Last night in Hollywood, music fans were in for a real treat on the eve of the grand opening of NeueHouse.
NeueHouse is a new private work collective for the creative LA community, housed in the refurbished landmarked CBS Radio Building. Those studios hosted historic performances from artists and actors like The Beach Boys and Lucille Ball, as an extensive Hollywood legacy that occupies Sunset and El Centro.
So KCRW teamed up with NeueHouse for something special. It was a dance party with an exclusive guest DJ set from the Grammy-nominated U.K. duo Disclosure, and included an intimate Q&A hosted by our very own Jason Bentley. Before the dance moves and visuals took over, we got some wonderful insight into the creative process of Disclosure’s latest album, Caracal.
The two brothers — Howard and Guy Lawrence — explained to the crowd that they are musicians first and DJs second. They love dance music, but also wanted to explore different sounds and tempos with this effort. They did not want to be pigeonholed into one genre or sound.
Howard and Guy seem like old souls; Jason noted this during the interview. The duo jokingly replied they DO enjoy biscuits and tea during recording sessions.
Disclosure were also asked about touring, especially considering so many heavyweight recording artists like Sam Smith, The Weeknd, Miguel and Lorde guest on this album: the pair said that they would have surprise guest performers in every city on the road. The band also noted how, when they first toured the United States, they played small halls and how proud they are now to be playing arenas like the Los Angeles Sports Arena this week.
After the Q&A, Disclosure took to the DJ booth and knocked out some of their new songs and favorite current club cuts from other producers. The crowd was very open and rocked out to Disclosure’s fun and upbeat dance set, which got everyone up and bouncing!
Catch them tonight (Sept 29th at the Los Angeles Sports Arena or you can hear last night’s session on Morning Becomes Eclectic, Thursday, October 29th!