias, the bass-driven piano house anthem "Lost In You" featured the soulful vocals of Janai and gained props from US house godfather Tony Humphries and UK bass talent Toddla T – the latter supporting the track on BBC Radio 1. 

Released on 17th October on Anjunadeep, their debut album "Stick By This" spreads their sound further still - heading into the realms of deep house, dub, electronica, organic techno and beyond. Click HERE to check out the samples and hear the Dusky sound for yourself. 

We had a chat with Dusky in the run up to their album launch and found out more about "Stick By This", how they met and who they would include in their ultimate DJ line-up.

 

When did you first start making music, and what was it that brought the two of you together?

Alfie: "I grew up playing piano from age 5 and started improvising very early on, so it’s been something that’s been a part of my life for as long as I can remember."

Nick: "I got into making music through DJing when I was about 16. Alfie and I were at 6th form college together, we were both producing and DJing at the time, so we got in the studio together and it progressed from there." 

You are well known for your work as Solarity, what made you decide to adopt the Dusky moniker and how is it different from Solarity? 

"The Dusky moniker wasn’t planned, it just happened organically as we were producing the album. The sound started to move away from what people would associate with Solarity, so we needed to put a new identity to the music and came up with Dusky.

"It differs from the Solarity stuff, as it tends to occupy a different sound world; there are less connections with traditional peak-time/big room dance music, and more correlations with deeper house and techno. Overall there’s also a lot more influence from styles of music outside of dance music." 

Your work as Dusky spans a broad range of dance genres, who would you say are your main musical influences? 

"It’s impossible to mention just a few names because we listen to so much different music. Alfie’s classical training is definitely a strong influence, more so than any one artist that we listen to or admire." 

"The common thread between the two sounds is undoubtedly a focus on melody and traditional musicality.Strings and other traditional instruments tend to feature heavily in many of the productions we create under both Dusky and Solarity."

How did the collaboration with Janai come about, and why do you think her vocals work so well on your upcoming album? 

"We’ve known Janai for years, she’s a good friend and went to college with us. We’ve worked with her lots before on different projects and so when we were looking for vocalists for the album she was a natural choice. It works well because she’s got a fantastic voice and sees eye to eye with us both musically and personally." 

Can you tell us the story behind “Lost In You” and the concept for the music video? 

""Lost In You" started out as a 10 minute long instrumental that just chugged along and was a really deep club track. We felt it needed something extra if it was going to be on the album, so we sent it to Janai, she wrote to it (and did a fantastic job of it), and the track as it is now was born.

"Ben Ellsworth (the director) created the concept for the music video. He really liked the track and wanted to put it to picture so we gave him free reign. The idea is for the visuals to link with the moods and sentiments in the music and lyrics, and to show both Janai and the music in its natural environment of London." 

Tell us a bit about the new album “Stick By This”, and how it came about? When did you first decide to take on a long player? 

Are there any specific tracks off of the album that you are most proud of? 

"We’re both proud of the album as a whole, and are really pleased with how the tracks work together to form something so cohesive. The track "Stick By This" is probably the one we are most proud of though." 

Will you still be producing music under the Solarity name or are you going to be focusing mostly on the Dusky output for a while? 

"We’ll definitely be producing music under the Solarity name - in fact we already have several brand new Solarity tracks forthcoming on Anjunadeep so there’s no foreseeable slowdown of our Solarity output." 

You held a launch party for the "Lost In You" single back in August with T. Williams playing. If you could put together the line-up for your ultimate club night, which DJs would make the list? 

"Ha, tricky one! There’s so many - it’d have to be a Kazantip style month-long party! We’d probably want DJs represented from all different kinds of dance music, both old names and new. Based on what we’re listening to at the moment, some of the house and techno names we’d love to get down would be Anthony Shakir, Radio Slave and Andre Lodemann. We’d also get Scuba down, he’s been doing some absolutely amazing crossover tracks recently!" 

What’s coming up once the album comes out? Are there any other Anjunadeep tracks we should look out for and have you had any tracks signed to other labels? 

Dusky feat. Janai "It's Not Enough" is released on Anjunadeep on 10th October, featuring mixes from Pezzner and RackNRuin. 

Dusky's debut artist album "Stick By This" is released on Anjunadeep on 17th October. Pre-order your signed copy HERE. 

'Like' Dusky on Facebook HERE.