Taking Flight: 6 Steps With Eagles & Butterflies

Eagles & Butterflies has led a a charmed life since the outset really, with his productions picked up by John Digweed’s Bedrock and more recently, a residency at Space Ibiza’s Friday night shindig, Clandestin, to his name. His latest cut marked his return to his Spread Your Wings imprint  and made our single of the week as we championed the heady, jam-packed series of tracks made for the floor.

Following on from exclusively sharing his set from last months performance for Bedrock’s 15th alongside John Digweed and Max Cooper for all of us not fortunate enough to make it down to Fire that night we invited Eagles & Butterflies to revisit 6 pivotal moments in his fledgling career. It might just be time to sit back and watch as Eagles & Butterflies takes flight… 

Submerged in Music

It’s the same for all artists I believe – you have to love what your doing and be 100% into it. From an early age I was always submerged in music of all kinds. My mum used to take me to rock concerts with her to see the likes of Guns n’ Roses, Metallica, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, George Michael, Prince etc. My dad was a huge Queen and ELO fan and all this had a huge effect on me.

The Top 40 would be always be playing every Sunday in the kitchen while mom was cooking. Music was always around me and I knew it was something I always wanted to be involved in. I used to have a tape player that was constantly glued to me ears with either a Michael Jackson, Prince or Madonna tape in it! I couldn’t wait to go to bed with it on full blast and drift away into another world! 

Taking a gamble

I was born in Birmingham but lived near Bournemouth on the South Coast of England for most of my early years, and knew I had to get to London if I wanted to make stuff happen for the music. At that point, I still didn’t know exactly what in music I wanted to do. So I sold my car, decks and everything I had to move up to London and managed to get a work placement at a record label / artist management company called Serious.

I worked my way up there which lead to me being A&R for Judge Jules’ main Saturday night slot on Radio one, which was huge for me. I had to sort through literally hundreds of promos every week from every label and artist that wanted to get their music onto Radio 1, then give Jules the best records to be played. I worked at various management companies and set my own up whilst learning how to produce on the side, but realised that I loved being creative and making the music much more. I learnt so much over these 10 years on how the music industry really works. It’s changed a lot though now with social media etc – it’s so quick for an artist to blow up out of nowhere which I think is great.

Sticking to your guns

It’s so easy to copy what other are doing and follow the trends, but sticking to your guns of what you love, being experimental and pushing the boundaries is what I think being an artist is all about. The music that I have always made I’ve tried to keep unique and not try to sounds like anyone else so that people are intrigued by what they hear even if they don’t like it. If you have the gift of being able to make music I don’t think it’s right to stick to the same genre or sound with every track you make. A lot of the stuff I make is like 80bpm stuff as I love that vibe, but another day it will be a darker techno vibe, then maybe a nice melodic chugger. It’s good to keep things varied. 

Bedrocking to Management 

The start of my journey began when Scott Dawson at Bedrock signed 2 of my first tracks to the label. At the time I was just making music that I never intended to put out or give to labels, but sent some bits over to Scott on ichat and he and John Digweed loved them. 

They almost never got signed as I never labeled them, just the track names. I think it took him about a month of detective work to trace them back to me! They were signed to Bedrock and Kollekt was the opening track on Digweed’s next two compilations which was amazing for me. Scott then signed another 2 later in the year. Following this, I signed a management deal with Jay Pidgeon (The Volume Group) who works with the likes of Felix Da Housecat and Nile Rogers. Jay is not only one of the best managers / agents in the world, but also one of my best friends, and working with someone that you know has your back and has your best interests means more than anything in this industry. He is pretty much responsible for everything good that has happened with my career so far. Without Jay I sure I’m id still just be messing around my beats in my bedroom! 

Spreading my wings

Setting up my label Spread Your Wings was the best decision we made, again thanks to Jay. I make so much music and it’s so across the board that I needed a platform that I could put out what I wanted and when without having to change the music I love to fit to suit the label, which is why I decided to make music.

The feedback on the first 2 releases were incredible, with the likes of Richie Hawtin, Damian Lazarus, Uner, Tale Of Us all supporting it. For an unknown label to be picked up by those guys was amazing. The third EP is now finishes and we can’t wait to get that one out. I’m working with the guys at DJ Voice on that one, and they do an amazing job at getting the music where it needs to be, which is half the battle these days, and they do a sterling job at it.

Summer on Devil’s Island

Moving to Ibiza for the summer was amazing. I was resident for Clandistin at Space every Friday alongside Felix Da Housecat and was playing with the likes of Booka Shade, Erol Alkan, Tiga, Monkey Safari, Brodinski and Cassius which was absolutely incredible, but just being here in the thick of it was so inspirational for making music. Over the summer I’ve done about 3 albums worth of material as well and remixes and other exciting projects. Granted, I’ve lost a few brain cells over the summer but I really don’t want to leave here… it’s so magical!