Being huge fans of New Zealand hailing duo Mt. Eden, we were naturally super excited when they dropped some new material this week. And boy, it does not disappoint. Out now through Ultra Music, who the pair signed with back in 2009, ‘Stronger’ is an intense and incredibly produced single, and shows exactly why they are two of bass music’s biggest talents.
It’s a tale of two halves: whilst dreamy yet expressive vocals and serene strings set the mood, you are suddenly plunged into rockier territory as the thunderous bass line kicks in, peppered with plenty of hi hats and precise drum edits.
This brilliant single can be purchased now – grab it here. 
‘Stronger’ has such an epic feel to it. Would you say it’s a new development in your sound?
Cheers! Yeah the track is definitely a new sound for us, we have a few more tunes we are currently working on tracks that sound kind of similar – big, brassy and epic – but it isn’t the only direction we are going in either. The ‘No Mans Land’ EP will have a bit of everything, from hip hop to house to drum and bass and dubstep.
Did you enjoy making this track?
Yeah always! I think if we didn’t the song wouldn’t have a good vibe to it. It was a bit of a long process – we finished our first version of it in early 2014 and it has been marked as a single by Ultra ever since. A couple months ago we decided to start from scratch right before the deadline for submission and finished it off just in time. Had a few beers in the studio too, good times 🙂
How are your live shows going? What do you feel you have learned from doing them?
We just got off an epic tour in our home country New Zealand with a local band called six60. To say the least, it was absolutely awesome . We’re in a bit of a transition phase at the moment with our music, with the majority of our new production being downtempo, laid back and cinematic. We love to get rowdy with the crowd and drop nothing but big tunes – but we also want to showcase our uniqueness and please the fans. It’s a delicate balancing act. We are definitely going to play the full range of what we do and plenty of our older songs at Electric Forest and Lollapalooza Chicago.
What is your studio set up like? Do you work on all ideas together?
We have a good studio spot in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Jesse mostly works from his apartment but comes through for mix downs and masters etc. It’s actually pretty rare that we will sit in the same room and work on music together on the same set of speakers, normally we just pass layers back and forth between us while working on our headphones. We actually worked on ‘Stronger’ together at the studio and at Jesse’s apartment which makes it pretty unique.
Is there anyone at the moment that you’re itching to collaborate with?
As far as producers – Bassnectar, Flume, Disclosure, Lorn, Hans Zimmer, Rick Rubin, Dr. Dre. As far as singers go – Banks has an amazing voice and we love her lyrics. We would love to work with her. FKA Twigs is dope and Jhene Aiko is amazing too.
Can we expect a Mt. Eden album at some point soon?
Albums are tricky. We’ve been trying to put this one out for 4 years! And in the process I think we have lost some of our momentum. We’ve decided singles and EPs are the way to go for now. It’s really down to Ultra though… There is easily enough material for an album but we don’t want to oversaturate our fans with releases either. It’s better to let people digest things. ‘No Mans Land’ isn’t technically an album but it will be a big EP – a 7 track release. We are hoping Ultra will let us throw a couple of bonus tracks on there for a 9-10 track release.
Where are you most looking forward to playing in the rest of 2015?
Electric Forest! Looking forward to playing the whole range of our newer and older music to an open minded crowd and a bunch of our friends. That and camping!
Don’t forget to pick up ‘Stronger’ here.
