Q&A: M4CHA

This week, we caught up with the lads from M4CHA. We dive into how their long-standing friendship and shared love for 90s house music shaped their sound, their seamless transition from bandmates to producers, and the creative process that fuels their tracks. They also share insights into the city's influence on their music and how they keep their sound fresh and inspired.

You’ve known each other since your school days and have played in various bands together. How has that long friendship and musical history shaped your dynamic as a DJ/producer duo today?

I think from playing in bands together we already had a chemistry there and knew what our styles were when it came to onstage performances. It was an easy switch to DJing as we took a lot of confidence from having many gigs under our belt from our previous work. At rehearsals during the band days, over time it came clear we both shared the love for house music and wanted to pursue it sooner rather than later.

Your friendship goes back years. How does that affect the way you collaborate in the studio? Do you have a particular workflow or set roles when creating new music?

Having a solid friendship really helps with the looseness of making songs. We don't go into the producing stage with set roles or any pressure on each other to make things suddenly work. Most of our ideas comes from listening to old samples then one of us getting inspiration from it. Overtime it quickly becomes a collaboration as we both understand what we want our tracks to sound like.

Your sound is heavily inspired by 90’s house but with a modern twist. What is it about that era of house music that resonates with you, and how do you bring a fresh flavor to it?

I think the 90s house scene was so special as it was a huge part of the UK culture at the time. Looking back at old videos from the 90s rave, you can't help but be inspired and want to create something similar in a modern way. In terms of bringing a fresh flavour to this style, I'd say with the technology at our fingertips today, it's fairly easy to combine fresher sounds whilst keeping the heart of the track 90s, which for us stems from the Korg M1 instrument.

When you’re crafting a new track, do you imagine it playing in specific settings, like a festival stage or an intimate club? How does the intended atmosphere influence your production process?

Yes, this is always a big part of our productions. If you listen to our tracks I think you could almost guess the setting we had in mind from track to track. Sometimes its as simple as a lyric, which then the music can be moulded to emphasise those words. Our best example of that is probably "Waiting for The Sunshine" which we wrote during winter around the idea of people struggling to get through the cold and miserable weather and looking forward to summer again. We picture playing this as our closing track as the sunsets on a hot summer night at a festival.

The Glasgow music scene is known for its diversity and vibrancy. How has the city influenced your sound, and are there any local artists or venues that have been especially supportive of your journey?

We aim to get involved in as much as we can around Glasgow. We both love the music production process and we believe attending gigs and various open decks gives us an opportunity to see how crowds react to a wide array of music styles. We draw a lot of inspiration from this and incorporate elements into our own music. We have also found open decks to be a great way to network with other local artists, get feedback on unreleased music and also gives us an opportunity to hone our abilities as DJ's.

You’ve gone from playing in bands to diving deep into electronic music production. What was that transition like, and what drew you to the world of house and electronic music?

This was always something that we both had an interest in so it never really felt like a massive transition for us. There has been a lot to learn since we started out but we both have a passion for creating this type of music and it always feels amazing discovering new ways to add really interesting elements to our tracks. We feel that our music really benefits from this passion, encouraging us to find creative ways to achieve the sound we want.

You recently had one of your tracks played at Celtic Park. How did that come about, and what was it like hearing your music echo through such an iconic stadium?

This actually all started through a friend, Kaliaaer, who made gloves for Joe Hart, Celtics keeper at the time. After releasing our first track he had got in touch with some really positive feedback and ended up passing on the tune to him. Joe Hart loved the music and ended up using it on a couple of his instagram stories before matches. We reached out to Celtic directly after this with the track and before we knew it the tune was getting blasted to 60,000 fans at half time. We were lucky enough to be along at the game when it was played and the feeling was surreal, we are both lifelong Celtic fans and could never have dreamt of hearing our music getting blasted out across the stadium.

Looking ahead, what can we expect from M4CHA? Any upcoming releases or exciting gigs you can share with us?

We have loads planned this year, so lots for people to look forward to. We have just released a new track, "YOU", to SoundCloud which has been receiving some amazing feedback and have plenty more tracks in the pipeline that we are buzzing to share with everyone. We also have a smaller, intimate gig planned in Glasgow and regularly play various open deck nights.