Exclusive Interview With Just Us

We Caught Up Exclusively For An Interview With Just Us!

Straight off the back of their latest release ‘Flirtatious’ we sat down for an exclusive chat to find out more about the track, what’s popping and the story behind their colabo!

The Love You Bring Me” & “Shake It” are tracks by you as individual acts and are both hidden gems. What made you two join forces?

Just Us is a NY duo, Steven Lee formerly Lee Cabrera and Carl Kennedy. We both met early in our careers and have had similar paths to getting there as well. We’ve been like brothers for over a decade and have had some releases together but with how quickly, “Everytime it Rains” and then “Cloudbusting” took off, we knew there was even bigger momentum then ever before. Now we have a good handful of records finished and very excited for the “Flirtatious” release which is in the direction of where we’re at musically and creatively.

Hidden gems… or unforgettable smashes?? “Shake It’ was just licensed to Spinnin for another 10 years and CR2 still releases a remix of it every year and “The Love You Bring Me” and that Fast Eddie sample with Roger Sanchez’s label was Carl’s breakout tune for sure. Carl actually had Lee Cabrera on remix duties for that one. Yeah, we’ve always had similar paths and tastes in music and before meeting, all our mates would tell us we need to get in the studio and do some work together since we were both in NY. We had done a few things together and even toured a bit together, even had the same agent for a bit but now with Just Us, things have obviously gotten a lot more serious and we are both driven to go all the way with this from here on

What was the thought process behind creating ‘Flirtatious’? Both of you have dope tracks respectively. How was creating a track this time around different?

The thought process after “Cloudbusting” was always to get back in the room and create that one wholly original record that we could pivot from after Cloudbusting and while we love that record we also needed to show where we were going musically and Flirtatious is 100% that. We hooked up with ’soon to be’ super-star, “Wolves by Night” who’s a songwriter & as well as an incredible producer and the rest is in the record at this point. The energy with all of us in the studio is contagious and you will most definitely be hearing more music by us and Wolves by Night

James Hypes’ Remix of the track is pretty sick. How did that one come about?

Yeah, we too love James’ mix and we knew his basslines and tough sounding production would sound great on Wolves by Night’s super cool/sexy vocal and he provided us with everything and more on that mix. We’re playing at Hi Ibiza over the Radio 1 weekend and James is at Ushuaia that week so maybe we’ll hook up with him over there. Pete (Tong) actually recommended him on the remix so you can add that to another long list of Pete Tong’s “best ears on the planet” moments!

Tell us about ‘Cloudbusting’ and what happened there? As we heard it, everything was cleared and ready to go…

We need a TV crew and a lot more time if you want to know everything about Cloudbusting and the chaos that went down. It started out as “Everytime it Rains”, then after the cover was OK’d, we had to change the title to Cloudbusting and then we had what felt like the FBI, CIA, FDA, The President & The Queen and everyone else in hot pursuit making sure all our ducks were in a row and staying within the limits of the cover. We were sued and issued cease and desists 3 times in one day on a Friday and before noon (true story). In the end we don’t scare from a little drama or controversy and everyone involved including the label FFRR (but not Kate Bush) wanted a hit record so it definitely makes a great story but I think we all know where the record could have gone but we appreciate how far it went as well.

Is there a chance of resurrecting the track or is it done and dusted in your eyes?

Well we had a really cool video shot in India getting played on some UK video channels but Kate Bush decided she didn’t like that either so that’s been taken down! There are a couple of really cool remixes from Ryan Blyth and James Bluck out now on Beatport and Traxsource as well as the club mix that started everything, and we’re happy with letting those do what they’ll do.

Have you any dates lined up and are there any new tracks in the Just Us pipeline?

Lots of dates, putting final touches on our first Just Us tour now, excited to play Hi in Ibiza on August 7. That room as Space was legendary and we had many Live nights there as well so it will be a fun return for sure. The only good thing about changing your name is spending a lot more time in the studio being super creative and creating an air tight game-plan on those releases and seeing it all come to fruition.