In an age where four on the floor is often lost in the drop, it’s refreshing to hear producers taking a jagged hook on fast-paced UK house. Toronto duo Rainer and Grimm have all the right experience of a wold class production team. With a proper background linking together radio hits, these young studio legends are well versed on the points that put a top dance track together.
The boys are in the midst of launching their very own imprint eloquently titled Bleeding Hearts Club. Promising a steady flow of funk synths and party cuts, the two Canadian producers are just getting geared up.
Hows 2017 going for ya? You just dropped a jackin new single, what else is in the works for Summer?
2017 has been great thus far, we did a 13 date USA tour with the homie Viceroy which was super fun, and released our EP, The Bridge through our imprint Bleeding Hearts Club. On top of that we’ve actually been producing a few RnB EP’s for other artists, and making a stack of original work. You can expect another release from us in the next couple of months for sure, and a lot more BHC content.
We understand you’ve worked with some big names from behind the scenes. What introduced you to music and specifically production?
Ya we’ve both worked on the behind the scenes stuff before starting to release as Rainer + Grimm, as producers, engineers, and vocally, working on projects from Drake and the Weeknd to Allan Rayman and Jazz Cartier. Rainer was originally in bands as a Guitarist and was big into all kinds of music at a young age, and same with Grimm from singing in choir to building a name in the Drum and Bass scene. we both met at school and when it was done started writing music together, stemming from Rnb/Hiphop and then eventually going more electronic.
As producers, you started off in the studio with influences of R&B. This is definitely evident in your vocal work and original sound. In your work, how did that impact and integrate with house production?
We actually use that as a basis or jump off point. We try and write songs from a “Song” point of view instead of a typical EDM top line. We both have a strong belief that a song has to touch you or mean something to you in order to truly connect, not saying that you can’t have a hit with just a catchy hook, but its just not the way we work. Lyrics and Melody are very important to us.
House and techno have evolved since their humble beginnings in Chi and Detroit. What is the the Rainer + Grimm definition of the house sound today?
Well, we know there will always be the mega pop version of house, but i think the UK sound has a strong grasp on the original house sound now, a little bit dirty, but with soul. As the EDM world is going a little more Half Time again, we think its giving the deep house world the opportunity to get a little more in touch with its roots. We’ve been hearing a lot more dark nastiness and less cleanliness popping up in bigger artists releases as of late, and thats what we like to hear and play TBH.
As producers in a dance scene that’s overwhelmed with emerging artists, how do you stay ahead of the curve? What do you do in the studio to stay fresh?
Well like we said before, its about songs to us and not necessarily huge drops. We try not to be too worried about the curve at all, its all about just trying to be ourselves and sway away from sounding like whats hot now, and try to make whats next.
As club-ready house vibes continue to make their way into the commercial/radio world, how do you think dance music and the nightlife aspect will change?
A lot of people think the bubble will pop, be we think its just going to grow. we find the radio/pop version of EDM is usually a few months (years sometimes lol) behind the current sound trends. as for night life, that will never really die, but we see the HUGE festivals not being what its about, but more a lot more smaller niche festivals and club nights to serve all of the ever changing trends and genres in electronic music.
Tell us a bit more about Bleeding Hearts Club, seems like a label but more. What’s the plan?
We’ve been using BHC as an outlet for our own music, but its not necessarily just a Label as y’all have suspected. In the future we see it as an umbrella for everything Rainer + Grimm (Clothing, Club Nights, Radio Show etc…) and also we may use it to release other peoples music that we’re working on, not just electronic music. BHC is still young, but expect some cool stuff 🙂
Any singles or remixes that we can expect in the back end of 2017?
We’ve done remixes for our homies Fabich and Viceroy, and have another single ready to be unleashed, as well as a plethora of original music in the works. The rest of the year will be busy for R+G, which is how we like it lol
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