Ahead of their South American tour, we caught up with the dynamic duo Late Replies to chat about everything from their inspirations in music to the #1 item on their DJ rider.
Made up of Joshua Lewis and Kastro David, the pair have made quite the name for themselves in the music industry over the last few years. Their releases on Deeperfect, SOLA, MOAN and Tamango Records have garnered international appeal, leading to them travelling to many corners of the world and playing their signature sound to the masses.
Renowned for their high octane energy, Late Replies’ sets are littered with throbbing basslines and soulful vocals. Whether spinning their own original productions or carefully chosen tracks from their peers, it’s safe to say they know how to work a crowd.
You’re clearly very good friends outside of DJ’ing, what’s the inspiration behind Late Replies and what brought you together as a duo?
Me and Kas lived in the same area when we were younger. Kas was older than me and we met through mutual friends. After going raving with each other for a couple of years, we were inspired by other duos in the scene, for example Solardo who were blowing up at the time. Having met them personally, becoming friends with them and seeing them tour the world together, we saw it was attainable and it really inspired us.
You’ve produced countless hits, with releases on labels such as Deeperfect, SOLA, Whippin and many more, as well as your very own Black Label Records and LR Edits. If you had to pick 3 tracks for people who hadn’t heard the Late Replies sound before, which would they be?
Our sound is very diverse so I would pick 3 different styles to showcase that. I’ve picked 3 tracks that are already out but really I’d show you our unreleased music, as our unreleased catalogue right now is some of our best music!
What The Funk (Out on Tamango Records)
Real Love (Out on Resonance Records)
Tamera – Wickedest (Late Replies Edit)
Talk us through your creative process when in the studio, do you have a particular order or approach when piecing together a track?
With the point we are at now having released so much music, we like to feel inspired by something. Knowing we can make loads of different styles, we like to know what style we are going for before starting the creative process. Recent inspiration has come from 80’s funk, disco vibes and also listening to sets from other DJs, finding tracks that would resonate with us that we would play or rave to. Taking this inspiration and putting our LR stamp on it!
This year has seen some huge milestones including your Elrow debut, headline shows in USA and the launch of your very own event Second Nature. What’s been your standout moment of 2024 so far?
Our standout moment of 2024 so far would be two things. The first being launching our Second Nature event back in April. A serious amount of hard work behind the scenes went into that and as many people know, throwing parties in London can be very difficult. We were very proud to have had a busy room for this with a good energy and vibe throughout. Secondly, we would say playing for Factory Town at Miami Music Week to thousands of people. Being one of the biggest brands in the world it was great exposure for us.
After travelling all over the globe to perform, which country do you enjoy playing in the most and why?
We love playing anywhere the crowds bring a great energy and vibes, people who are passionate about music and dance until the early hours. The standouts for us would be Italy and Costa Rica. It feels like people here aren’t just out for a social gathering and enjoy the music the most, that’s when we enjoy playing the most!
Summer has come to an end, but there’s still plenty of parties left before the year is out. What do you have coming up for the rest of 2024 that you’re excited about?
We’re definitely excited about being back and forth from South America a lot from now till the end of the year with some decent parties line up there. Also throwing the second instalment of our Second Nature party on Friday 27th December, we have a wicked line up coming to one of our favourite London venues; 93 Feet East. It’s exciting to be able to build our Second Nature brand, having full control of the party, creating the vibe that we want, something we feel is missing in the scene at the minute.
What’s the #1 thing on your DJ rider?
Our number one item on our DJ rider is TEQUILA! Water too, you can’t forget water! You do a shot of tequila, followed by some water and usually you feel alright the next morning, haha!
In-between your busy tour schedules, what do you do you to unwind when you’re not DJing or producing?
Now we’re travelling a lot, time in the UK for us is limited. So we have a couple of rituals we like to do. We have both been involved in Martial Arts/Combat Sports since young. I (Josh) have done Muay Thai on and off for the last 12 years, whilst Kas has done boxing on and off for the last 15+ years. It’s a good way to keep us healthy and active, whilst also going to the gym as well. This helps us maintain our high energy levels for our sets, knowing we’re in decent shape.
Secondly, it sounds like the cliche thing to say but spending time with family and friends. Being away so much you miss out on a lot of events like birthdays etc. So it’s important to make up for lost time. There’s a saying we like, “you don’t want to miss out on your life trying to get it together”. For us, family and friends are very important.
Looking further into the future, are there any plans or projects in the pipeline you can tell us about?
We don’t want to give away too much right now, with a few things still very much in their infancy. All we can say is we have a lot more structure in terms of how we run our business now. Everything is going to stay consistent with music released every one to two months, it’s going to be the best music we’ve made to date. We’re looking to push Second Nature on further as well as making content that pushes our personality and vibe out there.
Finally, whats your favourite track by another artist, that you wish you’d made?
Im going to steer away from house music firstly and go with “Dabeull- Fabulous Kisses ft. Jordan Lee”. I think it’s an absolute masterpiece, it’s so well made with so much soul and feeling. For a house track I would go with either “Relax My Eyes” or “How You Feel” by ANOTR. Both very well constructed tracks that have been built very carefully with a lot of feeling and time going into the tracks. I can really appreciate the art.
Follow Late Replies on the links below:
Instagram
Spotify
Soundcloud
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