Start Listening To: Lifeloose

Lifeloose talk sleepover origins, anti-pretension and why the best tracks should feel a little bit wrong.

North London duo Lifeloose make dance music that refuses to sit still, pulling from club, pop and chaos in equal measure. Born out of sleepovers, in-jokes and a shared rejection of anything too self-serious, their tracks lean into the messy, physical and unpredictable, built as much for the dancefloor as they are for letting off steam.

For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?

“Hello guys, we are lifeloose, we’re from London, we make freaky dance music. we like mashing together every possible subgenre of dance music & putting some fun vocals on top.

‘Lifeloose’ is a pretty bold way to introduce yourselves, what did you want it to say about you?

We just wanted to say hello in an inconspicuous way. Inconspicuous as in a heavy breakbeat & angelic vocal combo.

You’ve described the project as coming out of sleepovers and catharsis, what were you reacting against when you first started making music together?

Academic jargon. Unnecessary pretentious intellectual bullshit pissed us off.

Coming from opera and electronic music backgrounds, how do those worlds collide when you’re actually writing together?

Really well, like peanut butter and jelly!

The production feels deliberately messy and off-kilter, how important is it for things to feel a bit “wrong” or unpredictable?

One hunnid percento important. But also, predictable music works - we try to have a good balance of both. We love pop as much as we love outsider music.

You reference self-importance in ‘Lifeloose’, who or what are you poking at with that?

Self-important people. Like us, right now. Come on, watch us and listen to us and read about us! You’re instantly the coolest person in the world if you have us on your playlist.

There’s a very physical, club-ready energy to what you do, are you thinking about the live setting while you’re making tracks?

We just make music that we want to dance to, whether it’s at home or at the club or in the toilet.

You’ve already been playing loads of shows across London, what have you learned about what works and what doesn’t on stage?

What works: Having your own jack leads for your instruments. Every time we get on stage, we try to speedrun setting up and packing away. Having your own jacks surprisingly gives us a great headstart.

What doesn’t: When people don’t get their hands up in “Everybody Let’s Dance”. We worked out that if Aldi just shouts at the crowd enough, they will eventually get their hands up!

The comparisons to Peaches and Mermaid Chunky make sense, but where do you feel like you diverge from those influences?

We look kinda different to them, but that’s subjective… maybe our noses are different?

How collaborative is the writing process between the two of you, does one of you usually bring an idea or is it more chaotic than that?

We just get an idea, disassociate for a few hours whilst we try to make it happen… sometimes it goes well, but most of the time we make such evil-sounding music that we have to take a break. That’s why we end up with so many tunes in our bank that we would never play live.

The Windmill headline feels like a big early moment, did that change how you see the project at all?

It’s just another sleepover for us; we’re just happy to do a show and tell and get people dancing.

What do you love right now?

Josie made up this game when we were on the Thameslink, where the person who gets the most reciprocated smiles from people on the train/out the window wins. Super riveting.

What do you hate right now?

Zinc deficiency. Poor immune system, poor wound healing, eczema… Terrible!!!

Name an album you’re still listening to from when you were younger and why it’s still important to you?

Aldi: Schnappi, Liederalbum - I’m trying to recreate the feeling of listening to a tiny German crocodile singing banging tunes everywhere I go. Life is too serious sometimes. Get loose?

Josie: Skrillex, Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites - People shit on Skrillex but it’s OG big bangers and 100% 2010 nostalgia. Nostalgia makes me feel less scared.

When someone hears your music for the first time, what do you hope sticks with them?

That we’re friendly people and we want people to party with us.

photography by Lifeloose and Lucas Edwards