German liquid legend Champion has graced us with his brand new track ‘Stay Here’, featuring Tayah Ettiene, and it’s incredibly smooth and velvelty, with creative and emotionally compelling vocals and warm chords. Take a listen:

Champion dropped in with us to answer a couple of questions about the new track.

Stoney Roads: Hey there Champion! Nice work on ‘Stay Here’, it’s super uplifting, what was your main inspiration behind this one?

Champion: Thanks a lot! To be honest I just wanted to create something mellow and came up with those chords, simple as that haha! Finding an instrument which suited the oldschool-ish vibe was really hard so I recorded every single voice of the chords with my analogue mono synth which gave it that rough, warm sound. I took it from there.

SR: You’ve featured the smooth vocals of Tayah Ettienne in this track, what was it like working together?

C: It was super easy, I was looking for a Motown-ish vocal so the guys at Soulvent suggested Tayah. Turned out her vocals fit the track just fine so I was really pleased with the result!

SR: What is it about liquid DnB that resonates personally with you?

C: I just like everything about it, like, there are no boundaries at all, you can basically do whatever you want. Also I do like the energy and the impact it has on big club systems. You could play a really mellow vibey track and the crowd would still go nuts, I love it!

SR: How would you personally describe your style?

C: Melodic. I really don’t want to tie myself to any sub sub sub genre though. If I feel like making a club banger – I do that. If I feel like making something like this release – I’m going for that.

SR: What’s your general creative flow when creating a new track? Do you lay out the dirty bits first?

C: Most of the time I start with a sample or a chord progression that I find inspiring then add some drums etc etc. I always try to approach a blank project a bit differently because I don’t want every track to sound the same.

SR: You’re from Hamburg, what’s the DnB scene like over in Germany?

C: I’d say most of the people are into neuro and harder stuff. There are a few liquid heads over here aswell to be fair!

SR: What are your best and worst experiences playing gigs?

C: Best: This year I played an indoor festival called ‘Dreamland’ in Bremen alongside Charlotte Haining and Stunnah (a sick MC from Germany!) and I was almost the only artist that was more into melodic stuff so I didn’t know how the crowd would react to my set, but it went down quite freaking well and we all had a blast!
Worst: I was supposed to play and the headphone jack broke just before the set. Try to beatmatch properly without any headphones.

SR: Which producers and artists do you think we should be keeping an eye out for?

C: A guy called VOID, a super talented producer from Cologne (Germany) who just released his first set of tracks on Murdock’s Radar Records. He has a bright future for sure! Nexus & Tight is also really stepping his game up lately.

SR: Similarly, what are you listening to right now?

C: I’m not actually listening to much Drum & Bass lately. I always try to avoid that so I don’t copy anything unconsciously. If you took a peak at my Spotify history you wouldn’t expect me to produce Drum & Bass at all because it has everything on it, from Rap to Future Bass to RnB.

SR: What kind of music did you listen to growing up? Do you think it’s impacted on what you write now?

C: Well, as my family consists of professional classical musicians I was kinda forced to listen to classical music when I was young, maybe that’s the reason why I love to incorporate pianos and strings so much haha! For the rest I listened to literally every genre out there ranging from Metal to Soul. It definitely influenced my work so far.

SR: What upcoming projects have you got than fans can keep an eye and ear out for?

C: I’m planning on releasing a few more singles throughout this year. One of which I was lucky enough to work with D&B vocal talent Charlotte Haining. So am looking forward to getting that out there.

Keep in the loop with Champion via Facebook and Soundcloud.

Stay up to date with Soulvent via their Soundcloud.