At Home With… Set Mo

Describe your sound to someone who has been living under a rock for the last few years... 
“I guess a broad way of summing it up is that we make electronic music. If you narrow it down a bit more a lot of stuff has a housey sound. As we both started out as DJs a lot of stuff is designed for the club, that being said we put out our debut album a year ago that definitely expands on that, exploring some different moods and styles.”

“There are so many it’s hard to narrow it down, it’s all so dependent on time and place and where your heads at but the ones that have really stood the test of time and had the biggest influence on our music would be Booka Shade, Chemical Brothers and Groove Armada just to name 3 (otherwise we’d be here all day).”

Tell us a little about how you're spending your time these days? 
“So this is the fourth week we’ve been socially isolating and we’ve both pretty much just been at home. We’ve been trying to figure out ways to still be able to work on music together but it’s been challenging as we’ve never really written music together not in the same room. We’re getting there though. Other than that there’s been some epic feeds being cooked, some solid living room workouts, lots of reading and listening to podcasts and music.”

What are you loving most about #iso? 
“Probably just slowing down. I don’t think any of us realise just how busy and non-stop our daily lives are until we’re told we can’t leave the house. It’s made us notice what’s important and what we do just ‘cause we’ve always done it’. You quickly notice where our priorities lie and that you really don’t need much to be happy.”

And loathing?
“Not being in the studio together, no cold schooners at the pub, not playing shows, not going out for a nice meal.”

Where do you look for inspiration? And where do you almost always find it? 
“The obvious answer would be that other music however inspiration can come from literally anything or experience. We’re often inspired by other artists, whether it be an amazing album, song of even just one sound in a track. We listen to a pretty broad range of music and we’re often inspired by stuff that sounds nothing like our music. However something we’ve learnt really works for us over the last few years is getting out of our comfort zone and setting off on a writing trip. Travelling somewhere new or even just somewhere that isn’t our normal studio/home instantly puts you in a different mindframe and we find it gets the creative juices flowing in a whole new way. The majority of our album Surrender was written on a series of different writing trips, the biggest being 5 weeks travelling and writing around Europe.”

And, finally – some hacks you've uncovered while in #iso? 
“Nick’s been poaching eggs almost daily and reckons he’s got it nailed now. Key is fresh eggs in a pot of boiling water with a dash of vinegar and to very gently place them into the water. You’re welcome."

"As for Stu, not so much a hack as a realisation – I think it all comes down to trying to reestablish some sort of routine. Write your To Do list the night before, set the alarm early and get cracking. Don’t be too hard on yourself though, being stuck in the house is kind of like a pressure cooker so if things aren’t happening easily don’t force it. Don’t forget to have fun and remember, if you punch through that list quickly you get the rest of the day to do whatever the hell you want.”