Celebrated electronic music duo Adventure Club, aka Leighton James and Christian Srigley, releases a monster of an album, Love // Chaos, spanning 25 tracks via Ultra Music. Love // Chaos is their first album since 2016’s Red // Blue.
Brimming with collaborations from mega-artists like Krewella, Yuna, Lucii, HALIENE, Dia Frampton, Sara Diamon, Justin Jesso, Said The Sky, Nurko, and Blanke, Love // Chaos dips into an array of sounds, from melodic bass and blistering dubstep to buoyant house.
Speaking to the album, Adventure Club says, “‘Love//Chaos’ is a culmination of everything we’ve learned, loved, and lost throughout our career which began in 2011. We searched deep within ourselves for inspiration for this album. We’ve shared incredible experiences with so many people around the world. We’ve also had to face our own demons, overcome some personal obstacles. I think we tried to address so much of what we’ve uncovered over the past 10 years. We originally started Adventure Club with the goal of producing the most heavy dubstep imaginable… but after a couple of releases, we really found solace and hit our stride with female vocals and took a more melodic bass approach. From then, it was a whirlwind of trying to find ourselves and our sound, experimenting with different genres. Which ultimately leads us to today… This album is a true return to our roots with a dash of other genres we’ve come to love. We’ve collaborated with so many of our favorite artists on ‘Love//Chaos.’ Every single one we admire so much, and we’re honored to have worked with them. We can’t thank them and everyone who’s been by our side for making this album as perfect as possible in our eyes.”
Hailing from Montreal, Canada, Adventure Club has performed at elite music festivals around the world, dropped massive hits such as “Crash,” “Wonder,” and their remix “Crave You,” which collected 34 million streams on SoundCloud. Their debut album, Red // Blue, took the stop spot on Dance and Electronic charts in North America.
Adventure Club’s remix of “Undercover” with Kehlani received a Grammy nomination in 2018. If that’s not enough, they were also nominated for a pair of Juno Awards – Best New Music Group and Best Electronic Album.
The Young Folks caught up with Adventure Club to find out more about the inspiration for Love // Chaos, as well as their goals list, and why they took a “moment.”
How did you two first meet?
When I (Leighton) was in high school I really wanted to start a hardcore/screamo band. I made one of those “Band members wanted” flyers (you know the one, where you have little cutouts of your phone number at the bottom, do those even exist anymore?). Anyways, I put those up in every single high school around. Luckily, a mutual friend (to whom we are forever grateful for introducing us) showed Christian the flyer. Next day, he was over, guitar in hand, we hit it off and have been making music ever since.
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What motivated you to begin working together?
It’s rare to find a perfect soulmate/energy match, but from the get-go, we’ve always been in tune with our creative direction. Obviously, both of us have varying tastes, but every difference seems to complement each other.
Pinpoint the exact moment where you two felt that your careers were about to take off?
I think we’ve had many of those moments, every time one happens, we kind of look back and we’re like “insert accomplishment, seemed like such a big deal then but now look at what we’ve been able to achieve.”
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However, and this one I will never forget is when we released our remix of “Daisy” by Brand New. Overnight it got something like 400 plays, WHICH WAS MASSIVE for us. We woke up like WTF, a couple of days later it was number one on HypeM.
Everything slowly started coming together as of that point.
You took an extended break from music. Why?
We’re notoriously slow writers. I wouldn’t say break per se; however, we took a moment to reflect on our lives and careers. Reassessed a multitude of things, took account of our mental and physical health, and sculpted a work/life balance that worked best for us.
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Reaching the upper echelons of electronic music, were there any doubts as to what the future looked like for Adventure Club?
Early on, we made a mental “goals list” of what we wanted to accomplish as Adventure Club. Stuff like, #1 HypeM, get a manager, play Coachella, bus tour, get a Grammy nod, etc. I think once we put those things out into the world, we indirectly started systematically doing things that would help us achieve everything on our list.
Deemed as the forefathers of melodic bass, what is your take on how much the sub-genre has grown?
It’s incredible how much the scene has grown and evolved over the past 10 years. So many incredible artists have taken the sound and made it resonate with so many people. We’re happy to have had a hand in cultivating the sound.
On February 11, Adventure Club will release a new monster album, Love // Chaos, spanning 25 tracks. What can you share about the album?
It was an absolutely enjoyable experience. We let all songs come naturally to us, nothing forced. We opened up some super old projects and re-utilized some techniques and sounds that we’ve previously used in circa 2012 songs.
It was an incredible learning experience. Working with so many different artists, we were able to get a glimpse of how their creative processes work, what kind of workflow they use. It was a really eye-opening experience, that we have no doubt will help us in the future.
These tracks really showcase a lot of the work you’ve put in over the years, what are some of the more intriguing songs that you wrote on this album and why?
I think “Back To You” is one of our favorites. It really was made to sound like 2012 era melodic dubstep reimagined 10 years later.
I love all the rock crossover tracks. Like the collaboration with Tilian from Dance Gavin Dance and Beauz – “Drive” is such a unique song, that blends everyone’s sound perfectly.
What was one of the biggest challenges when putting together this body of work?
Navigating legal paperwork. With so many songs, so many artists, it was a tedious and lengthy process. The music itself came naturally and we just let it flow whenever it felt right.
What do you want people to take away from your music?
We just want people to get lost in our music, be encompassed by whatever emotion they’re feeling.
Which artists in your opinion are killing it right now?
Nurko, Armnhmr, Qrion, Jessica Auddifred.
What are you most looking forward to in 2022?
Showcasing the album with a tour, reconnecting with all our fans, and continuing to write music.
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